Author: Derek

Second Major Swimming Milestone

Posted by Derek on in SwimTraining, Training

This week I hit my second major swimming milestone….swimming 1000m without stopping.  I didn’t start off trying to do this. Just last week I had swam 500m.  On Monday, I swam 600m and felt good.  So on Tuesday, I figured I would swim 600m again.  I got to 600m and felt good so I just kept going.  Once I hit 800m, I figured I was that far along, I would just to go 1000m and I did.

The surprising thing is that I managed to swim 1000m a second time without stopping.  This was yesterday.  I was tired when I started and my arms were a bit sore, but I got to 200m and kept going figuring I’d stop at 500m, but I got 500m and kept going.  In the end, I went all the way to 1000m.

Swimming that far for the 26 mins it takes me is quite boring, but there probably isn’t anything I can do about that.  I don’t want to get in the habit of listening to music.

I am really happy with my swimming progress.  I know I still have a long way to go to get to 2000m for the Ironman 70.3 and 4000m for the full Ironman, but it is comforting knowing that for any Ironman plan out there, I can do it as they all only need me to be swimming 500m at the start of the plan.

Week in Review: September 24 – September 30 2018

Posted by Derek on in BikeTraining, RunTraining, SwimTraining, Training, Weekly Review

This week as almost perfect.  For the first time, I swam for 500m continuously and the only thing that would have made it perfect was if I was able to swim 4 days.  Since the pool was closed on Thursday, I only swam 4 days.

On the running front, I was able to hit 15 miles which has been a regular goal for the last several weeks, but just as importantly, I did all 15 miles without any walking breaks

Cycling was OK with a long ride of 2 hours.I was originally hoping to do a 3-hr, 50 miles ride, but I was a bit tired today so I rode for 2 hours

Overall, I was able to hit 8 hours of workout time this week for the 3rd week in a row

 

Goals for Next Week:This is going to be a lower workout week as I’m travelling to Fl early Saturday morning with the family.  I should get 4 days of swimming at 1,000m each, but I may only get 2 running days and 2 cycling days.  This is OK as I’m probably due for a lower volume week after hitting 8 hours for each of the last 3 weeks

First Major Swimming Milestone

Posted by Derek on in SwimTraining, Training

On Tuesday I hit a major swimming milestone…..I swam for 500m without stopping.This was a milestone I was hoping to hit before I registered for Ironman Arizona in November but I have managed to hit it much sooner.  The reason for wanting to hit this milestone is that almost all of the Ironman 70.3 and Ironman training plans out there start with the assumption that you can swim 500m without stopping.  It is considered the base level of fitness needed along with running for an hour and biking for about 60-90 mins.

By being able to swim 500m without stopping, I can now meet the minimum fitness level in all three sports.  Of course, I need to be able to do it regularly and I will, but just knowing I can do it once is a huge confidence booster.

It’s hard to believe that it was less than 3 months ago (first week of July) that I learnt to swim freestyle with side breathing and right after the most I could have swam was 25m at a time before I felt like dying.

The next milestones I need to aim for and reach are:

  • Swimming a total of 1,500m within a session, with breaks.  This is a swimming mile
  • Swim 1,000m without stopping

 

Week in Review: September 17 – September 23 2018

Posted by Derek on in BikeTraining, RunTraining, SwimTraining, Training, Weekly Review

The highlight for the week for me was my swimming.  I managed to swim 1,000m each day for my 4 swimming days, but most impressively, I managed to drop my rest time to 40 secs per every 100m that I swam.  I also extended my longest swim interval to 350m.  I can just feel swimming 400-500m is close.

On the bike, everything went well except for today.  The roads were wet this morning so I decided to try and ride indoors.  I managed less than 15 minutes and I just couldn’t do it anymore.  So, I then tried to go ride outside and I was so scared of the wet roads, that ride lasted less than 20 minutes.  Eventually this evening the roads dried up and I managed to do a third ride of 23 miles.

I managed to do one 6-mile run, but overall, I couldn’t make it to 15 miles for the week.

 

Goals for Next Week: My focus is going to be swimming.  I will continue to do 1,000m workouts, but I would really love to do a 500m segment without stopping.