First and foremost, thanks CUSETRI for clarifying this workout only moments before I walked out the door for the pool! And to everyone that posted in my other thread, this was a workout from SwimPlan.com. Like DSCOTTMD said, without having a coach, they come up with some pretty good swim workouts. Anywho..
As part of my core swim workout today, I saw this on my log of things to do after my warmup and buildup phase:
4 x 50m, leaving at 1:16
4 x 50m, leaving at 1:10
4 x 50m, leaving at 1:06
So I learned that this meant I had 1:16 to do the first 50m.
(Thanks again, CUSETRI!!!
). Whatever time I had left over of the 1:16 was rest time. So if I finished in 1:00, then I had 16 seconds of rest. After 4 sets, I moved on to 1:10 per 50m, then 1:06 per 50m. I was surprised at how challenging this was in that you WANT to finish the set quickly so you have more time to recover, but the faster you go, the more you have to recover!!
Anyway, I started the set and finished my first few with a good 20 seconds to recover. As I finished my 1:16s, I thought for sure that I wouldn't be able to hold pace and have recovery time as I moved towards the 1:06 set. But WOO HOO, I was wrong. When I got to the 1:06 set, even on my 2nd and 3rd rep, I was still having 15-18 seconds for recovery!
As for the odd times, I used my recovery time to figure out the math.
(16 for the first, 32 for the second, 48 for the third, 04 for the fourth, 10 for the fifth, etc.
). While swimming, I tried to double-check my math. It took my mind off of breathing every 3 so I tended to breath more naturally.
I came home absolutely wiped out, but I'm glad to know that I can push my body for more speed and it WILL respond!!
-Joel