n + 1 swim challenge (Page 19)

Got in n+2 for the week.  Experimented a bit with my catch.  Felt kind of odd but I noticed significant difference with how it affected my stroke good or bad.  I think there is definitely a lot of potential there. Today was:

400 wu

2 x 200

2 x 100

2 x 50

2 x 100

2 x 200

Total 1,700 yards

Another thing I have noticed with shorter, faster sets is that my actual time in the pool is less.  Makes getting my workout in during lunch a lot easier.

Just getting a bunch in tonight. Yesterday was tough, so I was kind of tired. Trying out an old iPhone in a ziplock to have a clock handy. Did a recovery interval for much of the work and a send-off interval for the late 50's. Experimented with the paddles there to see how I can work some of that in again.

300 swim / 100 k / 200 swim / 100 k / 100 swim / 100 k 
2 x following: 
-3 x 100 50k/50 sw (:15 ri) 
-2 x 100 swim (:15 ri) 
-200 pull (:20 ri) 
-400 swim (150 stdy, 50 faster) 

200 ez 

12 x 50 fast/ez pull w/paddles (:50 si) 
200 c/d

I appreciate all the n+2's that everyone is posting because I'm only hitting n this week so maybe I can borrow one from someone....

I think the fast ones were :36-37 and the slow :40-41. Still getting used to using the phone as a timer and also the use of the paddles. A bit tired from the day before as well. Otherwise I'd try to push those a bit more away from each other. A touch faster fast, and a touch easier easy.

It really depends on what you want to do, so make sure to understand the goals going in. For a more steady, but strong send-off, I can do a bunch on :45 coming in mid-30's for all of them. We've done :40 at masters, but that is less frequent and tends to be for short bunches at most. The bigger send-off could be for either swimming it at a higher effort level or for going at a more relaxed pace. And in that set I did both. For the really hard ones like your :39, we'd be going at more like 1:00. I should come in at :32 and have done :30 at times. Going this hard is a bit less frequent though. More of the work should be with the :45 & :50 for me, or as appropriate for who is doing it. As you get better at controlling your pacing, you will likely also learn how to work these types of things.

Happy Monday everyone...this morning's swim:

20 SCY
purpose:  speed, pacing

440 SKIPS WU
5 x 80 on 1:40, in on 1:20, 1:40/100y pace (all 1:18-1:20)
1' recovery
3 x 120 on 2:30, in on 2:00, 1:40 pace (all 1:58-2:00)  - these were hard
120 pull CD

1320 total

Seems that one pool at masters has switched to scm. Fine once we got into practice, but that was a looong warm-up. It's not the extra distance really, but the visual part as this is a pool we use so regularly. The familiarity is gone. There are two T's on the bottom and so used to only going to the first, plus the spacial sensation in the room. This is also where the bottom drops off much faster going into the deep end. Lots of short stuff at least. Seem to have picked up something on body positioning over the weekend that helped. Hopefully can hang onto it as a number of things were rather easy that way.

Work has been crazy busy making it tough to get as much time in the pool during my lunch hour as I'd like.  I wanted to swim yesterday but couldn't take the time.  Today I had a narrow window to get a quick swim in.  Planned to do a 400 warmup and then short sets.  After about 300 yards I decided to turn it into a 1000 yard effort to save time and because I haven't done anything over 500 yards continuous in months.  Came in at 16:20 which was a 1000 yard PR for me and I really didn't push very hard.  Followed that with 6 x 100 @ 1:29 RI :15.  It was a good day for me.

I was merely a N this week.  I swam during lunch today to get myself back on track.  Due to the time crunch, I had to compress the set some:

350m WU

5x50m drill/swim

10x100 moderate RI:5

3x150 VO2 RI:60

5x50 Kick

100m CD

2400m total

The VO2 was supposed to be 6, but I was getting limited in time, and I wanted to make sure I got the kick portion in.

I'm curious how you get in 2400 meters during lunch.  For me, the pool is about a mile from my office.  If I am quick, I can walk out to my car, drive to the pool, change, shower and be in the pool in about 15 minutes.  Same for my return.  I'm lucky then to have 30-35 minutes in the water.  Thus I'm only getting 1600-1800 yard in.  What is your lunch swim timeline like?

It sounds like you are progressing, even with some missed workouts.  Keep at it, and keep us posted.   I love hearing about your improvements!

Purpose: Birthday set!

40 x 100 leaving on the 1:40 <---cause I'm 40!

Came in at 1:30-1:31 for 30, and a handful at 1:29 and 1:32/33.

I'm very pumped. This is a real accomplishment for me given where I started 1.5 years ago and how much I "hated" swimming for the first six months of trying. I believe this is also my biggest single session ever. Yay!

I believe this is technically week 5 of the challenge, and it was supposed to only go for four weeks, but it sounds like a lot of people have successfully increased their swim frequency and many have also increased their endurance or times!  Go us!  I had a craptastic week last week and was n - 2 from sickness, but I am having a strong week this far and hope to rally.  Good luck everyone!

Wow.  That is an amazing workout.  40 x 100 at that pace is serious stuff.  Hope you are having a wonderful birthday.

Once again, this challenge was perfect timing for me as I progressed beyond my winter run focus.  It has been great seeing folks workouts.  I've learned a great deal and have changed the basic structure of my workouts.  I struggled a little ramping up beyond my n but I think I'm mentally at a goal of three now.  So if I can keep some run and swim momentum going I think I need to focus now on increasing my saddle time.  Not great timing though as I'll be in the Caribbean for a week on a cruise.