Longest Swim in Prep For IM

2.4mi was my longest I think.  But last week, with no IM on the horizon, I did 5k just for fun. 

I'd go ahead and swim long if you have the time available.

My longest was 1:20.  After a warm-up, I swam my "race time" (estimated).  I lost count of the exact yardage, but know I did more than 2.4 that day. 

Otherwise, I had a few 1:15 swims, but for the most part kept my swim workouts to an hour.

For some reason I have no desire to run a marathon before my IM. I mean really, I gotta get back to the car right???

But the swim, ah the swim. I want to swim 2.4 before because it's the first thing out the gate and I don't want to fail on that. So I will be damned sure to knhow that I can get through that 2.4 in a good enough time. That said I do 2000-2,500 as my short work out and 3,000 to 3,500 as my long work outs. But I have swam 4,500 before and I think it took me about 1:40 or something. Not blazing fast but I biked afterwards so I wasn't too tired.

Something about being out in open water and not knowing whether I'm going to make that distance gives me chills. So yes I will swim 2.4 miles before the race.

I swam the distance in a wetsuit in the pool stopping very briefly every 500 for a drink.

And then I did an irondistance aqua velo about 6 weeks out in super crappy choppy conditions.  Once I survived that I knew I could handle whatever IMFL threw at me.

You Travis County people are nuts!

Plus, what would trisports do, start selling 142.2 stickers?

I built to a weekly 1hr continuous swim in the final build stages leading up to my IM (not the only swimming I did each week).  These were adequate for me.  The consistency was key as I was able to monitor my progress and get comfortable with a "race" effort. 

These were all in the pool without wetsuit.  I trusted that I had enough OWS experience via previous tri races to be comfortable with my ability to perform in race conditions: comfortable in my wetsuit, in a crowd, and managing a course

I know you are in a play for Kona but what is the rationale for 2600m per workout AND that being your longest?

Very interested.

P2K

I have been doing a 2.4 Mile swim TT at least every two weeks or so, I even did one with Wetsuit a couple of days ago...   I want to make sure not only that I can do the distance, but to improve my efficiency..  

IMCDA  is going to be fun.. 

Did a 5k USAS/USMS Rough Water Swim Race last year as a tuneup for IMLP.

The interesting bit was that the race was not wetsuit legal (Has nothing to do with water temps) so was an interesting test.

Unfortunately it does not work for me this year because the 5k Race is after IMCdA this year. (I would love to do it again)

Will probably end up doing a few ~2.5 mile Ocean Swims prior to my IM this year.