I've written before about my love of swimming with masters groups, in particular, the Alexandria Masters, here in Alexandria, VA. Great group of folks and wonderful coaches. I can't say enough about Tim, who doesn't let us get away with too much. Masters minutes turn into masters seconds.
One thing I was certain would happen once I went back to a masters group (my last foray swimming with a group being 2004-05) was that I'd get faster. I had noticed early that my usual 1:40 for multiple sets of 100m dropped down to 1:30. That was dramatic to me. That felt great. I would be happy to be able to swim serious sets (10x 100) at that pace.
But lately, the time's been going even further down. This past Thursday we did a set at the end of the warm up which consisted of 3 x 100 descend then 4 and 5 build, all 100s on 1:45. My three descend sets were 1:23, 1:24 (whoops) and 1:22. Holy crap. That's like, fast (for me). The builds weren't too bad either, all under 1:30.
Then for our main set, it was a broken 1500: 100, 2x250, 100, 2x200, 100, 2x150. The 100s were all on 1:45. I think the 250s on 4:10, 200s on 3:30, 150s on 2:45. I did all the 100s at or under 1:30. Even more impressive, for/to me, was my 200s were on 3:00 and 2:58!
I had already noticed this year that my navigation in OW has improved, but I guess I could chalk some of that up to swimming speed as well. My 1:13 for a flat 4K in Texas means 18:15 per kilometer, or 1:49.5 per 100m. Actually less, as I had some serious swim cap problems in that swim.
My last flat swim prior to the Texas swim was 5K in North Carolina. Allow me to do some math real quickly then I'll come back. OK, I'm back. 1:47 for that 5K means 21:24 per kilometer. Worse: 2:08 and some change per 100m! Definitely getting faster.
So, perhaps, with some OW practice in the new year and continued masters workouts, I might do a really fast flat race! Just gotta figure out pacing...
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