Alert reader(s) will notice I did another Critical Swim Speed test. Or what Swim Smooth calls a CSS test. Wait. That's the same thing.
Anyway, on Friday I hit the pool and did the test. Again, the test consists of a 400m free as fast as you can, but at a constant pace. A little later (after the HR comes back down), you do a 200m with the same rules. I started the workout with an 800 warm up, consisting of 4 x 200, each different: free, free pull with paddles, IM with fins, and free. Then the 400. I swam that in 6:34. Felt good, despite two bratty teens cutting through the lanes to go from the shallow to the deep end. I just swam through them, kicking better than I ever have before.
I followed that with the same 800, albeit a little slower. I wanted to make sure my HR stayed low. A healthy masters minute rest after that, and then I did the 200 in 3:11. I didn't have my swimulator application with me, so I wrote down the times and waited till I got home. I finished up the workout to an even 5000m and called it a day. (I fully intended on going to practice Saturday morning, but we had a sick kid in the middle of the night, who eventually I dragged to the emergency room.)
The swimulator app told me that my new CSS is 1:41.52, an improvement of about one and a half seconds! This means if I were pace-swimming for a 1500m race, I'd do 0:25.38 per 25m. My 20K+ pace set will now have me hitting the wall in my SCM pool every 0:27.88-0:32.88 seconds. The lower end for my swims in the 10-20 mile range, the higher end for my doozy of a swim in July. (See side panel.)
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