Really, it wasn't! I'd say the hardest part was arranging the logistics and finding a pool that was open when we needed it to be open... Once that part was set it was just mind over matter in getting it done. I will say though, had we tried to do this at the Marine Corp base where the water is not heated I likely would not have made it. As it was, I had goosebumps for the last ~30x100's and the water we were in was probably near 80 degrees. BUT, there was a hot tub and it was indeed hot and we hung out there post swim for ~10' and then I was totally fine and started drinking beer. :)
Back to the beginning... last night I was packing my bag with everything I thought I would need for this morning and I counted out 100 raisins and put them in a little baggie for Nalani... she loves raisins and I thought it would be a fun little treat for her to eat one after each repeat. I knew we would not actually need those raisins to keep count (we had watches for that) but it was still kind of a fun little gimmick to help pass the time nonetheless.
The place we swam this morning had both a short course pool and a long course pool... unfortunately we were relegated to the short course pool to start which was a bit of a bummer but beggars cannot be choosers so we did not complain at all! We spent the first 20 x 100's warming up and kept the pace super relaxed. First 10 @ 1:40, next 10 @ 1:35 and we cruised 1:23-1:25 for those.
The next 40 were the meat of the whole set... originally planning to do 40 @ 1:40 but that was assuming longcourse so we changed it to @1:30 since we were shortcourse... I do think 1:30 SCY is easier than 1:40 LCM but then flip turns are a strength for me... anyway, we got through 4 of them and then got the tap that the LCM pool was open for us... YAY! So we gathered our stuff and moved to the other pool and restarted the 40 @ 1:40. It was not hard to keep count for those either b/c 10@1:40 takes 16:40 and every time my watch got to 16:40 I hit split so it started over and we just did that until we got to 16:40 4x. Again, we just swam steady effort and came to the wall 1:32-1:34 for each of those and just kept knocking them out. No real speed involved there but we did not fatigue or slow down at all either.
With 60 down (really 64!) we were over the hump (and it seemed like just about done really) we got our toys (play time!) and pulled the next 10 easy with just a buoy @1:45 (mostly this was like a mental break), then put on our paddles and swam 10 with just paddles @1:40... Then the plan was to finish up the last 20 with paddles, bands, buoy @1:40 again but BONUS we had already done those 4 in the scy pool so we really only had 16 left to hit 100! And honestly, after 84 x 100's, 16 felt like nothing and they went by in a flash. We were a bit fatigued at the end of course but I wouldn't say I felt worse at the end than I did after the first 60... and in the end we both agreed that a 20 mile run is harder. Shoot, even a 10K run where you're racing is harder. A 2.4 mile ocean swim race is harder. Shoot- even those 5 x 1000's we did on Wednesday felt harder... reduce the intensity down to nothing but steady and volume is really not that hard once you wrap your mind around doing it.
Going fast is way harder than going long. That's all I'm saying.
The funniest part of the morning... somewhere around like #75 I started smelling hamburgers on the grill. Um, really!?! People are grilling burgers right now?!? What kind of sick cruel joke is THAT?? In the 7" we had at the wall I asked Nalani if she also smelled it (was I hallucinating??) and she said yes and I swear I spent the next several 100's almost choking on the water b/c I was laughing so hard at the thought that these people were relaxing poolside with a big juicy burger while Nalani was treating herself to a single raisin after every 100! HA! That just seemed hysterically funny to me at the time. I'm totally craving a burger right now but I have not had one yet. Though I did bring a couple of beers in a cooler and we sat outside the pool under a tree and enjoyed them immensely. :)
8 comments:
AWESOME!!! You are having a monster of week. Keep it up!! (and I agree, going looooong and steady is def easier that going short and hard! :)
Nice job!
But you probably did a bunch of 10k workouts in your old days, didn't you?
Too bad I cannot use raisins for my 1000s:)
And I agree, going fast is harder than going steady long. 18min 5k is harder than 3:30 marathon.
That is awesome! The most I have done was 60 x 100 @ 1:15 and it was absolutely terrible
I agree with the title.
Somehow I'm not surprised by you thinking this wasn't that bad at all! So, Shane & I were talking about this & he was saying basically HELL NO NEVER. I said… I could do 50 for sure. And, I would rather do 50x100 any day of the week then 5000, or even 4000 straight. ANY DAY.
Of course, I'd need about 20 more seconds per 100 than you guys had, specially at the GAINEY pool :-) And, btw did you know that for every 1000 at that pool I am actually swimming an extra 50 cause it's so long (yes, I've done the math). Ok, that's all. GOOD JOB BSC!
I actually loved doing 100 * 100 and I don't even like swimming. But I also like riding my trainer over riding outside so I'm sick in the head. Sounds like you guys are rocking this swim build out.
YES, awesome....I would really like 100 x 100 in LCM - NOT in SCY which is all we have here usually! And longer/steadier is easier!!! :)
well done, michelle! love this! and i totally agree with you that shorter and faster is harder! i think you are ready to throw some harder swimming into your 10k next time though :)
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