Cryptic title this one, but it's to do with Wednesday's triathlon session. It was really quite busy (three to a lane!) and it was probably the hardest session I've done for a long time.
The main set was a "valley" progression 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 length swim with a minute rest between each set. So far not so hard (btw that's 42 lengths or 1050M if you're interested). Now the main focus/instruction for the set was to keep a "good" stroke count in mind, stick to it throughout the whole set and whilst descending (6 .. 1) each swim should be pro-rata faster. What I ended up doing was to do this and on the ascending set try and stick at a "brisk" pace (I think a finishing 2:00 for the last 150M is brisk!) The bit that made this really challenging was sticking to a good stroke count.
Now before I became "quick" (aka started racing short distances) I could hold a pretty low stroke count. And these days it's gone up somewhat. So this session I decided to really challenge myself and during our warm up settled on 14SPL (strokes a length). And so we set off, the first few were okay, but pushing near "racing" pace on the 50 and 25M repeats is a challenge for me on 28 and 14 strokes.
To cut a story short I managed 14s all the way through (except for most first lengths which were 13).
So the 588 refers to the number of (single arm) strokes I took to swim 1050M!
And then to finish off we did 8 x 25M sprint from a pool-side dive!! Absolutely goosed at the end!
Warm Up
3 x 200M at 60, 70 and 80% effort
Main Set
6 .. 1, 1 .. 6 length repeats holding 14 SPL
8 x 25 sprint
Warm Down
2 x 100M EZ
