One long swim on the way to longer swims

Well, that was pretty daunting: 22,200 yards of pool swimming. I was at the Y all day. Lifeguards came and went. A few people swam, but for the most part, I had the pool to myself for the 7 hours I was in it.

Instead of making it a straight slog, I broke it up into 4 sets:

Y Masters Workout = 4600 yards

300S, 100K, 300P, 100K, 200D (1000)

4 x 200 @ 3:15 (800)

6 x 175 @ 3:00 (1050)

4 x 150 @ 2:30 (600)

6 x 125 @ 2:10 (750)

4 x 100 @ 1:45 (400)

Set 2 = 5500

Ladder: 100-200-300-400-500-600-700-800-900-1000

Set 3 = 8000

4 x 2000

Set 4 = 4000

2 x (1 x 400, 2 x 300, 3 x 200, 4 x 100) all at 1:35/100 
Progress the pace for each segment. 

Somehow, I snuck an extra 100 in there, bringing the total to 22,200 yards. It helped to have intervals to do, but that's still a whole lotta staring at a black line. I'll be so glad when I can get outside and enjoy some changing scenery. Of course, that also comes with waves, wind and icy cold water. Hey, every silver lining needs its grey cloud. You just deal with what you're given.

I also tried some different foods. In addition to Perpetuem, I noshed on some Clif Shot Blocks, a Honey Stinger Waffle thing and a couple of gu's. I also downed enough children's Ibuprofen to keep a daycare feeling good. I just took big gulps of the stuff on 2 occasions and figured since it was kiddy Ibuprofen, I was getting a low dose. Turns out guzzling half the bottle is equivalent to downing 8 adult pills. Hope my liver recovers. It was worth it. Both shoulders and my upper back were screaming at me and the ibuprofen really took the edge off.

Let's see, what else did I do? I varied the speed on one of the 2000s, alternating fast and steady 100s. It shaved a good 30 seconds off my time, which isn't all that dramatic, but if I did that consistently through a long swim event, it would add up.

I've done nothing but eat since I got home. I made a delicious soup with kale and shrimp, then sat down to a huge bowl of popcorn and some raisinettes. I watched a little over half of Life of Pi, then was even too pooped to pay attention.

So now it's off to bed. I think I'll bike some tomorrow.