Swimming to Boston

My first day of official Boston training was a day of no running. I thought that might be the best way to prepare for the undulating Boston course. I have been training well before the start of Hal's 12 week Boston Bound program and thought to rest my legs, especially after last weekends 30+ miles. Remember, rest and recovery are just as important in training as running. I must let my body recover on designated days off. It's hard to do sometimes. In fact, this might be the hardest part of training: running days off.

Instead of running I recovered via swimming. I swam approximately 1625 yards in about an hours time. Most of this time was spent on various swimming drills. I am so happy to report that this was an excellent day of swimming for me. Pieces of the swimming puzzle are coming together. My balance is so much better. My breathing has improved markedly and breathing bi-laterally is quickly becomming the norm. When I worked on speed I could feel myself propelling my body through the water. It was all good. The workout looked like this:

Warm up

500 Free, 1x25 kick no board, 3x50 Fr build speed first 25 then swim fast second 25, 4x25 first half max second slow,

Then I did a test: This was a 100 yard test to come up with T Pace and T count. T Pace is how long it takes to swim 100 yards and T Count is the number of strokes for 25 yards. My T Pace was 1:46 and T Count was 28 strokes. I will compare future tests to this first one. I had to do this test twice because I never turned on the Garmin for the first effort. No prob just another 100.

After all these drills it was time to work on swimming.

4x25 bi-lateral breathing, 2x100 with 25 drill/25 swim, 100 Fr working on bi-lateral again, 4x50 T Pace and T Count drill, 50 fr and I said lets call it a very positive session.

Later in the day weight training working upper and lower body. I want to get the quads ready for Boston.

Today I will run.


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" Beyond the very extreme of fatigue and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own, sources of strength never taxed at all because we never push through the obstruction."