Swim Workout: 15x200
What does this workout symbolize? A change in mindset. A belief that a big result is coming.
This workout was done in the morning and reflecting back on how I approached it was interesting because I didn’t build it up in my head to be anything other then: the next thing on the plan.
Even when i’m swimming well I seem to have a mental road block with swimming. I enjoy swimming, but there is just something about it that i’ve never fully committed myself to. When I think back to a reasoning for this it stems from not truly believing in my goals. This is common with athletes I work with, when someone starts to trail off and do a form of self sabotage it comes back to their goals. Either they don’t have any goals or the goals are too high or low. Too high of a goal and you know its not really attainable so you constantly quit on yourself. Too low of a goal and you are always bored and unmotivated.
I think where I went wrong is I set goals that were too far ahead and I couldn’t see that far ahead so they frightened me. So quite frequently I wouldn’t prioritize my swimming and I would get to 8pm and hadn’t completed my swim and it wouldn’t happen. Another red box. Ugh.
Don’t get me wrong I have been working very hard in the pool and since November I have set two personal bests, twice! Even with this I never felt engaged with my swimming. Now I am slightly obsessed with it because I know the benefits it will bring me on race day: a faster bike and run split at Ironman Wisconsin.
Knowing I’ve never worked hard at swimming for a long period of time has also haunted me. I’ve swam multiple Ironman swims in the 1:00-1:08 range with less than 5,000 a week. While I am not proud of this, I did become very good at convincing myself I could slack off with my swim training. “You’re going to swim 1:05 anyways” so i used this method of swim training for over 6 years! However, where did it leave me towards the important part of the race? Walking a lot during the marathon and riding under 70% of FTP in the last hour of the ride. Having constant GI Stress on the bike and run. Not ideal if you want to be competitive and its all traced back to the lack of swim shape.
So here I am sitting in the sauna after the 15x200 having a self realization that I am on track to accomplish my goals, a powerful moment for me. A realization that i’ve committed myself to my goals, something that hasn’t happened before. A realization that i’m putting in the quality offseason required to be successful.
Tuesday I did a quality session that was simple, 1x1000, 2x500, 5x200 and today was a main set of 10x200 all at a hard effort. In the past I would have gotten my 2,000 in and left… now I am fired up, seeing improvement, and building up the arm strength.
Herb Brooks: “The Legs Feed the Wolf” is a quote that i constantly have in my head when doing key strength sessions.
