Don't Stop Believin' ...

10 February 2022

... I can get back in shape.

Back at LA Fitness this morning with a different test set, one I believe I haven't done in yards in 6 years, my "IM Base Pace" set. This is similar in concept to the 3 x 300 free set for establishing my aerobic training base pace, but I do 5 x 200 IM on 3:15 to establish the aerobic training base pace for IM sets.

Standard, Long Warmup (1,750 yards)

• 1 x 400: IM, kick-drill by 25s

• 4 x 100: on 1:30, freestyle swim, descend wearing a Finis snorkel

  • 1:11+, 1:09, 1:06, 1:03 (already faster than yesterday)

• 4 x 100: on 1:50, IM kick, descend with board

  • 1:36, 1:34, 1:31+, 1:29

• 6 x 50: #1 and #6 are easy breastroke kick / scull while wearing the snorkel on 1:30; evens are strong IM order on 1:00

  • 0:33 (fly), 0:35+ (back), 0:40 (breast), 0:30+ (free)

• 8 x 25: on 1:00 per pair, odd lengths fast IM order, even lengths easy

• 1 x 50: easy with snorkel

IM Base Pace Test Set

The set is 5 x 200 IM on 3:15 aiming to hold my best average

• 01-05-16 - 2:25, 2:25+, 2:24, 2:24, 2:26+ (last effort)

• 02-10-22 - 2:33, 2:31, 3:30, 2:29+, 2:29

I wrapped up with 5 x 50 active recovery freestyle with a snorkel on 0:40, 0:45, 0:50, 0:55 to make a 3,000 yard workout.

My morning started off with Olivia Newton John coming up first on my song shuffle and these results had me believin as I wasn't all that far off 2016, a year when I was in very good shape.