IMs and Miles to go before I sleep

27 February 2022

I've been ramping both my volume and intensity up over the last few weeks as I get ready to race in 5 weeks. I wrapped up this week with two strong workouts on Saturday and Sunday, albeit with a bonk by the end of the second one.

Saturday - Broken 400 IMs

I did an abbreviated warmup of 1,100 yards at LA Fitness ...

• 1 x 400: IM kick-drill by 25

• 4 x 100: on 1:20, free descend with snorkel

• 1 x 50: easy scull / breast kick with snorkel

• 8 x 25: on 0:55 per pair, odd laps IM order fast, even laps easy

• 1 x 50: easy scull / breast kick with snorkel

... then jumped into this Broken 400 IM set I dreamt up on the dog walk this morning:

• 3 rounds of a Broken 400 IM followed by 4 x 50 active recovery on 0:45, 0:50, 0:55, 1:30

• Round #1 - Broken for 0:05 at 25, 50, 25 of each stroke - was 4:50

• Round #2 - Broken at 50 for 0:10 - was 4:45

• Round #3 - Done 75 then 0:15 rest, 25 then 0:10 rest - was 4:42

I would take about 0:30 to 0:45 after the 400 IM before I jumped into the active recovery 50s. I quite enjoyed this. While the amount of straight swimming increased by rounds, the aggregate amount of rest went up, as well, from 0:50 to 1:10 to 1:30.

I ran out of time to do Round #4 which was to be a straight 400 IM, but just went 3 x 100 IM kick descend and 100 easy for 3,300 yards total

Sunday - Broken Down Broken Mile

I did my standard, long 1,750 yard warmup and then went at my Broken Mile set:

• 3 rounds of 3 x 50 on 0:45, 2 x 100 on 1:25, 1 x 150 on 2:05

• 1 round of 3 x 50 on 0:45

My aim was to hold a 1:05 average pace, but I fell off that soon:

• Round 1 - 0:33, 0:32+, 0:32, 1:05, 1:05, 1:39

• Round 2 - 0:32, 0:32, 0:32+, 1:06+, 1:06, 1:41

• Round 3 - 0:33, 0:33, 0:33, 1:07+, 1:07, 1:43

... so I didn't do the extra bit of 3 x 50, trading those in for 5 x 50 active recovery to make a 3,500 yard total workout.

All in all, not a bad week of training as I slightly exceeded my volume target of 16,500 meters.