9 February 2022
After I returned home to Ontario from Panama in early January, I came back to another COVID lockdown, with the three things that really bring me joy in life - movies, eating out at funky restaurants and swimming - closed down. Fortunately, this omicron closure was briefer than the previous shut-ins, and pools re-opened on January 31st. I swam 5 times last week and again this Monday morning, regaining some feel for the water and easing back into it. After a "dryland" day yesterday, I went back to a misty, foggy LA Fitness, planning to start back ... yet again ... to try to get into racing shape.
Standard, Long Warmup (1,750 yards)
I generally do either this exact warmup or a very close variant to it for most workouts. This allows me to assess how I'm feeling and how my times are from day to day.
1 x 400: IM, kick-drill by 25s
4 x 100: on 1:30, freestyle swim, descend wearing a Finis snorkel
1:14, 1:12, 1:08, 1:05
4 x 100: on 1:45, IM kick, descend on back no board
1:32, 1:29, 1:28, 1:26
8 x 25: on 1:00 per pair, odd lengths fast IM order, even lengths easy
1 x 50: easy with snorkel
Base Pace Test Set - 3 x 300
My best performance ever on this was back in December of 2016, when I went 3:08+, 3:09, 3:08+
2016-01-04 - 3:16, 3:15, 3:14
2018-11-23 - 3:25, 3:22+, 3:19+
2019-08-01 - 3:34, 3:33, 3:30
2019-12-02 - 3:27, 3:29, 3:25
2020-02-03 - 3:18, 3:17, 3:19
2020-08-02 - 3:22, 3:26, 3:25
2020-09-17 - 3:24, 3:25, 3:24
2021-08-29 - 3:20, 3:19+, 3:20
2021-10-03 - 3:16, 3:16+, 3:16
2021-11-09 - 3:16, 3:16+++++, 3:18
2021-12-03 - 3:17, 3:16, 3:15
2022-02-09 - 3:32+, 3:23, 3:25
I have 8 more weeks to go before I try to swim fast again - way down yonder in Texas because I fear we won't have any Masters meets any time soon in Canada - gotta git along big doggie!