Acheiving a Goal Pt. II

I ended my last post discussing my plan for improving my swim in order to swim 58 minutes or less at Louisville this year. One thing CV pointed out after my last post was that my open water swim times are a bit worse than expected based on my pool swim times. The obvious conclusion is that I need to work on my open water swim skills, e.g., sighting and swimming a straight line without the aid of a black stripe to guide me. I will do more open water swimming this year than in the past, and I'm even signing up for a few open water races (specifically the Aquaman open water series).

(4) Total commitment
Unfortunately I do not have unlimited time to train. Swimming more will require a trade-off in that I'll have less time to bike and run. I need to allot extra time to my swim until it approaches the level of my bike and run, even if that means allowing my bike and run to stagnate or, gasp, decline. Maybe my bike and run splits won't be as good this season, but the in the long run I will be a better athlete. I'm aiming for 25k yards per week on average and will probably put in quite a few weeks of > 30k yards.

(5) Perform periodic assessments
Every couple of weeks I will perform a 1000 long course meter time trial to assess my progress. This test is fairly specific to IM swimming without being too mentally draining (though I don't doubt that Chuckie will have me perform longer continuous sets as well). I last did this test at the end of January in 17:20 for a pace of 1:44/100 lcm. Looks like I'm past due for another go at it. I'll likely give it a shot this weekend.

In addition to performing a time trial every 2-4 weeks, I can more frequently assess myself by noting my times for various distances. For short course yards, I'm around 1:22/100, 2:50/200, and 3:12/225 (though those times may be off by a second or two). By continually noting my times I can get more frequent assessments.

The entire point of assessment is to make sure that my plan is working. Therefore, if I am not making progress I need to reconsider my plan. Perhaps I'll need to pay a visit to Swim Labs. Perhaps I'll need to work harder and/or increase my yardage. Perhaps I'll need to consider altering my stroke. As another cliche favored by my high school tennis coach goes, "If you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting." If I keep swimming poorly, I need to change things up!

(6) Taking action
In the 10 days since my first post on improving my swimming, I've started taking action. Reading has allowed me to increase my knowledge of swimming. Stacey taped me and I'm reviewing the footage. I swam close to 30k yards in one week (though I went out of town for a few days and didn't get in any swimming during that time). Two of Chuckie's other athletes, Sonja and Michelle, invited me for a swim and gave me some very helpful tips (in addition to crushing me during a set of 10 x 225 y, or in Michelle's case 10 x 250 y). I've got a lot to work on, but that actually makes swimming more enjoyable because there's a sense that I can improve.

So, I'm on track. Hard work, if performed intelligently, will pay off.