Today is hot and sticky and i can't wait to get to the pool. First day of summer where I know I'm going to want to cool off with a nice swim. But business first. I run over the Brooklyn Bridge to see my clients at John Street and run back. I took the second run really easy, with a bag on my back and the humidity plus the less than ideal diet from the weekend kinda required that. Total of 6.3 miles. Surprisingly, the pool wasn't crowded and i had a lane to myself. My goal for the rest of the season is to get in 3 swims a week. This week that's not going to be possible because i will be in Chicago for the weekend and only able to run. So I want to make the most of each swim, hopefully two this week if the weather holds out. Has been working well to always put a swim on my Monday's.
I started with a 20 minute warm up. Next is my muscular endurance set of 12-20 minutes in zone 3 which is about 140-149 BPM. I found that a .55 sec stroke rate using my tempo trainer got me to that HR. Each lap was about 58-60 strokes and I did 6 laps, completing 475 m in 11:46 at a speed of 39:52 min/mile. Not so good.
Followed this with my main set of 1.2 miles at a 1:15 sec stroke rate which is just .05 sec faster than the same distance last week. I felt relaxed about 1/3rd of the way through. Strokes were 51-53 per length, took me 49:32 to complete and speed was 41:17 min/mile compared to a sligtly slower stroke rate last week with a speed of 37:48 mi/hr.
Not sure what to think of this. Seems a longer, slower stroke rate is best for longer distances. Was hoping starting with a faster set would be the best workout for today, but i was wrong. Note i did not feel fatigued at the end of the 1.2 miles and my HR average was the same as it was last week at a faster pace.