Just Training

Yesterday was a "long" training day: 2 1/2 hours. "Long" is in quotes because 2 1/2 hours will eventually be just a warm-up for the 13 hour Channel swim, but it was long for now. 5000 straight swim, 10x100 on 1:30 (coming in btn 1:20 and 1:25), 4000 straight swim = total 10,000 in 2 hours 30 min 45 seconds (5.68 miles).

2 1/2 hours in a 25 yard pool does present certain boredom issues. To keep track of the distance and speed I have to count lengths (10,000 is 400 lengths), and in order not to lose count, I pretty much don't think about anything else. So that gets old. But so far the challenge of keeping up the pace and focusing on my stroke quality has been adequate to keep me entertained.

One way to address that problem is to go find an Olympic distance pool. Unfortunately, the closest one set up to allow long course (50 meter) swimming in the winter is at a YMCA just north of Milwaukee. I went there on Sunday and it is just beautiful. It is one of the best pools in the country (and may have been the best 30 years ago when it was built). I hope to get up there a couple of times per month in the winter. As soon as it is warm enough in the Spring, I'll do long swims in open water.