Them 100s

It used to be my favorite set, 100 @ 2:00 in a long course meters pool. Now I can't make the interval and thus I have avoided the set although I have dabbled with a @ 2:15 turn around every now and then. Monday was both now and then.

I needed some real work, and I felt like doing it. Of late my favorite punishment set has been 300 short course yards on 5:27. You would think that one would get me in really good shape, right? Well I learned something Monday morning.

Those long course 100s do something for you that nothing else does. I swam

1,000 22:55 (2:17)
4 X 50 @ 1:21
4 X 100 @ 2:15
   1:51
  1:55
  1:56
  1:58 (notice the drop off in pace)
200 medium paddles
4 X 100 @ 2:15
  1:52
  1:55
  1:50
  1:51 (I came back a bit on this set, but it took some grunting to get it.)
400 small paddles
total: 3,000 long course meters

That was one good practice. The 100s hit me hard. They are more difficult than the 300 short course intervals I do. I guess it is the long course swimming, the lack of the flip and glide at 25 yards. Anyway, my muscles felt the burn then the fatigue early on. I used to do 20 straight of these, sometimes more. I need to get back to that, to the sets of hard 100s that teach me to swim fast for a long time. A 100 isn't a long time, but if you keep doing them with a short rest (and it doesn't take many) the fatigue builds in a hurry. 

A few years back, I would wear two Garmin watches (with 20 reps programmed in the first watch and six in the second. The interval was under 2:00, but I don't remember what, maybe 1:56. I would do 26 of those. That was when I was kicking Randy Beets' butt at Swim the Suck. Are those days gone? I sure hope and pray not. They are gone for now, but I will strive to get them back. I must make a commitment to hard 100s. That is the key to stamina.

I ran in the afternoon and it was very hot. After finishing my water supply while still on Money Road, I texted Penny to pick me up on the boulevard. She did. I finished with 9.71 of the slowest miles I have ever shuffled. It was really pathetic. My average pace was over 17:00 per mile!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Thank you, Jesus, that I am able to do that.