Tuesday at DSU

Before I left town, I looked at last year's training diary and saw that on the same Tuesday a year ago I swam 7,200 yards. Dude, will I ever catch up? I also noticed something else. On that night, I finished the practice with a straight 3,000 yarder. What caught my eye was my average pace - 1:40. My longer swims this year have been around 1:46. I had thought I was doing pretty well, but after checking the diary, I realized that I not only was behind in distance for the year but fitness level also. That's why you write things down so you can go back and look and compare. Those longer swims are done at my all-day pace, but the slower one this year is an unmistakable sign that I really am behind. Those six seconds per 100 is no doubt the result of that -200,000 meters at the end of 2015.

I shuffled 2.1 miles before driving to Cleveland. I gave blood Monday and could tell it when I ran. My legs were fresh, but I was breathing more deeply and harder than normal for the same pace. I saw and hugged my grandchildren, Smu, and my duaghter and then was in the pool the earliest this year stroking away at 6:02. I did 2,700 before we started the practice. It was only Ricky and me and we started with 8 X 50 @ 1:15 progressive 1-4. Then we did 5 X 200 with a floating 50 on the first four and the last 200 was all hard. I slipped in a 150 easy yards while Ricky finished his 200s and then I just started swimming to finish the night. I went for 3,100 straight, my longest of the year, but my pace was 1:48. 

Telling. 

Put neatly on paper, the practice looks like this.

2,700 47:52; 1:46
8 X 50 progressive @ 1:15
200 3:02; 1:31
200 3:07; 1:33
200 3:08; 1:34
200 3:03; 1:31
100 easy
200 2:53; 1:26
50 easy
8 X 50 progressive, 1-4 @ 1:00; 5-8 @ 1:15
3,100 55:59; 1:48
total: 7,750 yards = 7,083 meters. 

Although I started the night thinking there was no way to make up any distance on last year, I did in fact make up a whole 500 meters. I'll catch up, and not only that, but by the grace of God I will even get ahead.