While today was essentially a rest day, I did another 3000 yard swim (did one yesterday as well). The idea was to swim easy. No stress, no excessive muscle strain, especially since I was feeling a slight bit of soreness this morning from yesterday's swim. So, I woke up this morning, ran 3 miles comfortably to get loose and headed to the pool. Once I arrived, I just got in the water and focused on good form and a relatively easy effort. Yesterday's stroke rate was ~29 strokes per minute. Today, I found myself at somewhat less than that, but I noticed that I was using fewer strokes each length and I felt comfortable. This feeling lasted for nearly an hour, as I reached 3000 yards faster than I have in the past month. My form was as smooth and solid at the end as it was at the beginning, reminding me that swimming hard doesn't necessarily equate to swimming fast.
Finding the right swim form and effort is essential for an Ironman, as I'll be swimming 2.4 miles and I don't want to exert too much energy with the bike and run to follow. In fact, the easier the swim, the better. The really intriguing aspect of this is whether swimming harder has any value at all. Today was interesting because I swam really comfortably, and I actually went faster. In fact, my pace today would have corresponded to ~1:16 Ironman swim, which I haven't done in a few years with the exception of the practice swim at Kona two years ago.
I've often asked my coach about training more for the swim. More training might improve my swim times by 5 minutes. If I added a stronger effort I might save 10 minutes. At what cost? The cost of going slower on the bike and run. The time to practice my swim could be spent on continuing to improve my bike and run. With that said, there is probably a "sweet spot" for my swim training, and I think that I'm finding it.
Doing a one hour nonstop swim at comfortable effort is akin to my MAF runs. I'm not adding much to my physiology in the way of fatigue, and I'm training my body to go at a certain pace with minimal stress. In fact, even over the past few weeks, this might already be paying off. While it's "fun" at times to do harder swims, and even to do shorter efforts at a faster pace, I'm not quite sure what I gain from those efforts, except for the "fun" aspect.
Just as I've diligently been running and biking at comfortable efforts, it looks like my swim training after Ironman California, will continue to focus on doing the same. I'll try this for a couple of months and see what the result are. It certainly doesn't hurt to swim easy to swim fast!
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