Geoff and I have been doing some 2km swim time trials every Friday for the past fortnight. The trial consists of 400m freestyle, 100m pull buoy, 300m freestyle, 200m pull buoy, 200m free, 300m pull buoy, 100m free, 400 pull buoy. We time the splits (although last Friday's didn't work out so well because of some watch issues) and the full set.
The first week (29 October) I took a just on 43minutes to complete the full set and I took 8:40 to do the first 400m (freestyle) and 8:20 to do the last (with pull buoy). Today I smashed this time by doing 40:49, including 7:56 for the first 400m (my first ever 400 under 8 minutes) and the last at 7:36.
Interestingly most people are slower with the pull buoy as you have no kick, but I am significantly faster. This obviously says something about how much my kick is adversely impacting on my speed. The good news is that everyone (including me) swims faster in a wet suit and all my open water swims in NZ will be in a wet suit.
Based on the time that I posted today and things like I won't be doing my clumsy turns every 25m or resting six times and I will be wearing my wetsuit, I reckon I should be able to complete the swim at the South Island Half Ironman next Saturday in somewhere close to 35 or 36 minutes. I'll be absolutely stoked with that, but I'll take anything under 40 minutes.
I also did 30 x 100m freestyle earlier in the week and didn't tire at all until the 26th rep. Previously I have been tiring after about 1.8-2km, so the swim fitness is also on the improve. Overall, then, my swimming is on the improve and things are starting look good. Still heaps of room for improvement, but at least I am heading in the right direction.
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