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I could still feel the tiredness in my arms and shoulders today and I knew the pool would be a bit chilly thanks to the cold weather overnight (no, the pool isn’t outdoors, but the building was constructed before insulation was a thing), but I forced myself to go anyhow. It’s only an hour public session today so I cut down the warm-up slightly (though I added another 100m on the swim down when it turned out that I had time):

300m front crawl warm-up
25 x 50m front crawl, target time 57s, rest interval 23s
300m front crawl swim down

I was hitting 48 and 49 seconds fairly consistently until the last three or four when I sank to 50 and 51, but made them all comfortably and achieved my technique goal of always breathing bilaterally.

I could well have three days off now, as the pool is closed on Monday.

USRPT distance this year: 14,900m
Total distance this year: 37,850m

I ended up skipping yesterday because my arms and shoulders were clearly still tired, so today I was back in the pool to do:

400m front crawl warm-up
25 x 50m front crawl, target time 57s, rest interval 23s
200m front crawl swim down

Once I started swimming I realised that I was still quite tired and most of my reps were around 49 seconds rather than the 46/47/48 reps I’ve been doing earlier this week. I had goggle problems too, which meant I couldn’t start a couple of the reps, but I swam two more at the end to make up the distance. I did swim all twenty-five, but I don’t think this counts as a success. Hopefully I’ll have another crack at it tomorrow.

USRPT distance this year: 13,650m
Total distance this year: 36,000m

Third time of asking for this set today:

400m front crawl warm-up
25 x 50m front crawl, target time 58s, rest interval 22s
200m front crawl swim down

The first six or seven 50s were down in the 45 and 46 second bracket and I really don’t think I could keep that pace up for all 25, so I tried to slow things down a bit, eventually settling into a fairly comfortable 48 or 49 second rhythm with one excursion into 50 sec.

Not long into the session another swimmer turned up alongside me doing reps of 50m and 100m swims, working fairly hard. Turned out to be an ex-member of the swimming club from a few years back.

Anyhow, I managed to get through them all without a failure, so assuming my body is up to it tomorrow will be adjusted to a target time of 57 sec and rest interval of 23 sec. Once I reach 55 sec target time I’ll pull the rest interval down to 20 sec again. At that point I expect it to start getting a bit tougher to get through the set.

USRPT distance this year: 12,400m
Total distance this year: 34,150m

Six days without a swim 🙁 A combination of work and a change in the opening times of the pool for half-term got in the way most of last week.

I repeated my previous set today, but with another four lengths in the warm-up:

400m front crawl warm-up
25 x 50m front crawl, target time 58s, rest interval 22s
100m front crawl swim down

I struggled to control my pace in the first few lengths, hitting 45s for the first two and then 46s for the next three before dropping back to mostly 48s. Those first few fast ones took their toll though and by the last five I was hitting 50s. Nonetheless I completed the set without a fail.

Next time I’ll try to control the pace a bit better.

Hopefully next time will be tomorrow, but an interesting side-effect of swimming at a higher pace than I did last year for example (about half as fast again for the 50s, I reckon) is that although I’m not covering anything like the same distance — generally less than 1,800m per session as opposed to nearer 2.5km — I feel far more tired. As a result I’ve been considering dropping back to sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with rest days in between. For the time being I’ll try to push on as things are though.

USRPT distance this year: 11,150m
Total distance this year: 32,300m

As I’ve managed my previous USRPT set three times without a fail and need to make it harder, I decided I’d drop the target time to 58s and have a rest interval of 22s, so the set now becomes:

300m front crawl warm-up
25 x 50m front crawl, target time 58s, rest interval 22s
100m front crawl swim down

In a manner of speaking its the same set as before, but I decided a smoother progression down to the point where I start to fail would be more sensible and I’ll set other technique-based targets for myself on the way down.

Today the first few reps I managed in 47s, then dropping into the 48s with a few 49s and a 50 at the end of the set, completing the entire set without a fail.

USRPT distance this year: 9,900m
Total distance this year: 30,550m

Didn’t get to swim yesterday, so today I repeated Wednesday’s USRPT set with a truncated warm-up and swim down because of the time available:

300m front crawl warm-up
25 x 50m front crawl, target time 60s, rest interval 20s
100m front crawl swim down

Once again I completed the set without a failure, though it was starting to feel pretty tough towards the end. My first 50 was 47s followed by almost all 48s with one 49 at about halfway, then number 24 got out to 50s before a 49s last run.

Not sure what I shall do next at the moment. I deliberately set the target fairly easy to start with to allow myself to get back into training, but I’m wondering if pulling the target time down to 55s might be too big a step all at once when I can pretty much do all the 50s in under 50 seconds. On the other hand, if I lower the target time and extend the rest interval to give turnaround times that work easily for the pace clock then I’m really swimming the same set as I’ve already done.

USRPT distance this year: 8,650m
Total distance this year: 28,900m

A repeat of yesterday’s set:

400m front crawl warm-up
25 x 50m front crawl, target time 60s, rest interval 20s
200m front crawl swim down

And another successful completion! Managed a few 47s, mostly 48s and I think one 49 and a 50 on the last one, when I was really starting to feel quite tired.

Another attempt tomorrow and if that is also successful then I’ll be looking to reduce the target time. I suspect that will make it significantly harder.

USRPT distance this year: 7,400m
Total distance this year: 27,250m

Had a bit of a domestic emergency yesterday that meant I didn’t have time to swim (although I came close to needing to swim in my own kitchen!), so today was my first attempt at my next USRPT set:

400m front crawl warm-up
25 x 50m front crawl, target time 60s, rest interval 20s
200m front crawl swim down

I’m pleased to say that I managed the entire set at the first attempt, although it was pretty hard work towards the end. I think most of the 50s I actually managed as high 47s or low 48s, with a couple drifting out to 49s.

Same thing again next time (hopefully tomorrow).

USRPT distance this year: 6,150m
Total distance this year: 25,400m

Did my best to repeat the same USRPT session of previous days, but I was late getting to the pool for the hour it’s open to the public between swim schools, so I cut my warm-up short and even then ran out of time for a proper swim down:

300m front crawl warm-up
25 x 50m front crawl, target time 60s, rest interval 25s
50m front crawl swim down

Happily I managed to get through the main set without a failure, generally hitting mid- to low- 48 second 50s with one 47, one 49 and one 50. As that’s three complete sets without failure in a row, next time I’m going to drop the recovery time to twenty seconds (so target 60s, rest 20s) and see how that goes.

USRPT distance this year: 4,900m
Total distance this year: 23,550m

Another repeat of the USRPT set I did yesterday and the day before that:

400m front crawl warm-up
25 x 50m front crawl, target time 60s, rest interval 25s
200m front crawl swim down

Managed to complete the set without a failure, though I’m struggling to keep track of all the 50s, so I might look at using a notebook with waterproof paper to check off lengths and list send-off intervals on the pace clock. Today was actually even better than yesterday as I managed all the 50s in under fifty seconds — a fair mix of 48s and 49s I’d say, though I didn’t count. I might track those in a notebook too.

USRPT distance this year: 3,650m
Total distance this year: 21,950m