21-Swim Challenge is in the books!!!

The challenge was to based on a time trial (TT) on either a 1650m (1 mile) or 500m swim. After that there were 3 weeks of 2 days swims plus a drill. I only got in the 2 days of swim, skipping the drills, since I had to still run and bike and do weights.

So on Feb 14 I swam my my first 1650 TT in a 32:05.86 (1:54/100m).  The following weeks, the workouts were based on my TT and worked on endurance. After the first swim, I found that the TT I had was really easy, and that it was difficult to do some of my swims so slow. As it turns out I dropped my TT by :05 as my base and used that to do my workouts.

My concerns in distance swimming has been with pacing. I know how to pace when I run/bike, simply look at my Garmin and either slow down or speed up. Pretty easy. But in a pool, you can't really take the time to stop and look and try to do the math. So after a few posts back and forth on Facebook in the Tri Swim Coach 21-Day Challenge Page, I found that by setting my Garmin's alerts I can set a pace for my 50's.

So today, it was back to the pool to do my final TT. Set my 50m time alert on my Garmin to :55 and was so happy I could keep the pace. Today I swam my 1650TT in a 30:20.21 (1:49/100m). Didn't break my 30:00 goal but damn that was close.

500 Group:

	Day 1	Day 2
Week 1	300, 200, 100 moderate pace on 20s rest 200, 100, 50 build :25s rest 200 fast 30s rest 100 fast 30s rest 6×100 moderate 20s rest	3x 3×100 TT pace+10s 4×50 TT pace+10s 1×50 Easy
Week 2	2×200 on 20s rest 100 moderate 20s rest 2×300 20s rest 100 moderate 2×400 40s rest 100 moderate	6×50 TT pace, 15s rest 2×150 build, 20s rest 6×75 TT pace, 15s rest 1×300 build 6×50 TT pace, 15s rest 3×100 TT pace+5s, 15s rest
Week 3	6×200 build so first 100 easy, 2nd 100 faster, 3rd should be race pace effort 2×300 hard effort	6×25 build 15s rest 5×100 TT pace+10s, 15s rest 6×25 build 15s rest 5×100 TT pace+5s, 15s rest 6×25 build 2×100 race pace

1600 Group:

	Day 1	Day 2
Week 1	4×150 easy (TT pace+15s per 100), 10s rest 100 relaxed 4×150 moderate (TT pace+5s per 100), 15s rest 100 relaxed 4×150 TT pace (20s rest)	8×100 TTpace+5s 300 easy 4×100 TT pace+5s 300 easy 3×100 TT pace
Week 2	4×250 continuous as 100 Moderate pace, 50 fast, 100 moderate 4×150 50 moderate, 50 fast, 50 moderate 4×100 25 moderate, 50 fast, 25 moderate	4×100 TT pace+5s 20s rest 4×100 TT pace 20s rest 4×100 TTpace-2s 25s rest 6×50 TT pace-5s 25s rest 16×25 build
Week 3	4×500 Descending, meaning that each 500 gets faster. The first one should be calm and relaxed, the 3 one should be at your 1650 pace, and the 4th one should be all out. :40 second rest interval)	8×100 TT pace with :20s rest 8×75 TT pace 20s rest 8×50 TT pace 20s rest 8×25 ALL OUT 30s rest

Drill set:
200 as (25 catch up/25 swim)
100 build
200 as (25 fist/25 swim)
100 build
200 as (25 high elbow catch/25 swim)
100 build
200 as (50 8 kicks/3 strokes/8 kicks, 50 swim)
100 build