I had plans to give blood last week and since that puts me out of commission for a bit for swimming, I decided to do a mile the day before.
I hit the pool after work and set a pretty good pace. I kept track of my laps and sort of kept track of the time – though I had allocated plenty and was more concerned with distance than the time.
When I finished up I noted the time and made an educated guess on when I started. If I was right in how long it took me to get changed into my trunks, I had done a mile in 42-43 minutes.
Which is not too shabby for me. The last time I had really paid attention I had done the mile in about an hour. Without really being focused on it, I’d managed to cut a huge chunk of time off my swim.
But it was an estimate and I could have been way off. I do change my clothes pretty fast, after all.
So, today I was back at the pool and decided to intentionally – instead of incidentally – haul some speedo-ed ass.
The pool was set to the short lanes and that’s always a little easier. I planned on short breaks at ⅓ and ⅔ of a mile and took off. I kept track of the laps in my head. .5 to the end, 1 when I got back. 1.5, then 2. 2.5, then 3. Breathe and quick goggle rinse at 12. Repeat.
I started at 4:19 and was done at 4:57 …. 38 minutes. A new personal best.
If I can cut my breaks down a bit, I could shave even more time off.
And I’ve got a goal. 30 minutes. At that pace, I would be swimming at 2 miles an hour. And that, friends, would be awesome.