I drove out to Minnesota on Saturday and Sunday to visit my brothdr and mother. Also, to give my brother my trusty Expedition. That trip plus my biz trip to Cincinnati last week has put a crimp in my training.
However, yesterday I was able to realize a long-held ambition and swim across the lake (Ten Mile) where our cabin is. This swim turned out to be 3.27-miles and as such is the longest of my life. The water temp was 68 degrees and at one point I was swimming above 130 feet of water. There was a 15-mph wind out of the northwest and and I swam north to south. As I got out into the middle of the lake there was a fair bit of chop coming from my 4 o'clock. My brother and mother accompanied me on a boat. Here are a couple of pictures:
I ended up swimming the 5,758 yards in 93:24, which works out to a 1:37/100 or 28:34/mile pace. I took 3,080 strokes which yields an average stroke distance 1.87 yards and an average stroke rate of 33.0 spm. These are surprisingly strong numbers for such a long swim.
Indeed, I did my first quarter in 6:25 which is faster than any SPRINT quarter I've done in a race this year. I hit 1.2 miles in exactly 33:00, which is the 3rd fastest H-IM distance swim I've ever recorded. Only twice out of 21 H-IMs have I swam 1.2 miles faster. I hit the 2.4 full IM swim distance at 67:41, which is faster than 11 of my 12 IM swims--only IMFL07 was faster at 66:16. I had a bit of a slow down in my second mile (this always seems to happen to me in the middle of my swims--I need to concentrate harder in the middle.) My three miles were: 27:24, 29:03 and 28:32. Here is the data from each quarter mile:
0.00-0.25: 6:25/222 strokes/1.98 yps/34.6 spm
0.25-0.50: 6:56/238/1.85/34.3
0.50-0.75: 7:12/243/1.81/33.8
0.75/1.00: 6:51/228/1.93/33.3
1.00-1.25: 7:00/233/1.89/33.3
1.25-1.50: 7:10/234/1.88/32.7
1.50-1.75: 7:46/251/1.75/32.3
1.75-2.00: 7:07/225/1.96/31.6
2.00-2.25: 6:58/226/1.95/32.4
2.25-2.50: 7:06/233/1.89/32.8
2.50-2.75: 7:11/234/1.88/32.6
2.75-3.00: 7:17/240/1.83/33.0
3.00-3.25: 7:20/250/1.76/34.1
It's very encouraging to see my stroke distance holding up (generally above 1.8 yps) throughout the swim. My cadence slower down a bit but stroke length didn't seem to drop dispite the fatigue in my arms.
On balance, this has to be my best long distance swim ever. I was not swimming with race intensity and to go this fast for this long is surprising but very satisfying. While my bike is a work in progress and my run is a long way from fully baked, my swim is pretty bullet proof and ready for the big dance in October.
Here is a map of the swim:
However, yesterday I was able to realize a long-held ambition and swim across the lake (Ten Mile) where our cabin is. This swim turned out to be 3.27-miles and as such is the longest of my life. The water temp was 68 degrees and at one point I was swimming above 130 feet of water. There was a 15-mph wind out of the northwest and and I swam north to south. As I got out into the middle of the lake there was a fair bit of chop coming from my 4 o'clock. My brother and mother accompanied me on a boat. Here are a couple of pictures:
I ended up swimming the 5,758 yards in 93:24, which works out to a 1:37/100 or 28:34/mile pace. I took 3,080 strokes which yields an average stroke distance 1.87 yards and an average stroke rate of 33.0 spm. These are surprisingly strong numbers for such a long swim.
Indeed, I did my first quarter in 6:25 which is faster than any SPRINT quarter I've done in a race this year. I hit 1.2 miles in exactly 33:00, which is the 3rd fastest H-IM distance swim I've ever recorded. Only twice out of 21 H-IMs have I swam 1.2 miles faster. I hit the 2.4 full IM swim distance at 67:41, which is faster than 11 of my 12 IM swims--only IMFL07 was faster at 66:16. I had a bit of a slow down in my second mile (this always seems to happen to me in the middle of my swims--I need to concentrate harder in the middle.) My three miles were: 27:24, 29:03 and 28:32. Here is the data from each quarter mile:
0.00-0.25: 6:25/222 strokes/1.98 yps/34.6 spm
0.25-0.50: 6:56/238/1.85/34.3
0.50-0.75: 7:12/243/1.81/33.8
0.75/1.00: 6:51/228/1.93/33.3
1.00-1.25: 7:00/233/1.89/33.3
1.25-1.50: 7:10/234/1.88/32.7
1.50-1.75: 7:46/251/1.75/32.3
1.75-2.00: 7:07/225/1.96/31.6
2.00-2.25: 6:58/226/1.95/32.4
2.25-2.50: 7:06/233/1.89/32.8
2.50-2.75: 7:11/234/1.88/32.6
2.75-3.00: 7:17/240/1.83/33.0
3.00-3.25: 7:20/250/1.76/34.1
It's very encouraging to see my stroke distance holding up (generally above 1.8 yps) throughout the swim. My cadence slower down a bit but stroke length didn't seem to drop dispite the fatigue in my arms.
On balance, this has to be my best long distance swim ever. I was not swimming with race intensity and to go this fast for this long is surprising but very satisfying. While my bike is a work in progress and my run is a long way from fully baked, my swim is pretty bullet proof and ready for the big dance in October.
Here is a map of the swim:
After the swim, my brother and I went fishing and we caught 5 pike in 2 hours. As the picture below illustrates they weren't the biggest ever caught but I heard that in some things, size doesn't matter:
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