Swimming through the prism of Ironman

The past three days were all about swimming - FAST or at least that was a key objective.

Swim fast and meet the qualifying standards for the FINA 2014 World Masters Championships to be held in Montreal in late July/early August. (The swimming schedule hasn’t yet to be released.)

First, I haven’t YET qualified in any event. Here are the standards.

Second, I am however now closer to qualifying in two events: 50m Free and 100m Free.

At the BC Provincial swimming championships this weekend at the Vancouver Aquatic Centre, I swam 33.29 for the 50m. The qualifying FINA time is 33.0.

I swam the 100m in 1:16.94. The qualifying standard is 1:15:30.

Both of those times are PBs for me.

The 50m one is an incremental one as I swam 33.54 at the Love to Swim meet in February. 

As for the 100m, I swam 1:21.19 at that February meet and 1:24.58 at a meet at the University of British Columbia last November. Great progress.

Both the 50m and the 100m are about red-lining one’s effort from start to finish. I’m confident I achieved that part of the equation and I’m as confident that I can go faster with a bit more focus on a relaxed right arm catch/pull as well as perfecting my dive from the block and flip turning with power.

This weekend I also set meet PBs for the 200m (2:56.64), the 400m (6:13.56) and the 800m (13:10.00). The qualifying times for each are: 2:47, 5:50 and 12:20.

Since November, I’ve knocked 12 seconds off my 200m time, more than half a minute off my 400m time and more than one minute off the 800m.

The 400m time this weekend is the most puzzling for me. In training I now regularly swim slightly below 6 minutes. Last week I swam a 6:02 in the middle of a pyramid session after being out of the pool for about two weeks. I’ll chalk it up to ‘stuff happens when racing’. The dive? Started too fast? A few poorly executed flip turns? A poor finishing reach? 

One competitor said he thought this pool was a slow one. But that doesn’t explain why I swam the 50m and 100m so well. So perhaps that’s fishing too deep!

On Friday, I started the meet with a 25:32.45 time for the 1500m. I wasn’t impressed. In February I had swum six seconds faster. I could point to several ‘life’ reasons but I won’t. I’ll chalk it up to a ‘lower-than-expected energy’ moment.

No decision has been made on going to Montreal. That will be made later, in part based on qualifying!

For now, all of the swimming that I do is through the prism of the 3.8km that I need to ‘race’ on August 25th at Ironman Canada in Whistler. It will be a two-lap course in Alta Lake.

Here’s how I look at where I am now in terms of Ironman swim fitness. It’s Tim’s rough math, so bear with me: 1500m x 2.53 = 3.8km. So my 1.5k effort becomes a 1:04/1:05 Ironman swim.

My 800m time is equivalent to 1:02/1:03.

My 400m time equates to a 59 minute Ironman swim split.

Now obviously, the effort that I put into the 400m - which I have to say felt was the hardest I’d ever swum that distance - is one that I can’t sustain for 3.8km. I couldn’t have sustained it for another 25m. So a Sub 1 hour Ironman swim is - for now - out of reach.

The stats tell me that I’m in the ballpark, fitness wise, for a 1:05-1:10 swim.

At first thought, I’d be depressed. Will I ever get close to the one-hour mark?

There are two huge race-day positives to take into account that will generate speed: my wetsuit and the drafting/two-lap current effect. Most of the training I do is with a pull buoy; all racing this weekend was without it. The wetsuit is my race day pull buoy. Ah, cold open water swims.

When Margreet and I raced in Ironman Australia in Forster, it was a two-lap course in a confined area and there was a superb whirlpool that helped propel everyone on the second lap. I’m hopeful of something similar at Whistler.

Of course the most important component to what I achieve at Ironman Canada is for me to keep swimming relatively fast and to start swimming longer sets. 

I’m a person, an athlete, who is methodical. Perhaps you’ve gathered. And the confidence that I have ahead of a race is directly related to the training I’ve completed. Once a week, every week until August 25th, I will swim one long set with minimal stops to replicate the time in motion and steady effort needed in Alta Lake.

Tomorrow though I’m sleeping in. Coach’s orders.