One Hour Postal

Midas! Yesterday I really needed to swim but didn't get a chance. I did about 1 1/2 hours of stretching/light free weights, just to move a little bit. I am not sore at all. I am 37. On another note, when I lived in SF, I'd bike up and down TAM all day long. My dad still rides the headlands every Sunday 50+ miles. I miss that area.

I did the One Hour Swim on Sunday. I went to the event - just to count for our friend Jim T. I wasn't planning to swim because I don't like to do much over 500 during practice - I loose focus, loose count, need socialization, get lost, get tired, need to rest, need water, and can find any other excuse to stop. So, the thought of swimming non-stop for one hour, OMG! (back of the had to the forehead & sigh) . . . Therefore, you can imagine how suprised I was to find myself in the second heat, swimming. I swam and swam and swam and swam some more. I really don't know how or why I did it. The water was perfect. I enjoyed not being interrupted, not knowing how far I swam or what time it was. I would do it again. Then I went to the second meet of the day where I finished the 400 IM and 3 other sprint events. My suit: regular practice poly suit. No need to technical stuff! Really, if I can do it, you can too!

I didn't swim the 2nd meet on Sunday for time - I swam the events I needed to swim to complete an Iron Person (similar to check off challenge) for our local YMCA league. One of those events was the 400 IM -- in this case, I just needed to finish the @#* *%$@! thing as leagal as possible.

I did it! My First one hour swim. I went 3950yds. Missed my goal by10 laps, so not to bad for a 47 year old sprinter. I keep thinking today maybe I should have stop a little bit, maybe I could have kept a better pace. It's hard to try and second guess. I swam some 50's back when I needed a rest, so I did swim without stopping, which can be considered another goal. Blue kickboard was put in at 3000 yds. I realized I didn't like looking at the clock until the last 5 -10 mins. It's definitely a mind game swim. But over all I felt good during and after the swim. Muscles are a bit tight this morning, but that's just age more than the swim. The real winner is the funds I raised, almost $600.00 for Living Water International !!! I want to do the 3000 in Sept. not sure about going on for 6000 we'll see. Congrats!! That is awesome that you did the swim with no stops.

I did it! My First one hour swim. I went 3950yds. Missed my goal by10 laps, so not to bad for a 47 year old sprinter. I keep thinking today maybe I should have stop a little bit, maybe I could have kept a better pace. It's hard to try and second guess. I swam some 50's back when I needed a rest, so I did swim without stopping, which can be considered another goal. Blue kickboard was put in at 3000 yds. I realized I didn't like looking at the clock until the last 5 -10 mins. It's definitely a mind game swim. But over all I felt good during and after the swim. Muscles are a bit tight this morning, but that's just age more than the swim. The real winner is the funds I raised, almost $600.00 for Living Water International !!! I want to do the 3000 in Sept. not sure about going on for 6000 we'll see.

The One Hour is not my favorite thing to do but we do it as a team and I have participated for the last three (or maybe four) years. I try to break it down into 15 minute segments just so its not overwhelming but it does get long. We all set time goals and this month we have had several sets to practice our pacing. I think the trick is to start out a LOT slower than it feels like you should, just to get into the right pace and not kill yourself in the first half. I am going to experiment with breathing every stroke to see if that helps my fatigue level in the second half. My one hour is next Tuesday - so looking forward to having it done for another year!

Its been a while, but I used to wear an Ironman watch. You could set it to beep on a time interval. Annoying, I agree, (and possibly not legal?) but if you know you are trying to hold, say 200's on a 2:20 pace, you can set it to beep every 2:20. You keep swimming and see where the beep happens. I found that if I set it at a pace just slower than I could go, I'd start progressing against the beep, which was a good mental boost. The focus on the intervals seemed to make the elapsed time go faster.