New Year's swims

I did The Cumberland* today. For those that didn't see the original posts earlier in the thread, it's a 1500 for time done like this: 500 free, 400 im, 300 back, 200 ***, 100 fly. I was swimming alone in a Speedo Endurance practice suit and no cap. Coming into it, I was most concerned about the free portion (and the fly following it), because I haven't been training free much at all. I started off smoothly enough, but my form started falling apart around the 400 mark. The 100 fly following that was terrible. Stroke counts were high, SDK's were low, and I was breathing way too often. Once that painfest was over, I spent the next 800 yards trying to swim strong while shaking out the lactic acid in time for the last 100 fly. I've been training plenty of distance backstroke so that was no problem. I held 6-7 strokes per length on the breaststroke portions; those are good numbers for a bad breaststroker like me. The final 100 fly was much easier than the first. I was far smoother and able to sprint the final 50. I finished in 19:36, right in line with what I figured I would do. To improve on that, I will need to train more free. I'm not sure if it's worth the tedium... Michael Heather: After an easy 100, I did follow The Cumberland** with a set of 50 flys.*** * I still do not know why it is called that ** Nope, still nothing ***:banana:

I did The Cumberland* today. For those that didn't see the original posts earlier in the thread, it's a 1500 for time done like this: 500 free, 400 im, 300 back, 200 ***, 100 fly. I was swimming alone in a Speedo Endurance practice suit and no cap. Coming into it, I was most concerned about the free portion (and the fly following it), because I haven't been training free much at all. I started off smoothly enough, but my form started falling apart around the 400 mark. The 100 fly following that was terrible. Stroke counts were high, SDK's were low, and I was breathing way too often. Once that painfest was over, I spent the next 800 yards trying to swim strong while shaking out the lactic acid in time for the last 100 fly. I've been training plenty of distance backstroke so that was no problem. I held 6-7 strokes per length on the breaststroke portions; those are good numbers for a bad breaststroker like me. The final 100 fly was much easier than the first. I was far smoother and able to sprint the final 50. I finished in 19:36, right in line with what I figured I would do. To improve on that, I will need to train more free. I'm not sure if it's worth the tedium... Michael Heather: After an easy 100, I did follow The Cumberland** with a set of 50 flys.*** * I still do not know why it is called that ** Nope, still nothing ***:banana: