The best race rehearsal swim ever
Yesterday (Friday) I did a RR swim as part of my training plan. I've been swimming with a masters group, so obviously we don't do 2000 yard continuous swims. :-)
Anyway, this was an add-on swim on my schedule, so I decided to do it as a pull buoy session. As it turns out, all my regular pools were closed that day... Grrr! The only place left was the college rec pool that has one lap lane in it. I went over there and they didn't have the lane line up, but I asked andthey said I could swim but I'd have to watch out for the "basketball" players and the people walking on their hands. Ok, I could handle.
Started swimming. Navigated around the oblivious. Just like always, I got bored around 10-12 minutes in. Then I started really noticing my pace, and right on where I wanted it...45 sec/lap (1:30 pace). Then I started noticing the pattern of oblivious walkers through my lane was changing.
Pretty soon a volleyball game broke out. And I started getting hit repeatedly by the ball. And by waves. I started chuckling that it was just like a race. The water kept getting more turbulent as the volleyball game got more serious. Then with about 7-8 minutes to go, I was swimming along and WHUMPPP! I got hit SOLID in the back, knocking me about a foot under water. Not enough to hurt me, but would have knocked the wind out of me bad if it had been in the front. Didn't quite stop. At the turn, I looked up and there was a lifeguard tending to this beefy undergrad guy with a bloody nose. Stopped for a second to see if he was ok, then went on. Just laughed. Turned out I gave the guy a bloody nose with my back. How do you do that? :-)
I finished up about 5 minutes later and hopped out. Went over to the lifeguard first aid room where they were still tending to the guy. Lifeguard asked me if I was ok because the guy was convinced he had hit me in the head. I went back over to the locker room feeling more confident than I ever had from a RR swim. I had swum the whole thing at 1:30 pace and wasn't really even winded. I had swum around people. A lot. I had been hit by stuff. I had even been whacked hard by a significantly more buff guy than me and he ended up with a bloody nose.
How could it go better! :-)
Comments
That's an awesome swim report. And a lot of people would've taken the exact opposite attitude to those swimming conditions. That's one of the gifts of Ironman training, that you can look at it say "a great rehearsal for race day!" Nice work on the pace with all of that going on!
Very Zen-like focus...it's what we do.