Swimming Lately

Because I'm just STARTING to run a LITTLE now, and I really can't bike with my hip/back/knee issues, I've been swimming a bit more. And I need some work in the pool for my showdown with Devon in a few weeks (time TBA - stay tuned).

In October, I swam 11,050 yards. That's not a lot for many people but that was good for me. When I looked at my previous 4 Octobers in my BeginnerTriathlete.com training log, I saw that I swam a total of 9,250 yards in those 4 years COMBINED. Yeah, October isn't a big swimming month for me. Here's how the last 5 years look:

• Oct 2013: 11,050 yards (moderate 1400, moderate 1600 with a long CD, tempo 1700 with some drills at the end, 10x100 intervals, 1600 tempo with kick drills, 4x400 intervals with CD)

• Oct 2012: 3,300 yards (1500 and 3x500 intervals)

• Oct 2011: 0 yards (0x0 intervals and a 0,000 long swim)

• Oct 2010 (pre-Henry): 4,500 yards (a "coach Jen" swim workout and a 2000 long swim)

• Oct 2009: 1,450 (1 middle-distance swim)

When I started swimming more in October, my knee was still really sore and I was still taking it easy. Now it feels 100% fine in the pool and I can swim as hard as I want. But even with the relatively consistent swimming that I'm doing, I've noticed a BIG drop in my endurance in the pool - it's pretty clear that running "normal" long runs of 10+ miles / week has helped in the pool. I can't wait to get back to doing that on a regular basis!

November (historically) has been a slightly bigger month, probably because I'm winding down on the bike and feel like I should therefore be hitting the pool. In the previous 4 years, I've swam 19,272 yards combined, or an average of 4,800 yds / November. So far this year, I've already logged 8,100 yards. Again, not STELLAR, but decent for me. I'll try to get in the pool 2 or 3 more times this month.

Oh, and I RAN again earlier this week. My knee / hip still hurt right away, but it didn't get worse through the run, and THAT'S progress. I only ran about 0.8 miles doing "2:00 run, 4:00 walk" x3. I hope to get out for another quick run tomorrow - maybe trying 3:00 runs!!

Back with more between Devon and I shortly. I'm hoping we can do this "swim off" in early December, which is JUST around the corner...