Two Quick Updates: Solid Swimming and Covid Side Effects

I haven't posted much about swimming for a while, but I'm still consistently getting in 1 swim/week at the U of M. And I just looked back at last year's totals where I only swam in the fall like I did this year: I ended up posting 31,380 yards in 2021 (as seen in my "2021 year in review" post), and I'm already at 30,830 yards this year. So I should break last year's meager total in a few days. And I'm already ahead of 2020's 18,750 yards of swimming with a CHANCE of hitting 2012's 39,148 yards by year-end (but only if I REALLY crank up some distance). So realistically, 2021 will go down ranking as my 15th biggest swim total of the last 17 years. And I'm totally A-OK with that.

This started with 2 swims the very end of Oct and beginning
of Nov as I was resting up from higher impact workouts
after the Minneapolis Halloween Half Marathon on the 29th.

Earlier this week, I swam the "broken 400s and broken 200s" workout that I like. My times were nothing special, and I was DEAD at the halfway point after the 4x100 (just before the 60 sec rest). Here's what I did:

400: 1:32, 1:36, 1:35, 1:32 = 6:16.39
200s: 1:31.8, 1:34.5 = 3:06.3 / 1:33.2, 1:33.4 = 3:06.6
100s: 1:27.7, 1:30.4, 1:27.3, 1:30.1

60 sec break

200: 1:31.0, 1:36.4 (yikes!) = 3:07.4
100s: 1:26.5, 1:28.7
50s: 41.6, 41.5, 40.9, 40.6

I did that workout a few weeks ago, and everything was quite a bit slower then: the 400 was 0:13 slower, the 200s were 0:06 slower, the 100s were 0:03 slower, and the 50s were about the same time.

And then I had to jump back to October to find the time I did that same workout before that. And I was still faster this week - back in Oct, my 400 was 0:10 slower, my 200s were 0:30 slower, my 100s were 0:02 slower, and my 50s were similar.

And looking back a bit farther, the time I did that swim before THAT time was back in September, and I was quite close to my splits from this week. Everything was within 0:01 or 0:02 plus or minus what I swam this time.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
And just as a little post-first-bout-with-Covid update, we are all still going strong here. I noted in this post last month that I had a little "tickly" cough for a few days, and that went away quick. Then maybe for the next 10 days to 2 weeks, I had a "productive" cough a few times a day. I had a little phlegm that I'd cough up - like a TINY amount (nothing gross). And it would become lose and cough up in just 2 quick coughs. I had a few of those a day shortly after Covid, and then that slowly went away. It didn't affect anything else, and I got through my treadmill long run 6 days after symptoms appeared just fine, and then a 5K tempo run on the treadmill 11 days later.