Swim Fist

Tuesday 18th October 2011

Swimming
1600M - 00:46:18 in 18M pool at Gym

First swim training session of IMFF programme.  Got to the pool early and got it in before work this morning.  A pretty miserable and cold morning - but I will need to get used to that I think.
Session made up of: (abbreviations are used for all the workouts)

Warm up 200M (WU 200)
8 X 50 M Drills (Kick only / Swim fist / Doggy Paddle / Arms only) (8X50 Drill)
5 X 100M with 20 secs rest between intervals (5X100@20secs)
8 X 50 M Drills
100M cool down (100M CD)
Total 1600M

*Swim fist is swimming with a closed fist rather than an open hand - quite hard to do - not some kinky sex thing!!*

I was happy enough with the session even though it is a lot slower than I would usually do for 1600M, but I expected it to take around 45 mins because of the drills and rest sessions between sets.

Running 
00:30:00 - 2.89 Miles (00:10:21) per mile / HR 154bpm Z2 85% Max)

This was a bit of a novelty as the training programme calls for runs to be based on time and not distance.  I have never used this approach to training as I have always been a bit of a mileage junkie and enjoyed logging distance rather than time.
The idea is to run for a specific time in a specific aerobic Heart Rate zone.
Mission accomplished - just about!!

The Heart Rate monitor was bonkers for the first mile - registering me at over 100% of HR even though I was moving pretty slow and not even breathing semi-hard. Suddenly at 1 mile it just dropped to about 75% and pretty much stayed between there and 80% for the rest of the run.
I knew it was the monitor and not me that was broken.

It is dawning on me that it is quite tricky to run well within yourself in this HR zone as my natural pace feels a bit quicker and I feel like I am trying hard to slow down.
I have to trust the plan.

That being said - if I could sustain the pace from this run - 10.21 per mile for the Marathon in IMFF, that would give me a 4h30m Marathon - which is pretty much what I run for my other Marathons anyway.  So, with 9 months training at this pace or hopefully better maybe things will work out.