30 for 30: Day 4: Listen to Your Body

Webb: Today's post was supposed to be titled something like "Testing Our Limits," or some other descriptor indicating we did a swim test. Instead, we had a reminder that sometimes to achieve your overall goal, you have to abandon short-term plans.

THE WORKOUT/TEST:
w/u - 200 easy swim, 100 pull-buoy, 200 Fingertip Drill as 4 x 50 (25 drill, 25 swim), 100 easy swim.
The Test - 3x 300 FAST with :30 rest. "The goal is to swim at the highest average speed possible. Watch the clock and get your time on each 300. All 300s should be with :15 of each other. Average the time for all three 300s and divided the average by three to establish a T-pace for a 100m distance. This particular pace is used to determine threshold pace.” - Gale Bernhardt, "Swim Workouts for Triathletes, 2nd edition"

Elle did NOT give today a thumb's up

c/d - 150 easy swim

Elle: I was excited to do the test today, it wasn't going to be IF I improved my time, but by how much. I was really feeling that I've made some serious gains in my swimming, and today I'd see some numbers. I started the warm up, but after 400 meters, a sudden, massive headache came on like a gun shot to the cranium. I don't remember the last time I had a headache that bad, that fast. I swam a bit more to see if it would go away, but sadly, it most certainly did not. The pain was so intense, I felt nauseous. I had to leave the pool. I did some stretching, but finally just had to give up and hit the shower. I was really disappointed, but there was no way I could have finished today's swim.

Webb: Although we have been inconsistent with our swim training, our mini-swim focus early in the training year must still be paying dividends. I swam each of my three 300s faster than my first test (Week #4). Additionally, all three intervals were faster than their respective intervals from the first test. The result was a :03 plus drop in my T-Pace. I'm looking forward to doing this test in April to see how effective the "30 for 30" plan is.