The Plan: Its NOT About The Bike

The week of Thansgiving I decided to dust off the old Speedo. I had only been in the pool twice since late May. I wasn't in good swim shape at all. I forget exactly what I did that first week, but I was SLOW. Around 6:20 for a 500, and for a set of 25x100 on 1:25 I was only able to do about 1:15s, and I was dying at the end.

Here is what you need to get good in the pool:



Suit...check



Goggles...check



Pace Clock...check

Armed with the three items above, I am making an assualt on the swimming lanes of the local public pool. I feel like I have improved about 8-10 seconds per hundred in the last 10 days. Another 10-15 days and I will be up with Phelps...unlikely.

I do have some goals though. I would like to see if I can go a best time in the 500. Call me crazy, but I think I totally under-acheived in the 500 in the past. That means I have to go sub 4:39. I don't know, we shall see.

I'm going to use a lot of the training philosophy I have learned for cycling and see how well that translates back into the pool. I think swimming 4-5 times per week for 5 months will get me pretty darn close to my goal.

Swimming is sport #1 in triathlon. Plan part #1 is to get me swimming as fast as a swimmer again. I'll let you guys know how that is going.

Part #2 is about running. That blog post will follow shortly. Part #3 is about cycling.

This is fun! Looking to kill it in 2009.

Flanagan