Another One Broken

Once again, when the weather was nice, and the mood was good, I pushed my sleepy headed self in the pool. This time, with a specific target to break my 1hr swim of 2.4km which I did last week.

I arrived back to JB way for work, well past the wee hours of 3.30am in the morning of Monday. Having to wake up for work was another torture. I was sleepy headed the whole of the first half day at work.

The weather yesterday was very good and although I brought along my running shoes, I opted to skip the running in the evening as to give my body more rest. Instead, I headed to the swimming pool. The sun was still shining at 5.40pm when I arrived, and I was ready for another long distance swim just before 6pm.

This time, I chose to swim at the diving pool, which promises no disturbance from the other zig-zagging swimmers at the main 50m pool. The 5m diving pool measures at 25m wide, and 30m long, thus for one loop around it, I can do 110m (25m + 30m + 25m + 30m).

The place where I normally swim. The standard 50m pool is on the left, and the diving pool is on the right.
(Photo cilok-ed from a friend's website)

I set two targets for yesterday’s swim. One, was to break the 1hr swim of 2.4km (I want to see how far I can swim in 1hr). And two, was to see how fast I can swim for 3km.

With the start of my stopwatch I began my non-stop swimming, making loops upon loops upon loops, alone. Somehow I find it fascinating to be swimming at the 5m deep pool, as it gave slightly different perspective. The water was superbly clear and quite warm, and that was nice.

Upon doing 10 loops (i.e. 1.1km), the time clocked was 23 minutes.

I can’t really remember what was inside my mind during that lonesome swimming. Partly I was trying to imagine how is it to swim during Kapas-Marang swimathon (oh, I'm still contemplating), partly I was imagining those Ironman triathletes swimming the 3.8km distance. Later on, few friends joined me, doing their own swim pace. Having set some targets to achieve, I kept on swimming at my own pace. I only stopped for some quick rehydration after every 5 loops (no, I don’t drink pool water. I brought my own water bottle).

At 15 loops (i.e. 1.65km), my time was 35minutes. I was shocked, to be honest. If only I can produce the same result during a triathlon.

I did experience some slight fatigue feeling at the arms and shoulders, but I forced myself further. I forgot now what my 2km swim time was, but after making 24 loops (i.e. 2.64km), my stopwatch was showing 57 minutes.

OK, I achieved my first target which was to beat my previous record. That was a nice feeling, so I thought.

Continued on further, I wanted to see how many loops more I can do in the remaining 3 minutes time I have before reaching 1hr. To my surprise, I completed 26 loops within 1 hour. That reflected a distance of about 2.86km.

I was so happy that I continued swimming, smiling.

At the end, I finished up 30 loops (3.3km) in a total time of 1hr 11min, and I came out of the water feeling so light headed that I almost fell down.

And I know, this new personal record is a tough one to beat or break. But, I will try, nevertheless.

[Training Log]
Monday: Swim, 3.3km, 1hr 11m, easy/moderate