10,000-Meter (6.2-Mile) Swim

Chuck (the Team Ridglea masters swimming coach) sent out an email a few weeks ago advertising 1.2-mile, 2.4-mile, 5K, and 10K swims at 5:30 this morning. I decided to go for it and try the 10,000 even though I haven't been swimming much. I looked through my workout logs and calculated that I had swum 253,000 meters since January 1, 2009. That is not very much (averages a whopping 440 meters a day). I knew that I had the endurance from all of the other training (especially running) that I had been doing, and I figured if I once swam 15 x 1500's in one practice (back in the days when I was actually a swimmer), I could swim a 10,000 now.

I decided to rest yesterday, and I also had a chiropractor appointment. This helped loosen me up quite a bit. I didn't drink last night, and I went to bed at 10:30 (later than I thought, but we watched ALL of Season 2 of "Nurse Jackie" yesterday and I couldn't stop myself). I set the alarm for 4:25 and got a decent night's sleep (although I did dream about the 10K). I ate a banana and a wheat bagel thin with almond butter for breakfast. This is a pretty standard breakfast for me now before long events. I also drank another bottle of water while driving to the pool. I wanted to make sure I was plenty hydrated, because the pool water is very hot from the Texas summer.

The 50-meter pool at the Lockheed Martin Rec Center:


Three of us did the 10K. A lady named Susan shared a lane with me, and Mark was in the lane next to us. Since we started in the dark, I couldn't see very well until the sun came up. I knew Mark was ahead of me, but I didn't know how far ahead (he ended up beating me by 200). It was good having Susan in my lane because I lapped her once pretty early on, and then we went back-and-forth a bit. My original plan was to break the swim up into 4 x 2500's. I did 50 lengths (2500) and stopped for a water break. My lowest mental point was around 4,000-5,000 meters. So I decided to stop at 90 lengths (4500) for a Gu and water. Once we passed the half-way point, I did a better job getting out of my slump. I stopped again at 140 lengths (7,000) for a Gel and some water, and my final stop was at 160 lenghts (8,000 meters) for water. The Gel messed with my tummy just a touch, and I started burping strawberry. Yummmm. I felt really strong the last 2,000 meters, which surprised me. At the half-way point, I doubted my ability to finish because my neck started hurting quite. Fortunately it was just a little down spell, and my spirits perked back up.

I finished in 2:48:18, which is 1:41 per mile. I anticipated a finish closer to 3 hours (1:45 pace), because I knew the water and food breaks would add to my time. So I was pleasantly surprised, given the fact that I am out of swimming shape. It was great to see Papa Chuck (even though I was staring down at the black line for most of the time!).

Did someone say Miller Lite and Clamato???