In the bag of goodies each of us was handed at the first training session was a stapled sheaf of pages labeled “Can Too Swim 2010 2km/2.7km Program“. Below that was a quote: “You must do the thing which you think you cannot do” –Eleanor Roosevelt. This did not bode well.
The training program is a calendar specifying what training we should be doing each day for the next three months. There is one ‘rest’ day specified each week, with either a swim or a cross-training session suggested on all the other days (and quite often one of the public ocean swims as an option on the so-called ‘rest’ day).
I haven’t managed any of the cross-training (other than my daily walk to and from work) yet, but I have stuck fairly religiously to the suggested swims, which so far has been 1km every Wednesday and an increasing distance each Monday, starting with an easy 350m on the first Monday.
Yesterday I looked at the schedule for today. “10×100 hard & 100m easy; 5x100hard & 100m easy”. I did the maths in my head (wrongly, as it turned out, but I was only out by 100m and I had a hangover so let’s just pretend I got it right) and baulked at the idea of swimming 1700m on what up to now had been the ‘easy’ day in the schedule. However, I contacted my mentor to see whether that was really what I was meant to do, and she confirmed my worst fears. So there was nothing else for it.
This morning I dragged myself out of bed, walked over to my local pool, and swam the required 1700m; not too quickly, but I got it done in 45 minutes which is none too shabby either. I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t have been able to do that a month ago.
I hope you’re being religious about the rest days though. For starters it’s a religious thing(!) and secondly, trying to drop them is usually what gets Andrew and/or me an injury in these kinds of programs. I wonder why they suggest not resting actually, my understanding is that rest days are actually pretty crucial to gaining strength. Maybe it’s for people who haven’t quite been following the program…
I’d say they suggest participating in the public ocean swims as they are good fun and good practice, and you can rest any day.
Yeah, I would really like to do at least one before the main event. I figure I can make that the “Monday” training, then rest on Monday.
Purely out of curiosity, what’s the difference between “10×100 hard” and “1000 hard”? Are you supposed to be taking a short breather between them or something else?
Yeah, as far as I know the “10×100″ implies a 10 second rest after each 100. Later in the schedule it starts to be more like “10×200″ or “6×400″ etc.
I’ve never been hardcore enough to get into intervals, but I’d like to at some point. On those, you set a time for your lap, ie, 60s per 50m, say, and start each new lap as the interval expires. Then, if you finish your 50m really fast you get a longer rest, but if you take 59s, you only get 1s rest.
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“You must do the thing which you think you cannot do” –Eleanor Roosevelt.
I think it’s a great quote! Was certainly my attitude for the half-marathon
Yeah, it is actually spot on, and very apt for Can Too. But, you know, somewhat ominous when printed on a training schedule.
While I am sure cross training would be great, I think the important thing is the group sessions & swim sessions as they are what will get you to your goal.