Since I have signed up for the Madison Sprint Tri (and believe me I’m nervous just typing that) I have decided it is probably a good idea to get some swim training in.
I went to swimplan.com and dialed up a one hour workout (1600 yards). I went to the pool, swam the plan, and finished it surprisingly quickly. It was WAY TOO EASY for me. So I swam a couple hundred yards of the cool down just because I could, what a rockstar.
After the swim I hit the hot tub and started talking to a friend who was there. I told him about the swimplan site, and how great it was. I pulled out the plan, looked at the yardage and though, something isn’t right. As I added up the yards it came out way low, like 700 yards or something. As I read it again I realized that I was supposed to do one of the sets 4 times, and the main set 5 times. I had only done them once each! What an idiot.
So I learned an important lesson, read the plan. Oh, and I’m not a rockstar, though that one was short lived anyway.
I highly recommend swimplan.com, it’s free (though there is a premium version) and, if you read the instructions, it provides a great workout including some drills. It won’t substitute for a coach, but it certainly helps make the workout much less boring than just punching out laps.