Yesterday my 1,000 km challenge group asked for us to update on our progress. Wow! Amazing how far people have managed to swim after only 15 days. I am not really on track if you compare me to the weekly or monthly averages, but I know I will get my extra kilometers in once I start swimming outdoors.

Last night I had my first practice with a coach on the side telling me what to do.  It’s been a long time, so it was not easy to follow instructions. In our second set 5x 300 m st 4:20.  Had I planned the workout these would have been on 4:30 up to 4:45.  I wanted to hold 4:00-4:05. But swam the first in 1:15-1:19-1:19 for 3:53. The coach told me I swam the first 100 too fast. “Ok” I whisper back. Second one was 1:15-1:18-1:19 again for 3:53.  Again, “Ryan you have to slow down the first 100”. I role my eyes, but “OK I will try better”. 1:15-1:20-1:19 for 3:56.  Now he gets irritated with me and says, “This time follow me”. So after my first 25 m, he was there on the side walking with his arm out showing me the pace I needed. He did it again after 75 m. I could feel a slight different in my stroke and when I came in I had 1:18-1:18-1:18 for 3:56.  He was happy and said now do it again.  Again he paced me from the side the 2nd and 4th length. And again I swam them in 1:18.  For the first time in a pool I swam 3700 m in just 60 min. I am already looking forward to next Wednesday.

This image will mostly likely not get any better.  Since I currently only swim four times a week, there will also be the Friday-Saturday and Monday dips.   I am hoping to be able to get a Friday swim into my routine and that could help me get closer to the yellow target. But I do not imagine getting to or above the yellow until I start swimming in the lake

This is my recorded swimming since the middle of 2008. In 2011 and 2012 before I started with triathlon I swam upp around 720-730 km for the year. Then triathlon and swimrun happened and my swimming took a dive.  My workload and travelling increased, I started Crossfit in 2015, then a stroke in 2016 changed everything. Since August 2016 I have pretty much stuck with Crossfit and Swimming.  But as you can see to get to 1,000 km I will have to swim 270-280 km more than I have since I got back in the water.

Last diagram for today. This one compares month to month from last years 570 km to this years progress. To reach 1,000 km requires and average of 83.3km/month.  Last year I only reached that level twice.

I’m doing this for myself, but it feels good to have the support of my wife, and such a good group of swimming friends.