I was dying to get in the pool since the holidays. I wanted to see what my "100" time was. Swimming 100 meters takes 4 laps in a 25 meter pool, obviously, and seems to be a good yardstick or benchmark to use to monitor my swimming progress. My pool is 25 yards, so it's actually 4.4 laps to get 100 meters, but who is counting.
I swam 2 laps to warm up, then hit the timer for my first 100 yd swim test, ever. I wore my Timex to get as accurate a reading as I could, though I noticed there is a split second reaction time from when I hit the button to when I lean forward and push off. And, I'm not diving into the pool like the pros. But, I got 4 laps done in a time of 2:05.86. I estimated 2:00 before I actually did it, so that time seems about right. I had to stop twice for a very short breath, and one water gulp rescue (I'm not very good breathing on the right side yet).
Now I have my benchmark though to measure my progress. To give you some perspective, the current world record for the 100m is 46.91 seconds, roughly 3 times faster than me now. I'm not doing flip turns, so that could save me some time in the future. But I expect my form and technique to develop over time, so this will come down slowly. I’ll time myself again after a few weeks and monitor my progress. For more perspective, last summer I could not swim 4 laps. So, I've already come a long way.
A female that looked my age showed up and rocked a great workout next to me. She was doing 3 laps for every 2 of my “fast” laps. I heard her talking to the lifeguard, and she has trouble working out now that she has a young child. This was her first time back in the water in a while. I’d love to see her at her best. She was crushing me. Normally I’m next to senior citizens and I look like a stud.
I swam 2 laps to warm up, then hit the timer for my first 100 yd swim test, ever. I wore my Timex to get as accurate a reading as I could, though I noticed there is a split second reaction time from when I hit the button to when I lean forward and push off. And, I'm not diving into the pool like the pros. But, I got 4 laps done in a time of 2:05.86. I estimated 2:00 before I actually did it, so that time seems about right. I had to stop twice for a very short breath, and one water gulp rescue (I'm not very good breathing on the right side yet).
Now I have my benchmark though to measure my progress. To give you some perspective, the current world record for the 100m is 46.91 seconds, roughly 3 times faster than me now. I'm not doing flip turns, so that could save me some time in the future. But I expect my form and technique to develop over time, so this will come down slowly. I’ll time myself again after a few weeks and monitor my progress. For more perspective, last summer I could not swim 4 laps. So, I've already come a long way.
A female that looked my age showed up and rocked a great workout next to me. She was doing 3 laps for every 2 of my “fast” laps. I heard her talking to the lifeguard, and she has trouble working out now that she has a young child. This was her first time back in the water in a while. I’d love to see her at her best. She was crushing me. Normally I’m next to senior citizens and I look like a stud.
I swam a total of 18 laps today in 30 minutes, which isn't a big deal. I took a few minutes to catch my breath after the 100 meters test, but it was still a short lap day. I normally shoot for 30 laps in 30 minutes each time.
Over the holiday weekend I received my new body fat/water weight bathroom scale. Yesterday morning I weighed 229.8 pounds (remember I'm 6'3"!!), I'm at 22.2% body fat (which makes me nearly obese!), and I was 58.5% water weight. The body fat is kind of subjective, but this scale will give me a reliable method to track my body fat gain or loss. Same with the water weight. I think the water weight feature could be used to help develop a hydration strategy by weighing myself right before and right after runs. I know I sweat a lot, and maybe now I can figure out how much water to take in how often during runs.
My plan is to run tomorrow night, and ski Saturday.
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