December Swim Challenge

December has traditionally been a transition month for me. It is the time when I start to get back into a semi-regular training schedule, but at low intensity and duration. Over the month training will get more regular ... less semi ... and motivation to start racing again starts to come around. There is only  one December rule - never run in a cold rain.

This year I have decided to change things up a bit. Back in February I helped Steve with a big swim month. 24/7 Fitness runs a swim challenge every year and he wanted to get in 100k. While I didn't swim it all with him, he reached his goal and then some.

The past few years I have used the off season to work on my swim. Before dedicating a part of my winter to swim fitness I was very much a middle of the pack swimmer. At masters swim I was a slow lane swimmer. When I said "I swim enough to get onto my bike" it was the truth. But putting it the time, learning some technique, moving into a faster lane, doing some sets where I saw stars, has paid off.

In 2012 I was always in the main pack or front pack of the swim. Just as important, when I came out of the swim I was fresh and ready to go. All the training really paid off in September when, at Augusta 70.3, I swam over my head and had one of the best swim splits of the day. Honestly don't know how that happened, but I know it would have been an impossibility without the early season swim focus.

For December, I have committed to getting some focus in the pool with a big month. The challenge is to swim 65,000 yards this month. The plan is to swim 4x/week for a total of 17 swim sessions during the month (4 weeks + new years eve). I will have to average 3830 yards per swim. The yardage will build over the month due to a few months of much lower swim volume. I expect to build on this in January and February.

The December Swim Challenge should help me get better in the pool, which should translate into faster triathlon swim times. I feel I can get to another level, with no expectation to ever keep up with the best "real" swimmers. Reality is what it is. Sure, I learned how to swim when I was five, but I never was a swimmer. The lessons I received at Lake Carasaljo were about knowing how to swim, not swim fast or even particularly straight.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon