Metric mile again

I felt in the mood to do a slightly longer swim today especially as I wasn't sure that I wanted to drive to Doncaster tomorrow (put off by last week's failure). My plan was to take it easy so set off at 59SPM, raised to 60 after 7 lengths and then 61 after around 25 lengths. Even with the slight increase in cadence my pace faded slightly but not terribly and nor did I feel worn out by the end.

I lost count of lengths and the watch didn't record accurately but pushed on for another 15 or so to exceed 1500m. My timings were:

1000m 24:10 minutes equating to 2:25min/100
1500m 36:37 minutes including a 3 second pause and thus 2:26min/100m

I'm very pleased with this as a personal best by a little at 1000m:

19/07/19  2:25 min/100m
02/02/18  2:28 min/100m (24:39 minutes)
18/01/18  2:32 min/100m
05/03/17  2:42 min/100m
04/01/16  3:02 min/100m
26/02/15  3:40 min/100m

A month ago I tried too hard to do a PB 1000m and didn't manage to sustain a decent pace. The metric mile was a PB too:

19/07/19  2:26min/100m
09/03/18  2:30 min/100m
16/02/18  2:32 min/100m
06/02/17  2:38 min/100m
04/01/16  3:02 min/100m
05/03/15  3:35 min/100m
26/07/14  3:52 min/100m (estimated)

All this was done with RHS breathing whilst trying to make an attempt to rotate nicely. Very satisfied.

Metric mile swim still improving

I'm wanting to go on an introduction to open water swimming but one of the courses requires that you can swim 1000m without a break (in a pool). Last year I knew that I couldn't although 2 years ago it seemed feasible. For some months my swimming has been done mostly with a pull buoy and lengths without have felt awful. So could I do it?

I was very pleased with the outcome in that I reached 1000m at 30:20 and 1500m at 46:40 giving an average pace of 3:02min/100m. That's pretty consistent. I only stopped because I was running out of time - my form was slipping but I could have lasted longer.

Although I fear that the pull buoy has been a crutch there really is progress. My previous paces for 1500m have been:

05/03/15  3:35min/100m
26/07/14  3:52min/100m (estimated)

I know in these previous attempts that I was pausing to re-catch my breath so I think that a lot of this improvement is due to pacing and effective breathing.