Swim Training Update … One Week to the 2009 Duel at the Pool

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Those who stop by this blog from time to time may remember posts from the early spring, when I announced that I was starting a fairly rigorous fitness training program consisting of a staggered set of gradually-increasing objectives.

I started with a three-week period aiming at swimming myself into basic shape.  This first objective was …  1 mile (1,650 metres) 5 times per week, for a total of approximately 9,000 metres per week.

From there I planned to progress to 12,00 metres per week for the month of June, 15,000 metres per week for the month of July, and finally peaking at 20,000 metres per week (approximately 2 miles per swimming session, 6 times a week).

I’m pleased to report that I have kept at it with dogged determination, and basically have met those objectives so far.

The overall goal was to win the 2009 Duel at the Pool, and to lap (overtake) my worthy opponent Ean "The Eel" Jackson in the course of my winning swim.

Yesterday Ean and I had a pre-Duel training session.  Earlier this summer he and I were training together 3 or 4 times a week, but then he got bored with eating my wake all the time.

Anyway … yesterday he and I swam a half-duel (approx. 2,750 metres), and I am pleased to report that had we continued on to swim the full 5,500 metre Duel, I would have handily lapped him.

I am swimming now at a very steady pace of 1 minute 35 seconds for every 100 metres, and have for the past two weeks been hitting the 20,000 metres per week target.

The official date for the 2009 Duel at the Pool is August 19, 2009 .. but in a fit of graciousness I have allowed Ean to decide whether or not he wants to extend the date into early September so that he can have the opportunity to train a bit more, in a (probably futile) attempt to avoid being lapped during the course of this year’s competition.

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