Today I went swimming for the long 2 hour swim at Foothill College. I was a little hesitant due to the length of the workout, but I went anyway thinking that I would not sprint at all and only stay aerobic.
My Master’s coach of course would not oblige (ha!). He gave us some fast intervals over a long 1800m set. I knew my condition would not stand up to sprinting, so I chose only to stay aerobic and slightly under tempo stroke rate. I managed to get through the set, and even did some 50m sprints at the end.
This is in great contrast to last year. About 2 weeks after Ironman New Zealand, I could not last even a normal 1.5 hour set at this time.
Still, I went for a 1:20 bike ride afterwards and I am still unable to get to hard efforts. My heart rate still is higher than normal even when I was backing off a notch on a rolling hills ride. I avoided hills completely to keep my heart rate lower.
I am definitely recovering faster this year than last time. This is a positive thing to see: I am adapting to the stresses of Ironman training year over year. It will be interesting to see how one more week affects my recovery and my ability to sustain higher and more normal stresses.