Swimming for Time

Back in 2008 I completed my first ever Sprint Triathlon.  I did another one in 2009 and again in 2010 when I finally reached my goal to complete the course in under 2 hours. 

A Sprint Triathlon consists of Swimming, Biking, and Running and it is the shortest distance of all Triathlons.  When I trained for said Tri's I used the same program, an 8 week program that got you prepared for a novice race, and it worked for me.  The program was mostly cardo but suggested one day a week of strength (which I blew off because pre-Crossfit I couldn't care less about strength) and it got me to where I thought, I wanted to be...at the finish line. 

As of late, I've been frequenting my gym's pool and not really following any type of training program, just trying to keep my fitness up while pregnant and until the dust of 610 closing settles.  Until yesterday when I decided to swim 500 meters for time.  I wasn't pushing super hard, just wanted to get the laps in without splitting up the "reps".  So I did and I finished in 14 minutes and 30 secounds.  Then I got curious.  What were my swim times in my Tri's?


In 2008 I swam 650 Meters in:  18:27*
In 2009 I swam 650 Meters in:  19:33
In 2010 I swam 650 Meters in:  20:25

*that was the year I missed a buoy and had to swim back and around the stupid thing. 


2010 was probably the last time I set foot in a pool for any type of race, and obviously in 2011 I joined Crossfit which involved no swimming.  So all I had been doing was endurance on land and strength. 

I had Dennis do the tricky math for me and if I did a 650 meter swim at the pace I did yesterday, I would have finished in 18:51 seconds.  Just a bit slower than my fastest time back in 2008.  That is amazing to me, oh and btw, I'm 23 weeks pregnant.  (I will note that open water swimming is a bit different from swimming laps in a pool, but still). 

Holy Crap!!!!

I guess this Crossfit thing really does work!