My first mile!

[skelander]

I felt pretty relaxed with 14 SPL, not really sure. I have to practice some more to get a better feel for it.

My estimation of the length of my pushoff is probably not very good. I will try to get a training buddy film me at next practice.

/ Rikard

[terry]

How far from the wall are your hands when you break your pushoff streamline to begin your first stroke? You can probably estimate that without having someone film you. I'll bet it's closer to 5m.

[skelander]

Yeah, you're probably right. Three meters sounds way to short now that I think about it...

Great job.

happy to hear that you did it

[Terry Laughlin]

It wasn't my first mile. In fact, it was my slowest ever. But as a 'work of art' it was my best ever in nearly 50 years. I swam my first mile (a 1650y race in a pool) at age 16. I'll turn 66 in two weeks.
It was yesterday at the New England Masters Championships at Harvard Univ. and my time was 26:47.9.
I'd ripped a bad gash in my lower left leg while at our Open Water Camp in the USVI on Jan 5. It took 16 stitches to close and 7 weeks to heal. I had only 2 weeks of practice after the long layoff prior to this race.

Even so, my swim felt just exquisite and considering that minimal practice following a long layoff, as good performance-wise as could be expected.
I felt somewhat poorly from the time I awoke until I got in the pool, but once I began swimming my warmup/tuneup felt much better. I warmed up for about 30 minutes, super-easy at first then rehearsing the way I hoped to feel for the first 60 of 66 lengths.
My goals for the race were to stay efficient, pace it well--being mindful of how much physical conditioning I'd probably lost during the 7-week layoff--feel fantastic, and stay focused.
When the race started I felt just as I had in tuneup (no surprise--that's the point of tuning my nervous system and sensory faculties). I counted my strokes every lap and consistently swam 15 SPL on odd lengths and 16 on even. This is nearly 2SPL lower than I've been able to hold during a 1650 in the last two years. I felt silky smooth the whole way. I can recall only 3 flip turns out of 65 on which my timing was a little off. I never felt the breathlessness that is common during this race.
My splits for the three 550s were 9:01-8:58-8:47, while holding my stroke count consistent.
And finally I was keenly focused for every one of the 1607 seconds the race took.
While it was my slowest 1650 ever--as a work of art, it felt like my best ever.

[CoachBobM]

Awesome story, Terry!

One of the lessons I've learned from Terry over the years is that when something negative happens in your life, it's easy to let yourself be overwhelmed by it, but you can also choose to turn it into an experience of experimentation and learning.


Bob