Bread & Butter Swim Workout

I do about 80% of my swim workouts solo, and unlike most swimmers, I can do really boring sets over and over again. It might have something to do with me liking to ride the indoor trainer more than outdoors, and the treadmill ain't bad either. I'm a big fan of the looooong straight swim with some hard efforts or descending 500's. I think I got this from Mike Pigg, who I used to swim with when I was in college. He taught me the straight 5000 swim set, descending by 1000's. He also taught me that if you set the clock just right, you can check your 100 splits while taking a breath, and being the OCD person that I am, I really look forward to seeing my split every 100 (I liken it to waking up on XMAS morning). During my sabbatical, I bumped into Javier Gomez and it was reassuring to learn that he too is a fan of the looooong straight swim. So here you go, my bread and butter swim workout--do this 3-4 times per week and I guarantee that ironman swim will feel short:

2500 free straight swim, check splits every 100, broken down as: 500 warm-up, 500 every 4th 25 (or 50 if in 50-meter pool) is fast, 500 every 3rd 25/50 is fast, 500 every other 25/50 is fast, and 500 maintain best average per 100

800 flutter kick, check splits every 50, keep consistent or descend by 200's if feeling good

5 x 400 with band, pull buoy, and paddles: #1-3 on 4:50, 4:40, 4:30 (short course) or some descending interval with about 10 seconds rest (#3 is basically touch and go), active recovery on #4 on 5:00, last one best one on #5

200 warm-down

Oh yea, this is cancer awareness month. My mom would have celebrated her 60th birthday this month had breast cancer not taken her life 19 years ago. Take a moment to reflect on someone whose life is/was affected by cancer, and do whatever it is that you are moved to do. I'm taking this moment to remember my mom, Victor Mazzarelle, Stan Silver, and Kathy Wampler-West.