June’s 1000-meter time trial: Slow and steady doesn’t win any races

Not great, not my worst.

Last night I did the first 1000-meter time trial I’ve done in a while. April’s got cut short when the next shift lifeguard didn’t show up, and was out of town for much of May and didn’t want to depress myself.

I hit my watch in 22:50, a 2:17/100 meter pace, which is about what I was expecting to see. It’s almost two full minutes slower than March, the last time I was getting decent swimming meter-age in. But it’s not my worst time, and it’s still faster than what I was doing this time last year.

I wanted to be sure to do this time trial before my open-water mile on Sunday for a few reasons: 1. To make sure I had it in me, 2. To see where I stood pace-wise and 3. To make sure I wasn’t setting myself up for another hyperventilating fit. For S’s and G’s, I calculated my pace at last year’s open-water mile based on my (PR) time of 36:41 and got…

2:17/100 meters. So I am swimming at exactly the pace I need to be to match last year’s time.

Of course, I’d love a PR, but I’m not going to risk overdoing it. Plus, I really do want to have fun. And, according to my Garmin, I swam 0.99 miles across the lake Sunday in 35:19, so maybe I’m not too far off.

We’ll see on Sunday. In the meantime, I’m heading out to run an odd mileage to make an even number for the month. Triathlete problems.