The Inverted Pyramid Continuous Current Swim Workout

Now that I’ve

• mostly overcome getting motion sick in my pool,
• gotten better at swimming straight in the current, and
• made progress on how to find a pace at which I can swim effectively

I have begun brainstorming about how to design workouts for this pool.  I can’t count laps or monitor time over distance with this set up.  It seems there are 2 options: vary the current speed or vary the time spent with my body horizontal in the water.

Changing the current flow rate is frustrating for me.  First of all, there is no straightforward way to get it back to a certain speed.  Part of that is that I am still getting used to how the equipment responds to me pushing the buttons.  Maybe I just need to practice more, but it seems inconsistent in how it responds to me.  Also, it is not always clear if the machine has actually changed rates.

Most of the time, I am the only one using the pool, so the Fastlane flow doesn’t get changed a lot.  When it is, I can use perceived sound of the motor somewhat, but I have to swim to determine if the pace feels right.  It’s not a bad warm up.  If I am stuck with starting faster than I’d like, I give myself credit for some speed work or power intervals.  Either way, it is not a measurable part of the workout.

Because my main swimming goal right now is distance in open water, a steady maintainable pace is desirable. I’ve not built up a lot of stamina to swim against the current non-stop yet.  It seems like it takes more energy and concentration than swimming in still water.  This means it is less boring, but requires skills and strengths I didn’t develop in the lap pool.

At first, I was just attempting to keep my time intervals between 1- 2 minutes.  Once I could do that consistently, it was too hard to increase all of them to 3-4 minutes.  So, I increased successive intervals by a minute each until I hit a new record time, then I decreased them again back to the shorter intervals.  So far, I have rested about 30 seconds between the shorter intervals and 45 seconds or so between the longer ones.  My underwater timer is quite useful.  Even though I can’t read it from above the water, I seem to have developed a sense of the appropriate length of recovery time.  I double check that when I go back under the water. I suppose I could wear a watch, too, if I start losing track.

I have learned that gardening all day definitely affects my ability to do better on my inverted pyramid workout.  So does running or biking.  Anything that has already stressed my physical limits for the day makes swimming harder.  Possibly, by the end of summer, I will have done it enough times, that it won’t phase me anymore.  I try not to get frustrated with my apparent lack of  progress, or even backwards progress, on days like that.  I figure some swimming is better than no swimming.  Plus, the water feels good and relaxing.

Of course, for triathlon training, most of the swimming workouts will come before biking.  Having my own pool, I should be able to take full advantage of brick workouts by not having a large time break between swimming and biking. If you see a sopping wet bike rider on the roads in the next few weeks, it might be me.