Road to Huntsman: 54 Days Out — Getting Out of the Pool

Today marks 54 days until my first event at the 2026 Huntsman World Senior Games, and for the first time this week the day’s workout had nothing to do with swimming.

That was intentional.

After several consecutive days in the pool—and two very large weekend swimming workouts before that—I wanted a day that would give my shoulders and swimming-specific muscles a genuine break without turning the day into complete inactivity.

So today’s Road to Huntsman workout was a 3.3-mile run.

August 14 Workout Summary

Metric	Result
Activity	Running
Distance	3.30 miles
Time	38:34
Average Pace	11:41 /mile
Distance	5.32 km
Average Pace	7:15 /km
Average Heart Rate	136 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate	158 bpm

Run Structure

The run wasn’t intended to be a race or a running benchmark. The objective was simply to stay aerobically active while taking swimming out of the equation for a day.

Segment	Time	Pace
Mile 1	11:30	11:30 /mile
Mile 2	10:43	10:43 /mile
Mile 3	12:03	12:03 /mile
Final 0.30 mile	4:18	Approximately 14:11 /mile
Total	38:34	11:41 /mile

The second mile was the quickest at 10:43. Pace then backed off during the second half, which was completely acceptable for the purpose of today’s workout. This wasn’t supposed to become another hard training test.

Why Run Instead of Swim?

One of the challenges in preparing for four swimming events is remembering that more swimming isn’t automatically better swimming.

I’ve been deliberately holding the swimming volume down this week following two extremely long weekend workouts. The last three pool sessions were each limited to approximately 2,500 meters, but even reduced-volume swimming still repeatedly loads the shoulders, chest, back and the other muscles involved in freestyle and breaststroke.

Today removed that repetitive swimming load completely.

Running allowed me to continue working aerobically while giving the upper body a day away from thousands of additional swimming strokes.

Recovery Doesn’t Always Mean Rest

This week has reinforced an important distinction in my training plan: recovery and inactivity aren’t necessarily the same thing.

There are certainly times when complete rest is appropriate. But today I wanted to remain active while changing the physical stress.

A 38-minute run accomplished that.

My cardiovascular system still had work to do. My legs had work to do. But my shoulders didn’t have to complete another freestyle pull or breaststroke recovery.

That’s an important distinction as the training becomes increasingly specific over the next several weeks.

The Recovery Week So Far

This week wasn’t intended to produce another enormous training load. The goal has been to absorb the work from the previous weekends while continuing to train with purpose.

Date	Primary Focus	Volume
August 11	Recovery + 200M breaststroke focus	2,500 m swim
August 12	Recovery + 100M breaststroke focus	2,500 m swim
August 13	Continuous mixed-stroke endurance	2,500 m swim
August 14	Dryland / active recovery	3.30-mile run

The pattern is deliberate. Training hasn’t stopped, but the type and amount of stress have changed.

No Swimming Benchmarks Today

Obviously, today’s run doesn’t change any of my Huntsman swimming benchmarks.

Event	Current Training Best	2025 Bronze	2025 4th
1500M Freestyle	24:21.26	25:04.75	25:06.88
800M Freestyle	12:40.25	12:32.85	12:56.76
200M Breaststroke	3:31.71	3:39.92	4:00.27
100M Breaststroke	1:42.55	1:32.97	1:37.95

But that doesn’t mean today was unrelated to those numbers.

The purpose of recovery is to make the next quality workout better. A day away from the pool can contribute to an October swimming performance just as surely as another interval set can.

54 Days to Go

There are now 54 days until my first race at Huntsman.

At this stage, one of the challenges is resisting the temptation to treat every day as an opportunity to add more meters.

The fitness doesn’t improve during the workout itself. The workout provides the stimulus. The improvement comes when the body has an opportunity to recover and adapt to that stimulus.

Today’s run was part of creating that opportunity.

I stayed active. I got more than 38 minutes of aerobic work. I covered 3.3 miles. But for an entire day, my shoulders and swimming muscles didn’t have to do their normal job.

Tomorrow they’ll be one day fresher because of it.

Today’s headline: Sometimes the best swimming workout is not swimming. A 3.3-mile run kept the Road to Huntsman moving forward while giving the muscles that have been doing thousands of meters in the pool a needed day away from swimming.