August 26, 2026 – A Controlled Return to the Pool After Shoulder Recovery

After taking yesterday out of the pool because of the new discomfort I had developed in my right upper arm and shoulder, today was a return to swimming—but not a return to hard training.

I completed my normal 2,500 meters, but today’s workout was deliberately different from the harder endurance sessions I had been doing before the shoulder problem appeared. I mixed freestyle and breaststroke throughout much of the workout, kept the cardiovascular load controlled, and finished with a short continuous freestyle effort.

The objective was not to establish another race benchmark. It was to get back into the water and see how my body responded after a day away from swimming.

August 26 Workout Summary

Metric	Result
Distance	2,500 m
Swimming Time	43:57
Total Time Including Rest	46:45
Average Pace	1:46/100 m
Normalized Pace	1:45/100 m
Average Heart Rate	127 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate	150 bpm
sTSS	55
Intensity Factor	0.91
Calories	606 kcal
Total Strokes	1,565
Average Strokes	16 per 25 m
Average SWOLF	42

The Garmin data includes 43:57 of actual swimming and 46:45 when the rest periods are included. TrainingPeaks therefore reports the shorter 43:57 duration.

A Very Different Workout From Monday

At first glance, today’s 1:46/100 m average pace looks considerably slower than Monday’s 1:39/100 m. But that isn’t really an appropriate performance comparison because the composition of the two workouts was very different.

Metric	August 24	August 26
Distance	2,500 m	2,500 m
Swimming Time	41:13	43:57
Average Pace	1:39/100 m	1:46/100 m
Average HR	120 bpm	127 bpm
Maximum HR	152 bpm	150 bpm
sTSS	63	55
IF	0.97	0.91

Monday contained considerably more structured endurance work. Today was a mixed-stroke session with frequent transitions between freestyle and breaststroke.

For that reason, I don’t consider the seven-second difference in average 100-meter pace evidence that I suddenly became slower. Today’s purpose was different.

How the 2,500 Meters Were Structured

The detailed Garmin data breaks today’s workout into five primary swimming blocks:

Block	Distance	Time	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Stroke
1	1,300 m	22:44	1:45/100 m	130 bpm	Mixed FR/BR
2	400 m	7:01.8	1:45/100 m	127 bpm	Mixed FR/BR
3	400 m	7:02.3	1:46/100 m	124 bpm	Mixed FR/BR
4	300 m	5:30.4	1:50/100 m	125 bpm	Mixed FR/BR
5	100 m	1:37.6	1:38/100 m	115 bpm	Freestyle

The progressive heart-rate numbers are particularly interesting. The average heart rate for the major blocks went from 130 to 127 to 124 to 125 bpm. Rather than progressively driving the cardiovascular load upward as the workout continued, the effort remained very controlled.

Freestyle Was Still There

Even though today wasn’t a freestyle benchmark workout, the individual Garmin lengths show that much of my normal freestyle was still in the general range of approximately 23–25 seconds per 25 meters, equivalent to roughly 1:32–1:40 per 100 meters.

There were also several substantially quicker individual freestyle lengths, including 17.9, 21.7, 22.0, 22.1 and 22.2 seconds.

But the most useful freestyle result came at the very end of the workout.

Final 100 Freestyle – 1:37.6

After already completing 2,400 meters, I finished with a continuous 100-meter freestyle in 1:37.6.

25 m	Split	Strokes
1	21.2	20
2	25.1	21
3	25.9	22
4	25.4	21
100 m	1:37.6	84 total

I’m more interested in that result than today’s overall 1:46 average pace. My primary freestyle events at Huntsman are now the 800 and 1500. Retaining the ability to swim a controlled sub-1:40 100 after 2,400 meters of mixed swimming is relevant to the endurance direction of my training.

Breaststroke Was Deliberately Easier

Today’s breaststroke also looked very different from the race-oriented breaststroke training I had been doing last week. Many of the breaststroke 25s were approximately 27–30 seconds, equivalent to roughly 1:48–2:00 per 100 meters.

That was appropriate. I wasn’t trying to establish another 200-meter breaststroke benchmark or train the 100-meter breaststroke as a sprint event. Breaststroke was being used as part of a controlled mixed-stroke workout.

The Last Five Days Tell the Story

Date	Activity	Distance	sTSS	Purpose / Result
Aug. 22	Swim	3,000 m	72	BR benchmarks + 800 FR
Aug. 23	Swim	3,100 m	78	1500 FR training best
Aug. 24	Swim	2,500 m	63	Endurance; right shoulder discomfort
Aug. 25	Dryland	3.79 mi / 6.10 km	—	Shoulder recovery
Aug. 26	Swim	2,500 m	55	Controlled return

This is why today’s 55 sTSS is a positive result rather than something I want to increase. Saturday through Monday produced 8,600 meters and 213 sTSS in three consecutive swimming days. Monday also produced the new right upper-arm/shoulder discomfort that caused me to modify the workout.

Yesterday’s dryland session broke that sequence, and today’s swim reduced the swimming training load further.

Current Huntsman Benchmarks

Today’s workout was not intended to establish new race benchmarks, so my current comparison against the 2025 Huntsman results remains unchanged.

Event	Training Best	2025 Silver	2025 Bronze	2025 4th	Current Target	Difference
1500 FR	24:04.84	23:39.43	25:04.75	25:06.88	Silver	+25.41 sec
800 FR	12:40.25	12:16.56	12:32.85	12:56.76	Bronze	+7.40 sec
200 BR	3:27.54	3:38.74	3:39.92	4:00.27	Silver	-11.20 sec
100 BR	~1:42	1:28.57	1:32.97	1:37.95	4th	~+4.05 sec

The training priorities therefore remain the 1500 freestyle, 800 freestyle and 200 breaststroke. I will probably swim the 100 breaststroke at Huntsman, but I am not going to design workouts specifically around it.

August Training Ledger

Today’s 2,500 meters moves my August swimming total to 57,600 meters, or approximately 62,992 yards.

Date	Training	Swim Distance	August Swim Total
August 2	Swim	5,000 m	5,000 m
August 3	Swim	2,500 m	7,500 m
August 4	Swim	2,500 m	10,000 m
August 5	Swim	2,500 m	12,500 m
August 6	Swim	3,000 m	15,500 m
August 7	No Swim	—	15,500 m
August 8	No Swim	—	15,500 m
August 9	Swim	6,000 m	21,500 m
August 10	Swim	2,500 m	24,000 m
August 11	Swim	2,500 m	26,500 m
August 12	Swim	2,500 m	29,000 m
August 13	Swim	2,500 m	31,500 m
August 14	Run / Dryland	—	31,500 m
August 15	Swim	2,500 m	34,000 m
August 16	Swim	2,500 m	36,500 m
August 17	Swim	2,500 m	39,000 m
August 18	Swim	2,500 m	41,500 m
August 19	Swim	2,500 m	44,000 m
August 20	Swim	2,500 m	46,500 m
August 21	Rest	—	46,500 m
August 22	Swim	3,000 m	49,500 m
August 23	Swim	3,100 m	52,600 m
August 24	Swim	2,500 m	55,100 m
August 25	Run / Shoulder Recovery	—	55,100 m
August 26	Swim	2,500 m	57,600 m

The 75,000-Yard Goal

At 57,600 meters, I have now completed approximately 62,992 yards in August. Reaching 75,000 yards would require approximately another 10,980 meters.

That goal is still mathematically possible, but after what happened with my shoulder earlier this week, I am not going to let a monthly distance target dictate whether I swim.

Recovery and preparation for Huntsman are more important than reaching an arbitrary number by August 31.

Today’s Takeaway

Today’s workout accomplished what I needed from it. I returned to the pool, completed 2,500 meters, kept the training load down to 55 sTSS, mixed strokes rather than forcing another long freestyle session, and still had enough freestyle available to finish the final 100 meters in 1:37.6.

The slower 1:46 overall pace isn’t the story of today’s workout.

The story is that after recognizing a potential recovery problem on Monday, I took Tuesday away from swimming and returned Wednesday with a substantially more controlled session rather than immediately going back to race-oriented training.

I am still not automatically committing to a hard workout tomorrow. How my right shoulder and upper arm respond after today’s 2,500 meters will help determine what Thursday’s training should look like.

The objective isn’t to win August. The objective is to be ready to race in October.