Category: Fitness

After taking Sunday completely off, I returned to the pool today without a complicated training objective. My plan for this week remains simple: work around a busy schedule, listen to how I feel in the water, and avoid turning swimming into another source of stress.

Today’s workout fit that approach well. I swam 2,600 meters, with the centerpiece being a continuous 2,000-meter freestyle. It wasn’t intended as a 1500-meter time trial or another attempt at my 800-meter best. Instead, it gave me a long, uninterrupted aerobic swim while maintaining the endurance I will need for both freestyle events at Huntsman.

Today’s Workout

Total Distance	2,600 m
Duration	43:07
Average Pace	1:40/100 m
Normalized Pace	1:39/100 m
Training Stress	65 sTSS
Intensity Factor	0.96
Average Heart Rate	127 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate	162 bpm

The Main Set: 2,000 m Continuous Freestyle

The main endurance work was a continuous 2,000-meter freestyle completed in 33:09.61, an average pace of approximately 1:39.48 per 100 meters.

Segment	Time	Pace/100 m
0–400 m	6:27.65	1:36.91
400–800 m	6:37.02	1:39.26
800–1200 m	6:34.87	1:38.72
1200–1600 m	6:41.50	1:40.38
1600–2000 m	6:48.57	1:42.14
2,000 m Total	33:09.61	1:39.48

There was some slowing over the final 800 meters, but this was also a swim considerably longer than either of my recent race-distance efforts. I wasn’t trying to hold 800-meter race pace for 2,000 meters. The objective was continuous endurance, and averaging essentially my calculated CSS pace for the full distance made this a productive aerobic session.

A 1500 Inside the 2000

FORM puts my first 1,500 meters today at approximately 24:40.33. That’s slower than my current 24:04.84 training best, but the comparison needs context. The 24:04 was a dedicated 1,500-meter effort. Today I continued another 500 meters without stopping.

For that reason, today’s 1,500 split doesn’t replace or challenge the 24:04.84 benchmark. It is better viewed as evidence that I can continue working around the pace required for the 1500 while extending the swim well beyond race distance.

Huntsman Freestyle Benchmarks

800 m Freestyle

Benchmark	Time	Difference
2025 Silver	12:16.56	+18.56
2025 Bronze	12:32.85	+2.27
My Training Best	12:35.12	Current
2025 4th	12:56.76	21.64 faster

Friday’s 12:35.12 remains my current 800-meter training benchmark. Today’s longer swim wasn’t intended to change it.

1500 m Freestyle

Benchmark	Time	Difference
2025 Silver	23:39.43	+25.41
My Training Best	24:04.84	Current
2025 Bronze	25:04.75	59.91 faster
2025 4th	25:06.88	62.04 faster

Four Days Back, Then a Rest Day

The last several days have given me a much better picture of where my swimming stands after eight medically restricted days out of the pool. I returned on September 16 and swam four consecutive days through September 19. That stretch culminated in a new 800-meter training best of 12:35.12.

September 20 was a complete rest day. Today’s 2,600 meters therefore started a new training week with considerably more recovery than I had during the four-day return block.

Date	Training	Distance
Sep. 16	Return Swim #1	2,650 m
Sep. 17	Return Swim #2	2,600 m
Sep. 18	Pool heat limited	1,600 m
Sep. 19	800 m training best	3,000 m
Sep. 20	Rest	—
Sep. 21	2,000 m continuous FR	2,600 m

TrainingPeaks

TrainingPeaks currently has my Fitness at 60, Fatigue at 51, and Form at +12. I’m continuing to watch those numbers, but I’m not going to structure the next week around trying to achieve a particular CTL or Form value.

The more important information right now is coming from the pool. I have been able to reproduce my breaststroke speed, set a new 800-meter freestyle training best, and now complete a continuous 2,000-meter freestyle at about 1:39.5 per 100 meters. Those are useful indications that the eight days away from training did not erase the conditioning built over the summer.

16 Days to Huntsman

I am entered in four events at the Huntsman World Senior Games: the 100-meter breaststroke, 200-meter breaststroke, 800-meter freestyle, and 1500-meter freestyle. The 200 breaststroke, 800 freestyle, and 1500 freestyle remain my primary training focus, while I will also compete in the 100 breaststroke.

Date	Event
October 7	200 m Breaststroke
October 8	100 m Breaststroke
October 8	800 m Freestyle
October 9	1500 m Freestyle

The Plan From Here

This coming week is going to be busy outside of the pool, so I’m deliberately keeping the swimming flexible. I don’t want training to become another source of stress simply because the competition is getting closer.

Between now and the end of September, I intend to swim each of my four Huntsman race distances at least once: 100 breaststroke, 200 breaststroke, 800 freestyle, and 1500 freestyle. They don’t all need to be maximum-effort time trials. The objective is to touch each race distance before moving into the final days before Huntsman.

Beyond that, I’m going to continue taking the week by ear. If I feel good and have time, I’ll swim. If time is limited, a shorter purposeful workout is enough. And if life outside the pool needs the time, taking another rest day isn’t going to undo the work already completed.

Today’s Takeaway

Today’s 2,000-meter continuous freestyle wasn’t about setting another personal best. It was about getting back into the water after a rest day and maintaining the endurance needed for the 800 and 1500 without forcing the workout.

With 16 days remaining until my first Huntsman race, the objective is becoming less about building more fitness and more about preserving what I’ve already built while arriving in St. George rested and ready to race.

Today I finally got the distance workout I was looking for.

After yesterday’s swim was cut short because the pool was ridiculously warm, I went to a different VASA Fitness location today. The difference was immediate. The water temperature was almost perfect, and I was able to put together a full 3,000-meter workout.

More importantly, I opened the workout with a continuous 800-meter freestyle in 12:35.12 — my fastest recorded 800-meter training swim so far.

Today’s Workout

Metric	Result
Distance	3,000 m
Swimming Time	49:13
Average Pace	1:39 / 100 m
Normalized Pace	1:38 / 100 m
Average Heart Rate	124 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate	171 bpm
sTSS	76
Intensity Factor	0.98
Calories	705

The workout included 1,850 meters of freestyle and 1,150 meters of breaststroke. At 3,000 meters, this was also my longest workout since returning to the pool following eight medically restricted days without training.

A New 800-Meter Freestyle Training Best

The most important part of today’s workout came first.

I swam a continuous 800-meter freestyle in 12:35.12, averaging approximately 1:34.39 per 100 meters.

My previous 800-meter training best was 12:40.25, so today’s swim improved that mark by 5.13 seconds.

800 Freestyle	Time	Difference
2025 Silver	12:16.56	+18.56 sec
2025 Bronze	12:32.85	+2.27 sec
Sep. 19 Training Best	12:35.12	—
Previous Training Best	12:40.25	-5.13 sec
2025 4th	12:56.76	-21.64 sec

The number that immediately stands out is 2.27 seconds. That’s now the difference between today’s training swim and the 2025 Huntsman bronze-medal time.

There are still important differences between a training swim and competition. Today’s 800 was done from an in-water training start. At Huntsman I’ll have the benefit of a starting block, electronic timing and race conditions.

For the training log, however, 12:35.12 becomes my new 800-meter benchmark.

A Note About FORM Splits and Race Starts

I don’t want to overanalyze individual first-length splits from the FORM goggles.

There can be a small delay while the goggles recognize that a set has started and another delay when they recognize that it has ended. Those effects tend to offset one another reasonably well when looking at the complete set, so I consider the total recorded time much more useful than trying to adjust it by a second here or there.

That also matters when comparing training with competition. Coming off a starting block, the first length of a race should naturally be faster than the following lengths because of the dive, streamline and breakout. A faster opening length therefore doesn’t automatically mean the race was started too aggressively.

For my distance events, what matters more is how quickly I settle into sustainable swimming and how consistently I maintain that pace through the middle and closing portions of the race.

Breaststroke Stayed Consistent

After the opening 800 freestyle, I continued with mixed freestyle and breaststroke work. A 10 × 50 breaststroke set produced times of 50.04, 52.34, 53.08, 51.13, 50.84, 50.40, 49.33, 51.29, 49.88 and 51.94.

The average was approximately 51 seconds per 50 meters, but the consistency is more interesting than the average. There was no progressive collapse through the set. In fact, one of the fastest repetitions — 49.33 — came on number seven.

That continues to support what I’ve seen since returning to the pool: breaststroke speed remains available.

Freestyle Speed Under Fatigue

Later in the workout I completed 10 × 50 freestyle after already accumulating considerable distance.

Those repetitions ranged from 39.15 early in the set to 45.25 on the final repetition. There was a gradual slowdown, but this wasn’t fresh speed work. It came after the continuous 800 and additional swimming.

Even the slower repetitions remained considerably faster than the sustainable pace required for my 800- and 1,500-meter races.

Late 100s Were Encouraging

One of the better endurance signals came late in the workout during alternating 100-meter freestyle and breaststroke repetitions.

Stroke	Times
Freestyle	1:33.73, 1:33.97, 1:35.87
Breaststroke	1:54.24, 1:51.65, 1:56.75

The first two freestyle 100s were separated by only 0.24 seconds, and all three remained strong despite occurring after more than 2,000 meters of previous swimming.

That is more useful to me right now than chasing an exceptionally fast isolated 50. I already know the short-distance speed exists. Sustainable speed is what matters for the races I’m preparing to swim.

Yesterday Really Was About the Pool

Today’s workout also provides some useful context for yesterday.

Friday’s workout ended at 1,600 meters because the pool temperature was simply too warm for the distance work I wanted to do. Today I changed locations, found much better water conditions, and completed 3,000 meters without the same problem.

That makes it pretty clear that yesterday’s shorter distance wasn’t a fitness limitation. The environment was the limitation.

Four Days Back

I have now swum four consecutive days since returning from the medically restricted break.

Date	Distance	sTSS
Sep. 16	2,650 m	66
Sep. 17	2,600 m	65
Sep. 18	1,600 m*	39
Sep. 19	3,000 m	76
Total	9,850 m	246

*September 18 was shortened because of excessive pool temperature.

TrainingPeaks currently shows Fitness 61, Fatigue 49 and Form +19. Four days ago the biggest question was how much swimming fitness had survived the interruption. After almost 10,000 meters back in the pool, I’m getting a much clearer answer.

September Training Total

Today’s 3,000 meters brings my September swimming total to 25,250 meters and 605 swim sTSS. September 8–15 remain recorded as Medical Restricted – No Workout.

18 Days to the First Race

The countdown is getting short.

Huntsman Event	Date	Days Remaining
200 m Breaststroke	October 7	18 days
800 m Freestyle	October 8	19 days
1500 m Freestyle	October 9	20 days

The 200-meter breaststroke is the fourth event on Wednesday’s schedule. The 800-meter freestyle comes Thursday after the scheduled break, and the 1,500-meter freestyle follows Friday after that day’s break.

I’m still not interested in trying to recover the eight days of training I missed. Those days are gone, and cramming extra workouts into the remaining time would accomplish very little.

Instead, I’m continuing to judge each day by how I feel and what the previous workout tells me.

What I Learned Today

Wednesday showed me that my speed survived the break. Thursday showed that I could come back and swim well on consecutive days. Friday was compromised by pool temperature.

Today finally gave me a good look at the distance side of the equation.

A continuous 12:35.12 800 freestyle, five seconds faster than my previous training best and only 2.27 seconds from the 2025 Huntsman bronze time, is a much better result than I expected to have four days after returning to the pool.

There is still work to do, but I don’t think that work is about finding more raw speed.

It’s about using the speed I already have efficiently, maintaining it longer, and arriving in St. George rested enough to use it when the times actually count.

Eighteen days until the 200 breaststroke. Nineteen days until the 800 freestyle. Twenty days until the 1,500 freestyle.

The Road to Huntsman is getting very real.

Today’s workout ended considerably earlier than I intended, but not because I was tired from the previous two days of swimming.

The pool was ridiculously warm.

I had planned to get some distance work in, but the water temperature made sustained swimming increasingly uncomfortable and, more importantly, inappropriate for the kind of workout I wanted to do. Rather than force the distance simply to put another number in the training log, I stopped at 1,600 meters.

There are now 19 days until my first event at the Huntsman World Senior Games.

Today’s Workout

Metric	Result
Distance	1,600 m
Swimming Time	26:40
Average Pace	1:40 / 100 m
Normalized Pace	1:40 / 100 m
Average Heart Rate	128 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate	152 bpm
sTSS	39
Intensity Factor	0.96
Calories	390

The workout included 700 meters of freestyle and 900 meters of breaststroke. Despite the conditions, there were still some encouraging performances in both strokes.

A Fast Opening 200 Breaststroke

The most interesting result came early in the workout.

My first 200-meter breaststroke was approximately 3:27.30.

My established 200-meter breaststroke training benchmark is 3:27.54, so today’s opening 200 was essentially identical and technically about a quarter-second faster.

200 Breaststroke	Time
Current Training Benchmark	3:27.54
Sep. 18 Opening 200	~3:27.30
2025 Huntsman Silver	3:38.74
2025 Huntsman Bronze	3:39.92
2025 Huntsman 4th	4:00.27

I am not replacing my 3:27.54 benchmark with today’s result. This wasn’t set up as a 200-meter race simulation, and there is no reason to manufacture a new benchmark from a workout that had a completely different purpose.

What it does tell me is that my breaststroke speed appears to have survived the eight-day interruption in training remarkably well.

Freestyle Was Consistent

The longer opening portion of the workout alternated 200-meter breaststroke and freestyle repetitions.

Rep	Stroke	Time
1	Breaststroke	3:27.30
2	Freestyle	3:05.49
3	Breaststroke	3:44.91
4	Freestyle	3:07.47
5	Breaststroke	3:45.97

The two freestyle 200s were separated by only 1.98 seconds. The first averaged approximately 1:32.7 per 100 meters and the second approximately 1:33.7.

That continues a pattern that has been evident since I returned to swimming this week: freestyle speed is readily available. The bigger objective between now and Huntsman remains converting that speed into controlled, sustainable 800- and 1,500-meter pacing.

The Temperature Changed the Workout

Under normal conditions, I would be interested in the difference between the opening 3:27 breaststroke and the later 3:44 and 3:45 repetitions. Today, however, there is an important variable that makes that comparison less useful.

The water was simply too warm for the distance workout I wanted to do.

As the workout continued, the pool temperature became the limiting factor. That makes today a poor session for drawing conclusions about sustained endurance or interpreting the slower later repetitions as a loss of conditioning.

Interestingly, my average heart rate was 128 bpm, slightly higher than either of my first two return swims despite today’s workout being much shorter.

Date	Distance	Avg HR	sTSS
Sep. 16	2,650 m	123	66
Sep. 17	2,600 m	126	65
Sep. 18	1,600 m	128	39

That reinforces why today’s numbers need to be viewed in the context of the pool conditions rather than simply compared with the previous two workouts.

Three Days Back in the Pool

Today was my third consecutive swim since returning from eight medically restricted days without workouts.

Date	Distance	sTSS
Sep. 16	2,650 m	66
Sep. 17	2,600 m	65
Sep. 18	1,600 m	39
Total	6,850 m	170

That’s enough swimming to begin answering some of the questions I had when I returned Wednesday.

The clearest answer so far is that speed survived the break. I’ve seen that repeatedly in both freestyle and breaststroke. I’ve also been able to handle three consecutive days in the pool.

What I still haven’t had a good opportunity to evaluate is sustained distance endurance. I hoped to learn more about that today, but the pool conditions made this the wrong day to force the issue.

September Training Log

Today’s 1,600 meters brings my September swimming total to 22,250 meters and 529 swim sTSS. The September 8–15 period remains recorded as Medical Restricted – No Workout.

Date	Training	Swim Total
Sep. 1	Swim – 1,800 m	1,800 m
Sep. 2	Swim – 2,500 m	4,300 m
Sep. 3	Swim – 2,700 m	7,000 m
Sep. 4	Swim – 2,500 m	9,500 m
Sep. 5	Swim – 3,400 m	12,900 m
Sep. 6	Outdoor jog – no swim	12,900 m
Sep. 7	Swim – 2,500 m	15,400 m
Sep. 8–15	Medical Restricted – No Workout	15,400 m
Sep. 16	Swim – 2,650 m	18,050 m
Sep. 17	Swim – 2,600 m	20,650 m
Sep. 18	Swim – 1,600 m*	22,250 m

*September 18 workout shortened because of excessive pool temperature.

19 Days to Huntsman

There are now 19 days until the 200-meter breaststroke on October 7, 20 days until the 800-meter freestyle, and 21 days until the 1,500-meter freestyle.

With less than three weeks remaining, it would have been easy to convince myself that I needed to finish today’s distance regardless of the conditions. But there is nothing useful about forcing a long workout in a pool that is too warm simply because a competition is getting closer.

I am still playing these first few days back by ear. Today the pool made the decision for me.

I didn’t get the distance test I wanted, but I did get another useful piece of information: three days after returning to swimming, the speed is still there. The opening 200 breaststroke was essentially equal to my best current training benchmark, and the two freestyle 200s were both strong and remarkably close together.

The distance work can wait for better conditions.

Nineteen days to Huntsman.

Yesterday answered the first question after eight medically restricted days without training: could I get back into the pool and still swim reasonably well?

Today’s question was a little different: how would I respond to doing it again the next day?

The answer was encouraging. I swam another 2,600 meters in 42:52, almost duplicating yesterday’s overall workload while actually averaging slightly faster in the pool.

There are now 20 days until my first event at the Huntsman World Senior Games.

Today’s Workout

Metric	Result
Distance	2,600 m
Swimming Time	42:52
Average Pace	1:39 / 100 m
Normalized Pace	1:39 / 100 m
Average Heart Rate	126 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate	153 bpm
sTSS	65
Intensity Factor	0.97
Calories	627

The workout was almost evenly divided between my two competition strokes: 1,275 meters of freestyle and 1,325 meters of breaststroke.

Back-to-Back Return Swims

Yesterday was my first swim after the eight-day medically restricted period. Today’s workout was remarkably similar in overall workload.

Metric	Sep. 16	Sep. 17
Distance	2,650 m	2,600 m
Time	43:49	42:52
Average Pace	1:40	1:39
Normalized Pace	1:39	1:39
Average HR	123	126
sTSS	66	65
IF	0.97	0.97

In two days I’ve now completed 5,250 meters and accumulated 131 swim sTSS. More importantly, the second workout didn’t show an obvious drop in performance after the first.

Freestyle Speed Is Not the Problem

The same pattern that was developing before the break showed up again today: I have plenty of short-distance freestyle speed.

A 6 × 50 freestyle set produced the following times:

50	Time
1	38.09
2	39.74
3	40.90
4	41.24
5	43.49
6	41.95

The average was approximately 40.9 seconds per 50 meters.

That is considerably faster than anything I need for either the 800- or 1,500-meter freestyle. But the progression from 38.09 to the slower repetitions also reinforces a lesson that has been following me throughout this training cycle.

Finding more speed isn’t the priority. Learning to distribute the speed I already have is.

Breaststroke Was More Controlled

The corresponding 6 × 50 breaststroke set was more consistent:

50	Time
1	48.14
2	51.55
3	50.65
4	50.72
5	50.58
6	51.68

After the faster opening 48.14, the remaining five repetitions stayed in a very narrow range between 50.58 and 51.68.

That’s the kind of repeatability I want to see as I work my way back toward race-specific training.

The 100s Show the Fatigue Curve

The longer repetitions gave me a better look at what happens as the workout progresses.

The freestyle 100s progressed through approximately 1:26.95, 1:28.21, 1:29.29 and 1:31.23. The breaststroke 100s similarly moved through approximately 1:46.89, 1:48.80, 1:49.45 and 1:51.85.

Both strokes gradually slowed as fatigue accumulated, which isn’t particularly surprising on only my second workout after eight days without training.

The encouraging part is that neither stroke suddenly fell apart. There was a gradual decline rather than a dramatic one, and the freestyle times remained considerably faster than the pace I need for my distance races.

TrainingPeaks Is Beginning to Respond

TrainingPeaks now shows Fitness 60, Fatigue 40 and Form +23.

Date	Fitness	Fatigue	Form
Sep. 7	72	94	-25
Sep. 16	60	36	+29
Sep. 17	60	40	+23

The eight days without training reduced the modeled Fitness number, but they also removed a considerable amount of accumulated fatigue. Now that I’m swimming again, Fatigue is beginning to rise and Form is moving back down.

I’m watching those numbers, but I’m not going to let them dictate what I do over the next several days. How I actually feel after each workout is more important right now.

September Training Log

The September 8–15 period remains recorded as Medical Restricted – No Workout. Those weren’t missed workouts to be made up later.

Date	Training	Swim Total
Sep. 1	Swim – 1,800 m	1,800 m
Sep. 2	Swim – 2,500 m	4,300 m
Sep. 3	Swim – 2,700 m	7,000 m
Sep. 4	Swim – 2,500 m	9,500 m
Sep. 5	Swim – 3,400 m	12,900 m
Sep. 6	Outdoor jog – no swim	12,900 m
Sep. 7	Swim – 2,500 m	15,400 m
Sep. 8–15	Medical Restricted – No Workout	15,400 m
Sep. 16	Swim – 2,650 m	18,050 m
Sep. 17	Swim – 2,600 m	20,650 m

September now stands at 20,650 meters of swimming and 490 swim sTSS.

No Catch-Up Training

One thing I don’t intend to do is try to recover the eight days that disappeared from the original September training schedule.

Those days are gone. Trying to compress them into the remaining three weeks would probably accomplish little other than rebuilding fatigue very quickly.

For now, I’m continuing with the approach I decided on yesterday: play the next few training days by ear.

If I feel good and want to swim, I’ll swim. If I feel like doing less, I’ll do less. If I need a day off, I’ll take one. After a few more workouts, I’ll have a much better picture of how much sustained endurance returned with me and what race-specific work makes sense before tapering.

20 Days to Huntsman

There are now 20 days until the 200-meter breaststroke on October 7, 21 days until the 800-meter freestyle, and 22 days until the 1,500-meter freestyle.

Yesterday showed that I could return to the pool after eight days away and still swim well. Today showed that I could come back the next day and do it again.

That’s probably the most important result from today’s workout.

Two days back. 5,250 meters completed. Twenty days until the first race.

The Road to Huntsman is moving again.

After eight consecutive days without training, today I finally returned to the pool.

September 8 through September 15 were medically restricted days with no workouts. That wasn’t planned recovery and it wasn’t a normal break in the training schedule. Training simply had to stop for a while.

More importantly, I now have my doctor’s clearance to compete at the Huntsman World Senior Games. So the Road to Huntsman continues.

There are only 21 days until I swim the 200-meter breaststroke on October 7, followed by the 800-meter freestyle on October 8 and the 1,500-meter freestyle on October 9.

First Swim Back

I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from today’s workout. Eight days without swimming isn’t an enormous amount of time, but it is long enough to wonder how the water will feel and how much of the conditioning from the previous training block will still be there.

The answer was encouraging.

Metric	Result
Distance	2,650 m
Swimming Time	43:49
Average Pace	1:40 / 100 m
Normalized Pace	1:39 / 100 m
Average Heart Rate	123 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate	173 bpm
sTSS	66
Intensity Factor	0.97
Calories	594

The workout included 1,575 meters of freestyle and 1,075 meters of breaststroke. That gave me enough work in both of my competition strokes to get a useful picture of where things stood without making today’s swim a race-distance test.

The Speed Didn’t Disappear

One of the first things I noticed in the data was that my short-distance freestyle speed was still there.

An early 4 × 50 freestyle set was remarkably consistent:

50	Time
1	41.64
2	41.77
3	42.22
4	41.62

Only 0.60 seconds separated the fastest and slowest repetitions.

That is particularly encouraging because pacing consistency was becoming one of the major themes of my training immediately before the break. I have repeatedly demonstrated enough raw freestyle speed for the 800 and 1,500. The challenge has been distributing that speed efficiently instead of starting too fast and gradually giving it back.

A later 6 × 50 freestyle set followed a similar pattern for the first five repetitions: 43.51, 44.47, 43.70, 44.29 and 44.48 before the final 47.24. There is still some endurance to rebuild, but the underlying speed appears to be intact.

A Better Endurance Check

The short repetitions tell me that speed is available, but they don’t tell me whether I can immediately reproduce my pre-break endurance. I don’t expect them to.

A continuous 350-meter freestyle during today’s workout was 5:41.13, approximately 1:37.5 per 100 meters. My current 1,500-meter training best averages approximately 1:36.3 per 100 meters.

I am not treating the 350 as a race prediction or using it to change my 1,500-meter benchmark. It is simply encouraging that on my first day back in the water I could settle into a sustained pace reasonably close to the pace of my best 1,500 training swim.

Breaststroke Is Still There Too

Breaststroke accounted for 1,075 meters of today’s workout.

An early 200-meter breaststroke was 3:38.67, or approximately 1:49.3 per 100 meters. That isn’t intended to replace my 3:27.54 current 200-meter training benchmark, but it was a useful first indication that the stroke remained comfortable after the time away.

Later breaststroke repetitions also remained reasonably consistent. Two late 50s were 52.42 and 52.74, only 0.32 seconds apart.

As with freestyle, I’m more interested right now in how the stroke feels and whether I can repeat it consistently than in forcing a new best time during the first workout back.

Eight Days Off Changed the Training Numbers

TrainingPeaks shows the effect of the interruption very clearly.

Metric	Sep. 7	Sep. 16
Fitness	72	60
Fatigue	94	36
Form	-25	+29

The modeled Fitness number declined, which isn’t surprising after eight days without training. At the same time, Fatigue dropped dramatically and Form moved well into positive territory.

Today’s workout is also a reminder that a change in a modeled fitness number doesn’t translate directly into an equivalent change in swimming ability. The first swim back showed that a considerable amount of the speed and conditioning from the previous training block remains available.

September Training Log

The eight days between my September 7 swim and today’s return will remain in my training log as Medical Restricted – No Workout. They aren’t missed workouts that need to be recovered.

Date	Training	Swim Total
Sep. 1	Swim – 1,800 m	1,800 m
Sep. 2	Swim – 2,500 m	4,300 m
Sep. 3	Swim – 2,700 m	7,000 m
Sep. 4	Swim – 2,500 m	9,500 m
Sep. 5	Swim – 3,400 m	12,900 m
Sep. 6	Outdoor jog – no swim	12,900 m
Sep. 7	Swim – 2,500 m	15,400 m
Sep. 8	Medical Restricted – No Workout	15,400 m
Sep. 9	Medical Restricted – No Workout	15,400 m
Sep. 10	Medical Restricted – No Workout	15,400 m
Sep. 11	Medical Restricted – No Workout	15,400 m
Sep. 12	Medical Restricted – No Workout	15,400 m
Sep. 13	Medical Restricted – No Workout	15,400 m
Sep. 14	Medical Restricted – No Workout	15,400 m
Sep. 15	Medical Restricted – No Workout	15,400 m
Sep. 16	Swim – 2,650 m	18,050 m

September now stands at 18,050 meters of swimming and 425 swim sTSS.

The Road to Huntsman Continues

The biggest news for me isn’t today’s pace or any particular split. I have my doctor’s clearance to compete, and I intend to be at Huntsman.

What I am not going to do is try to cram eight days of missed training into the remaining three weeks.

For the next few days, I’m going to play the training schedule by ear. If I feel like swimming, I’ll swim. How far I go and what I do in the pool will depend on how I feel that day. There is no reason right now to force a predetermined distance or pace simply because it appeared on a training schedule written before the interruption.

After a few workouts, I should have a much better idea of how quickly my endurance is returning and what kind of race-specific work makes sense before tapering for Huntsman.

21 Days to Huntsman

Three weeks from today I will swim the 200-meter breaststroke at the Huntsman World Senior Games.

The 800-meter freestyle follows in 22 days, and the 1,500-meter freestyle in 23 days.

The training plan has taken an unexpected detour, but the destination hasn’t changed.

Today’s 2,650 meters wasn’t about proving that eight days away from training didn’t matter. It was about finding out what was still there when I got back into the water. The answer was encouraging: the strokes felt available, the speed was still present, and I was able to put together a solid 43-minute workout on my first day back.

For now, that’s enough. Tomorrow I’ll see how I feel and decide what comes next.

Today was not intended to be a pace-setting workout, a race simulation, or another fitness test. I simply wanted to get into the pool one more time before taking a short break from swimming.

The result was a 2,500-meter mixed freestyle and breaststroke session that stayed comfortably on the moderate side. After the stronger training block I completed during the first week of September, that was exactly what I wanted from today’s swim.

Today’s Workout

Metric	Result
Distance	2,500 m
Swimming Time	44:09
Average Pace	1:47 / 100 m
Normalized Pace	1:46 / 100 m
Average Heart Rate	124 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate	152 bpm
sTSS	55
Intensity Factor	0.91
Calories	611

The stroke distribution was almost perfectly balanced, with 1,200 meters of freestyle and 1,300 meters of breaststroke. That made this a good general swimming session rather than another workout centered around one particular race.

Not Every Swim Needs to Be a Test

One of the challenges as Huntsman gets closer is resisting the urge to turn every good opportunity to swim into another test. There is always a temptation to see whether I can hold race pace longer, swim another fast 200, or improve one of my current training benchmarks.

That was not today’s objective.

I wanted to swim, move through both of my primary strokes, and leave the pool without creating another major recovery demand. The 55 sTSS, 0.91 intensity factor, and average heart rate of 124 bpm suggest that I kept the overall session where it belonged.

Freestyle Speed Was Still Available

Even though I wasn’t trying to establish a freestyle pace today, the workout still showed that my normal freestyle speed was available when I wanted it.

Across the 1,200 meters of freestyle, the moving pace averaged approximately 1:36 per 100 meters. There was also a standalone 100-meter freestyle in 1:31.59, while a later three-repeat 100-meter freestyle set averaged approximately 1:37 per 100 meters.

I don’t consider any of those numbers new benchmarks. Rest periods, stroke changes, and the overall structure of the workout make them very different from a continuous race-distance swim. They simply confirm the pattern I’ve been seeing throughout September: short-duration freestyle speed is not currently the limiting factor.

Breaststroke Stayed Controlled

The 1,300 meters of breaststroke were considerably more relaxed than my dedicated breaststroke-endurance sessions. The overall moving pace was approximately 1:55 per 100 meters.

That was appropriate for today’s purpose. I wasn’t trying to reproduce my 200-meter breaststroke training pace or create another endurance-under-fatigue test. I simply wanted enough breaststroke volume to maintain the feel of the stroke without turning the session into another hard workout.

Where the Race Benchmarks Remain

Because today’s workout wasn’t designed as a race test, none of my current Huntsman benchmarks change.

Event	Current Training Benchmark
1500 Freestyle	24:04.84
800 Freestyle	12:40.25
200 Breaststroke	3:27.54

Those remain the numbers that matter when I evaluate my progress toward Huntsman. Today’s swim belongs in a different category: a moderate training session that closed out the current block.

September Training So Far

Date	Pool Distance	September Total
Sep. 1	1,800 m	1,800 m
Sep. 2	2,500 m	4,300 m
Sep. 3	2,700 m	7,000 m
Sep. 4	2,500 m	9,500 m
Sep. 5	3,400 m	12,900 m
Sep. 6	Non-pool workout	12,900 m
Sep. 7	2,500 m	15,400 m

That brings September to 15,400 meters of swimming and 359 swim sTSS through today.

More important than the total distance, the first week of September included recovery work, breaststroke endurance, freestyle endurance, a continuous 1,500-meter effort, mixed aerobic training, and today’s moderate closing swim.

Closing This Training Block

I am going to consider today’s swim the end of this particular training block.

There is no reason to try to make up meters while I am away from the pool, and there is no benefit in trying to preserve the original September schedule exactly. When I return, the better approach will be to look at how much time I actually spent out of the water and then build the next block from there.

The fitness I’ve developed over the past several weeks isn’t going to disappear because of a short interruption. The important thing will be returning intelligently rather than trying to immediately recover everything I didn’t swim.

30 Days to Huntsman

There are now 30 days until the 200-meter breaststroke on October 7, followed by the 800-meter freestyle on October 8 and the 1,500-meter freestyle on October 9.

Today’s swim didn’t produce a new race benchmark, and it wasn’t supposed to. It accomplished something simpler: 2,500 meters of comfortable swimming, equal attention to freestyle and breaststroke, and one final opportunity to feel good in the water before stepping away for a little while.

Sometimes the best workout is the one that does exactly what it was intended to do.

After five consecutive days in the pool, today was a non-pool training day. With the Huntsman World Senior Games now only 31 days away, recovery is becoming just as important as the workouts themselves.

September has started with a very solid block of swimming. From Tuesday through Saturday I swam 12,900 meters, with workouts covering recovery and technique, breaststroke endurance, freestyle endurance, and longer aerobic work. Saturday finished the block with 3,400 meters and included a continuous 1,500-meter freestyle in 24:26.35.

That made today a good time to stay out of the pool and allow some of that work to be absorbed rather than immediately adding another swimming session.

Today’s Training

Today was not a complete inactivity day, but it was deliberately a non-pool workout. The objective was simple: remain active without adding another swimming load after five straight days in the water.

At this stage of preparation, I don’t need every day to produce another impressive number on the training log. There is a difference between continuing to train and simply accumulating fatigue. Today’s workout was about the former.

What the First Five Days of September Accomplished

Date	Distance	Primary Focus
Sep. 1	1,800 m	Recovery & technique
Sep. 2	2,500 m	Freestyle aerobic / breaststroke
Sep. 3	2,700 m	200 breaststroke endurance
Sep. 4	2,500 m	800/1500 freestyle endurance
Sep. 5	3,400 m	Long mixed aerobic
Total	12,900 m	Five consecutive swim days

The important part of that block isn’t simply the 12,900 meters. There were several encouraging indicators within those workouts.

• Breaststroke endurance remained consistent through longer 100- and 150-meter repeats.
• Freestyle speed continued to be available even late in workouts.
• The 800- and 1,500-meter freestyle work continued to show that pacing consistency is a bigger opportunity than finding additional raw speed.
• Saturday’s continuous 1,500-meter freestyle provided another useful endurance benchmark without being a dedicated time trial.

The 1,500-Meter Picture

Saturday’s 24:26.35 continuous 1,500-meter freestyle works out to approximately 1:37.76 per 100 meters. My best current training time remains the 24:04.84 I swam on August 23, or approximately 1:36.32 per 100 meters.

The difference between the two swims is only 21.51 seconds over 1,500 meters, or about 1.43 seconds per 100 meters. Since Saturday’s swim opened a larger 3,400-meter training session rather than being treated as a dedicated 1,500-meter time trial, I consider it a good secondary endurance benchmark rather than a replacement for the August 23 performance.

1500 Freestyle – Current Comparison

Benchmark	Time	Pace / 100 m
2025 Silver	23:39.43	1:34.63
Training Best	24:04.84	1:36.32
Sep. 5 Endurance	24:26.35	1:37.76
2025 Bronze	25:04.75	1:40.32
2025 4th	25:06.88	1:40.46

Saturday’s swim was 46.92 seconds behind the 2025 silver-medal time but still 38.40 seconds faster than the 2025 bronze-medal time. My August 23 training best remains considerably closer to silver.

Speed Isn’t the Main Problem

One theme has become increasingly obvious during the first week of September: I can swim considerably faster than my required 800- and 1,500-meter pace for short periods. The challenge is distributing that speed efficiently over the entire race.

Saturday provided another example. After swimming the continuous 1,500, I still produced freestyle 100s of 1:32.18 and 1:30.50. Later, the 10 × 50 freestyle set averaged approximately 1:29 per 100-meter equivalent pace. The speed was there, but the 50s gradually slowed from 40.73 to 46.02.

That tells me I probably have more to gain by narrowing the difference between my fastest and slowest repetitions than by trying to make the fastest repetitions even faster. Over 800 or 1,500 meters, controlled speed that can be sustained is much more useful than an exceptionally fast opening followed by a gradual fade.

Recovery Is Part of Training

It can be difficult to stay out of the pool when training is going well. There is always another set that could be completed and another few hundred meters that could be added to the monthly total.

But the objective isn’t to arrive at Huntsman having accumulated the largest possible number of training meters. The objective is to arrive prepared to swim the 200 breaststroke, 800 freestyle, and 1,500 freestyle as well as I can.

That requires hard workouts, endurance work and race-specific preparation, but it also requires days when I allow the training I’ve already completed to do its job.

September Training Ledger

Date	Pool Distance	September Total
Sep. 1	1,800 m	1,800 m
Sep. 2	2,500 m	4,300 m
Sep. 3	2,700 m	7,000 m
Sep. 4	2,500 m	9,500 m
Sep. 5	3,400 m	12,900 m
Sep. 6	Non-pool	12,900 m

September currently stands at 12,900 meters of swimming. More importantly, those meters have included useful work for all three of my primary Huntsman events rather than simply accumulating distance.

Tomorrow: Rest

Monday will be a rest day. No pool workout and no attempt to make up meters.

That gives me two days away from swimming after the five-day opening block of September. At 31 days from the first day of competition, I’m far enough into the preparation that protecting the quality of the work ahead matters more than squeezing another workout into every available day.

31 Days to Huntsman

There are now 31 days until the 200-meter breaststroke on October 7. The 800-meter freestyle follows on October 8, and the 1,500-meter freestyle on October 9.

The first five days of September gave me a good block of training and another useful look at where I stand. The recurring lesson is becoming clearer: the speed is available. The next step is learning to distribute it better and hold it longer.

Today, however, the training objective was much simpler: stay out of the pool, recover from the work already completed, and be comfortable calling that part of the plan.

Today’s Road to Huntsman workout was supposed to be a 3,000-meter long mixed aerobic session, but I had already decided that the actual structure would depend on how I felt once I got into the pool. The result was an unexpectedly useful endurance workout: 3,400 meters, including a continuous 1,500-meter freestyle to start the main work.

There are now 32 days until the October 7 Huntsman World Senior Games 200-meter breaststroke, with the 800 freestyle and 1500 freestyle following on October 8 and 9. At this point, the stopwatch continues to provide useful information, but managing training load and staying healthy are becoming equally important parts of preparing to race.

September 5 Workout Summary

Metric	Result
Planned Distance	3,000 m
Completed Distance	3,400 m
Swimming Time	56:22
Average Pace	1:40/100 m
Normalized Pace	1:39/100 m
Average HR	126 bpm
Maximum HR	155 bpm
sTSS	84
Intensity Factor	0.97
Calories	808 kcal
How I Felt	Normal

The final stroke distribution was approximately 2,450 meters freestyle and 950 meters breaststroke. Despite being labeled a mixed aerobic workout, it ultimately became a predominantly freestyle endurance session.

An Unexpected Continuous 1500 Freestyle

The most important result of today’s workout came early. Instead of following the original collection of 200-meter repetitions, I swam a continuous 1,500-meter freestyle in 24:26.35.

That works out to approximately 1:37.76/100 m.

My current training best remains the 24:04.84 I swam on August 23, which averaged approximately 1:36.32/100 m. Today’s swim was only 21.51 seconds slower over the complete 1,500 meters, or approximately 1.43 seconds per 100 meters slower.

I am not replacing the August 23 swim as my 1,500-meter training benchmark. Today’s effort wasn’t set up as a formal race simulation or time trial. Instead, I see 24:26.35 as a valuable secondary endurance benchmark because it came naturally within a larger training workout.

1500 Freestyle Huntsman Perspective

1500 FR	Time
2025 Silver	23:39.43
Training Best	24:04.84
September 5	24:26.35
2025 Bronze	25:04.75
2025 4th	25:06.88

Today’s 24:26.35 was 46.92 seconds behind the 2025 silver-medal time, but it was also 38.40 seconds faster than the 2025 bronze-medal time.

That comparison needs to be kept in context. Training times don’t predict exactly what will happen at Huntsman, and today’s swim wasn’t a race simulation. What it does demonstrate is that a continuous 1,500 meters at a pace comfortably inside last year’s bronze-medal result is currently available during normal training.

The Pacing Lesson Continues

Today’s 1,500 also reinforced something that has become increasingly apparent during the first week of September: I have more than enough opening speed.

The first 100 meters of today’s 1,500 was approximately 1:28.8. That is far faster than the pace I need to sustain for the complete race.

My 24:04.84 training best averages about 1:36.3/100 m, while the 2025 Huntsman silver-medal time represents approximately 1:34.6/100 m. Going out in the 1:28 range isn’t necessary to reach either target.

The opportunity is becoming increasingly obvious: rather than trying to make the opening 100 faster, I need to distribute my existing speed more efficiently across the entire 1,500.

Speed After the 1500

What happened after the continuous 1,500 was just as interesting.

During an alternating breaststroke and freestyle 5 × 100 set, the two freestyle repetitions were:

100 FR	Time
1	1:32.18
2	1:30.50

Those times came after already completing the continuous 1,500. Once again, the ability to produce considerably faster freestyle remained available even after the primary endurance work.

10 × 50 Freestyle

The later 10 × 50 freestyle set provided another useful look at the difference between available speed and sustainable speed.

Rep	50 FR
1	40.73
2	42.98
3	44.66
4	43.93
5	43.90
6	45.45
7	45.95
8	45.64
9	46.79
10	46.02

The aggregate moving pace for these 500 meters was approximately 1:29.2/100 m, particularly impressive considering the set came after more than 2,000 meters of swimming.

But once again, the pacing pattern is more useful than the fastest repetition. The set began with a 40.73 and eventually moved into the 45–46 second range.

For the 800 and 1500, making the first 50 faster isn’t particularly useful. Producing more repetitions clustered around a repeatable pace without the later slowdown would be much more valuable.

10 × 50 Breaststroke

The breaststroke portion later in the workout remained reasonably controlled through most of the set.

Rep	50 BR
1	53.64
2	53.07
3	52.39
4	54.76
5	53.57
6	55.27
7	55.23
8	56.12
9	54.42
10	1:01.21

The first nine repetitions remained relatively consistent before a clear slowdown on the final 50. Considering the amount of breaststroke completed earlier this week and the accumulated swimming over five consecutive days, I don’t consider one slow final repetition particularly significant.

Watching the Shoulders

I entered today’s workout paying close attention to some shoulder strain that had begun developing during the week. That was one reason I had already decided not to be rigid about the planned sets.

I ultimately completed 3,400 meters and rated how I felt overall as Normal. That’s encouraging, but completing the workout doesn’t mean the shoulder concern should simply be ignored.

The objective remains preventing strain from progressing into pain. That is more important than completing a particular workout exactly as written or accumulating a few hundred additional meters.

Training Load

Today’s 84 sTSS was the largest single training load of September so far.

Date	Distance	sTSS
Sep. 1	1,800 m	37
Sep. 2	2,500 m	63
Sep. 3	2,700 m	59
Sep. 4	2,500 m	61
Sep. 5	3,400 m	84

That gives me 12,900 meters and 304 sTSS across five consecutive swimming days.

Recovery Trend

Despite continuing to train, the TrainingPeaks fatigue indicators are still moving toward a more favorable range.

Date	Fitness	Fatigue	Form
Sep. 1	71	116	-57
Sep. 2	71	108	-45
Sep. 3	70	101	-38
Sep. 4	70	96	-31
Sep. 5	70	94	-25

Since September 1, Fatigue has declined from 116 to 94 while Form has improved from -57 to -25. That is a substantial improvement even while continuing to accumulate useful training.

September Training Log

Date	Workout	Meters	sTSS
Sep. 1	Recovery	1,800	37
Sep. 2	Aerobic FR/BR	2,500	63
Sep. 3	BR Endurance	2,700	59
Sep. 4	FR Endurance	2,500	61
Sep. 5	Long Mixed / 1500 FR	3,400	84
Total		12,900	304

September total: 12,900 meters and 304 sTSS.

Week One Distance

The original swimming plan through Saturday called for 12,300 meters. I have completed 12,900 meters, putting the first five days 600 meters above that preliminary schedule.

That additional distance isn’t something I need to compensate for later. It simply represents how the first training block actually developed.

Sunday Will Be Flexible

Sunday was originally scheduled as the week’s complete no-swim day. I may move that rest day and instead do a short, easy recovery swim tomorrow.

If I swim, it will not be another training workout like today’s. The objective will simply be easy movement and maintaining feel for the water. There will be no race-pace requirement, no CSS work and no reason to chase a distance number.

Shoulder comfort will determine what I actually do. If everything feels good, I may swim easily for a short period. If the strain increases or begins affecting my stroke, getting out of the pool early will be the correct training decision.

32 Days to the 200 Breaststroke

There are now 32 days until the October 7 Huntsman 200-meter breaststroke.

Today’s 1,500-meter freestyle wasn’t the primary race focus of the day when I entered the pool, but it provided an encouraging endurance benchmark. Swimming 24:26.35 during normal training, followed by considerably faster freestyle later in the workout, reinforces that the speed required for the distance events is already available.

September 5 Takeaway

The biggest result from today was the unexpected 24:26.35 continuous 1,500 freestyle. It was only 21.51 seconds slower than my August 23 training best and remained comfortably faster than the 2025 Huntsman bronze-medal result.

But what happened afterward may be just as important. I still produced freestyle 100s of 1:32.18 and 1:30.50 and later completed 500 meters of 50s at an aggregate moving pace around 1:29/100 m.

That continues to point toward the same conclusion: I don’t need significantly more raw freestyle speed. I need to distribute the speed I already have more efficiently across 800 and 1500 meters.

At the same time, five consecutive days have now produced 12,900 meters of swimming and 304 sTSS. The developing shoulder strain deserves at least as much attention as today’s stopwatch results.

With 32 days remaining until Huntsman, today’s 1,500 showed that the endurance and speed are there. The next challenge is using them efficiently while making sure I stay healthy enough to bring them to the starting block.

Today’s Road to Huntsman workout returned the emphasis to the 800-meter and 1500-meter freestyle. I completed the planned 2,500 meters in 41:55, bringing my September total to 9,500 meters through the first four days of the month.

There are now 33 days until the October 7 Huntsman World Senior Games 200-meter breaststroke, with the 800 freestyle and 1500 freestyle following later in the meet. Today’s workout provided another useful indication that freestyle speed is available, but it also reinforced that pacing and sustainable speed remain important areas to work on before racing.

September 4 Workout Summary

Metric	Result
Distance	2,500 m
Swimming Time	41:55
Average Pace	1:41/100 m
Normalized Pace	1:41/100 m
Average HR	118 bpm
Maximum HR	154 bpm
sTSS	61
Intensity Factor	0.95
Calories	555 kcal

The final stroke distribution was approximately 2,100 meters freestyle and 400 meters breaststroke. That was an appropriate change in emphasis after yesterday’s breaststroke-heavy workout.

The Key Endurance Set – 3 × 400 Freestyle

The primary endurance work consisted of three 400-meter freestyle repetitions.

400 FR	Time	Pace/100
1	6:31.17	1:37.79
2	6:43.43	1:40.86
3	6:49.11	1:42.28

The complete 1,200-meter set took approximately 20:03.71, producing an average pace of about 1:40.3/100 m.

There was a clear progression in the wrong direction from a pacing standpoint. The first 400 averaged 1:37.8/100 m, the second slowed to 1:40.9 and the third to 1:42.3.

That doesn’t make the set unsuccessful. Even the final 400 remained at a useful aerobic endurance pace, and this was my fourth consecutive day in the pool. Yesterday also included approximately 1,900 meters of breaststroke, so there was already substantial accumulated stroke-specific work entering today’s session.

The more useful lesson is pacing. For both the 800 and 1500 freestyle, I don’t need to make my fastest 100 meters faster. I need to narrow the difference between the pace I can produce early and the pace I can continue producing later in the race.

Speed Was Still Available

What happened after the 400-meter repetitions makes the endurance set particularly interesting.

The next 4 × 100 freestyle repetitions were:

100 FR	Time
1	1:34.55
2	1:35.63
3	1:36.48
4	1:38.98

Those four repetitions averaged approximately 1:36.4/100 m.

That is almost identical to the approximately 1:36.3/100 m pace of my current 24:04.84 training best for the 1500 freestyle.

That distinction matters. I had slowed during the 400-meter repetitions, but I was still able to immediately bring the pace back into the 1:34–1:36 range during the shorter repetitions. The slowdown during the 400s therefore wasn’t simply the result of having no speed left.

Controlled Breaststroke

After yesterday’s breaststroke endurance workout, today’s breaststroke was intentionally limited and controlled.

50 BR	Time
1	54.23
2	55.86
3	54.81
4	56.98

The four repetitions averaged approximately 55.5 seconds per 50 meters, equivalent to about 1:50.9/100 m.

There was no reason to push breaststroke speed today. The purpose was simply to maintain the stroke between the larger freestyle sets after yesterday provided the week’s major breaststroke endurance stimulus.

Finishing with 2 × 100 Freestyle

The final strong freestyle repetitions produced another useful pacing lesson.

100 FR	Time
1	1:29.33
2	1:36.41

The 1:29.33 is notable because it came late in a 2,500-meter workout. It demonstrates that considerable freestyle speed remained available despite the earlier endurance work.

But the seven-second difference between the two repetitions is actually more instructive than the 1:29 itself.

For Huntsman, two repetitions around 1:33–1:34 would probably tell me more about developing useful race endurance than producing a 1:29 followed by a 1:36. The speed is already there. September is increasingly about learning how to distribute it.

The Freestyle Pacing Picture

A pattern is beginning to emerge from the first several September workouts. I appear to have considerably more short-distance freestyle speed than I need for either the 800 or 1500.

On September 2, I produced repeated 100-meter freestyle times around the 1:32 range. Today, after substantial endurance work, I still produced a 1:29.33.

At the same time, today’s three 400-meter repetitions progressed from 1:37.8 to 1:40.9 to 1:42.3 per 100 meters.

That suggests one of the largest opportunities over the remaining weeks isn’t developing more raw speed. It is making the speed I already have more evenly sustainable.

Huntsman 800 Freestyle Perspective

800 FR	Time
Training Best	12:40.25
2025 Silver	12:16.56
2025 Bronze	12:32.85
2025 4th	12:56.76

My current 800-meter training best is only 7.40 seconds behind the 2025 bronze-medal time. That represents less than one second per 100 meters across the race.

Today’s shorter freestyle repetitions show that the required speed is clearly available. The remaining challenge is sustaining the appropriate pace across all eight 100-meter segments of the race.

Huntsman 1500 Freestyle Perspective

1500 FR	Time
Training Best	24:04.84
2025 Silver	23:39.43
2025 Bronze	25:04.75
2025 4th	25:06.88

The current 1500-meter training best is 25.41 seconds behind the 2025 silver-medal time, a difference of approximately 1.69 seconds per 100 meters.

Again, today’s workout suggests that improving pace distribution and endurance may offer more benefit than trying to increase maximum freestyle speed.

Training Load Continues to Normalize

TrainingPeaks continues to show the accumulated fatigue from the end of August gradually coming down while training continues.

Date	Fitness	Fatigue	Form
Sep. 1	71	116	-57
Sep. 2	71	108	-45
Sep. 3	70	101	-38
Sep. 4	70	96	-31

Since September 1, Fatigue has fallen from 116 to 96 while Form has improved from -57 to -31. That is a significant movement in the right direction while still completing four consecutive days of swimming.

Listening to My Shoulders

One thing I am paying particularly close attention to now is some strain developing in my shoulders. It isn’t something I want to allow to progress into pain.

That changes the priority for tomorrow. The original schedule calls for a 3,000-meter long mixed aerobic workout. I still plan to use 3,000 meters as the maximum distance, but I am not going to be rigid about the prescribed sets.

Instead, I will see how my shoulders feel once I am in the water and adjust the mixture of freestyle, breaststroke, repetition lengths and recovery accordingly. If everything loosens up and feels good, I can continue with a normal aerobic session. If the strain increases or begins affecting my stroke, there is no benefit in forcing the planned workout simply because it appears on the schedule.

At this stage of preparation, protecting the ability to continue training is more important than completing one particular set exactly as written.

September Training Log

Date	Workout	Meters	sTSS
Sep. 1	Recovery	1,800	37
Sep. 2	Aerobic FR/BR	2,500	63
Sep. 3	BR Endurance	2,700	59
Sep. 4	FR Endurance	2,500	61
Total		9,500	220

September total: 9,500 meters and 220 sTSS.

Week One Progress

Date	Planned	Actual
Sep. 1	1,800 m	1,800 m
Sep. 2	2,500 m	2,500 m
Sep. 3	2,500 m	2,700 m
Sep. 4	2,500 m	2,500 m
Sep. 5	3,000 m	Flexible aerobic
Sep. 6	OFF	Recovery

Through September 4, I have completed 9,500 meters, 200 meters more than the original 9,300-meter plan through today.

Tomorrow’s 3,000 meters is now best viewed as a maximum rather than a requirement. The actual workout will depend on how my shoulders respond once I begin swimming.

33 Days to the 200 Breaststroke

There are now 33 days until the October 7 Huntsman 200-meter breaststroke.

At this point, protecting consistency becomes increasingly important. One spectacular workout isn’t going to determine what happens in October, and forcing a workout when something doesn’t feel right can cost considerably more training than modifying a single day.

September 4 Takeaway

Today’s 2,500 meters reinforced something that has been becoming clearer throughout the first week of September: freestyle speed isn’t currently the primary limitation.

The three 400-meter repetitions showed some progressive slowing, but I was subsequently able to return to approximately 1:36/100 m pace over the 4 × 100 set and still produce a 1:29.33 late in the workout.

For the 800 and 1500 freestyle, the next step is making that existing speed more sustainable and distributing it more effectively over the entire race.

At the same time, the developing shoulder strain is a reminder that training decisions can’t be made entirely from the stopwatch. Tomorrow will remain an aerobic swimming day, but the exact structure will be determined in the pool based on how I feel.

With 33 days remaining until the first Huntsman event, the goal isn’t to win every workout. The goal is to arrive at the starting block healthy, rested and able to use the fitness and speed that are already being built.

Today’s Road to Huntsman workout shifted the emphasis heavily toward breaststroke endurance. I completed 2,700 meters, including approximately 1,900 meters of breaststroke, making this the first major breaststroke-specific endurance session of September.

There are now 34 days until the October 7 Huntsman World Senior Games 200-meter breaststroke. With just under five weeks remaining, the objective is increasingly specific: develop the ability to maintain breaststroke pace and technique as fatigue accumulates while continuing to preserve the endurance needed for the 800 and 1500 freestyle later in the meet.

September 3 Workout Summary

Metric	Result
Planned Distance	2,500 m
Completed Distance	2,700 m
Swimming Time	47:46
Average Pace	1:47/100 m
Normalized Pace	1:46/100 m
Average HR	115 bpm
Maximum HR	148 bpm
sTSS	59
Intensity Factor	0.90
Calories	601 kcal

The workout ended up 200 meters longer than the original 2,500-meter target. Rather than treating those extra meters as something that needs to be compensated for later in the week, I am simply recording the actual workload. September is about purposeful training rather than trying to make every weekly distance total match a spreadsheet perfectly.

A Breaststroke-Heavy Training Day

The final stroke distribution was approximately 1,900 meters breaststroke and 800 meters freestyle. More than 70 percent of today’s swimming was therefore breaststroke.

That made this a substantial stroke-specific endurance workout. Tomorrow’s training shifts back toward freestyle, which will provide some separation before the next major breaststroke workload.

Opening 4 × 50 Breaststroke

The first breaststroke set was 4 × 50 meters. These were intended as build repetitions before the longer endurance work.

50 BR	Time
1	47.71
2	49.44
3	48.02
4	50.13

The four repetitions averaged approximately 48.82 seconds per 50 meters, equivalent to about 1:37.7/100 m.

The set didn’t develop into a traditional progressive build because the first repetition was actually the fastest. What it did demonstrate was that sub-50-second 50-meter breaststroke speed was readily available before beginning the longer endurance work.

First 4 × 100 Breaststroke

The first sustained breaststroke set was 4 × 100 meters at a strong but controlled effort.

100 BR	Time
1	1:46.67
2	1:49.09
3	1:47.66
4	1:51.50

The average was approximately 1:48.7/100 m, almost exactly within the controlled range I wanted from this portion of the workout.

There was some slowing by the fourth repetition, but it wasn’t a continuous decline. After the slower second 100, I came back with a 1:47.66 third repetition. The objective was not maximum speed; it was maintaining useful breaststroke pace without turning the workout into a race effort.

The Key Set – 4 × 150 Breaststroke

The most important endurance set of the day was 4 × 150 meters breaststroke.

150 BR	Time	Pace/100
1	2:47.37	1:51.58
2	2:49.92	1:53.28
3	2:49.11	1:52.74
4	2:51.43	1:54.29

The four repetitions averaged approximately 1:53.0/100 m. More important than the absolute pace was the consistency. Only 4.06 seconds separated the fastest and slowest repetitions over 150 meters.

I didn’t reach the originally suggested 1:47–1:50/100 m equivalent pace for this set, but I don’t consider that a significant problem. This was part of a workout containing 1,900 meters of breaststroke, and the purpose was endurance. Maintaining relatively stable 150-meter repetitions was more valuable today than producing one or two unusually fast repetitions followed by a major fade.

Finishing with Another 4 × 100 Breaststroke

After the 150-meter repetitions and additional swimming, I returned to another 4 × 100 breaststroke set.

100 BR	Time
1	1:50.76
2	1:51.27
3	1:50.84
4	1:52.69

This may have been the most encouraging set of the workout.

The four repetitions averaged approximately 1:51.4/100 m, and less than two seconds separated the fastest and slowest 100.

The first 4 × 100 set earlier in the workout averaged approximately 1:48.7. After the 4 × 150 set and considerably more accumulated breaststroke, the second group averaged only about 2.7 seconds per 100 slower.

That is exactly the type of result I wanted from a 200-meter breaststroke endurance workout. The goal was not simply to swim a fast 100 while fresh. It was to continue producing consistent breaststroke after accumulating substantial stroke-specific fatigue.

What This Means for the 200 Breaststroke

My current 200-meter breaststroke training benchmark remains 3:27.54, equivalent to approximately 1:43.8/100 m.

200 BR	Time
Training Best	3:27.54
2025 Silver	3:38.74
2025 Bronze	3:39.92
2025 4th	4:00.27

The current training benchmark is already 11.20 seconds faster than the 2025 silver-medal time. Today’s workout wasn’t intended to challenge that 200-meter time. Instead, it addressed a different part of race preparation: maintaining stroke rhythm and useful pace as fatigue accumulates.

Today’s breaststroke ranged from approximately 1:38/100 m equivalent during the opening 50s to approximately 1:49–1:53/100 m through the longer endurance work. That creates a useful picture of both available speed and sustainable training pace.

Later in September, true 200-meter race rehearsals will have a different structure. Those efforts will occur at the beginning of the workout following only a very short warmup. That will better reproduce race-day conditions rather than asking for a race effort after already accumulating a large amount of swimming.

Training Load and Recovery

Despite swimming 200 meters farther than planned, today’s cardiovascular and overall training load was lower than yesterday.

Date	sTSS	Avg HR	IF
Sep. 2	63	127	0.97
Sep. 3	59	115	0.90

That is a good indication that today’s workout remained an endurance session rather than becoming another high-intensity day.

Recovery Continues to Improve

The TrainingPeaks recovery trend also continues moving in the desired direction.

Date	Fitness	Fatigue	Form
Sep. 1	71	116	-57
Sep. 2	71	108	-45
Sep. 3	70	101	-38

Fatigue has moved from 116 to 108 to 101 over the first three days of September, while Form has improved from -57 to -45 to -38.

I am still carrying fatigue from the large workload at the end of August, but the direction is encouraging. The objective this week is to continue training while gradually absorbing that previous workload rather than immediately replacing it with another excessive training block.

September Training Log

Date	Workout	Meters	sTSS
Sep. 1	Recovery	1,800	37
Sep. 2	Aerobic FR/BR	2,500	63
Sep. 3	BR Endurance	2,700	59
Total		7,000	159

September total: 7,000 meters and 159 sTSS.

Week One Progress

Date	Planned	Actual
Sep. 1	1,800 m	1,800 m
Sep. 2	2,500 m	2,500 m
Sep. 3	2,500 m	2,700 m
Sep. 4	2,500 m	800/1500 FR
Sep. 5	3,000 m	Long aerobic
Sep. 6	OFF	Recovery

Through September 3, the original plan called for 6,800 meters. I have completed 7,000 meters, putting the week 200 meters ahead of the preliminary schedule.

There is no reason to remove those 200 meters from another workout simply to make the totals match. Tomorrow remains the planned 2,500-meter 800/1500 freestyle endurance workout.

34 Days to the 200 Breaststroke

There are now 34 days until the October 7 Huntsman 200-meter breaststroke.

The 3:27.54 training benchmark tells me that the necessary 200-meter speed is already present. Today’s workout addressed another part of the equation: maintaining breaststroke as fatigue develops.

Over the next several weeks, those two pieces will increasingly come together. Endurance sessions will continue building the ability to resist late-race deterioration, while true race-pace rehearsals will test the 200 breaststroke under conditions that more closely resemble race day.

September 3 Takeaway

Today’s best result wasn’t the fastest 50 or 100. It was the ability to continue producing consistent breaststroke after accumulating a large amount of breaststroke-specific work.

The four 150-meter repetitions stayed within just over four seconds of one another. Even more encouragingly, after that set and additional swimming, the final four 100-meter breaststroke repetitions were 1:50.76, 1:51.27, 1:50.84 and 1:52.69.

That is the kind of consistency today’s workout was designed to develop.

With 34 days remaining until the 200 breaststroke, today’s job wasn’t to prove how fast I can swim 200 meters. It was to make sure I can still swim effective breaststroke when I’m tired. Mission accomplished.