Today marks 53 days until my first event at the 2026 Huntsman World Senior Games, and today’s swim completed what has deliberately been a much lighter week of training.
I again held the workout to 2,500 meters. Most of the first 2,000 meters was easy mixed freestyle and breaststroke swimming. Then, rather than simply adding more distance, I finished with 500 meters devoted entirely to breaststroke.
That was intentional because tomorrow marks another change in the training plan. After using this week to recover from two extremely large weekends, I’m going to spend the coming week putting substantially more emphasis on the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke.
August 15 Workout Summary
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Total Distance | 2,500 m |
| Breaststroke Distance | 1,500 m |
| Freestyle Distance | 1,000 m |
| Total Swim Time | 44:29.02 |
| Total Rest Time | 5:55.46 |
| Total Session Time | 50:24.48 |
| Overall Moving Pace | 1:46.76 /100 m |
| Average Freestyle Pace | 1:35.77 /100 m |
| Average Breaststroke Pace | 1:54.09 /100 m |
Workout Structure
The first 2,000 meters were deliberately easy and mixed. Stroke identification below comes from the FORM goggles’ length-by-length data rather than relying solely on the name FORM assigned to each set.
| Set | Structure | Stroke Composition | Distance | Swim Time | Pace /100 | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 × 1000 | 500 FR / 500 BR | 1,000 m | 17:35.01 | 1:45.50 | 0:28.84 |
| 2 | 1 × 200 | 100 FR / 100 BR | 200 m | 3:29.90 | 1:44.95 | 0:46.97 |
| 3 | 2 × 400 | 400 FR / 400 BR | 800 m | 14:23.91 | 1:47.99 | 1:11.03 |
| 4 | 6 × 50 | 300 BR | 300 m | 5:21.24 | 1:47.08* | 2:31.14 |
| 5 | 2 × 100 | 200 BR | 200 m | 3:38.96 | 1:49.48* | 0:57.48 |
*Pace for interval sets is calculated from swimming time only. Recovery between repetitions is excluded.
The First 2,000 Meters: Easy by Design
The first 2,000 meters weren’t intended to produce race benchmarks. They were primarily continuous mixed-stroke swimming at a controlled effort.
The opening 1,000 meters contained exactly 500 meters of freestyle and 500 meters of breaststroke and took 17:35.01.
That was followed by another 200 meters split evenly between the two strokes and then 2 × 400 meters, again containing equal amounts of freestyle and breaststroke.
By the 2,000-meter mark I had accumulated exactly 1,000 meters freestyle and 1,000 meters breaststroke. That was enough general aerobic work for today.
The final 500 meters changed the purpose of the workout.
6 × 50M Breaststroke
The first breaststroke-specific set was 6 × 50 meters with recovery between each repeat.
| 50M | Time | 100M Equivalent Pace |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 52.95 | 1:45.90 |
| 2 | 52.79 | 1:45.58 |
| 3 | 52.39 | 1:44.78 |
| 4 | 54.83 | 1:49.66 |
| 5 | 54.87 | 1:49.74 |
| 6 | 53.41 | 1:46.82 |
The fastest was 52.39, but the more useful result was the consistency. All six repeats fell within a range of only 2.48 seconds.
The final repeat also came back down to 53.41 after two 54-second swims. There wasn’t a progressive collapse across the set.
Finishing With 2 × 100M Breaststroke
The final set was the most relevant to where my training goes next: 2 × 100-meter breaststroke.
| 100M | Time | Current Best | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:51.50 | 1:42.55 | +8.95 |
| 2 | 1:47.46 | 1:42.55 | +4.91 |
The second 100 was actually 4.04 seconds faster than the first.
That’s noteworthy because it came at the very end of the workout. I had already completed 2,400 meters, including 1,400 meters of breaststroke, before beginning that final 100.
A 1:47.46 isn’t a new benchmark—my current best remains 1:42.55—but today wasn’t intended to be a benchmark workout. Finishing an easy 2,500-meter session with a sub-1:48 breaststroke 100 is a useful result going into a week specifically devoted to improving the stroke.
Current Huntsman Benchmarks
Today’s workout doesn’t change any of my official race-distance training 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 |
The Breaststroke Hump
The freestyle events have made significant jumps during this training cycle. Breaststroke has improved too, particularly the 200, but I feel like I’ve reached a point where simply swimming more breaststroke isn’t necessarily producing the improvement I want in the 100 and 200.
That’s the hump I want to work on next.
My current 200-meter training best of 3:31.71 is already faster than the 2025 Huntsman bronze-medal result. The 100-meter best of 1:42.55, however, remains 4.60 seconds behind last year’s fourth-place time and 9.58 seconds behind bronze.
The answer probably isn’t another enormous endurance block. The next step is to concentrate more specifically on the things that determine breaststroke speed: maintaining an effective stroke under load, getting more speed from each pull and kick, controlling stroke timing, improving turns and pullouts, and learning to hold a faster pace without technique deteriorating.
Tomorrow Starts a Breaststroke Week
The recovery week has done what I wanted it to do.
I reduced the swimming volume, stayed active, took a complete day away from the pool yesterday with a dryland run, and returned today for another controlled 2,500-meter swim.
Tomorrow I’ll begin a week with a much stronger breaststroke emphasis.
That doesn’t mean simply piling on thousands of meters of breaststroke. The objective will be quality and specificity.
I want to work specifically on the two events where there is still a speed problem to solve: the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke.
The 100 requires more speed. The 200 requires finding the balance between that speed and holding technically sound breaststroke for four lengths of a 50-meter competition pool.
53 Days to Go
There are now 53 days until the first race.
This week was about backing away from the enormous training loads of the previous two weekends and giving that work time to settle in.
Today was an appropriate way to finish that phase: 2,500 controlled meters, an easy first 2,000, then six consistent breaststroke 50s and two breaststroke 100s to finish.
Tomorrow the objective changes.
Instead of asking how much breaststroke I can swim, the question for the coming week will be:
What do I need to change to make my breaststroke faster?
With 53 days remaining, there is still time to find out.
Today’s headline: An easy 2,500-meter swim closed out recovery week, with the final 500 meters dedicated entirely to breaststroke. Tomorrow begins a more intensive week aimed specifically at breaking through the plateau in my 100 and 200 breaststroke times.
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