September 6, 2026 – A Day Out of the Pool and 31 Days to Huntsman

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.