Is A 30 Minute Swim Worth It? Hell Yeah!

It looks like I'm on a roll with 2 swims in one week, hell one month!  Mind you it wasn't much of a swim today.  It's not only hot outside it's hot in the pool.  The water temp was 89F and swimming in the noon time sun wasn't a good thing.  So I just putz'ed around a bit.  I figure any swim is better then no swim. 

Now the fine folks over at Triathlete Europe asks "Is A 30-Minute Swim Session Long Enough?"  The article has 2 swim coaches debating the topic.  I don't agree on everything said in the article but one coach broke down a typical 60 minute workout as "In a typical 60-minute Masters workout, most athletes can complete a good warm-up, a technique-improvement set, an aerobic or anaerobic set and finish with a cool-down. Those are the four components of any successful trip to the pool."  Which all in all is great but for most Triathlete or Master Swimmers our time is limited and may not be able to swim 60 minutes workout during the work week.  A few 30 minute workout during the week with 15 minutes warm up and drill and 15 minutes of high-intensity short-interval is good enough.  Just as long they are doing longer workouts on the weekend.  With that said my 30 minute workout...

Warm Up:

Putzed around for a 300 then pulled with paddles a 100.

Main (ONLY) Set:

4 Rounds of 4x50's on 60.  IM Switches

Fly/Back, 50 Back, Back/Breast, Breast/Free the extra 50 back was my sunbathing time.

1    :41.4     50     1:23
2    1:29.4     50     1:46
3    :46.3     50     1:33
4    :43.4     50     1:27
5    :46.1     50     1:32
6    :49.5     50     1:39
7    :46.3     50     1:33
8    :42.0     50     1:24
9    :46.3     50     1:33
10    :50.8     50     1:42
11    :46.3     50     1:33
12    :42.8     50     1:26
13    :45.4     50     1:31
14    :50.0     50     1:40
15    :46.9     50     1:34

I will admit the first 4 were not on an interval as I was chatting with the swimmers getting out of the pool from the retired folks swim team.  I had suggested sculling paddles to a couple of the swimmers the other week and they wanted to show me them.

So a 1,200 yard 30 Minute workout.  Not bad.

My Progress for Go The Distance 2014
Month    Total Distance
Jan    2.76 miles (=4,850 yards, =4,435 meters)
Feb    4.15 miles (=7,300 yards, =6,675 meters)
Mar    5.82 miles (=10,250 yards, =9,373 meters)
Apr    7.41 miles (=13,050 yards, =11,933 meters)
May    13.59 miles (=23,926 yards, =21,878 meters)
Jun    5.60 miles (=9,850 yards, =9,007 meters)
Jul    2.44 miles (=4,300 yards, =3,932 meters)
Aug    1.82 miles (=3,200 yards, =2,926 meters)
Total    43.59 miles (=76,726 yards, =70,159 meters)

My goal is to swim tomorrow and Thursday then Sunday.  Gotta keep this roll going!