USMS 5K Postal - 2015

Last Friday I met Chad at Alta Canyon to time him on his USMS 5K postal swim.  He returned the favor this morning and met me at the pool to time my swim.

I really wanted to get under 1:20 this year, but wasn't sure if I would be able to.  I got sick a few weeks ago and haven't spent as much time in the pool as I usually do.

I ate a nutrition bar and drank some Gatorade on the way to the pool.  I had also packed a Buzz Bite, but forgot about it by the time I got there and didn't eat it.  I don't know that it would have made a noticeable difference.

I got in the pool as soon as the guard sat down on her chair.  One of these times when I do a postal swim, I'm going to plan ahead and warm up before I start.  Chad and I both had to get to work this morning, so I started without a warm up.

My plan was to try to swim at a consistent pace for the first 3,000 meters and then pick it up on the last 2,000.  I felt like I was holding a decent pace through the first half.  At about 2,500 meters, I found myself wanting to push it harder, but I decided to stick tot he plan and wait until I got to 3,000 meters.  In retrospect, I should have just gone for it.

This is at about 1,500 Meters.  Photo by Chad Starks

At the halfway point. Photo by Chad Starks

At 3,000 meters I started to pick up the pace a little bit. and at 4,000 I picked it up again.  For the last 500 meters, I wanted to negative split each 100.  One my last 50 I saw Chad walking down the deck telling me to pick it up.  Earlier I thought I had lost count and might have been off by 100 meters.  I was dreading finishing and having Chad tell me that I had another 100 to swim.  Turns out my count was right.  I finished and Chad gave me his report.  I ended up at 1:21:36.53, which was just short of my goal of 1:20.  Oh well, it was pretty close.  I think if I had warmed up and had listened to my body at 2,500 meters and started pushing it, I could have made it.  Next year I'd love to get my time down under 1:20.

Finished!  1:21:36.53 Photo by Chad Starks

My plan to hold a steady pace for the first 3,000 and then pick it up at 3,000 and 4,000 seemed to work pretty well.  Here are my 1,000 meter splits:

1,000 - 16:21.282,000 - 16:30.253,000 - 16:38.134,000 - 16:19.895,000 - 15:46.98

What this tells me is that I should have pushed my pace harder on the first 3,000 meters.  I had way too much left in the tank at the finish.

What's interesting is that my slowest 100M split was at 2,100 yards, which is exactly where I had my slowest split last year.  My average pace was 1:37.93.  I'll need to get that down to 1:36 per 100M to break 1:20 next year.  I think that's totally doable.

Here are my splits:

5K Postal Swim - 2015
Lap	Meters	100 Split	500 Split	1000 Split	Cumulative
2	100	01:34.05			0:01:34.05
4	200	01:39.33			0:03:13.38
6	300	01:40.46			0:04:53.84
8	400	01:38.72			0:06:32.56
10	500	01:39.41	08:11.97		0:08:11.97
12	600	01:37.64	08:15.56		0:09:49.61
14	700	01:38.67	08:14.90		0:11:28.28
16	800	01:37.41	08:11.85		0:13:05.69
18	900	01:37.66	08:10.79		0:14:43.35
20	1000	01:37.93	08:09.31	16:21.28	0:16:21.28
22	1100	01:38.69	08:10.36	16:25.92	0:17:59.97
24	1200	01:38.25	08:09.94	16:24.84	0:19:38.22
26	1300	01:37.37	08:09.90	16:21.75	0:21:15.59
28	1400	01:38.30	08:10.54	16:21.33	0:22:53.89
30	1500	01:40.02	08:12.63	16:21.94	0:24:33.91
32	1600	01:39.12	08:13.06	16:23.42	0:26:13.03
34	1700	01:38.86	08:13.67	16:23.61	0:27:51.89
36	1800	01:39.33	08:15.63	16:25.53	0:29:31.22
38	1900	01:40.34	08:17.67	16:28.21	0:31:11.56
40	2000	01:39.97	08:17.62	16:30.25	0:32:51.53
42	2100	01:41.29	08:19.79	16:32.85	0:34:32.82
44	2200	01:39.60	08:20.53	16:34.20	0:36:12.42
46	2300	01:39.16	08:20.36	16:35.99	0:37:51.58
48	2400	01:39.33	08:19.35	16:37.02	0:39:30.91
50	2500	01:39.41	08:18.79	16:36.41	0:41:10.32
52	2600	01:39.54	08:17.04	16:36.83	0:42:49.86
54	2700	01:40.23	08:17.67	16:38.20	0:44:30.09
56	2800	01:39.07	08:17.58	16:37.94	0:46:09.16
58	2900	01:40.43	08:18.68	16:38.03	0:47:49.59
60	3000	01:40.07	08:19.34	16:38.13	0:49:29.66
62	3100	01:38.72	08:18.52	16:35.56	0:51:08.38
64	3200	01:37.21	08:15.50	16:33.17	0:52:45.59
66	3300	01:37.96	08:14.39	16:31.97	0:54:23.55
68	3400	01:38.80	08:12.76	16:31.44	0:56:02.35
70	3500	01:38.40	08:11.09	16:30.43	0:57:40.75
72	3600	01:38.00	08:10.37	16:28.89	0:59:18.75
74	3700	01:37.61	08:10.77	16:26.27	1:00:56.36
76	3800	01:38.39	08:11.20	16:25.59	1:02:34.75
78	3900	01:37.61	08:10.01	16:22.77	1:04:12.36
80	4000	01:37.19	08:08.80	16:19.89	1:05:49.55
82	4100	01:35.54	08:06.34	16:16.71	1:07:25.09
84	4200	01:36.11	08:04.84	16:15.61	1:09:01.20
86	4300	01:35.93	08:02.38	16:13.58	1:10:37.13
88	4400	01:36.29	08:01.06	16:11.07	1:12:13.42
90	4500	01:35.99	07:59.86	16:08.66	1:13:49.41
92	4600	01:35.70	08:00.02	16:06.36	1:15:25.11
94	4700	01:34.65	07:58.56	16:03.40	1:16:59.76
96	4800	01:33.62	07:56.25	15:58.63	1:18:33.38
98	4900	01:33.70	07:53.66	15:54.72	1:20:07.08
100	5000	01:29.45	07:47.12	15:46.98	1:21:36.53
	Average	01:37.93	08:11.04	16:23.79
	Min	01:29.45	07:47.12	15:46.98
	Max	01:41.29	08:20.53	16:38.20

And here is a graph of my 100M splits:

Thanks to Chad for taking time out of his busy English Channel training schedule to come and time me this morning.  Now I need to figure out when I can swim the 10K postal...