Celebrating the 400IM

The other night I had to do some long set that mixed long freestyle hard/easy efforts, with some IM work, which included one 400IM - thanks Jen! ;-)

I hate 400IM. I always hated it as an age group swimmer, as a collegiate swimmer, and now as a masters swimmer. I hate it worse than brussel sprouts or stuffed peppers.

But when you do 400 IM’s, it is worth celebrating. Just finishing one and not dying is worthy of a smile to yourself. Finishing the 100fly of the 400IM gets a silent cheer as you push off the wall for backstroke, praying to break the surface and gasp a big breath. Not doing lazy cheating one arm turns on the 100fly (and even the 100 breast) is an even bigger accomplishment. And if you never break stroke on the 100fly, then I think that deserves to become a get-out swim. But only if you don’t dog the remaining 300. So, my first 400IM after being out of the water for the month of October, and back in for maybe 7 or 8 swims was not a swim worthy of get-out status. In fact, my 400IM’s are never worthy of get-out status. Monday night, I did all one arm turns on the fly. I kicked off each wall at least 6-8 kicks to minimize the number of strokes I had to do, and I embarrassingly admit to some one arm fly! ACK! I swear next one will be better. And even though I swore off swimming another 400IM in a masters meet – ever – I’m pretty sure I’ll give in and do another this year. I want to go under that 5 minute barrier.