I was tracking my progress and extrapolating a time it would ultimately take me to finish a swim of 2.4 miles. All it really is, is a giant math problem. So here is where I’m at: it takes me 12 strokes to get across 25 yards in 30 seconds. I breathe every two stokes. 2.4 miles is 4,224 yards or 168.96 times across the 25 yard pool. Each stroke I travel about 2 yards. If I could keep that pace for the length of the race, I would have a total of 2,027.52 strokes, 1,013.76 breaths (or one every 5 seconds), and it would take me 84 minutes (1 hour and 24 minutes) to swim that far.
Every time I go to the pool, I try to spend at least an hour in the water. I don’t count the laps, because I’m mostly kicking off the wall, practicing hand placement and concentrating on relaxing and breathing. I probably did 20 laps today. So that, added to another 148.96 more, and I’ll be ready to complete the ironman swim.
As I get better, all I have to do is lower the number of strokes, increase the distance with each stroke, or decrease the time it take to swim 25 yards consistently and my total time will decrease. Pretty simple, right? It’s only math.
