PB for the 5K Swim: 17 January 2010

I don’t understand the human body or human performance. I had set the alarm for 5 am so I could eat a light breakfast and make the 7 am swim at the Riverplex. But when the alarm went off, I wanted to roll over and go back to sleep….but my wife wanted to turn the radio on.

So I grumbled, got out of bed and did what I had planned to do. Ironically, I still felt full from my “friend” rice dinner the night before (inside joke with a facebook friend) and didn’t feel that good until I actually started to swim. I felt slightly bloated and not “empty”.
I told myself: “swim steadily until you get tired of it, then throw in enough intervals to get 5K”

I was alone during the first 1000 and then a young woman entered the next lane; though she is fitter than I am she swims as if she hates the water and wants to beat it up; hence I lapped her every 9 laps or so. When I saw that I was going to average under 17 minutes per 1000 for the next 3000 yards or so, I knew that I’d keep going until I got 5K. (5500 yards)

My first 500 was my slowest (4:31) and I started to warm up; my 1000 yard splits were as follows:
17:40, 16:56, 16:53, 17:00, 17:18 (got content and lazy), 8:40 for the final 500.
Time: 1:34:29, which is a 2:05 PB.

Note: my first 4250 yard (Ironman distance) split was 1:12:49 and my 1000 to 5250 split was 1:12:26, which is just 14 seconds slower than my PB for this (set in April, 1999, back when I ran a 1:34 half marathon and a 20:40 5K)

I then added some backstroke (with fins) and sidestroke to stretch out; I ended up with 6000 yards total.

What I don’t understand:

1. Why does one sometimes perform well when one isn’t feeling their best?

2. Why is my swimming much better than my running? Last year, I couldn’t break 24 minutes for the 5K when I used to run under 20 minutes 10-11 years ago, yet this was my best 5K swim ever? Even if we compare the longer distance runs, in 1999 my half marathon was 1:34; I can’t even keep that pace up for 2 miles now-a-days.
Others have told me that they have slowed down less in distance swimming than in distance running.

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