14. My Favorite Piece of Training Equipment

What significance does the number 77 1/4 mean?  I will tell you in a paragraph or two.  One the tough parts about training for an IM particularly in MN is the winters are long and swimming outside in open water is pretty much non existent between Oct and May.  So a lot of time is spent in the pool.  I belong to a gym that has a 6 lane lap pool and for the most part I can find a lane to myself whenever I go.

When training for my original IM  I was very concerned about not being able to "do it".  So to compensate for lack of experience and excess worry I varied my training from most others.  While your typical IM program  in the beginning is focused on building strength.  I from the very beginning focused on building distance in all phases.  So for example while your typical IMD (IronMan Dude) in the early season was working on doing sprint freestyles to build muscle I was in the next lane doing lap after lap until I knew that I could do the distance.  Not very effective if you want to learn how to go fast, very effective for building confidence.  In fact in all my preparation for IMCDA, I didn't do one swim technique workout.  Everything I did was for distance.  I would judge success on how many laps I did in a certain time.  I watched YouTube videos on swimming technique to help me strengthen what I already had, but didn't spend the time just doing a standard 4x100 type workouts.

This brings me to the original question.  At my pool it takes me 77 1/4 laps to complete 2.4 miles worth of swimming.  I wouldn't have been able to ever do it if I didn't have my favorite training tool.  Its the H2o Audio Interval.  I have the previous version than the one pictured, this one holds the 4th generation Ipod, mine holds the 3rd generation but same concept.  Sound quality wise most of the time it works really well for the first 15 mins, then water gets into the ear piece so the sound falls off to maybe a 6 or 7 out of 10, but all in all it makes doing laps in the pool so much easier.  I will have to give AZ the credit on this one, he actually introduced this to me and makes the pool time much less suicidal.