Didn’t entirely feel like going swimming today thanks to general tiredness and a bit of stiffness in my back, but I dragged myself along to keep the momentum going. This was my second attempt at:
400m front crawl warm-up
25 x 50m front crawl, target time 53s, rest interval 22s
200m front crawl swim down
I was surprised when without apparently trying particularly hard my first two reps were below 47s, and the first ten were all below 50s. I had a few excursions into the 50s after that, but kept below 51s for the entire set and even my last two 50s when I was feeling quite tired were still in the 49s, so overall I was very pleased with how things went.
I suspect the improvement in speed may be to do with getting my hips and legs a little higher in the water so they’re creating less drag. When I focus strongly on doing that my times seem to drop even when I’m getting tired, and there’s a definite change in the feel of the water as it flows around me, almost as if it’s slipping around me rather than me having to push through it.
Tomorrow is a short public session and often further reduced by a school session not finishing on time, so I think I’ll have a technique session tomorrow and then get back to a new set with a 52s target time and 23s rest interval next Monday.
USRPT distance this year: 65,700m
Total distance this year: 158,900m