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Curiouser and curiouser, said Alice…

I wasn’t expecting much today having had another poor night’s sleep as well as my muscles still feeling a bit tired from yesterday. There were three other people in the lane, one of whom in all honesty probably shouldn’t have been there and came close to having a couple of nasty accidents, but sometimes people just won’t see sense. I started off with a 43-second 50m rep, and after I’d stopped to replace my eyeballs from where they’d popped out, I had a 44, a 46 and then settled down to steady 45-second reps, even when I couldn’t tumble because of the slow swimmer getting in the way. I had one more 44 and one 46 when I got my foot placement wrong in the turn and slipped on the wall, but nothing slower.

After a few minutes rest I swam the rest of the session out with 25m reps and managed two in eighteen seconds into the bargain.

I’m certainly very happy, but also genuinely baffled as to what I am doing differently that has improved my performance so obviously. If I knew, I’d do it more 🙂

Anyhow, having managed the 50m set on a 90 second interval twice on the trot, on Monday I shall knock another five seconds off and see how it goes. I can’t help feeling it’s going to go pear-shaped at some point 🙂

It’s strange how these things go… Some days you just can’t get anywhere near where you know you can be, some others you exceed your expectations by miles.

I’ve not been sleeping particularly well this week. Often I’ve been quite cold when I’ve gone to bed, then started feeling hungry and eventually had to get up and eat something just to be able to sleep at all. It’s a bit irritating, but I recognise that the body can behave in quite odd ways when it’s trying to accommodate new physical demands so it’s probably just something I have to live with for a while.

It did mean that this afternoon when I went to the pool I wasn’t really in the best place mentally though. The only small positive was that I had the fast lane all to myself. My first couple of 50m reps were 47 and then 48 seconds and particularly since I’d knocked another five seconds off my interval I was getting myself into a “Let’s just get through this” mindset. Then I managed 46 seconds, and after that a few in the 45s. And they just kept coming. Of the twenty reps, fifteen were below 46 seconds and one was actually forty-four point something. I’ve no idea what brought this on. Obviously the interval is still a decent amount longer than I want it to be eventually, but it’s right up there with the fastest I’ve ever done the actual swimming.

I treated myself to a bit longer recovery before doing ten 25m reps, all of which were below twenty seconds and some getting very close to dropping into the eighteens for the first time in more than a year.

So I came home very happy in the end and as a bonus it reinforces the feeling that it’s always worth doing even when you’re not really in the right mood.

It was a bit of a chaotic trip to the pool today. I got halfway to the pool to find the road closed. No warnings or diversion signs or anything helpful like that beforehand 🙁 So, I had to turn around and drive about three miles back the way I’d come and then go through all the windy country backroads instead and was a couple of minutes late for the start of the session and not really in the right frame of mind. (It wasn’t closed on the way back — looks like they’d just decided to close it for half an hour whilst they made a fairly poor job of patching up some potholes.)

I didn’t have as many 50m reps below 47 seconds today as I did yesterday, but every single one was below 48 seconds and the 25m reps I did at the end were all nineteen point something, even getting close to dropping into the eighteens at one point. Overall I was happy with the consistency of performance. Day off tomorrow, then I’ll be back on Thursday and drop the interval down to 90 seconds.

An earlier swimming session than normal today, so I could get my hair cut for the first time in four months! How much faster will I be now? 🙂

I reduced the interval to 95 seconds for today as planned and whilst I didn’t feel entirely on the ball the session actually went pretty well. I had no problem with the 50m or 25m reps. Nothing special, but being able to complete them first time having reduced the interval is a good sign I think.

I have no idea if it’s relevant or not, but the pool was slightly warmer today. They’ve kept it at 27C for the last couple of weeks which is fine if you’re swimming fairly hard, but not particularly great for the slower swimmers or children. Today it definitely felt warmer, though still cooler than normal.

Anyhow, back tomorrow with the same set, minus lots of hair…

A repeat of yesterday’s set, which I honestly thought probably couldn’t go any better, but in fact I had around a quarter of my 50m swims below 47s and only a couple in the 48s, so I was both pleased and surprised. The 25m reps were probably on a par with yesterday though I can’t deny that I was getting quite tired by that point, not just from today’s swimming, but from the increase in activity throughout the week.

Still, another successful set means another reduction in interval, so when I return to the pool next week it will be 95 seconds. Still very relaxed by comparison with where I was before Christmas, but I’m quite happy to build things up slowly having not swum for three and a half months.

Having managed the previous sessions without too much bother today I knocked five seconds off the interval, bringing it down to 100 seconds. Until such time as I get closer to having twenty to twenty-five seconds rest that’s all I’m going to change.

Despite some interruptions from a lady sharing the lane who was asking for coaching tips (not that I minded, but it makes it more tricky to stick to the intervals), I managed the full twenty reps with no failures and in fact was getting close to a second faster again then I was on Tuesday, with a few 46-second reps, most between 47 and 48 seconds and a couple just over 48.

Unlike last time however, my 25m reps were also faster today with most being below 20s, so I’m happy enough with that.

I’ll attempt the same set tomorrow and if that goes well then I’ll drop the interval down again.

I stuck with the same plan for today as yesterday and very happily found that for all of my 50m reps I was a comfortable second faster than I’d managed only twenty-four hours previously. Even the 25m reps were no slower than yesterday despite feeling quite tired by the time I got that far.

I won’t be swimming tomorrow, but the plan for the following day will now be to repeat the set with the rest interval reduced by five seconds and we’ll see how that goes.

I decided to work off the clock when I swam today, but still take it fairly easy, so I set myself a target of doing twenty 50m swims in under 60 seconds on an interval of 105 seconds. After that I’d do some single lengths on a 60 second interval until the end of the session, just to see what sort of times I could maintain.

The 50s actually went surprisingly well. In fact it wasn’t that hard to maintain a pace of under 50 seconds for each rep though I did have a brief stray into the fifty-point-somethings around three quarters of the way through.

The single lengths all ended up around nineteen to twenty seconds, which I guess is ok for now. I’m really struggling to get sufficient arm speed to be able to go faster, but that should come back with practice.

I’ll attempt the same thing tomorrow and if that all goes ok then I’ll reduce the interval to 100 seconds for later in the week.