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Despite reducing my interval time to 85 seconds on Monday, today was really my first session that I could do properly and it went ok. I completed all twenty 50m reps, though it was getting tough towards the end. I think that might actually be due to not getting enough calories on board at breakfast and then struggling to recover the situation in time after lunch. After a few minutes rest I attempted some 25m reps, but couldn’t manage as many below 19s as I did earlier in the week. That might be for the same reason. However, I did have three reps on 19.00, 19.01 and 19.06, so I wasn’t far out. I think 0.06 seconds is probably about the length of a finger.

Back tomorrow for another go.

I thought two of us were going to have the lane to ourselves today, but a couple of other swimmers arrived slightly late and I lost track of where I was whilst we were shuffling ourselves about. The dream continues however: despite the reduction in interval to 85 seconds I only had one 50m rep over 46 seconds today and that was when I badly fluffed a turn. Most of the rest were forty-five point something, with several 44s, a 43, and on one rep only I was back in less than 43 seconds! After a few minutes rest and a gentle paddle keeping out of everyone’s way, I managed all but two of my 25m reps in under nineteen seconds. I tried really hard on the last to keep it to the one, but I really was running on empty by that point and I just couldn’t keep the pace up.

Day off tomorrow, then I shall be back for another go on Thursday.

I don’t usually do bank holiday swimming sessions, but given the more formal arrangements for lanes etc. at the moment I thought I’d give it a go today. There were only two of us using the fast lane at the start of the session, so we took a lane line each and everything was going (ahem) swimmingly. Then four boys in their late teens arrived with someone who was presumably the dad of at least one. They all decided to use the fast lane too. Admittedly the boys were relatively quick, though rarely over more than a single length. Unfortunately much of the time they just hung around at the ends getting in the way, had poor lane discipline, stopped swimming halfway down the lane, swam two abreast and generally caused chaos. The dad probably shouldn’t have been in the fast lane at all. Doubly so when he decided to swim breaststroke 🙁

I slogged it out to the end, but I’m not really sure I actually gained much benefit from it. I certainly can’t count it as a successful completion of the set because I had so many delays that I really couldn’t do it properly. Such is life. I shall return tomorrow and have a proper go.

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.