Breaking Through

Though I haven't been running, I have been swimming. However, the past few months I've felt like I have been hitting a wall. Two of my fellow lane-mates have recently jumped over to Lane 3 and I'm being left behind. Yes - I'm feeling sorry for myself.

Much of my frustration stems from the fact that I haven't been happy with my performances in the water. Not in practice and certainly not in competition. First there was the Eel Lake Open Water swim - 1500m - in August. To state that I swam terribly is an understatement!

Then there was the 3000m postal swim in November. I felt pretty strong throughout the swim but only managed to improve my time over last year by a few seconds. I didn't even bother to blog about it but thought I'd post my splits now... just for kicks. You'll need to click on the image to enlarge it. The numbers in the margin on the left indicate the number of strokes I took per length - obviously, my form began to suffer as fatigue set in.

Based on my splits, it is apparent that I should be having more success during practice. Particularly during Bob's predictable 30 minutes of 100s on alternate Fridays. In Lane 2, our interval with the obligatory 10 seconds of rest is 2:05. I'm lucky if I can get in 4 or 5 hundreds before I need to sit out a 50. In the end, I complete about 12 hundreds. A 2:30 interval - Urgh! So frustrating!

So the past two weeks, my buddies Deb and Scott have been swimming in Lane 3 and I have been left in Lane 2. I have been feeling really strong though and have been leading most of the workouts. So - when Bob asked for a few people to move over on Friday to even out numbers - I immediately jumped.

The plan was 20 minutes of 1oos followed by 8 minutes of 50s. All freestyle. The interval for the 100s in Lane 3 was 1:50. Yikes. I was a little nervous but Scott said, "You'll do fine. Just take it easy." I thereby followed behind, making a promise to myself that I was going to keep up. I can do this. I can maintain this pace for 3000m ... for an hour. I darn well can do 20 minutes with rest breaks!

The first few were a little fast... 1:45ish. The middle few were 1:50ish. The final few were 1:55ish. All the while I felt great! Finally... breaking through the wall!

Though I was successful on Friday - today I returned to my comfort zone and dove into Lane 2. I got in a solid 1050m warm-up before the drill set 3 x (4 x 25 freestyle fists/catch-up). The main set that followed was a medley mix: 5 x 25m fly, 5 x 50m back, 5 x 75m breast and 5 x 100m free. I led on the back and free rounds and felt solid throughout.

Back to back workouts. 2600m. I'm feeling good. Now to start running again. My kicks are calling me.