Making waves

I wasn't planning on making a post today, but my swim went so well I had to share. I got in around 3:30, as usual, since I work until 3. I was able to get in about 1100m warmup before starting the main set. The main set was 10x50/5x100/2x200/1x400/rest 2min/1x400/2x200/5x100/10x50 on :45 base. I've been waiting for a set like this for a while, but lately we've only been doing speed work in the pool. Going into the set I felt like I was ready to nail it, but that quickly turned around. I started off by holding 40s on the 50m, 1:20s on the 100m, 2:45s on the 200m and 5:35 on the 400m. I was killing the set, but I was beginning to realize that keeping the same effort level was starting to mean holding slower times. I tried ramping up the effort as much as I could, but I knew I still had half the set to go. Of course I was slower for the second half, but not as bad as I expected. I went 5:40 on the second 400, which was really tough and from then on it became about how determined I was to finish this set. I knew if I could get through this set that I was in good shape for the summer so I really gave everything today. The second set of 200m were 2:50, and the 100m 1:25. I had the hardest part done, now it was just a matter of finishing strong. The 50m were so short that counting down was enough to keep me going strong until the end. I held around 41s for the last set of 50m and boy was my body burning up. My head is still warm as I type this. Fair enough to say, finishing a 3600m set on 45s base felt great. I am now confident that I can reach the goals that I set out in terms of swimming for the summer so now it's just a matter of keeping that swim fitness and getting my legs back to 100% so I can focus on my bike run which still require loads of work. That's all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with updates from the chiropractor.

Until next time,
Matt Mahaffy