Saturday, November 6, 2010

So freakin' cool

Do you ever have days where you wake up and don't expect anything great to happen and then all of a sudden you get to the end of the day and feel totally surprised by what has just happened? Well today was that day!!!

It started off like any other Saturday, the usual housework and catching up on a tonne of washing - I am sure my clothes breed like rabbits. It never seems empty - drives me batty. So anyway, will stop commenting on my laundry drama's - this blog isn't called Trying a Laundromat.

So this afternoon I headed off to the pool for the TopNotch swim sessions, and what lay ahead I can only class as awesome. I was feeling like "this can't be happening". How can I finish this set and still feel good. Yes I was a bit tired (cardio wise) but I still felt strong in my body and that had me totally stoked.

We started off with the usual warm-up and then we did some drills focusing once again on form, so there was alot of sculls and rock n' roll type drills. Love doing this makes you really focus on how you catch the water and drag it from the moment your hand hits the water till it leaves just at your hip.

We then had a 100m time trial. Jodie was then going to use this as a gauge on our main set times. As I started off I really just tried to focus on nice long strokes and a really hard kick. I was hoping that my time would be as good as the effort I put into it and I was really surprised - 1:12.
I just did a 100m Fr/s 8 secs slower than what I used to do as a teen. Not bad I reckon. If I keep working at it then I should hopefully get it under the 1:10 in the not too distant future. Woohoo.

After that TT my main set was 12 x 100m leaving on 1:45 - catch was Jodie wanted me coming in nothing slower than 1:25. This kind of had me a bit scared as I was not sure if I could hold out for 1200m at that pace, but I once again proved myself wrong. I did my first 100 on 1:18 and realised this was not going to be a pace I could maintain so I slowed it down a bit and really focused on nice, long, slow, powerful strokes. Then remaining 11 I managed to hold between 1:20 and 1:23 - nice and steady times, and although after each 100 I felt slightly breathless, I was pretty much raring to go come the 1:45.

This is just too cool. I always thought that even though I was an okay swimmer, I never really thought I could improve much more. But this is proving to me otherwise. I am feeling like I have so much more to give and the more I train I really think my swim times will continue to get better and better. I am terribly excited.

Your hard work will be rewarded.

"The path to a dream is paved with sacrifices and lined with determination. And though it has many stumbling blocks along the way, and may go in more than one direction, it is travelled by belief and courage and conquered with a willingness to face challenges and take chances" Barbara Cage