1000 Yard Time Trial Beast Out

On Thursday, another 1k TT had been planned for the pool.  The time to beat was 15:12.  My secret goal was sub-15:00, also the projected month-end target we were shooting for.  When I began that morning on the functional training work, I knew I was strong.  I hardly broke a sweat going through the exercises that typically would begin perspiration immediately.  It was then that I knew, as long as my stroke felt strong, that I would be beating my PR for the 1000.  As soon as I hit the water, I knew I had it.  I was anxious getting through the first 1800 yard drills, etc, to get to the TT.  Finally I launched at a pretty good clip.  The idea was to negative split this so that I could finish strong.  The main difference between this and the last effort was a greater sense of urgency coming off the wall and a renewed focus.  I maintained bilateral breathing throughout the first 750 or so.  Having peeked at the clock after 500, I knew I was in for a record-breaking split.  7:13 at the half-way point.  I was feeling pretty fatigued, but knew I would have enough to break 15:00 (I hoped).  Switching to unilateral breathing, I blasted the last 100 finishing up on the back half with a 7:11 split.  14:24, all in!  Absolutely destroyed the goal with perfect pacing and execution.  This is a 52 second improvement in 1 month, representing a 5 s/100yd gain over the threshold distance. 

Swim training is certainly paying off.  I have enjoyed the pool work, to date, and the ability to ‘feel’ the water has massively improved my technique.  The drills, non-free work and the consistency of all these are paying huge dividends.  The swim is not going to be something just to get through now, its going to be a key, strategic tactic and advantage for my race planning going forward.