Swim test

This morning I didn't go to Masters swim... I went to the local high school pool to do my timed swim test - 10x100yds with exactly ten seconds in between. At a pace that was almost all out but yet something I could manage for all 10 intervals without falling apart. I did a leisurely warm up, in absolutely no hurry to get to the main set. I actually brought a watch with me to the pool (because I had to) and, to tell you the truth, I was a bit curious what my swim time would average out to be for the 100s. I held things together for intervals 1-9, doing flip turns and everything (I don't know how I used to swim and NOT do flip turns), and on the tenth interval, the wheels were starting to come off. I was so glad to be done. But, overall it really wasn't that bad and I found that I was mentally in the game as well, just focusing on the interval at hand and not counting down the moments until I would be finished. I think that made it easier to do all ten AND it actually went by pretty quickly.

The final result - a 1:38 average for all 10. I know my split for the first one was 1:35 but after that I just stopped trying to figure it out. And even though 1:38 isn't fast by most standards, I'm pretty pleased with it - not too long ago I couldn't have kept that pace for 50 yards to save my life. I'm a runner, not a swimmer. But slowly I've started to become a runner who swims, and I've noticed that when I go to the local pool, I'm not the slowest one there. I think that sometimes (on the good days) I could even be mistaken for a swimmer! Let's just put it this way, in my very first triathlon back in 2005 (a disaster in itself in terms of the swimming and biking) it took me 34:47 to do a 1200m swim. At Savageman this year, I did a 2000m swim in about the same amount of time. It pays not to dog paddle!

So, a good day in terms of the swim. AND Mark comes home tonight - I pick him up in just a few hours from the airport! Yaaaaaay!