Early Hope

So as most of you know I started my swim focused training at the beginning of November. I have a goal of reaching a 16 minute 1000 yd time trial by the time March rolls around. It seems to be a pretty daunting goal considering the first time trial I did was 17:21 on the first of November. That reduction is the equivalent of going from a 1:45/100yd pace to a 1:36/100 pace.

I started swimming 5x a week, with 4 out of the 5 swims focusing heavily on drills to hopefully bring about changes to my stroke that make me faster and more efficient in the water. Today my swim set consisted of 1000 yds of drilling followed by a nice, easy 1500 yd continuous swim. Well, my time for the first 1000 of the 1500 was 17:04, a 0:17 reduction from just 19 days ago. And this was an easy swim! Just a nice long, efficient stroke. No heavy breathing. No really pushing the pace. I won't time trial again for another month, but I'm ecstatic about the progress I'm seeing in just 3 dedicated weeks.

For the first time I'm feeling like I don't have to settle for being just an average swimmer. Granted I have a lot of work to do if I ever want to be front of pack, but if I can continue to make progress I feel like maybe I can contend at not just sprints, but Olys as well.

It has me completely excited to head to the pool for each workout. In fact I'm bummed I'll have to miss a few over Thanksgiving, but I've already set a record high for monthly swim yardage. I can't wait to add to it!