Best of times

I am coming to the realisation that about 7:10am on Wednesday morning is my favourite time of the week. By 7:10 I usually have finished my Wednesday morning swim. Associated with finishing that swim is a nice rush of endorphins, which certainly helps me feel good, but it is more than that. There is the feeling of pride that comes with knowing you have knocked off a good session, just put a big chunk of change in the bank so to speak. Best the best feeling is the one of relief that you get from knowing that you now have a whole week until your next Wednesday morning swim.

Generally about 7:10am on Wednesday I feel great.

This morning's swim was a pretty typical Wednesday morning swim. So tough.

It was a mixture of 100s, done on a pretty quick turn around time and long efforts. The 'short rest' 100s were really the recovery, which gives you an idea of how the session is meant to feel. The target times for the long efforts were quick. The group I train with didn't manage to hit our target times, but we managed to smash ourselves into little pieces in the attempt. The second of the long efforts was an 800, which was pretty painful. The last of the long pieces was 1000m (for those interested the first long effort was a 500m, but that was pretty uneventful). After the 800 my brain decided that it wasn't that keen on doing another hard 800, and then adding another 200m on to it. The internal conversation between my brain and my body after the 800m went something like this:

Okay we will do the 200m recovery, but not any more
Oh all right we will do the 4 x 100m set, but we are definitely not starting that 1000m
I said we are definitely not starting the 1000m
What are you doing
Did you just push off the wall to start the 1000.
That's it I am out of here.

The 1000m wasn't pretty. To be honest it didn't hurt as much as the 800m because I didn't have enough left to swim fast enough to really put the hurt on. But the last 300m or so were pretty unpleasant all the same. The feeling you get at the end of the session though, knowing you have stuck with it and knocked off a tough set. That really is a great feeling. I can't overstate just how much I wanted to call the session off after that 800m. All I kept saying to myself though was, 'no excuses', 'if you cut this session short, what is to stop you doing it next Wednesday'. That was enough to get me through.

I am very happy that I did.