Up and down

Up and down kind of session this morning. Being Wednesday I was down to Claremont pool for the Wednesday morning long swim.The session started off pretty okay with a set of 10 x 150m and then 5 x 300m. I missed this session last week by being sick, so part way through I was surprised to see that I was managing the session reasonably well. Fatigued by the end of the 300s, but not exhausted. But to finish off the we had a 1500m, which is where things stopped going so okay.

For various reasons, mainly to do with others not feeling great, I was placed at the head of our lane, given the task of leading out and holding pace. Man did I fail at that task. The little wetromes that we use to help us keep pace were only set to go off every 300m, more of a reminder than a pace check. So it really came down to the individual to get the pace correct. Right from the word go I was off the pace. I am not sure where it went wrong, tired from the rest of the session, poor feel for the required pace? Not sure really, but I was behind, way behind. Not a great feeling way to finish the session. Frustrating to, because the rest of the session had been a challenge, but good. I couldn't have done the times we were holding for the 150s a couple of months ago. It just meant I finished off the session feeling low, which is never nice.

On the bike tonight, which hopefully will be a nice spinny session. I am looking forward to it. It was pretty wet this morning, but the day has cleared right up, so the weather this afternoon should be fine. Windy, but fine. I am looking forward to a good finish to the day.

Potentially quite an interesting experience on the books for tomorrow. We have a shop just down the road from my work called The Running Centre. They sell shoes etc, but they also have employee a couple of physios and running coaches. Tomorrow I have a running analysis session with one of their physios. Apparently the output of the session is a USB stick full of exercises and strength work intended to help you,

a) go faster; and
b) not get hurt.

Some of the biggest gains I have had in running have come off the back of injuries that have led to technique changes and strengthening. I am hoping this might lead to a similar sort of outcome, without needing to get hurt first. We shall see. The shop is run by runners and from what I have seen they are fairly major advocates of minimalist running. I have nothing against minimalist running, but it isn't for me. So I will be a bit mindful of whether the advice I get is trying to steer me in that direction. But at the same time I have never really be shown how to run properly. Every improvement I have made is stuff I have sort of picked up as I have gone along. I have got the point where I think I run okay, but it is not something I have ever been coached in. This could potentially be a good source of knowledge to help me improve my running further. It may not be, but I figure it is worth going along to find out.