Return to routine

Tough, long swim this morning. No real surprises there, I just wanted to point it out. The Friday Swim Smooth session is usually pretty tough. After than I then had a bit of an extra, post session, swimming on the program, so that made it long. Longest swim I have had for quite some time in fact. It felt good, but I was pretty fatigued as I finished up.

The main set we were doing in the Swim Smooth Session involved a 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500. The goal pace for all the pieces was pretty quick. If you weren't able to hold the pace, the idea was that you would then eat into your rest. The set absolutely shredded the group. Basically somebody would lead out the lane until they popped and then we would swap out. I led out the 300 and the 400. Unfortunately for everyone behind me I think I was blown by about the 250m mark of the 400. Challenging set.

I have a shortish run on the program for this afternoon. But I have a phyiso appointment first and that will probably dictate what happens on the run. The appointment is for my left hamstring, which is feeling much better, thanks for asking. I am barely aware of it now, only getting twinges very occasionally. It certainly hasn't bothered me for the last couple of runs I have done. At my last physio appointment they did a bit of dry needling, which I think helped a lot, however, since it involves sticking needles into your muscles, it does mean you can't really run for a while afterwards. Certainly not later the same day. I will wait and see what the physio suggests today. The hamstring is feeling good enough that I don't think it needs any particularly drastic treatment, and so more dry needling might be overkill. However, if she convinces me that the benefits of the dry needling will outweigh the cost of missing my run tonight then I will probably go for it.

I have been going to the physio at The Running Centre for the last little while now and I have been pretty happy with them. Last time I was there I saw Lee-Anne the physio and I came away impressed. All the physios at The Running Centre are athletes, Lee-Anne being a triathlete, and so they don't tend to steer you away from training unnecessarily. I have had a enough good experiences there to put a bit of faith in their judgement. That's why if she recommends dry needling I will take her advice. Maybe I am just looking for an excuse to not go running this afternoon...

Perth returns to scorching temperatures tomorrow. I think the forecast is for 38 or something similarly ridiculous. Hot enough that an early start will be on the agenda, that is for sure. My session tomorrow involves more intervals than you can poke a stick at, so the plan will be to get out early and get on with them, before the heat comes in too much.