Not quite yet

A proper return to squad swimming this morning. I have done a few sessions on and off with Swim Smooth over the last couple of weeks, but this morning sort of felt like a proper return. Certainly from this time forward most of my swim sessions will be done with the squad and so this morning felt like something of a beginning.

Not that the session was a glorious return to form. At the moment I am swimming a lane down on where I would usually sit. This means that the times we are swimming are a bit slower than I would normally do. However, as I found this morning it is more than a match for where I am at the moment.

Swimming has been improving over the last couple of weeks and so this morning I was keen to try spending a bit of time at the front of the lane. I want to work my way back to where I was pre-injury and I figure once I can comfortably lead lane 3 I will be ready to move back to lane 4. With that in mind I thought I would give leading the lane a go today. Turns out that this morning is not the day I will be returning to lane 4. I was okay for a few of the efforts, but I found that I fatigued quite quickly. Still one improvement is that I think I have gone from being about 10 seconds off my normal pace to being more like 6 or 7 seconds off pace. Another improvement was I was able to hold this pace for a 300m and 400m effort. This is compared to struggling to hold pace for more than a 100m a couple of weeks ago.

Still the important thing is that this morning's session was an improvement over where I was a few weeks ago. Where I will be in a few weeks will be improved again and that is the key. Improvement through consistent effort.

The next step in that consistent effort will be riding in the morning. Saturday morning long ride as is the norm. Tomorrow's ride is significant because the plan is to head out on the Falco V for the first time since my injury. Very keen to get out and enjoy the easy speed that comes with being on a TT bike. I will also be very interested to see how the body holds up to being in the aero position again.

Should be a speedy morning.