Red Mist

A couple of training events of note today.

The first was that today marked my return to the Swim Smooth Wednesday morning swim session. Otherwise known rather ominously as the Red Mist session. The plan had been to return to this session next week, but after having my Monday swim stuffed up, I thought I would give the session a go today.

The reason that my return to this swim session is milestone is that it is without a doubt the toughest swim session I have all week. The set is typically around 5km and it doesn't mess around. Today it finished with a timed 1500m, and that is not unusual. In fact finishing the Wednesday swim with something less than 1000m effort is the unusual thing. Not for the faint hearted. But despite all that I have been keen to get back. Whilst this session is a tough one, it is probably the single most beneficial swim session that I have on my program. Previously attending the Red Mist session consistently has lead to tangible improvements in speed, something I really need at the moment. A bit of love/hate going on there.

Given the above I was a little hesitant heading down to the pool this morning. I didn't know how my body would cope with a 5km set. Since my surgery the longest swim I have done has been just over 4km and not all of that was working hard. At the Red Mist session there is typically very down time. I told myself that if necessary I would get out early, but really the goal was to not have to.

In the end the session was fine, it could even be described as good. I got through the whole thing, and more importantly I led my lane for the entire session, getting in a good solid set. In fact I may have been a bit keen with the leading, pushing the times more than I should have, several people 'suggested' that it might be time for me to move back up to the next lane and leave them alone. The times I was doing still were nowhere near where I need to be (my 1500m was probably about 6 seconds/100m slower than normal), but leading the lane through a 5km session is an important step on the road back.

The other training even that happened today was that I had a massage. I mentioned earlier in the week that I really needed one and I finally got around to it today. Somewhat predictably it was rather painful. Everywhere. Glutes, lower back, upper back, you name it, it was sore. It was one of those massages that could have gone on for hours and I would still have had tight muscles at the end of it. Still I managed to get some of the tighter more painful areas seen to. Going forward I am going to try and get back in the habit of getting regular massages. Particularly in the next few months I can see it playing an important part in recovery as I push my body to regain fitness.

No training tonight. Given the recent massage an afternoon off is probably not a bad idea. This will also be a nice chance to recover a bit before beginning the ramp up into the second half of the week and a solid weekend of training. Plus I haven't quite finished watching Star Wars yet...