Fatigue town

I made a controversial call in the pool this morning, I dropped myself back down a lane.

Those playing at home may remember that last week I was quite happy to be swimming back in the fast lane at training. Both Wednesday and Friday I managed to get in there and hang on at the back of the lane. A sure sign that things were returning to normal.

This morning though I had no illusions that dropping back a lane was the right thing to do. It was a decision not so much prompted by tiredness or even slackness, but more from common sense.

Turning up at the pool this morning it because quickly evident that attendance at the squad was going to be light on. Very unusual for a Wednesday morning Swim Smooth session which is usually the most popular session of the week. As a result there weren't going to be many people in either the fast lane, or the one below. Deep down I knew that as frustrating as it was, I wouldn't be able to hold the pace of the top lane without at least a little bit of a draft. Therefore, the choice ahead of me was to either try and hold on in the top lane until I exploded somewhere around 3km or swim in the slower lane and get in the full 5km session.

On top of that swimming in the 'slower' lane would mean that I could lead the lane, giving me a good quality, no draft, workout. The final piece of the puzzle was the realisation that, based on my Monday swim, the 'slower' lane was actually swimming at a speed much closer to my pace than the fast lane.

Putting all those things together told me that the sensible thing was for me to swallow my pride and step down a lane, which is exactly what I did.

Now, looking back, I am very happy with my decision.

Swimming in the slower lane allowed me to achieve just what I was after, which was a quality, correct intensity, 5000m swim set, including two 1000m timed efforts. The session also confirmed for for me my current CSS (Critical Swim Speed - Google it for an explanation). Based on the sessions I did last week I had a good idea that my current CSS is about 1:28/100m, maybe slightly quicker. I used that figure when I planned my session on Monday and it turned out about right. Today's swim was based on the same CSS and I would say the session was spot on. Having a rough idea of what my current CSS is important as it allows me to correctly target my current training, leading to more efficient training and quicker improvements.

The session was a good reminder that harder and faster isn't always better. Dropping back this morning really allowed me to get in a quality swim. Sometimes training smart is more important than training hard.

This morning's session means I am in fatigue town now though. No training this afternoon and for that I am very grateful. Really looking forward to heading home and just having a quiet afternoon of relaxing and resting.

Resting is important because I have a 25km run to do before work tomorrow...