Chills are multiplin

Coldest day in Perth since 2012 apparently. Pretty much 0 degrees, or close enough to make no difference. Perfect morning for swimming. Obviously.

Something a little bit the same and a little bit different for the Swim Smooth Red Mist session this morning. The same bit was the session, the classic 10 x 400m Red Mist session. Sort of glad that I hadn't done that session solo on Monday now, twice in one week might have been pushing the sanity.

The different bit was just how we did it. Typically the Red Mist session is done on descending times. Basically:

4 x 400m on CSS +6 seconds
3 x 400m on CSS +5 seconds
2 x 400m on CSS +4 seconds
1 x 400m on CSS +3 seconds

This means that as you go you have to swim quicker.

Today we didn't do that. Today the 400s were all done on the same turn around time. The tricky bit was that we all had to take turns leading the lane.

With winter swim squad numbers typically drop off a bit. Mix in school holidays and the coldest morning for 4 years and you have a recipe for low attendance, which is exactly what we had. In fact there were few enough people in the squad that we all got to take turns at the front. For most of us a couple of turns. This meant that while the intervals were all on the same turn around time, they were in fact done at different intensities, depending on just who was on the front of the lane. Sometimes it was you and you were working pretty hard. Other times there might be a slightly slower person on the front and you got a bit of a breather, sometimes it was the opposite and you were smashing yourself just to keep up. It was actually a lot of fun. The chopping and changing kept it interesting so the ten 400s went really quickly. Probably the most fun I have had doing 10 x 400m for a while anyway.

The session held some more encouraging signs about swimming getting back on track too. The two 400s I led weren't completely off the pace and for the rest of the session I was mostly able to hold my own. A couple of the guys in the squad still blew the rest of us away towards the end, but I was happy with how my session went. Positive progress.

The other great thing about this morning, besides swimming in freezing conditions, was that I got some much needed sleep. Seven and a half hours of out like a log sleeping according to Garmin. The solid sleep meant that I woke up feeling a lot more human today. Still a bit tired if I am honest, but enough energy to attack a day, rather than just survive. We often take sleep for granted in our day to day lives and forget just how important it can be, particularly if we are doing large volumes of exercise. Definitely the cheapest performance enhancer around.

Hopefully I can avoid returning to serious sleep debt for the next little while. That will be the plan anyway.