Back in the pool

Mission go for a swim was successful. Mission Accomplished!!!

As I mentioned yesterday, my objective for today was to get out for my first swim in about two weeks. I can happily announce that I was successful in that endeavour. It didn't even suck much.

Actually, the swim didn't really suck at all. I fell back into the swimming feel surprisingly quickly.  It probably didn't hurt that I managed to score a last minute swim with the Swim Smooth squad in the end, which always helps on the motivation side of things, but all the same the swim was rather nice.

The session was one of those ones where it is all about pacing. The main set started and ended with a 400 and the idea was that you would do about the same time for them. Of course the trick was that there was a whole bunch of swimming and fatigue between the two efforts, which meant that for the session to be successful you really had to nail the pacing, and for once the group I swim with did.

Whilst the guys that I swim with are very experienced, that doesn't always translate to patient, or controlled. They can be as guilty of taking off too quickly as anyone, if not more so. It is not unusual for these sessions to start off in a flurry of fireworks and finish with a whimper. Not today though. Today the first 400 was nice and controlled, as was the middle portion of the session, before bringing home the last 400 nice and strong. In fact the 400 at the end of the session was quicker than the one at the start. Spot on pacing indeed.

In my experience this sort of pacing control can be very important when it comes to long course triathlon. The swim legs in 70.3 and Ironman events is rather long. Long enough that if you smash it off the line then you will suffer for it at the end. To be successful in these swims and produce your best times I think it is important to learn how to hold back a bit at the start of a swim, before pushing stronger through the middle and the finish. Swim sessions like the one today are great opportunities to practise those pacing skills. As they say, practise makes perfect.