1km Swim Time Trial -- Faster than my own expectations!

For the people who follow my journey may have picked up that I have mild anxiety stress when it comes to the unfamiliar things/tasks. I stress out about it so much - I either pass out from hyperventilating or throw up and this morning was no different...

This morning, I completed my first ever 1km (swimming) time trial. Prior to the actual swim, the lead up to this morning was not as smooth as it should have been. I already had completed a 500m swim time trial on Monday morning and had planned on doing the 1km as part of my progression of time trialing as a long course athlete. I am still working on this progression and won't be doing the full half ironman distances until after Run Melbourne. So last night, after the (active recovery) windtrainer session, all that I could think about was how the hell I was going to do a 1km swim non-stop the next day. For the last few seasons, I had only swam 500m for time trial and although I have seen dramatic improvements close to 4 minutes over 500m, doubling that distance to 1km was still unchartered territory.

I had a sleepless night as I dreamt about things which held me back from completing a 1km swim smoothly - this included being late to catch a bus to the pool (I drive 35-40km from Mentone to Northcote), swim time trials being cancelled (as if that will EVER happen) and the most disgusting one of all - the pool filled with blood and we had to swim through it....yeah I know - disgusting.

Once I arrived at the pool at 5:55am, the nerves had not subsided. My stomach churned up my morning coffee and Up and Go around so much I had to have a little spew before I headed outside (yeah, 3 degrees celcius thank you very much).

After doing a 500m warm up which included free, pullbouy, back, we were seeded in our lanes ready for the actual time trial. There were some people in the same lane as me who were to do the 1km where as others had 500m. I knew that I could not go out as hard as I did for the 500m time trial as I had to double my distance so I decided to start at a T3 pace and see how I would go after the first few hundred metres. I wanted to negative split my second 500m as part of the 1km set so I made sure that I had enough in the tank to swim at a slightly faster pace leading into the last few hundred.

Overall, I actually felt better this morning than I did on Monday. I guess that was due to the reduced intensity. I completed the last 50m at a T4-5 pace/intensity and just made it under the 21min mark! So my first 1km swim time trial (Personal Best) is under 21min. I did several fist pumps in the air when I heard the good news - albeit a longer time than most long course athletes, this is my personal best time and much faster than my own expectations.

As a time closer to the 22min mark was anticipated, I am ecstatic about getting below the 21min mark.