I spent a lot of time at the pool over the winter. I put in some big swim weeks, and was determined to improve my swimming. I believe that the hard work is starting to pay off in a couple of ways.

Firstly, I am happy with how my swimming is starting to improve in races.  Last week at Oceanside, in a difficult ocean swim, I completed the 1.2 mile swim leg of my race in under 40 minutes.  That was the first time I have ever gone under 40 minutes, and it beat my previous best time by over three minutes.

The fact that I am seeing improvement after all the hard work, is also showing up in how motivated I am to swim even more.  This week, my coach gave me complete freedom, to do any workout that I wanted.  I could even not workout at all, if that was what I wanted to do.  This is pretty normal after a demanding race.  Historically, I would have avoided the pool during these ‘choice’ weeks.  This week however, I was excited to get back to the pool.

My swim today was fairly straightforward.  I did 24 x 100 yards, alternating between 100 swim, and 100 swim with a pull buoy.  It was a great swim.  I felt quite fresh, and had a really good feel for the water.

You often wonder if hard work will pay off. Sometimes it is hard to notice progress, but occasionally, like for me this week, it becomes very apparent.  When that happens it is very motivating.