Finally... swim time trial

So today was the day that I finally got to do that much-awaited 400m swim time trial. I hate to set the bar low, but seriously... I took about 7 months off from swimming, I still haven't swam more that 15 minutes easy at a time,  and I've done zero speed or intensity in the pool. Well ok, instead of the usual race prep of doing 4 x 100m goal race pace both the day before and the day of I modified it. As in I did 1 x 100m the day before, and then 2 x 50m as part of my 10ish minute warm up. Not your typical race prep, but that would have totally fried my shoulders. I started to get worried though, doing that 100m yesterday, because I did it in 1:28. That's slow. I had mentioned I had a secret goal? Well I guess now I can say it; 6 minutes. With the way I was feeling I was really starting to worry I would be over 6 minutes. To give some context here, when I started the program two years ago I swam about 6 and a half. Between being injured I think I got my 400m PB down to 5:24, within an 800m time trial. That's still not super fast, but at least I was doing alright while at that speed in my injured state. My usual training partner Ashlyn has now gotten under 5 minutes, which shows how much catching up I am going to have to do!

Anyways, with my pathetic warm up completed, I was as ready as I could be I guess. My shoulders hurt before getting into the pool, probably from the swim the day before, the bike ride also the day before (outdoors, shoulders get really tight after a long ride), as well as the usual injury pain I guess. But I felt alright otherwise. I didn't feel too much pressure, which was nice. I still felt kind of nervous though. I told myself to enjoy that nervous feeling that comes before a race or time trial, because it has been way too long since I've had that from swimming. I dove into the water and it felt great. The feeling of swimming hard came back right away. My internal saying during this time trial was "enjoy the speed." I repeated this to myself whenever I felt myself starting to fade or when my shoulders began to hurt near the end. I used this to keep pushing myself; to remind myself how much it had taken to get to this point and to give it everything I had. Enjoy the speed. I was really dead by the time I touched the wall and right away starting thinking about what time Gary would say I went. I was still worried about the 6 minute thing, but I felt like I had done well and it was probably just under. Yeah, by that point I expected to hear 5 50-something. Nope... 5:45. That was pretty exciting. Better than I had hoped for (I found out later my splits were 1:18, 1:27, 1:30, 1:30). This has given me some new hope towards getting back to where I was before. Considering the amount I've swam that's decently close to my PB. I can't wait to fully get back to swimming and chasing some new times.