Ah-hoy Pool-Matey!

Tonight was swim night.  I decided to have my dinner early and head to the pool when i thought it would be quieter at 8pm.  The changing rooms were busy and there were a few girls in dry bikinis.  I was hoping they were there for the sauna, not a swim.  As i got changed i hoped for the best, that being an empty pool, but when i entered i was sorely disappointed. It was busy. Not a portion of a lane free.  I hung about and looked for folks doing front crawl. There were two. One guy was in the designated lane.  The pool being a hotel pool has only one lane roped off. Its just off centre and divides the pool in to a fat lane to its left, a normal lane between the ropes and a super fat lane the other side. How i see it, you can have 2 swimmers one side 2 inside and 4 the other side.  There were no lanes left.
I intended to hop in with the front crawl guy but make sure he know i was getting in. I sat on the lane end, waiting till he saw me.  Right as i got in someone from the super fat lane left and i took may chance. Ahh, a ‘lane’ all for me.  I did a warm up and by the time i was warm the lady in the outer edge got out.  I’m kind of thinking it was coz of me swimming faster than everyone else (doing breast stroke) and she was big and slow, but there was space, and i don't kick too much and certainly don’t splash, so i didn't force her out or anything.  Well her leaving then gave me my preferred position – against the wall.  As there are no lines on the floor i find it hard to stay in a straight line, so i like to use the wall as a guide.
I had brought my swim book with me, but when i saw the packed pool i just left it by the edge, and when i had managed to claim a lane, i didn’t dare get out to grab it so i could follow a work out. This left me to make one up – for the first time.  I made my decision pretty quick while i was warming up and decided on this:
3x100 30s rest
2x200 30 sec rest
4x100 30s rest
2x400 30s rest
CD 75 bs 50 fs
For a total of 2325m in 58 minutes.

The time flew by. I didn't look at the clock at all in fact. I had my new Poolmate watch on and simply went through what i had planned.  I love the watch. Numbers really motivate me. I am terrible at keeping count too, so its great for that.  As there is no real pool clock, i never really had any way to measure myself. I didn’t know how long anything took me to do. Now though, i know it all. every bit of info i could possible need is recorded. This is the programme interface screen. This is the total page

And this is the info for todays workout.

In my book – Swim Workouts for Triathletes, there is a test session you do to work out your T1 time which you then base some of the set upon.  This consists of a warm up them 3 x100 ensuring that the three times are with in 5 seconds of each other. The average is then your T1 time.  I did this last week and my T1 time is 1:54.  As you can see from this my fist set averaged at 1:50 (1:48, 1:49, 1:53) and my second set averaged at 1:53/4 (1:52, 1:53, 1:54, 1:55) I love that i know this! This is the number i am aiming to bring down.  With my running i have noticed recently that i am running in the 8:50s area. I remember when hitting the 9min mark was exciting a short while ago, so to see 8:50s a few times is super cool.  I can’t wait to see the 1:54 number drop as i swim more, become more efficient and fitter.

So tomorrow i may just go and eat one of those cupcakes i burnt off today!