8:13

That was my time for a 400m time trial in today's swim. I just did a gentle 250m warm up and then tried to swim as if it was the tri. It felt pretty good, and in particular the turns were all pretty tight. I don't tumble-turn, although maybe I should give it a go now I have a nose clip and won't drown - but at Waveney it's too shallow at one end to do that so I kind of think 'why bother?'. I just need to keep focus on technique, strong pulls and good hip rotation, that's what will shave off the seconds. When I get distracted, I get fluffy.

So, to compare... my previous times for 400m pool swims, in a race, are 8:46, 8:01, 7:28. When you consider that also involves extricating myself from the pool (never pretty) and getting out of the door where the timer is, then I've clearly been considerably quicker than I am now. But hey - it's a baseline, and I never said I was in racing shape right now. I'm going to do the time trial every 4 weeks, so twice more before the tri and then race day, and I'll see how I do at improving on 8:13. Sub-8 here I come.

What I learned today: I have some work to do on the swimming, but I think it's do-able.

Photo: 813 by Eva the Weaver, on Flickr