1km TT Results!

Dear TEAM

Another very successful "outing" this morning for the squad with 68 swimmers completing the 1000m Time Trial swim with 70% of the squad swimming better times than I had predicted for your improvement to this stage. Again, consistency shines through again and again, coupled with the pace work that we've been doing with the Wetronomes over the last 3 months. Well done!

Here are the results: http://files.me.com/swimsmooth/7zynov

What should you take from this exercise of the 400m, 1km, and 3km Time Trials? Well first and foremost the whole goal of this exercise was to give you a couple of short-term goals to focus on before the real season kicks in. It was meant as a challenge for you (and me!) to see just how much improvement is possible with consistency. A great gauge of improvement for all of you should be how comfortable and fit you feel in the water, but nothing beats the hard facts of numbers to show you that all your hard work is indeed paying off! Nice job! 

Secondly, I would like you to peruse your 100m pace for the latest 1km swim. With respect to the Fresh & Fruity Wednesday & Friday sessions going forward, you should be aiming to swim 100m intervals ~3 to 6s per 100m quicker than this (given a rest of ~20s). This will likely be very close to your pace per 100m from the 400m swim last Wednesday / Friday. For 200m intervals you should be ~2s per 100m quicker than your 1000m pace as a rough rule when having ~30s between each 200m interval. Given more rest you will of course be able to swim quicker, but when we say "CSS pace" (Critical Swim Speed) or "hold your fastest maintainable pace", you should all have a very clear idea of what this is now. Equally, if we're saying on a Tuesday "swim this interval of 800m at ~8s per 100m slower than CSS" you'll also be able to easily identify what that pace should be. It helps you work out how hard to go when you should be working fast and just as importantly how easy you should be going when swimming steadier sets.

It is very easy to get bogged down in numbers. Some of you love that - others not quite so. Either way, you now have a very clear objective measure for your training going forward, coupled with an enhanced subjective "feeling" for pace work and you're onto a real winner! 

It's been a great winter of training, so now as we transition to the summer season, let's keep up the good work and continue to challenge ourselves even further. Well done!

Paul

P.S A big shout out to Lucas Salter who was again the "Biggest Loser" this week with a 2m25s improvement over my predictions and also to Ermie Robinson who also saw a massive improvement to record a 1m58s improvement and a HUGE P.B with a time of 16m36s!!!