The April time trial that wasn’t

Not conducive to swim training.

I blew off swimming last week and couldn’t get to the pool again until last night for a belated April 1000-meter time trial. Since swimming has been difficult at best lately and I didn’t swim at all last week, I wasn’t expecting big things. Or even medium things, to be honest.

First off, I had to share a lane – blech – and since I needed to get in and get moving I couldn’t do my pathetic “get wet inch by inch until you are used to the cold water” routine. (I’m always fine after the first lap, but that water is always a shock to me.) I was a bit nervous when I got short of breath right away but was fine after a few slow exhales and some warming up.

I did all my drills and a peppy 200 before kicking off my 1000. I saw an 11:something at the 500 mark and knew I wasn’t going to be close to a PR, but that wasn’t a surprise. On the next lap I saw the lifeguard hanging out at the shallow end. On the next one he flagged me down.

I fished out my ear plug. “I’m sorry, but we have to close down the pool early,” he said. “The 9 p.m. lifeguard didn’t show up.” Ugh. “What time is it?” I asked, looking at my watch. It was 9:01.

I got out. Time trial over.

I’m kind of embarrassed to write down my pace, but my average ended up at a 2:18/100 meters… a far cry from the 2:05/100 meters, and a PR, that I managed at the end of March. I still have a LOOOONG way to go. And having breathing problems and blowing off swims sure isn’t helping.