Building in a Bit of Rest

I've been back in the pool for two weeks now. I swam twice last week and I'm in shape to get three swims in this week.

I've gone from survival mode to slow and struggling to I can handle it and finally, yesterday, to I think I'm back.

I'm not back to my best ever swimming form by any means but I no longer feel mild panic when I hear the workout. I just buckle down and do it.

Yesterday was a pretty hectic workout. There was a lot to do and very little down time.

Our warmup alone was 1500m of swimming, kicking and pulling.

Once that was done, our main set was a total of 25x50m. Some were fast, some were build and some were 'easy' but all of them were on one minute.

As soon as that was done I was told I had to do 2x100m fast on 4:00.

"You want me to swim 100m twice in 4 minutes?" I asked.

"No, I want you to swim 100m as fast as you can and then take the rest of the 4 minutes to rest. Then I want you to do it again" I was told.

"So if I swim 100m in 1:45 that means I have 2:15 to rest?" I asked.

"Exactly".

That is a ton of rest.

At the top of the clock I pushed of and I went all out. I figured I had a lot of recovery time so there was no point in saving myself. I hit the wall in 1:42 which, for me, is pretty zippy. Considering I've only been back swimming for two weeks, that was really really speedy.

I then stood at the side, sipping my drink and relaxing for over 2 minutes. It felt weird. It felt luxurious. It felt good to completely recover.

When it came time for the second 100m I had enough energy to give it my all and I did. Arms and legs were churning from one end to the other. I hit the wall in 1:37.

I had knocked five seconds off an already fast time. Simply because I had two minutes rest.

Nice!