1500m TT

Friday March 4th 2011

Wake-up. Check e-mail. Training Peaks alert- Work-out #1- Recovery run. Work-out #2- 1500m TT. I knew this was coming, but regardless the email confirming it makes it real, and yeah a little nerve-wracking. I did my recovery run at 7:30am. Legs felt a little fatigued; don’t worry, probably best to spin them out a bit. Come home, eat breakfast, stretch, do strength exercises. Do my walk to school. Daze and get lost during lectures. Not too nervous.

Eat a bit more, and have a coffee. 1:30 changed and on pool deck. It sorta just feels like any old practice. Jump in start with 800m skps. See Noa walk in during the 200 kick with a couple stop watches... not quite a normal practice. Stomach a little fluttery and uncontrolled- something I ate? Nerves? Kevin tells me to tighten my goggles; good idea. Blue top. GO!

First 100m was fast; Claire and I knew this would happen. At 500m feeling pretty good, try pushing the pace; Claire responds and takes off- not too far ahead. She holds in front. Lose count. Look at the clock- 10 min in. Ok must be half way (ish). Turns getting sloppy around 1000m. The ground is very blue. No wait very green? Turquoise. How do you spell turquoise... t- u-r... flip. Kick. We have got to be getting close. Just keep SWIMMING, swimming, swimming. It has got to be 200 to go. 200 is do-able. Kick, push, follow through; remember- this is supposed to be hard. Kick kick 50m kick kick...

DONE. 1500 hurts.

This was my first 1500m TT and also my first important timed event of 2011. I am over the initial hump of racing, and I feel that next time I will be able to deal with pre-race angst more efficiently. I am very happy with my 21:19 time and my 1:15 first 100m. To say I am satisfied is incorrect, I know I am capable of more. Regardless - today I am happy with what I did. And in return I got a boost of motivation to work harder.

Thanks to all who came out to watch. The support is unbelievable; I greatly appreciate everything. Huge props to Claire; this girl is such a talented modest athlete. I feel pretty lucky to have been able to have her pushing me all year. A lot more work to come... thanks for reading.

Emma