One-Hour Postal Swim 2012

Couldn't have been more excited for my third annual One-hour Postal swim. Yep, last year I snuck in with zero training, well, I got in the water the week of the event and swam a bit but just enough to get some sort of feel for the water, and then never spoke of it.  A year prior I was in some heavy training and shoved it into the schedule amongst endless hours on the bike.  This year, I really wanted to try my best and aim for my furthest distance to date.

Being that my last two races reflected results from  4-5'ish years ago. I aimed for the postal swim to mirror that of 2 years ago.  Claiming a slot in the first (of three) early morning 7am heat in order to prevent myself from becoming incredibly nervous.

A tad  OCD over it, or determined,  but paces and splits were studied over and over. 

(Those that don't know this is what it looks like at the event, with each swimmer having a pace and lap counter, and you may be able to find Waldo in here too!)

Luckily, I was able to swim right next to my all-time favorite swim buddy (Tom) and to share a lane with a super fabulous teammate (Kim).  For ultimate comfort I chose my favorite new TYR suit (blue and green with TNM logo) and my favorite TYR pink tracer goggles. I stuck with Tom the first few 100's and then held on to the same exact pace through the next entire hour. The goal was to hold 1:14/100 yards or 1:21/100 meters.

I did it!  4817 yards (or 4405 meters), 60 yards more than ever.

What was incredibly exciting was seeing the additional TNM swimmers who were improving by 100, 200 (this included Mark) and 300 more yards over just a year ago!  Seeing their progress reminds me of what a fulfilling and rewarding job I have.  They are inspiring and prove the truth that hard work pays off!

Ironically this weekend I had my first swim analysis and have so much more I can improve upon.  Many things I teach athletes "not" to do, I was doing.  The goal not necessarily to swim lots faster but to stop wasting so much energy. Back to work! ;)