I always forget, yardage is less than meterage. Just when I think I’ve finished a shortcourse workout, it pops into my head that I still have another couple hundred yards to go.

When I started back in the pool, I longed for Saturday afternoons, which seemed to be the only times that I could schedule a short course workout. I liked the extra pushes off the wall, and I felt like I could do so much more.

But as I’ve increased my strength in the water, I have come to love the long 50 meters, as it really allows the appropriate amount of time to get into a good rhythm. Short course swimming is built for speed workouts and technique drills now, and honestly, I do everything I can to avoid the pool when it’s set up for the short course (which is often when the pool is open to the public for recreation).

Mother’s Day events forced a later workout today, and so I had no choice. As such, I turned today’s 2000m swim into a bunch of stroke technique drills and sprints, and finished it off with a nice long 800 yard (730 meter) swim:

• 400y warm-up
• 2 x (4 x 50y sprints on :55 w/ 50 y backstroke after each set) = 500 yards
• 2 x (50y on left side, 50y on right side)
• 800y in 14:20 (roughly 1:45/100m pace)
• 100y cool down

During the sprints, I also started working on kick-turns. I don’t like having all of the extra propulsion off the wall, but also don’t like the extra wasted motion at the wall without them.

As a kid, I killed kickturns. Now, as an adult, I seem to get winded before it’s time to surface. Very strange. Honestly, I think my biggest issue in the water right now is less about my stroke, and more about my breathing. I feel like I’m exhaling when my face is down, but just can’t seem to find a controlled rhythm that works for me.

Either way, can’t wait to get back in the water to work on it.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers out there, and most importantly to my mom and wife! Love you!