I don't know how many total meters I swam today. The workout involved a lot of kick type sets. There was one pull set. There were swim 100 fast in between the drill sets.

I found the kick sets to be really exhausting. But, I think that my kick is much better than it was before.

I decided to use a pull buoy for the pull set. The buoyancy threw off my body position a little bit, particularly with regards to rotation. But, I felt really good with regards to my arms. I probably should have set the stroke rate faster than 1.35 seconds per stroke.

I did at least two of the fast sets at 1.25 seconds per stroke. I can remember counting my strokes on one of those sets. The 50m back added two or three strokes to the 50m out. I think my count was something like 42 strokes out and 45 strokes back. The 1.25 pace felt really good. I felt like I could have gone even a bit faster. I did not record my times for the fast sets, though. So, I can only assume that my speed was pretty good (for me) based on the fact that my stroke count was reasonably in range.

It's really interesting for me how much of a difference it makes when I just intersperse those sets at a higher stroke rate. On the other sets I was using 1.35 seconds per stroke. At yesterday's workout things were really falling apart at 1.28 seconds per stroke. Obviously, I'm dealing with a fatigue issue. Once my body gets stronger I will be able to maintain a higher stroke rate for more repetitions and longer distances. That will be so amazing when I reach that point. I can say that it felt awesome cruising along at the 1.25 seconds per stroke rate today.

Today is most likely my last Thursday Masters swim. From now through the end of the season I think that I will be swimming only on Tuesdays with the Masters group.

Even though I had to do a bunch of drills that I wouldn't normally do on my own, I'm really glad that I did the workout. Part of the reason that I think it's good to go to Masters is to be forced to do things I wouldn't otherwise do. It's not the end of the world if I do some drills that TI would recommend against. I think that the benefits I get for my brain and body more than outweigh the drawbacks of spending some time on things that are a bit out of line with the TI philosophy. I think it's also good to be in the lane with other swimmers and to have to keep on track with the workout. I think that the circumstances do force me to push myself harder. And if nothing else, the variety is extremely welcome.