I've Become Friendly with the Pool

It's true. Look at how much I've swam over the last 5 months compared to the same months over the last few winters (the purple bars highlighted in red):

- 5,600 yards in 2012
- 27,300 in 2013 (with 11,100 of that in Feb alone)
- 51,100 in 2014 (and I still have half of this month to go!)

After logging a decent number of miles (for me) since September, I've finally just NOW started to see some speed develop. Well, up until recently, I was mainly focusing on getting the endurance for my half iron man in the Red Sea. Some speed showed up in 3 recent workouts:

1. Fast 50s.
I did that 30x50 workout that I've started to like, and as I posted about 2 weeks ago, I did my 6 final "all out" 50s nearly 3 seconds faster than at the end of last year (average of 41.0 last year, and average of 38.1 recently!).

2. Fast 1500.
About 10 days ago, I posted my fastest 1500 swim since BEFORE HENRY WAS BORN over 2.5 years ago! I did 1500 in 23:46, or a 1:35.0 / 100 average. My last swim faster than that was in March of 2011 (where I did 1500 in 23:30, or 1:34.05 / 100 average).

3. Fast 100s.
Earlier this week, I did my fastest 100s ever. Sure, it was only 10x100, but I did them with a 1:25.5 average! I looked back through my logs for a few years and didn't find ANY 100s workout that was faster!

Oh, and on top of those 3 workouts, I also had some fast 400s yesterday. I really don't ever do 400s, so I have nothing to compare this to. But I did them JUST over 1:30 pace: 6:11, 6:09, and 6:01.

SWIM MEET NEXT WEEKEND!! As I mentioned earlier this week, I'll be doing my first 500 at this meet. I don't know WHAT to expect for my 50 (I haven't tried diving since my swim meet last year, so THAT will be ugly), but I'm hoping for maybe a 100 PR (sub-1:10?) if I'm not too fried after the 500.

And speaking of the 500... Coach Jen (who's not coaching me at the moment but who got me to a 4:50 road mile on a slow course last year, and a 59:05 10 mile) gave me some "advice" yesterday:

Well now I'm REALLY looking forward to that. She has such a way with words.

I'd love to break 1:30 / 100 for the 500. That's 7:30. We'll see. And then, as I mentioned above, I'll have to see if I have any gas left in the tank for a fast 100 just 2 events later.