2/23 -- Heavy but fast?

Wednesday AM I swam at GISC solo. A pretty pull-heavy workout, as usual for Wednesday swims. The main set contained several 4x100 sets of pull with 10" recovery, with longer swim sets in between. The pulling is helping my form and I feel stronger from it. I suppose that's the idea. I've been getting some good tips from fellow Wards and CB swimmers. I need to lengthen my stroke though... I think I regressed a bit, so I'll keep my focus on form the next few swims.

In the afternoon I hit my hill on Wootton Parkway for another week of repeats. The hill is about .75-.8 miles long, with a half mile marker at the bottom and near the top, so I made the repeats half mile so I could get a time. During my 2-mile warmup, I felt noticeably heavy and

flat. I haven't felt that way since I started Todd's training, and I think it was from Tuesday's threshold bike workout and not running since Saturday (I missed Tuesday's run due to time constraints). The first hill felt just as heavy and slow. About 30 seconds from the half mile mark and without looking at the clock, I thought this would be an AWFUL workout... it could only get worse with the way my body was feeling. When I got to the top, I got quite a shock when the clock read 2:36! Surprised, I jogged back down to start the second repeat... same split. I kept that time for the first 4, slowing up a bit to 2:40 on the 5th and 6th repeat. My body didn't feel that much better, but it definitely didn't feel worse. I did start feeling lighter on the cooldown though.

Considering how flat I felt going in and how last week I was doing all reps in 2:40, when I felt fresher, this seemed strange to me! I'll take it though, obviously. I like to think it shows my legs are ready for speed. It's strong enough to push me to good times on a bad day without too much taxing, so I think all the hill workouts have done me well. This should be my last week of hills. Next week, back to the GRC track workout!