6:37 (pb)

Looks like I'm the first one to make it to the blog...

It's time trial week! A febrile mix of fun and terror, and in the case of swimming, looking entirely ridiculous in triathlon suits, bombing down the fast lane in Tong Pool (luckily, they're used to us by now).

Last month I had a pig of a cold, and failed to break the 7-minute barrier. I wasn't particularly happy about this (to say the least), so I'd piled some pressure on myself to make amends this time. This is, of course, despite telling Veg and Nom that time trials aren't supposed to be got worked up over at every occasion. The rules don't apply to me, obviously.

So as previously trailed, we rolled up to Tong Pool tonight, put on our tri suits, struggled to get over the unpleasant feeling of getting the suits wet, warmed up and threw ourselves into our 400m time trials. With a bit of luck, the others will turn up to post thoughts on their times, so I'll concentrate on mine. I got through in 6:37, which is a 15-second PB for me. I'm pretty happy with that. In particular, I felt like I managed to keep my pace high in the second 200m, which has been an issue in the past.

The only problem I had, which keeps cropping up, is the turns. Specifically, whether I should persist with tumble turns. I gave them up after about 200m tonight, and to be honest I felt much stronger without them. They may be faster than open turns in terms of turning itself, but unless I can do them perfectly, I think I'm losing more time actually swimming. My instinct is, as ever, to plough on regardless, but there must come a time where either I can actually tumble turn efficiently, or I abandon them for another season.

Still, rest day tomorrow, before Parkrun on Saturday. Hurrah!