this morning was a slightly rescheduled swim: pool closed tomorrow. The plan was a constant 30-35 min swim, nice and simple. When I got there the only lane that had one person was one of the fast lanes. I’m a rubbish judge of speed so I just got in, not knowing how fast the guy was, but expecting him to be faster than me.

After a length I realised I was catching and was on his feet in no time. I passed on the next length fully realising I had just laid down the gauntlet.

I was on a long steady, so simply carried on. Someone else got in, traffic and so on and I found myself with a 1/4 length lead over the guy.

I carried on for a wee while then realised he was starting to catch me again. I upped the pace. So did he. The second half of my pre breakfast swim ended up being a pace / TT swim. I stayed in front of him but by the time my distance was done he was only a body length behind me. I remarked that we should share the lane more often, he had pushed me to up the pace and sustain it.

What can you take from this?

Even when you think you’re tired you will always have a wee bit more. Use whatever motivators are available to you at the time. Mine was the guy on my tail, but it could easily have been a split pace target or anything else.

Who you think that’s all you have, you will always have one more gear. I know that from enough sprint finishes!