It does amuse me when other people use me as their bench mark, and that’s what happened today.

I was minding my own business swimming up and down. I noticed that there were two young women in the fast lane next door. They were working as a pair on an organised set, it seemed. I didn’t pay much more attention till I noticed they seemed to be waiting till I got back to the shallow end, then setting off at the same time as I turned. When this happened more than twice I realised it wasn’t by accident.

I decided to have a wee race. I continued to swim up and down, just as I had done, but each time one of them ‘joined’ me, I stretched out the stroke, increased the pull and the kick speed, just a fraction, so as not to be noticeable to others. In this way, I was able to stay level with one of the women, and got ahead of the other one, each and every time they chose to ‘race’ me.

In this way I realised that with little effort, and just focus on power, I was able to increase my speed, and maintain it easily.

Speed doesn’t have to mean windmill arms, in fact, it is mostly the exact opposite.

Fartlek session complete, albeit unintentional, it was fun all the same!