The Toughest Test: 2,000m
Not very many people would honestly say they enjoy a straight 2,000m swim. Fewer still would enjoy it, knowing they're swimming for a time and being ranked in a league table not only with the rest of their training group, but with their previous best times too. Nevertheless, that's what National Squad were up to on Monday morning.
As an exercise in finding out who the tough cookies are, it's pretty unbeatable. The mind games start around 800m - not even half way through.
"Mind games?" your parents are now asking, "What does that mean?".
Imagine working as hard as you can for 10mins. Knowing that you're not even half way through, you're already exhausted, and every muscle in your body is screaming at you to slow down. So the obvious thing to do is slow down. Except you can't slow down, because if you do that, the person behind you will overtake and get a faster time than you. You've got to keep punishing yourself harder than you ever thought possible. But your brain is telling you to slow down, and your body is screaming in pain.
Yep, those kind of mind games have been happening all week in the self-proclaimed Endurance Week.
The battle for 2,000m supremacy is as much mental as physical. Although physically the battle is pretty tough too. To keep your body working at this high intensity for 30mins without backing off takes either intense concentration or a song with a pretty big beat to sing in your head. Perfect preparation for anyone considering 800m/1500m Freestyle at Yorkshires next month!
Concentrating hard to bring the field home under 26 minutes was Jessica Hubery with a very strong swim. Kiera Binns,Adam Robinson and Joseph Watts was next, we suspect other concentrators in a very strong chasing pack.
At the bottom end of the table, we had lots doing this for the first time and two doing it as a backstroke, that’s a first! We had 14 finishing inside the sub 30mins marker. Obviously this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it's good to see everyone attacking this with such determination. You can look forward to another one later in a few weeks time.
