Saturday - 4 x 5 minutes (off 1 min) (deep water running)

Today was a real test on two fronts. Firstly, the session itself was going to be a challenge, given that prior to this the single longest effort I had done as a now seasoned deep water runner was a sole four minuter on Thursday. Today I was up against four 5 minute reps! I thought of it as 4 x 1 mile reps (how I’d love to be able to run 5 minute miles at the moment). As if that wasn’t enough, the weather had turned - it was miserable, cold, wet, windy, and the surf was meant to be massive! Except that it was deadflat - the strong offshore wind had blown up a massive ground swell, but this was brewing out on the horizon, so at least today there was some respite! I ventured into the water, darker than usual - almost stepping on a stingray on the way out (I knew that there was a reason that I didn’t look down at my feet when entering the dark and cold water first thing). As usual, once I got out there, things weren’t too bad once I got going and the initial chill went. This set was definitely a real mental battle, but I simply focused on a landmark and held each rep for the count of 300 (this generally got me to five minutes). Like Thursday, the full minute recovery between reps was great. Although the heart rate goes up quite high during the efforts, I would have to say it recovers much quicker compared to on the land, so the minute rest is generally more than enough (plus it can get too cold if I were to wait around longer). Managed to get through all four reps in one piece before joining the B&B for a swim to Shelly and return. Although the swim itself was more of an extended cool-down, as there wasn’t too much left in the tank after that.