Just home after a crazy long day at a meet. Some good new PBs again today which I am very happy about. 400 Free 5:09.13 first time to swim this in ages so happy to get a new time on the books. 🥇 100 Free 1:06.30 first time this season to swim this 🥈 100 Back 1:18.98 happy about a new PB that's under 1:20 🥳 100 Breast 1:23.63 PB 🥈 200 IM 2:43.17 🥈 40x50 relay (was the slowest of the 4 this time but after 12 hours at the meet just had nothing left in tank). 🥇 All in all a good season so far. Looking forward to see how this translates into the LC.

While this isn't competition results, I still wanted to post about it because it was such a huge personal achievement tonight. This is also quite long (sorry not sorry 🫣) Last season, I really struggled with my mental health, and so any hard sets in training, particularly IM ones, would usually end in tears and panic attacks. This would then lead to me getting caught up in all the waves and falling further and further behind those in my lane. I dreaded the days when those sets were, and just didn't particularly enjoy training at this point. My coach wasn't particularly supportive - just thought I wasn't any good any more, and so that generally made it even worse. For the last few weeks on Monday nights, we have been doing hard IM sets, gradually increasing in volume and intensity. Tonight, we warmed up for about half an hour, and then coach called us all over to the whiteboard to explain the set. 10x400 IM When I first looked at it, I did start to panic a little, but I started breathing and calmed down. Once we started the first one, I began to find my rhythm. It was all about consistency, so I settled into it nicely. I've also had a long term struggle with fly, but that has recently improved, and tonight I could hold it through all 10. Each time we started the next one mum said that my stroke looked refreshed - unlike last season where she said it used to look more like a drowning fish 😑😅 I was comfortably going second in my lane, and got through the first 9 quite tidily. Then the last one was pushed. We had some extra rest beforehand, so I reset and pushed it properly. After the set, coach shook all of our hands and said well done to us individually. I made him play a game of spot the difference. I told him that 'picture A' was any IM set last season. 'Picture B' was tonight. I made him acknowledge to me what was different. The three things he said (with a bit of help from me) were that 1. I wasn't crying, 2. I finished it, and 3. Zero panic attacks. Like I said, it's not comp results, but a massive achievement for me. It not only represents how far I've come with my mental health, but also proved to myself that I can do 400 IMs (also hate these and panic in a race). Overall, I'm really proud of myself tonight. Not only for doing it, but for doing it well and positively. Sorry again for it being so long 🫣

Day 1 (Friday night session) Storm Claudia caused chaos in Wales and we ended up taking 2 hours to do the 25 mins journey to the pool. Missed warm up and Ari had to run in and throw her skins on and race (not ideal). Times were not reflective of the work she has done albeit they weren't dreadful. But she said it was one of those learning experiences. 50 fly 34.09 (-0.32) PB 50 back 34.87 (+0.59) Day 2 50 free 29.91 (+0.31) 200 IM - major panicky meltdown - 2.38.51 (+4.5) 100 Breast 1.20.93 (+0.82) 200 Back 2.34.19 (-4.37) PB 200 Free 2.17.76 (+1.68) Day 3 100 free 1.03.60 (+0.26) 100 back 1.12.74 (-2.79) PB This is the first gala in a long time where Ari has done a full programme and actually been around her times. 3 PBs was unexpected to say the least. Still got some work to do with the nerves around certain events but can see the strength training she is doing starting to pay off. 💪🏻