Big update for me today. My 1km times have been declining, but it can be hard to set a personal best in a public pool because other people in your lane can slow things down.
This past week was tough - I ate badly, and had been a bit sleep deprived thanks to the Olympics. Tuesday's swim wasn't bad, but I felt drained. It didn't help that I had to make two stops: once to fix leaky goggles, and once to wait for a slower swimmer ahead of me who wouldn't let me pass.
Today, I had a couple people in my lane, but they always stopped and let me pass at the ends so I didn't have to slow down. I was also wearing a new pair of goggles, so I didn't have to worry about leaks anymore. I felt pretty good, and really concentrated on form during my glide. When I finished, I was pretty shocked to see I clocked in at 19:49, finally achieving my goal of breaking 20 minutes. No flip turns, though - while I practice them every time I swim, I find that doing a flip turn seems to drain a lot of energy. I'll have to work my way up to using them for a full swim.
I found I had plateaued in my times, hovering around 20:25 with occasional drops around 20:15. I decided to add one or two runs during the week on the treadmill and noticed an improvement almost immediately. I don't know if it was the added leg strengthening, or just general cardio fitness, but after I started running, my average time dropped significantly from around 20:25 to 20:15. I set a personal best a couple weeks ago of 20:08 which included a stop I had to make to fix leaky goggles.
I'm considering adding pushups and crunches during the week to try to improve my upper body strength and core. Would love to see my times average under 20 minutes.
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