40 degrees ... running is off, swimming is on.

Joined the Friday swim crew and specifically, Conway and Sam for an anticipated 1km 'race' at A.B.C.

Set off at 12:10pm in the medium lane and I lasted all of 100m in Conway's slipstream. Once dropped, there was no recovering. Did my best to maintain rhythm, breathing and loosely play with my underwater technique. The goal was my October PB (18:55).

Well, after the 20 laps, the I stopped the clock at 18:35! Not sure what I did differently but I'll take the 20s PB. Meanwhile, Conway in his out-of-form shape eased into his own PB (16:38). Impressive but honestly, not unexpected. Sam proved a pretty capable swimmer shown by a 17 min 1km.  

Next up was 500m with a strange floaty wedged up my inner thighs. Felt a drowning sensation the whole 10:30 duration. I'm told this assists body position and buoyancy. Lastly, 500m easy freestyle behind Sam and Conway, taking me 10 min flat. 

Absolutely loved the water in such suffocating heat. 

Good to also cross paths with the regulars smashing the planned intervals set. PW, Timmy, Crossy and Yum Cha were all looking strong. 

2km all up with 3km running.

As an aside, JPM photos from last week are up. First year they have offered this feature. There are some seriously visually offensive ones (not shown). Note various 'poses' at the start. From left to right is CT, myself, Neil, Barts Quentin; notably all of them destroyed me.




Mid-race facial expressions are never pretty.



Finally, the HURT is over.