In the Triathlon, it’s said that you can’t win in the swim (the first part), but you can sure lose then. This statement is very true. If you don’t pace yourself, it can be very easy to burn out. This happened to me very recently when I got my rowing machine a few weeks back, I went way too hard at the start, and it completely ruined my workout.

So when you’re getting started doing something after an extensive break, it helps to have a way to ease back into the rhythm. One way I do this, in my case after an extensive break from the pool, instead of working on trying to hit times, I aim to hit percentages. For example, today I did a set of 4x100m with progressively increasing percentage of effort (70, 80, 90, 100). This way I can slowly build back my stamina, and also my muscle (my triceps are really feeling it). Once these are both back, I can do longer swims, or swims with more intensity, but until then, I have to pace myself.