Holy Moly!!! This was tough.
Let's see:
I looked at the clock at about 7'30". Why? I don't know. It was a long 7 minutes I guess.
Early on my shoulders were very fatigued. (Damn kickboxing class...) Plus, I've only been swimming 1x/week for awhile. This was my 2nd swim this week, so I was tired.
I learned quickly, out of desperation, to use the kick off of the wall as my time, albeit brief, to rest my arms. As long as I remembered to not stretch my arms too far ahead of me, it was a good rest. If I stretch them too long, then I flex my shoulders, which did not help with the rest.
I had arranged with the girl counting for me to signal to me after every 500 meters. She did so for the first 3, then I never saw another signal!! I'm not sure what happened, but I had to start hoping that I was still keeping on track for 500 every 10 minutes. Finally, at 52ish minutes, I belted out HOW MUCH? in a quick breath. On my return to the end she told me I was at 2700. Ah..... Then I knew I was on track, but I tried to pick it up, but not blow up so I just missed my goal.
The biggest thing I have to constantly keep reminding myself to do is pull strongly threw the water. If I don't, I get wimpy arms/wimpy pull. I constantly thought about that, really reaching through the water to start my pull, and to keep kicking in a consistent manner. Since I have a strong kick, I need to remind myself to use it!

Another thing I thought of during the swim:
Wouldn't it be a fantastic idea to have a 30 minute postal swim competition?!?! (I thought of this at the 30' mark of course)

Swim more. swim, swim, swim, swim.....

VERY EASY back kick to the shallow end. That is all....


Tired upper body, but mostly lack of training.