Going from 1:40 to 1:30/100m on swim was FAR easier for me than 2:10 to 2:00

Did a 1000m time trial recently with a masters group as the last piece of an hour workout. Haven't done one in awhile as I rarely swim masters (like 1x/year due to family commitments!). I'm a MOP self-taught triathlon swimmer with no talent (my whole first year of swimming was 2:10-2:20/100 despite some hard work.)

Dropped my pace from T-pace 1:40 to 1:30/100m in the past 6 months. Weirdly enough, it didn't take a lot of complicated or super hard work - just took and moderate increase volume and lots of intervals around T-pace (pace per 1000, minus 5-10 sec give or take.) Some technique improvements, but they were honestly really, really minor.

In contrast, it took me 2 YEARS to go from 2:10 to 2:00, and another whole year for each 10sec/100 after that. And in retrospect, the hardest I trained was at the 2:00/100 pace! (Granted, my swim volume is puny compare to real swimmers - now M<10k/wk, but at peak was 15k)

Just posting to encourage those having problems up front at slower paces when coaches and faster folks keep talking about 'easy gains thru technique' in the beginner phases. While I'm certain it's true for some, there are def those like me that it was certainly not not. I still think going from 2:10 to 2:00/100m in swimming was one of the hardest things I've done in triathlon, and even in retrospect, I can't think of anything I did particularly wrong that made it so hard - it just takes time and training if you lack talent like me.

Keep at it though - it'll improve!