A lack of consistency

Last week, I crushed the 400m time trial. I'm still feeling pretty good about myself on that one. Then, this morning happens, and things aren't so good any more. I just can't seem to make it happen with any consistency. Every day, I have little idea as to how well I'm going to swim. I know that I can bring it, but I never know if I'm going to.

We're continuing to build toward a 2k time trial at the end of May, so today was 5x400 on a minute's rest. Given that I knocked out a 6:43 400m, I felt pretty confident that I could hit my reps on 7:10-7:20. That should be good enough, right? Well, that lasted for two repeats. I took extra rest (90 seconds) before reps 4 and 5, and I let myself draft more than I am willing to accept. Quite simply, I was weak physically and mentally today.

I know that the main issue is how my form goes to crap when I'm not thinking about it. During the time trial, since I knew I was getting to the end, no matter how much it hurt, I could keep getting reasonably good strokes. Today, there was always so much work left to do, that all I could think about was the ache, and I know that cost me time and energy, swimming slower and working harder to do it. This isn't good, I need to keep my head in the game better than this. In about a month we'll do 4x500. I'm going to own that day.

Swim: w/u - 200m each free, non-free, pull
100 as 25 hard/75 ez, 15"
100 as 50 hard/50 ez, 15"
100 as 75 hard/25 ez, 15"
100 ez non-free, 15"
100 pull w/paddles, 15"
100 ez non-free, 90"
5x400 free, 60+" (see above, 7:15/7:10/7:30/7:23/7:30)
c/d - 200 ez non-free, 100 ez pull
Total: 3500m

Weights:
Chaosbringer - 2x4/65
Chins - 2x10,10
Reverse flye/Lateral raise - 2x10,8/15
Side plank w/abduction - 2x12,14
Supermans - 2x15,14
Reverse curl - 1x12/48
Diamond pushup - 1x9/40