Free Advice and a Confidence Builder

Swim
1 x 200- Warm-up
4 x 200- 100- 5, 7, 9/100- swim
5 x 50- Sideline kick
1 x 500- 50 easy/ 50 hard
5 x 100- decreasing stroke count each lap
1 x 100- Cool down

Run
time- 1:00
distance- 6.27mi

I like the easy/ hard swim set. It makes the swim go by faster and it feels safer to really blow out those sprint laps because you know you can chill it out right after. If I were recommending a set to try out to a new swimmer, that would be high on the list. "Sprint" and "easy" are both relative terms and can be fluidly applied to anyone's workout. Plus, it makes the 500, or whatever set you choose to do with it, go by a lot quicker. And active rest, which is really what those easy laps are, is better than passive rest.
The decreasing stroke count set went well too. I started each 100 with 25 yards at 16 strokes. From there the stroke count normally went 15, 14, 13. Did I have to cheat a little off the walls with a super-glide to get to 13? On the middle two 100s I did. No worries. And the fifth hundred I actually did 16, 14, 14, 13 trying to really get the most bang for my buck. The goal is to balance speed with economy. You may have a low stroke count, but if the speed drops away then its not doing you a lick of good. But too high a count and you're wasting all kinds of energy. Swimming is all about the most bang for your buck.
The run was kind of a shock. I am not a runner and today I was expecting to lay down a fairly easy, slightly shorter run. But once I got out on the road things were moving nicely. The weather was cool and a little overcast, my legs were strong, and my stomach was calm. The latter point is important and if it continues will go a long way towards helping my run confidence come up.
I hit my turn-around at 30 minutes and decided to try and negative split this bad boy. I wasn't really thinking about it and I wasn't consciously pushing much harder than I had on the way out, but I did keep an eye on my pace. Love the Garmin. So helpful. And when I came in lo and behold I nearly cracked an hour. I missed the negative split by 12 seconds. I'm claiming I had to wait to cross one street and calling it even. As a run rundown (ain't I clever?), Thursday I was motivated and had a killed 6.5 mile run, Sunday I put together a decent long-for-me run of nearly eight miles, and today I had a strong 6.25. So either the other Vibram is about to drop right on to my head or I've finally started putting this run thing back together again.