Making the swim work - or "Putting the lesson into practice"

In my continuing saga of "How to make a slow azz swimmer faster" I spent today's session trying to work on the points Coach Sue pointed out as my weaknesses.  Here is the workout I did - basically an extended version of the drills we worked on Weds. with focused 100's mixed in to practice the technique and work on being long and smooth in the water.

100 focused (not hard) - 1:45
100 single arm w/ kick board (alternate arms every 25)
100 focused - 1:43
100 single arm w/out kick board
100 focused - 1:41
100 catch-up
100 focused - 1:39
100 kick with kick board and fins
100 focused - 1:41
100 kick fins w/no kickboard
100 focused - 1:41
100 "monkey" half length with high elbows and head forward and out of water (to nose) then regular swim with high elbows second part of length each time
300 focused - 5:16

The immediate thing that stands out to me is this, all of my 100's were in the low 1:40's and my average for the 300 is right around 1:45/100!!!!  These were all with little to moderate effort just focusing on doing it right.  Simply put, I could swim a 5:16 300 before but I would be totally cooked after that sort of effort.  Today it was super easy!!

Now this isn't at all set in stone, but in one coaching session and one day of implementing some changes I dropped my typical 100 yard pace by 10 - 15 seconds with less effort.  I don't care who you are, that's frickin' huge!!!!!!

I never "disliked" swimming, but I think with more effort and practice I might really start to like it!