This morning I worked out in the pool instead of on the pavements of Bettendorf. I recently had my first swim class over the weekend with a great coach/instructor who gave me some drills and techniques to work on to improve my swimming. Today I decided to swim 40 lengths and during that time I worked on her suggestions.
One of the things that I need to work to improve upon is the number of swim strokes it takes me to swim one length. When I started my session over the weekend I was around 20 strokes and by the end of the session she had me down to around 17 strokes. When I get better on my technique she thought I could get it down to around 15 strokes. Today I was focusing on how many strokes it took me and I was back around 20. I could not get it reduced. This is a sign that I must not be extending enough and really reaching.
I also worked on my kick. I used the board and focused on my kick. I did not use flippers so this was a good workout on the legs. I would go down and back working on my kick around every 10 lengths. I did fine while kicking with the board, but as soon as I brought everything together I know my kick fell apart. This is going to be my biggest thing to overcome.
I worked on the six stroke drill where I placed one arm straight ahead, kick six times, and then switched arms. This drill is tough for me. I cannot get my breathing down and I find it difficult. This is a drill that I need to continue to work on as the reason it is hard is because I have much to work on.
Another thing I did was swim regular while working on my breathing. I swam down and back breathing every 3 strokes. Then I would repeat breathing every 5 strokes and then 7 strokes. The 7 strokes is tough. I am good swimming down, but coming back is killer. I need to develop my lung capacity and swimming without oxygen.
Lastly, I used the pull buoys to work on my stroke. This is a great drill. I can really focus on extending and not kicking. I do pretty good when I am not kicking.
Overall, this was a productive session on my own. I worked on all the things from the session I had this weekend. I just need to become more comfortable in water and realize that progress is going to be slowly. I am glad I am starting now to give myself the rest of November and all December to work on technique before I really start to jump into any sort of training program.
This workout kicked my butt. I was tired when I finished. I swam 1000 meters which is not quite a mile. A mile is 1600 meters so I would still have 24 more laps for one mile. I cannot imagine swimming 1.2 miles for a half Ironman/Rev3 without stopping as here I was today stopping after every 25 meters. One day at a time, but my goals are big and so is my determination. GETTING IT DONE! just got a lot more interesting.
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