The weather network says one more day. I really hope so. That was a tough one today getting out of bed to go for my swim. Talked to Justin yesterday and his advice was to get some extra meters in today as I had told him it was unlikely I would be at Sunday swim. Did not have the guts to tell him that a buddy is coming to town and there will be cougar sightings in downtown Saskatoon Saturday night. The likelyhood of me spending time with a hangover is quite good Sunday morning.
So. I got up a bit early today and headed to the pool a bit early. Being the swim co-ordinator for the local club has an advantage now and again as I learned this fall that we have the pool booked for 6:15am. We could have had it booked from 5:30am but there was no interest from the people in the club. The local competitive swim team is there at 5:30am so I showed up 6:00am...don't have to wait for anyone to unlock the door...the life guards are there already...the lanes are empty...got about 500 meters in before the others and the coach showed up.
Was a really good workout! The coach is fantastic in that he gave me all sorts of tips today. AND he said he was impressed that I could do the breath every 7 strokes drill!! Others in the lane were complaining but I have always been able to do this drill. I think the secret is that I take my time breathing out under the water, don't hold my breath, and really concentrate on long, steady strokes...make sure my thumb hits my thigh, every single stroke. I think that if you panic and shorten up your strokes and your breathing, it gets hard to do.
If you pull your hand out of the water at your hip, measure the distance between your hip and your thigh, or where your thumb hits your thigh while standing. Now count your strokes per length. That little bit extra of pushing your hand from your hip to your thigh will get your stroke count down and you won't be using as much energy. Now just imagine this over the course of a half or full Ironman swim!! There!! That is the swimming advice for today!!
5 comments:
When EF Hutton Talks, people listen. Is anybody here old enough to remember that commercial?
When swimming speedsters give advice, us turtles listen.
Gets ruler, about 8 inches. I usually settle in about 20 strokes per 25 m. 8 in inches x 20 is 160 inches or 4 m. So lets see. 20 strokes, 25 m is 1.25 m per stroke. Assume I can add half that 8 inches to stroke, or 10 cm. So if I can get 1.35 m out of a stroke, the 25 m count would be 18.5. So lets be conservative and say 2 strokes saved every 50 m. Over 3800 m, is 152 strokes saved. Which is what would have powered me through 190 m at my old stroke rate. And if you do the longer stroke in the same time as the shorter one, you've just taken about 5 minutes off your IM time.
hmmmmm. Hope I did that right.
Thanks Kelly!
HEY KELLY sure hope one more day of cold but I wouldn't hold my breath 7 strokes on it. I love that drill too- really makes you lengthen out... sigh... I really should get back in the pool :)
Thanks for the tip, and I agree with Keith, I am the turtle listening!
I am dragging my butt to the pool now, and I will practice that.
i've been trying to do that in my recent swims...will continue to do so now that the master has reiterated it! lol. thanks!!
gulp...that is me drinking pool water in an attempt to go seven strokes!!
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