Yes, I am afraid the diagnosis from my mystery swim guru buddy confirms it - I need to do drills. (Don't worry Keith, your secret identity is safe with me!) ;) Specifically, my 1st priority is kicking drills - to quote my very kind buddy who came all the way across the island to give me a swim lesson "You are sinking VERY badly, I don't know what you are doing with your legs but that's not kicking." To add insult to injury, when he showed me the proper way to kick, and I started trying it, I went into leg cramps after less than 2 laps of kicking - further proof that I have never been kicking in all my swimming to date. Keith was kind enough to even bring his brand new camera to take a video of me swimming and it was good to see for myself just how my legs were flailing uselessly. Now I kinda understand why my kids tend to look a lil embarassed of me when I swim. :( OK, no more distance swimming (to quote the TI DVD - "don't practice struggling, practice what you can do"), for the next 2 months it is gonna be drills, drills and more drills. Instead of doing the whole gambit of TI drills though, I am gonna listen to my mystery swim guru buddy (see Keith, I won't divouch your name, no worries!) and put 1st priority on kicking drills.
The swim lesson was actually the bright spark of the weekend. The sun was out in force (Thank You, Jesus!), so this was my pretty packed weekend...
- Fri evening - Swim 1.6km Pool - REALLY struggled, slowest 1.6km swim ever. Ready to call it quits.
- Sat morning - Went cycling with the kids, great fun!
- Sat afternoon - Bike 45km, heavy cross winds. Finally got my bike fit right (I think) but really struggled to get above 30 km/hr in the wind. Thankful I had the aero bar with me, helped with the wind, but all in all, any ride below 30km/hr is not a fun ride.
- Sat evening - Swim lesson, details above.
- Sat night - Dinner with my brother-in-law, 1st time meeting his girlfriend's parents (read: STRESS).
- Sun - Went to church in the morning, zonked out at home, went to a kids party in the afternoon. Decided to update my blog before I hit the hay - this post and updated my training log (in the side bar).
Feeling like I need a weekend to recover from this weekend! ;)
7 comments:
hahah you are supposed to put up all those nice photos i took of you swimming!! Not some gross black n white marching pix.
Yes, I do want to see those pics of you swimming :)
Sinking and drinking and choking chlorine water is part of the learning.
I am starting to kick a bit better but still not enough to swim far.
Just work on the kick. You might want to get some fins too. They help a lot. The best test is lie on your back with your arms on the side and kick. If you are moving forward, you are doing good. If you are not moving forward or moving backward. Keep at it.
I drilled myself for weeks to get it right. :)
Then again u can swim 1.6 km. imagine how good u will feel (and how fast you will be) when u can kick well :)
Drills are your friends! They always put me right into form when ready to start my main swim workout. Good job:)
Thanks all for your consistent encouragement. Sorry but I don't think I will put up the pics of me swimming (struggling?) in the water - I am just too embarassed at how incredibly geeky I look in and out of the water (unlike my mysterious "body-sculpture" type swim guru buddy - Keith, your identity is still safe with me). Hmmm... maybe I shld put up his pic instead for eye candy value... :)
Thanks again all, I will remember your words when I am struggling and feel like quitting on the drills. I will make the drills my friend!
1.6 km? Tom is rolling on the floor in pain. Let's see, 1.6km, that's roughly A MILE. Or 1760 yards. Cringe.
I swam, today (all 200 yards), focusing on breathing. I'm not too worried about kicking until I can actually breath. And since I gave in to wearing my ear plugs to prevent infection issues, there's no wimping out.
The key is that you're listening to those who can help out. I spent some time Saturday getting a few pointers from another triathlete at the pool. Keep up the drills. Ironman status us just around the corner.
Hi Tom, actually breathing is my next problem. The reason why my legs are sinking is because I life my head very high to breathe - and that is because I don't wanna breathe in water (ouch!). The experienced swimmers breathe in with their mouth just above the water level or even partially below the water. Looks like we have a lot of practising to do. :)
And wearing ear plugs is the sensible thing to do, especially if you are prone to having wet logged ears. I suffered that for a while and it is pretty uncomfortable.
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