Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Swimming Fast is Hard, Swimming Hard isn't Fast

Had a remarkable swim lesson today. I had done a solid bike workout this morning which included 40 minutes non-stop at around half ironman effort. By the time I got to the pool after a morning of work I was on the fatigued side. I did the warm ups and drills with my swim coach, Moe McGarity, and then did a set of 75 yards x 8, descending every two. The first two were done in about 64 seconds, and by the time I did the last 75 yard effort, I was (pleasantly) surprised to find that I did it in 49 seconds. This should translate to a 100 yard swim in 1:05. Last year, my fastest 100 ever was 1:13. One of my goals is to someday break 1 minute.

One of my major breakthrough's is learning that swimming fast doesn't correlate with trying to swim hard. It's actually trying harder to swim with good form. If I actually "try" to swim fast, I tend to lose track of my form and not really go much faster, but certainly will wear myself out. Today, whenever I felt like I was doing that, I concentrated on staying focused on my form and it really worked. At the end of my workout I did a couple of "all-out" 25 yard efforts and managed to get one done in about 14+seconds (under 15 for sure).

My confidence in my swim is clearly at an all time high.

10 days before the California 70.3 and my taper is going well!

No comments: