Back in the water today to work on my swim. I'm still carrying a little fatigue from Boulder, but it felt good to be in the water. I warmed up with some drills and then did some fast 50's and 100's, finding that my times were quite solid! And, that was before my swim lesson. I really like my new swim coach, and can credit him with my being able to come out of the water at Boulder feeling fresh for the bike. It's fun to learn the key techniques that can help me swim fast, but as Coach Lucho reminds me, you still have to practice swimming fast in order to actually swim fast! With that in mind, I'm excited about the next phase of my swim training. We'll see how it pans out at the Santa Rosa 70.3 in 6 weeks, where I'll definitely test my ability to do a fast half ironman swim.
My swim coach noted that my left arm is a bit "lazy" during recovery and entry into the water. He likens that movement to throwing a baseball, with the resulting hip rotation being key to an effective swim stroke. My friend Rudy noted that I'm right handed, and perhaps the "left handed" "throwing" motion might not be as natural. It's something that I will be diligently working on in the coming weeks. One thing is for sure, as I fatigued, the left arm got lazy. Something to focus on, but also, I need to build the endurance while swimming fast so as not to fatigue!
The next element had to do with extending my hands with each stroke. It's kind of the "glide" concept, but in reality it's a culmination of the throwing and hip rotation. If you follow through and extend your arm after it enters the water, the hip rotation will flow naturally and the forward intertia will be maintained. This will be a fun concept to focus on during my upcoming swims.
The final piece of the equation has to do with hand position. It's intuitively obvious that once the hands are in the water, keeping the fingers angled down is paramount. If they come up at all, it's literally like putting brakes on. Yet, it's easy to forget this, especially when one starts fatiguing (there's that concept again). In addition to the fingers pointing down, this is the beginning of "catching" the water and swimming "over a barrel."
Between my swim coach and Coach Lucho, one more thing is certain about my upcoming swim workouts. I'll be doing lots of sets of 300 to 500 yards. Today, I actually swam 200 yards in 3 minutes flat. I haven't done that in years. I'm going to need to get my 300 yard swim down to 4:30, and then my 500 yard swim down to 7:30. Then I'll need to be able to do multiple sets of them. That's my goal, and I'll start working on it tomorrow!
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