I took another swim lesson today while wearing my wetsuit. It's been an interesting experience since my first lesson last week. I realized then that I really wasn't comfortable with my form while wearing a wetsuit. Form is what swimming is all about, and a wetsuit is supposed to help one swim faster. With my goal to give my swim everything I have this weekend, it's time to lock in my wetsuit swim form. I learned a few important things about my form last week, so really tried to lock them in today. Swimming is about form. The first thing that matters with my form is to aim a little deeper on my hand entry, as my hands were coming up before and creating drag. I also really need to focus on having my hands enter the water more aggressively, which actually helps me with my rotation.
My swim coach had me doing 50 yard efforts with the first 25 focused on sighting, which is a very important part of open water swims. The second 25 was focused on a high recovery and aggressive hand entry. I did a few of these, each one progressively faster as I became more and more comfortable with my form. I then did four 50's, starting from a standing position (like I will be at the race), each progressively faster, starting with 39 seconds and finishing with a 35 second 50 yards. I finished up with two 75 yard efforts that started comfortably and built to a hard effort in 54 and 57 seconds respectively. Now, if I can only figure out how to swim without a wetsuit the same way I swim with one!
I need to start getting mentally ready for the race. The first step is being prepared to start out going fast on the swim. In order to go fast, I'll want to get locked into my best form right away. I've done a couple of lessons in my wetsuit and will plan to swim on the course on Friday when I drop my bike off. Practice makes perfect! I've got some key things to focus on while wearing a wetsuit, the main one which is making sure I aim a little deeper with my hands. The rest of my form foci are pretty similar to what I do when I swim without a wetsuit. Of course, it's now become possible that I won't even be wearing a wetsuit on Saturday. The water temperature in the lake has bee rising with increasing temperatures, and it is possible that the race will be a non-wetsuit swim. In that case, I'll have my swimskin, which also gives me some advantage in the water.
My goal will be to swim "strong" the whole way, draft whenever I can, and try to sight effectively. I don't want to find myself swimming too easily or comfortably. I want to feel like I've given my swim everything I have. I have to trust in the fact that I'll feel good coming out of the water. I also need to focus on the key elements of my form during the swim, although a half ironman swim shouldn't lead to much breakdown in my form.
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