Take a dip in March!

[Susan Otcenas]

2300 yards this morning. Despite only getting 5 hours of sleep, I had a pretty good swim. Some days I feel like I'm just out there hacking through the water, but today I felt like I had a pretty good glide going on.

Jeff decided to amuse himself by swimming laps right at my heels. It motivated me to swim a little faster.

Susan

[GLC1968]

Had another class last night (I also swam last Monday - 1000 m - but forgot to report it. It was a sucky swim so I didn't want to remember it again!).

Our normal coach was traveling with his swim team, so we had a sub. She was HARD! She worked with him in the Tuesday class, and then taught us on Thursday, so I don't know if he made them swim as much on Tuesday or not. Anyway, we did a LOT of drills and when I tried to count them all after the fact, I could tell that we did well over 1000 yards in the class which is highly unusual. I got a ton out of the drills though. She had us start with using swim fins and to be honest, that was really difficult for me. I go too fast with those things on that it makes it really hard to focus on anything else. It's great for finding flaws in my streamline position, but it's just too confusing for much else. I suppose I could get used to it, but I'd rather not. After we took them off, she had us just do 50 freestyle to get used to not having them on and it was so much easier for me! Weird, huh? Everyone else wanted their fins back!

Anyway, by the end of the class, I felt like I'd made some really great progress. I meant to count my strokes for the last 50, but I forgot. I have a feeling my count has gone down significantly after that class.

My next swim will be tomorrow morning, so I'm looking forward to repeating a lot of those drills and really solidifying what I learned.

[sgf726]

Our pools seemed busier than usually this week as well, not sure what's up.

1800yds for me last night - 200wu, then 5 sets of 200 pull/4*25 swim on the :30, 100cd.

My next meeting with my coach is Tuesday, looking forward to it. I feel like my stroke has improved allot, still need to work on keeping my head down when I breathe and kicking is still a challenge.

Sharon

[Selkie]

I've noticed that it's gotten busier at our pool since the beginning of March but hopefully, will slack off again since the weather is getting more conducive to outdoor activities (fingers crossed).

Got in a solid week---Monday, 2,200 yds and 2,500 yds for Tues, Wed, Thurs, and Frid. I'm going to be leaving for my long Saturday swim in about an hour or so....

Yesterday, a lady was telling me how she started TI classes and so far, she likes it (but she said it's "messed up" her swimming). To be honest, I thought she was a good swimmer before --- I've split a lane/circle swam w/her before---but she said that she's learning TI to get faster. Now I'm thinking again about taking TI lessons. I'm not really interested in getting faster but I would like to be more efficient. She said she'd let me know how it goes.

[GLC1968]

Did 1300 yards today - my longest swim yet. I actually could have gone longer but I was running out of time. I felt great though!

The first 10 laps or so were a bit choppy and difficult but after that, it got better. I forced myself to swim a 100 and then a little later, another one. After that, the 100's almost got 'easy'...it was clearly a mental battle. I just came to the true realization that I can swim 100 yards without stopping. I was actually tempted to try and go further, but I decided to leave well enough alone for one day. ;-)

[Selkie]

Saturday was a day for longest swims! I added 100 yds to my longest---went 4,100 yesterday, amazingly in the same amount of time it took me to swim 4,000 the previous Saturday. Had to circle swim for a bit, too. Today, I'm pleasantly tired/sore.

[kelownagirl]

Joining back into this thread. I've been swimming a lot lately but I'm still struggling at the same pace. I'm doing all the sets and drills from my training plan, my stroke is ok but my pull is weak. Does anyone do upper body weights to improve strength for swimming?

[tribogota]

Main set,
4 blocks of this:

100 kick,
300 free with pull
30 seconds rest

100 kick,
200 free with pull
30 seconds rest

100 kick
100 free with pull
1 minute rest

THe kick is fast, as in this is not social kick, time it if that will help you, should be about 10 seconds slower than your regular 100 free. Your legs should be very tired after only one hundred, thus the pull for free...
The free, faster as the length goes down, so the last 100 should really be fast.

[Pika]

Wow Tribogota! That seems like it would be a great swim workout- esp by the fourth set!!!
Our practice today looked like this
100 swim
100kick
100 pull
x4
Drills 8 x50 Drill as right arm/left arm/kick on side/count strokes

6 x 25 on 40 sec
main set
3 x 10 minutes descending
based on 1500 meter time- I tried to hold a 1:40 pace the whole way but my last 10 min was not descending
cool down

[GLC1968]

Did 1350 today. I could have done more, but I was getting kind of bored! I think next time, I'm going to make up an actual plan so that I have something to follow to keep my brain engaged.

I managed 6x100 with 30-1:00 rests between (which is pretty amazing for me) AND I did a 150 without stopping, too!

I'm also very consistent. My 50's, 100's and my 150 were all of the same pace.

[kelownagirl]

I did 2100m today. A lot of kicking sets in there. At the end I had to do 6X50 fast and I think I am finally seeing progress. Times ranged from :57-1:00 which for me, is pretty fast.

I wanna be like you guys when I grow up...

[roadie gal]

2000 yds today. I went out without a plan, and not feeling great. I'm PMSing so bad, and I'm so bloated that I thought my boobs would float away on their own.

I did manage to do a 400 yd interval and a few 200s, followed by random 100s and 50s. None of it was fast or pretty, but I just wanted to do the distance. I'll do something more organized today... if I can keep the boobs corralled.

[GLC1968]

Another great swim class last night. We worked on stroke technique some more (and breathing) with some additional alignment drills and things just fell further into place. I truly felt like I was gliding through the water with very little effort. I asked for assessment on my breathing since I felt more drag when breathing to the right than to the left and he said that I looked good both ways and that most everyone just has a better side. I also got complements from a couple of the other attendees that my stroke looked really good. Yay me!

I'm super excited for my next swim to put these things into place again. Seriously....I'm beginning to think that swimming is FUN!!