Bookmark

I'm calling this my bookmark workout. I ended the workout with the focus for my next practice already set.

I didn't really do any drills this time with swimming. I used focal points instead. I am finding that releasing my head (at least at first) is becoming a natural part of my stroke. This is my first focal point with everything because I find that until I release/relax my head the rest of it isn't going to come together. That came pretty naturally today. And when my stroke didn't feel right it's where I put my focus again. The other thing that I focused on was keeping that hip and hand moving at the same speed. I find that I tend to want to drive my hand into the water instead of allowing it to extend with my roll. I focused on feeling like my hand was moving forward throughout my stroke and that felt just about right. It definitely made me think about staying tall in the water and extended from fingers to toes.

I swam for 15 minutes and found myself losing my focus as I marked my own speed by the others around me. Bad idea. When I do this I lose my nice relaxed stroke and get short and choppy again. So when I found myself doing this I focused on being smoother and being much more relaxed than the person I was "competing" against. Here is what I found when I did that. They slowed down and I didn't. I kept my smooth relaxed, effortless stroke while they ran out of gas. So over the short haul they were faster but over the long haul I was either faster or most certainly expended much less energy than they did covering the same distance.

I ended the practice with focus 25's. I focused on increasing my spl and increasing my comfort and ease with what I had practiced and found the next focal point for myself. Once I found that point I got out.

So my next focal point is my catch. I drop my elbow periodically especially when I breathe sometimes but consistently I do not set myself up for a good catch/grip on the water. This will tie into the hip drive focus as well and keeping the timing together so it's a good progression from here.

I'm losing count of days...but a GREAT swim

Today I swam for about 2 hours. It was great. Because we were in San Diego I got out of my routine and had limited resources but drilling in the hotel pool may have paid off.

I felt like I consistently hit the feeling of hip and hand being tied together/working in unison. I also was able to feel that lift in the hips, the activated abs, streamlined position. I know it wasn't perfect but it was pretty darn good.

I also did mid pool swims because I can hold it together for a 25 but getting that feeling again after the turn was difficult but once I practiced it a bit I felt like that got much better too. I was doing open turns and decided not to kick off the wall or even streamline much underwater. I just focused on getting into that good body position for swimming and getting that feeling back. The actual turn finesse can come later the swimming is more important right now.

A good swim. I even got down to 12 spl. And I held 14 stroke/length for 10 minutes.

Day 26: Swimmin' in San Diego

This morning I spent over an hour swimming in the hotel pool. At first it felt pathetic but then I let go of my swim snobbishness and decided that I could have a productive session without swimming more than about 12 yards at a time. Lot of time to really focus on perfecting my stroke and idd not have to worry about breathing.

I am convinced that catch and recovery are tied to the hip and if this isn'[t right then your stroke never quite hits its full potential. I found I could concentrate on one side at a time but had to pretty much ignore anythign else. But this too will likely become more natural as I get the hang of it.

The best part of this is I got to swim in the ocean today. I was able to hook up spontaneiously with a tri club who was headed out for a swim. The sun set quickly so I swam for only about 40 minutes but it was great. I can't say I concentrated on my form. Once you put that wet suit on I lose all sense of body awareness and that old stroke so easily falls back. I tried to just focus on the patient lead hand. I found that between the salt water and the wetsuit that kicking was generally unneeded because i could swim without kicking and still have alot of rotation.

The swim was memorable however. I enjoyed the people. THe leader was very good at checking in and making sure everyone was OK. And after it was nice to talk triathlon because several of them were signing up for their first tri. It was just a good day. Swim outside in the am, then the San Diego Zoo all day with Cate and Little Moo and then a swim in the ocean. What an indulgent day!

Connection

Today I swam and it was reinfored for me that the hand and hip need to be coordinated. If the hand pulls through the water faster than the rotation then you lose your grip on the water.

The other thing I noticed was that when I breath if this rotation isn't right then I end up pulling your arm faster because I am trying to keep the height in the water. It's not just a dropping of my hand at the front it causes the recover to be too fast over the top of the water too and throws off all the timing.

Again I found I was better at this when I didn't pause my stroke but also don't quite have the timing of that hip rotation and arm recovery right yet.

Day 27: Clinic and Feeling it again

Yesterday was the clinic with Laurie. A couple take aways are:

• The depth of your hand should be where your hand is when you raise both of your arms; like the daVinci man


• Engage the abs more


• Skating on armpit-- feel the full rotation

Today I swam and tried to figure out what it is that I want to be doing:

• I want to keep my lead hand moving forward


• Slow down the pull/catch in the water to really grab the water which actually allows me to move further than pulling faster through the water and allowing the water to give/fall away. I need to keep my grip on the water. If I move my hand too fast I not only lose my grip but I also end up disconnecting the power of the rotation from the catch.

Today I concentrated on spearing my hand beyond my grip. Where I ended up rotated a little further than I have before, not so much in my shoulders are the rotation in my hip. I also learned to not "push" my hand forward and force my shoulders up but to leave them more relaxed and let my head "hang" between my shoulder.

The other thing I found that worked was not trying to stay on a single track but as if I am swimming down one side of the track and then another. I guess a cross between cross country skiing and skating. Again this caused me to feel a bit more like I was on my armpit. Its not like having wider tracks with my arms but more that I am making sure I stay in the track and don't slide in and out of it.

I was able to hold this focus for 10 minutes. I never felt tired and felt like I was maintaining my body position well throughout. I never felt like I slid back into my old stroke. I admit I didn't do flip turns as I haven't figured out how to come out of those and quickly get back into the right position. That will come and I want the extra breath on the turn right now. I maintained 15 strokes per length for the whole 10 minutes. I didn't use the tempo trainer because when I use that I find I can't hold my farm as well for that length of time yet because I lose my focus because I am concentrating on the beat.

After that I did some 25's trying to increase the speed without increasing my stroke. I did 14 SPL until I hit > 1.33. I held 15 up to 1.18. Pretty good I think really. I found that by increasing the tempo that I became more efficient and ended up extending my body line further and swam taller and that I really had to focus on my breathing and keeping it in line with everything else.

Elbow Pain

Some tips to avoid that elbow pain...

Rotate a little less. This avoids an inadvertent turn in the elbow and puts it in a comfortable range of motion

Take it a little deeper. Just a few inches can make a big difference
Wait until a little later in the cycle. Doing an anchor motion too early in the cycle is too much of a strain if you are too stacked

Probably the most important- the first part should be more of a slip into position, not an aggressive pull. When it slips, water will grab it and start taking it through, just keep the elbow steady or give it a little assistance. A hard pull is more likely to strain and be a weaker anchor anyway.Remember that the end of a long level is weaker the farther it is from the body. You're weaker at the wrist than the elbow- don't try to set the strength of an anchoring motion by how hard you can tug on the elbow, but instead by how you can hold a taut wrist without losing the perfendicular grip on the forearm. That armful of water is far more important than a hard tug, and no matter what, none of this ranks with balance or clean streamlining on the list of important things for most swimmers.

In a FUNK!!

The past week I have been in a FUNK! I want to get out of it and am struggling up for air again. Lots of pressures at work and home and feeling like there's not enough time to do all that I want to do.

I have only swam once this week, since Sunday. I had been swimming every day and found that the left side of my back around my mid back was getting more sore every day. When I swam yesterday I experienced the same pain in my left side of my back. This is a bit higher than issues I have had with my back in regards to fairly severe pain before. And this seems to wrap around my rib cage so if i take a deep breath it feels like it is pulling those muscles.

When I swam yesterday I felt that same feeling for just little bits of time that I was more consistently able to feel before.

The good thing about this is I know how it is supposed to feel now and know when I'm not doing it. And I know what to start doing to get that feeling back. That's a good thing.

I think I'm going to start adding more successive laps into my workout as I have been doing primarily 25's for the past 3 weeks to try to keep that feeling longer even if it isn't perfect.