Day 11: Swim Baseline

I skipped swimming yesterday because I got a mole removed and so had 5 stitches put in my leg. Today I put 2 waterproof bandages over it and hoped that would keep it dry. It did! Yeah!!! So I can swim as long as I'm careful with them.

Today Lucille and Ann did the drills with me. I took less time focusing on them but still offered some feedback. That helped me keep my focus on what I was doing.

I was working on trying to feel that hip drive timing and Ann and I talked about it a little which really helped.

It seems like the hip drive needs to lead the hand entry into the water to get the full power of it. Otherwise you are kind of falling into the water with your upper body leading the way and losing some of the rear/core power. The other thing I noticed is that I tried to initiate the hip drive from the kick and that's the wrong way to go about it too. (At least that is the way it feels.) It baffles me a little because both the kick and the arm have a way of starting the rotation whereas the core just has to initiate itself without any counterforce to initiate the rotation. The kick and pull help provide some momentum but the initiation seems to need to come from the core.

I really tried to focus on having the hip/core lead the rotation and felt less "choppy and longer" when i did this so I think i'm headed in the right direction. The other key is to remember to keep that hand extended just a bit longer than I naturally (at least for right now) want to. I still have to think about keeping it out there.

Today I did drills and then drill/swim. Then we did ladders up to 75 holding stroke counts and playing with adding and subtracting strokes. Then we did swim golf again trying to gain mastery of increasing/decreasing stroke count and stroke length.

To finish up we did 3 X 100's. I used the tempo trainer for this and was holding 17 beats per length which is 14 - 15 SPL (depending upon my pushoff) on 1.45 for 2 of them and then 1.42 for the last one. According to my cheat sheet at 1.45 this is 24.63/length (1:38.6/100) and 1.42 is 24.14/length (1:36.56/100). Admittedly I don't think I could hold these yet for more than 200 yards but I am confident that I will be able to once I can master this hip rotation thing.

It felt pretty easy and I felt like I was holding this pretty well. I do notice that my breathing stroke still is at a little different than my other strokes because the beat seems to get just a little bit off at that point.

I'm looking forward to spending a few days doing my own workouts again so i can totally focus on my stroke again and not try to "fit into" other people's workouts.