TI Post Today

Today I posted on the TI forum:

I did the TI workshop this past weekend (oct 3 - 4) which was fabulous. I am now in the phase of relearning the stroke and imprinting new muscle memory.

I have been swimming on and off club teams, summer teams, school and Masters teams for the past 35 years. I have ALWAYS been the one who worked really hard but was never very fast. I definitely fall into the category of I keep on swimming but I never seem to get any better. I am hopeful that will all change now.

I have been practicing the TI drills for about a month or so before the workshop using the video so had a pretty solid understanding of the focal points going into the workshop. It was great getting the reinforcement of the workshop however because I was able to get feedback on both what I was doing right and the things that are so ingrained in my swimming that I have a hard time "feeling" them.

So now I am in my first week post workshop. I have embraced the TI concepts and philosophy and whenever I pull on my new TI swim cap I remind myself:
•I will swim better today than I have ever swam before
Every length will have a focus

So contrary to all my prior training I am swimming or shall I say drilling 12.5 yard distances and 25 yard distances, resting, refocusing, find focal point and do it again. I have swam for 5 hours post workshop and probably have done less than 500 yards whole stroke. I definitely am feeling the imprinting and want to make sure this is solid before I go back to other sets.

I am hoping to do the 3000 or 6000 yard postal swim for USMS which is supposed to be done before November 15. I am wondering however it this is too early to be swimming that amount of yards whole stroke. I do not want to slide backwards into old habits and this seems like a potential opportunity to do such a thing.

I put in about 5 - 7 hours per week in the pool on average. I feel like I will have imprinted the new habits pretty well by then and definitely be in Phase 2 where I am swimming more and drilling less and starting to work on mainting the stroke over longer distances but a 100 yards is a much different story than 3000 - 6000.

I am looking for some feedback on whether this is "too early" in my new stroke development. And, perhaps how I can "redefine" the swim so that it is about swimming it with the best technique versus the best time.