Thursday, March 19, 2009

Lead with the hip!

Monday: Why do I keep saying I enjoy swimming? It’s really quite difficult. Unfortunately it’s even more difficult if you’ve spent the last two years practicing the wrong way.
We worked on our balance drills at Masters on Monday night but then moved on to underwater recovery (from TI) and catch-up drills. It would seem that everyone at class last night, leads their stroke from their shoulders and that was no longer going to be acceptable. It was time to start swimming from the hips.
It was at this point that I realized just how “locked in” I am to starting my stroke with my arms. When I hear “Go” in my head to start each stroke, I respond with my arms and then my hips catch up. Now I’ve got to reverse that thinking to, start the hips first, let the arms come along for the ride. I’m hopeful that with some focused time at the pool working on only this, maybe I can actually make it happen quickly. Because right now, it’s not happening, it’s like trying to read a book where all the words in it are spelled backwards and that’s the way it’s going to stay. Or maybe trying to bat from the opposite side of the plate would be a better example. Either way, I’ve got to retrain my brain.

So why is it I enjoy this masters swimming class? Because swimming is a technique event and we are now working on technique 95% of the time. There are no excuses either. If she gives us a drill and we are awful at it, guess what, we do it again. I’m sure her planned workout is cut in half every week because of this. Do I miss the hard workouts? Not really. I know I can go to the pool and follow a planned interval workout anytime. I don’t need someone to watch me swim 10x100. I also know that once we are swimming properly these workouts are going to get really hard and hopefully really fast. Then I’m guessing I’ll be talking about how I miss these technique workouts. Ha ha.

Tuesday I took my day off. I was tempted to swim or put some miles on the trainer but I refrained. The breaks are as important as the training. I did go to the chiropractor, which is always a good thing.

Wednesday: Morning run with Todd. We kept it simple, running just under 6 miles. We had time to add one or two more but I’ve got the taper for Sunday’s run in the works.
We went to yoga in the evening. I need to find a bit more time during the week to work on what we learn here.

Thursday: I was scheduled to bike in the morning but my Sunday race is still on my mind. I know it’s not going to be my fastest race pace as I haven’t done the speed work to make that happen. I would like to feel completely rested for it though.
So I’m going to swim tonight and that will be it for the day

Looking ahead.

Friday: Very likely another full day off. Genine’s parents will be here in the evening.

Saturday: Busy day. I have some work to do on both cars. Oil, brakes, glow plugs, I think that’s it. I’m going to Genine’s IntenSati Class to take photographs for Tiffany. Visiting with family, Scott, Kryste and Ian will be here as well. And of course I need to do a very short run with some speed, to remind the legs what’s up for Sunday.

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