Swim Lesson

Last night Genine and I went to our first swim lesson of the year. I've been dying to get this rolling. I haven't had feedback regarding my swim technique since May of last year. (I think.) My longest swim workout since my return from the ankle injury in November has been 2500m. I have definitely been questioning my swim volume. I suppose that's a good sign. I must finally feel like I'm ready for more. I know I didn't feel this way back in December.

I feel like my swimming is very on and off. Meaning that there are times when I get into the pool and I feel like I’m doing everything right. But the majority of the time, I feel like I’m working way harder than those days when I am ON.

Of course swimming is largely form/technique so I guess this makes sense. If I apply this to other sports that rely on form/technique I guess I see the same thing. Basketball for example, I can remember times when everything I threw towards the hoop would go in. Same with golf, there are those rare days when everything would go just as you saw it in your head. Those are fun days. To make those days happen more often you need to practice good technique as much as possible. Which is why we are taking the lessons. I really didn’t know what I was doing wrong, so the practices had lost focus in terms of technique. Obviously just getting the laps/distance in builds swim fitness but technique is where it's at.

Going into these lessons I always have a bunch of questions that I think that I need to have answered. Then I get there and realize I don’t have to work that hard at finding answers.

He hasn’t seen us in 10 months so he has us swim 50yds to take a look at us. I finish and he immediately tells me I’m breathing late and quickly explains what he means by that and then I’m off to try it on another 50. Then it’s the hand entry, then it’s the pull and so on. I’m always so impressed with how he sees these things but even more importantly, he explains the how to correct it and how it fits into the big picture.

When I get back home after these lessons, I always have to write down all the things he’s told me. I guess it’s because I have so many things wrong, the list is long. Ha ha!

He had asked us what our times were at the beginning of the lesson. Neither of us have really timed ourselves in a long time so….. At the end of the lesson he wanted to find out. We did 2 25s fast with some rest, then a 50 with some rest. Then it was time to go all out on a 100.

There is no clock at this pool and I’m usually in a meter pool so the numbers would be meaningless to me anyhow. I take off and because it’s only 100yd I know I just have to try to leave the throttle wide open. When I hit the wall for the first 50, I think to myself that I have to push hard and try not to fall off horribly during the second 50. I finish and look up to see the coach writing splits on the board. He looks at me and says that he can’t believe that I negative split the 2^nd 50 by 2 seconds. Then asks what time I thought I’d finish in. I said I had no expectations because it had been so long since I’ve tried and that because it’s a yard pool it’s even more unknown to me. Well I finished in 1:16. I instantly tried to remember what the math is from yards to meters. Decided that doing math in the pool is not my strong point and left it alone. I’ll figure it out later.

Well it’s later and I finally figured it out. I believe my PR 100m from 12 months ago or more was 1:30/100m which would equal 1:22/100yd. 1:16 is obviously better, and was totally unexpected. I wish we did this test before we started the lesson. I think his instruction shaved off a good chunk of time during that hour. I wouldn’t be surprised it if would have been as much as 10 seconds. I’m not joking. During my workouts lately my 100yd times typically start at 1:41 and fall off (significantly) from there.

Anyhow, that right there was a pleasant surprise. I may not be able to repeat the feat anytime soon, but now I know that is in me. (without having done much (any?) speed work). Sadly I don’t think there is a 100yd triathlon swim anywhere. I’ve now got a bunch of work to do to try and pull off the pace he calculated for our miles.

I'm glad to be getting some instruction again!