Hot/Cold

Every time I go to the pool, I always go in thinking that it’s going to go well. I don’t let the workout intimidate me, meaning I don’t take it easy because I know what the next set is going to be brutal. Never the less, my swim technique is far from consistent, which causes significant variation in my pace and feel.

Certain drills and warm-ups may be a factor. I don’t get to use the pull buoy much in my workouts but it’s been in the mix lately and I think it may play a part in getting me into a good groove. I’ve fixed a number of problems with Coach Q’s help over the last couple months. Using a pull buoy allows me to focus completely on my stroke. By having a pull set early in the workout, I seem to correct some of my bad habits because the feel is so much more pronounced for me. Currently the 3 things I’m aware of doing poorly are:

Right arm wants to pull underneath my body.

If I’m going for speed, sometimes I’ll actually crunch on my right side during that pull, which really changes my body line and I’ll fishtail down the lane.

On the left my biggest issue is my reach to the catch. I think it’s still too high which doesn’t allow me roll to that side very well.

At my last lesson with Coach Q we worked on finding my cadence. To get faster, at some point you need to have a faster cadence. Although, a couple years ago leading into Timberman we found out a couple of interesting things while playing with the metronome. There was a window where I was very efficient. This was also very comfortable. As we increased from there even tho’ the cadence was faster, I cheated the stroke, was slower and more tired aerobically. As we moved higher, eventually it became a flailing effort as the form just fell apart.

That was two years ago, there have been many changes since then. So we are back to playing around with the metronome again. My first attempt at finding comfortable with speed isn’t far off from where I was two years ago. At which point my coach basically challenged me to work this out. He feels there are much faster times in me. I get glimpses of these from time to time. (Typically, at the coaching sessions).

So I’ve been doing my homework, looking for clues as to how I need to change my stroke or perhaps how I approach my swim. This past weekend was the Wildflower Triathlon. I came across this video.

(also if you watch the video to the end, it appears the winner runs with a metronome, I'm pretty sure that's what she turns off and puts back into her shirt)

When the showed the swim splits, I then googled the top swimmer’s name and came up with this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiNkAMU8syI

The thing that struck me was the fact that her “all day stroke” was 90 strokes per minute. Doubtful that I’ll get there but I’m often only 60 per minute. So there is plenty of room to work with. The other part that interested me was the part about “dead spots” in the stroke. I swam a 3000m workout last night and it was my tempo swim. When I reached the mainset, I got aggressive and really thought about how much water I was catching and how early. It went well. I knocked out a 1000m set on very little rest, it felt good and my times were pretty good too. I left thinking about how that is exactly how I’d like to feel on race day. Which is only a few weeks away now!! That hasn’t sunk in completely yet, I’m curious when it’s finally going to hit me.

Speaking of race days. This weekend was supposed to be a 1.2 mile Swim Race Saturday and 4 mile Run on Sunday. Those 2 races aren’t going to happen. There is a chance another event might sneak in. Time will tell, I’ve got much to do this weekend.