Monday, May 14, 2012

Swimming: Arghhhh!

Swimming is incredibly maddening sometimes. Arghhhh!  I enjoy it, I really do, but at the same time I can't believe the mental energy and time that goes into analyzing it, thinking about it, and working on the minutiae. Hand entry, catch, pull, push, recover, roll, breathe, body position, kick...repeat!

It seems just as I chase one bad habit off, two more pop up in its place. It's a bit like a twisted game of Whack-a-Mole.

If you are like me and you didn't swim in high school or college (or really ever before triathlon-ing), it seems the best we can hope for is to swim well enough to be able to draft off of those who swam in high school (forget the college ones - they are off on their bikes before we get to the final turn buoy).

We are fortunate to get regular swim video and consultation/analysis with Coach Jim. This latest video showed that I am doing a better job of leaving a goggle in the water when I breathe. However, I've developed a lateral "wiggle" as seen from above, my legs could come up, and my elbows have dropped. That means my arms are too straight in the catch and pull and I'm sacrificing the mechanical advantage. The classic analogy is that when you push yourself out of the pool up on to the wall, you do so with bent arms. Straight arms are far weaker.

I'm officially launching "Operation High Elbows" to rid myself of this once and for all (haha).

 

And to help with that....a little retail therapy in the form of not one new pair, but THREE new pairs of my favorite goggles to get me through the season - the Aqua Sphere Kaiman. Goodbye yellowed chlorine-wrecked goggles.


"Operation High Elbows" begins Tuesday. The workout is 30x50 on a tight-for-me 55 seconds. Yeehaw!