Moar Swimming Yo

I swam more today. I gave my corrective lens goggles another shot, they seemed to work better today once I had them seated well, they didn't lose their seal. I can at least see the clock vaguely now, they are certainly a far cry from actual glasses. In awesomeness, I did manage to swim 100 yards without stopping once. Prior, I have only swum 50 without pausing, and I was only planning on doing 75 today, but I got to the top end of the pool, and it just seemed silly to stop there, so I came right back down. My right leg is being stupidly lame too. I'm doing some one leg exercises to help get it working better. It's not even kicking well right now, so it's pretty crappy. I also worked on my form for the glide portion. I'm not flat in the water yet, my back end is dragging. I also found that if I actively dip my head into the water instead of just crashing it back under, that gives me better streamline too and therefore better speed. After 45 minutes, I timed 50 yards, and I was still around 1:30, but that's not too bad yet I reckon.

Swimming

Went swimming yesterday, was pretty good. Took some time to get warmed up. Always seem to start slow. I think I'm still getting used to the idea of swimming, I mean really swimming. Did at least manage to get a couple of good turns in yesterday though. My push off is getting pretty good too. Pity my actual stroke is still kind of crap. I have noticed that my kick seems unbalanced too. Figures, most times when I'm done, my left leg aches, whilst my right doesn't. With my knee problems, it seems that I'm favouring my left leg in the pool as well as on land. Kinda sucks. Still, was good to swim.

Health

Whilst I appear to be struggling to lose weight qua weight, I am getting much fitter it seems.  I checked my BP and pulse tonight, and whilst my BP wasn't as good as last time, it was still good, and my pulse was... 57.  That's almost getting back down to heavy exercise levels of a decade ago.

Just gotta make sure I get into the Y or similar tomorrow!

Swimming win

Black Friday.  I hate crowds, and I hate getting up early, so I sure as heck wasn't going shopping today.  I did however get to the Y, which was open thankfully.  I swam, I swam a lot.  It felt really great, and I just kept thinking, I've been in the pool awhile, I should probably get going, then thinking, nah, I think I'll just do another lap, or two.  Not only that, but I was moving today.  Most of my laps after I got warmed up were at a good speed (at least for me), I timed one and I hit 1:30 for 50 yards.  Nothing earth-shattering, but 15 seconds faster than my previous best efforts.

I've noticed a lot more when I'm swimming too, especially today.  Swimming is one of those wonderful contradictory sports.  The harder you try, the slower you go.  The more you relax and let it happen, the faster you go, and the easier it is.

I don't know if this is really true, but it felt like when I kick on a breaststroke, if I slow my leg action down a bit, so it more closely matches my swimming speed, I seem to get better results.  Kicking with a more even action, pushing all the way through the kick, pushing water back with my lower legs at the tail end of the kick seems to really help.  I've also noticed if I stop concentrating on my stroke so hard, and think more about the water around me, notice how buoyant I am when I don't struggle, I swim much more effectively, and with less effort.  The human body is something like 80% water, we mostly float if we don't struggle.  Just letting the water support my body in the middle part of the stroke, relaxing but keeping a good form, really seemed to help.  Of course, I'm still slow as molasses, but, it's an improvement.

I think I'm still struggling to find enough breath to really move more quickly.  I know when I concentrate on better movement, pull myself slightly more forward into the stroke, push forward more aggressively into the glide, I go a good bit quicker.  I just can't keep it up for more than a few strokes before my breathing can no longer keep time with the stroke, the time my head is above the water is much shorter, and I'm still not that great at clearing my mouth for an in-breath before I rise.

At some point I'm going to have to figure out how I can tackle front-crawl, though today, I was actually moving faster than the fellow in the lane next to me, who was swimming front crawl.  I liked that.

Moar

Went walking on Monday, it kinda sucked.  The gym was packed with kids, and the track was really busy, including one lady who ran into us at one point.  We barely managed 30 minutes.

Managed to get in to swim this morning.  It was interesting.  It was busy as usual, and in double trouble, I ended up swimming in the last lane, which was doubled up, and next to the wall.  Swimming that close to a wall for me is a pretty bad idea, and I had a good 20 minutes of frustration until my compatriot left, and I had the lane to myself.  At that point I managed to work on my stroke a bit, and managed to get some good laps in, at least for me.  I finally timed myself, and I'm doing about 1:45 for 50 yards.  Pretty slow, but it's a starting point at least.  I can do 50 yards in one go, though at the end of it, with how I'm currently swimming, I'm pretty beat at the end of the 50.  Still, it's double what I'd managed previously at anything like an active pace.

I've started noticing a significant improvement in my lung function.  I'm hardly ever out of breath in normal life, and I'm noticeably stronger.  Stairs, which were previously a horrible nightmare, are barely noticeable, at least ascending.  I can now sit against a wall without pain for a half hour, working on my laptop.

What's more, my blood pressure is now way down from the previous perilously high level, it's actually within normal range now, well within.

I swam more today. Well, I swim today, it felt more like the first time I swam. It felt less like I was struggling, and more like I was swimming.  My fellow non-American, Alistair had given me some tips earlier in the week, and challenged me to swim better.  I like challenges.  I also realised that perhaps trying to work with front crawl might not be the best starting approach.  I'm paddling around right now doing exclusively breast-stroke and back-stroke, so I finally decided I'd just work with those, instead of tethering my learning exclusively to the one stroke I can't even begin to swim at the moment.

I started looking on Youtube for some breast-stroke tutorials, and found this guy who ended up in the Marines.  He's totally nuts, but is demonstrating breast-stroke out of the water, and with great commentary to boot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMoJVla31tc&feature=relmfu

His talk through is pretty exuberant, and either you hate it, or love it.  Either way, it certainly grabs attention.

I swam today for possibly the longest I have yet, and I swam well.  Well, much better than before.  I managed several full lengths swimming full breast-stroke, ducking my head on each stroke, with something other than abysmal timing, or perhaps more precisely, no timing whatsoever.

Before I started swimming again, I had a pathological fear of having my head under water, pretty much whatsoever.  Even a shower could be traumatic if I got it at the wrong angle.  There was no way in hell I was just going to get in a swimming pool and start ducking my head in and out of the water and swimming perfectly.  After about what I'd guess is three weeks, I'm finally comfortable enough that I got my head under and back up repeatedly without panicking.  Even if I swam like crap, that is a huge victory for me.  Add to that the fact that I seemed to be moving almost twice as fast as three days ago, and it was a good day.  The tripple bonus was that after watching the videos, my backstroke was massively improved also.  I saw the flags above moving by much faster that I had previously other than perhaps when I had the pull buoy (is that what they are called?).

Of course, I'm a crazy loon, can't have enough of a good thing, so when I finally got out of the pool, and landed my butt in my car, I was triumphant, but utterly exhausted.

We're ordering delivery tonight.  I deserve it (plus I didn't have energy left to got to the store and buy food, and it was way later than it should have been because I was splashing around in the pool like a happy fool a little longer than I probably should have).

Swimming!!

Today I went swimming again.  It was the first time in the pool I didn't have to pause at the end of every 25 yard length.  I managed to do 50 yards with only enough pause to turn around at the one end (I can't do a proper turn yet - far from it).

It felt really good not to be so out of breath.  I ended up pushing a bit harder as it appeared to me as if I wasn't working hard enough if I wasn't out of breath at the end of 50 yards.

I'm not going to win any medals anytime soon that's for sure.  My swimming form is still so abysmal, I must look like a proper idiot thrashing around and moving so slowly.  My truly lousy posture probably has something to do with it, hopefully something more regular Yoga can help fix.

Trying to stay on the Horse

I got into the gym in some form all three days this week so far.  Went swimming on Monday, hit a new Yoga studio on Tuesday, and swam again this morning.

I got a coupon for the Yoga studio, Stillpoint Yoga in King of Prussia, from my Amazon local email.  It was a really good deal, and for $30, it seemed like a good idea.  I got a chance yesterday to go down there, so I took it.  It was a pretty awful drive as it's in the wrong direction with the rush hour, but it was well worth it.  I think it was the first class I've taken on the East-Coast that was a good balance of physical and spiritual, which for me is very important.  It was hard work, and that's half the point really.  I always feel better after a solid Yoga session.

Swimming is going well enough.  I am starting to get more comfortable in the water, less panic when I pull my head up from having been underneath the water.  I'm still not comfortable enough to breath doing front crawl yet.  I can't seem to hold my breath for toffee, barely managing 30 seconds at the moment.  My legs sit in the water like lead weights right now too.  I got a float on Monday, at I was able to move so much faster.  My kicking action has always been really weak, so somehow I have to improve that and get my legs up so my body is more level in the water.  Trying to at least make sure that my front crawl has the right axial movement around my body center so when I finally have the courage to breath, I can do it right.

I haven't lost an ounce of weight in the last three weeks though, which is a bit discouraging.  I do feel much better though, and that is the big win I'm truly looking for.  I think I'm going to try to step up my regimen though, try and get out for a walk later today if I can, though it's raining pretty good right now so it'll have to be inside.

Went to the pool this morning.  It was later, so it was fairly quiet, which for me was a pretty good thing.  I really needed to chill out a bit this morning.

I only had limited time, so I did 500yrds, and then headed into the sauna.  Tried to site quiet for awhile, meditate a little, get some composure back.  Everything around has been pretty damn stressful lately, so I figured I might as well spending a little time trying to reset my internet nutso-meter.

Felt pretty good, the swimming is getting easier.  I'm still pretty panicky about breathing in water, and to a level that it's seriously impacting how well I can swim at the moment, or any prospect for improvement.  Gotta just let go really.

Swimming

I went swimming this morning.  Managed a pretty solid 950 yards.  I know it's not huge, and I can tell you that it was pretty slow.  The ladies in the two lanes next to me, who certainly weren't swimming fast were passing me left, right, and centre.

I forgot my goggles, so I was a bit less relaxed than I would have liked as the water was splashing my face, and I couldn't do front crawl at all.  It did mean I got to think about my backstroke a bit more.  I know I'm slow for a few reasons: I'm out of shape, so I can't stroke fast without stroking out, I'm not pulling consistently with both arms or keeping my stroke even so that my velocity remains as constant as possible.  I keep ending up bumping into the lane barrier to my left, which is a bit disconcerting, and that doesn't really help either.  I'm still struggling to keep everything working together too.  My leg motion is more like a drowning person than a swimming person.  It's erratic, uneven, and more or less useless short of keeping my afloat somewhat.  I'm either flapping wildly, or alternating between barely any movement, and a kind of leg tweaking that is pretty silly.

I never could propel myself with my legs.  Maybe I can get someone to look at what I'm doing so wrong.

My breast stroke seems like it's improving.  Everytime I notice my shoulders being taught, which for me, is a near-constant state of affairs, I try and relax.  I'm also trying to increase the speed at which I move my hands back through to the front after a stroke in preparation for the next one.

More tomorrow I hope, maybe I'll even remember my damn goggles next time.