Finally Back in the Water

This has been a long week, and I've tried to find time almost every day to get back into the pool, just wasn't to be. Today was almost worse, so much going on so many fronts, but I did finally manage to steal away for a bit to swim. Was in the pool maybe 40 minutes today, it was interesting. I'm finding I'm starting to relax a lot more, and it's not such a panic to swim, I'm almost relaxing and simply enjoying the sensations. No panicy breathing, or sudden gulps or anything. I wasn't swimming real fast, but it was a good session.

Swimming Today

Swimming again today!  Swum ten laps (500yrds) continuous at the start today, which is unusual for me.  Swam the first five all breaststroke, then alternated between breaststroke and backstroke for the last 5.

After that, worked on drills mostly.  Swam a couple of lengths just doing breaststroke kick.  Tried to do 3-4 kicks head down at a time.  Was really interesting.  There were times I think I was faster swimming like that than doing a regular stroke!

Tried some more front-crawl, less successful than yesterday, but at least interesting.  I think I discovered definitively today that the problem isn't the head out of the water so much as it is the breathing.  It almost seems like I have too much breath.  I can't seem to breath out enough underwater without pelting my face with bubbles so that when I rotate for a breath, I don't still have to breath out.  I tried this on breaststroke, gliding until I actually had blown all my breath out, and it was far too long.  Either I have to figure out how to breath out more underwater, or take less breath, or something, I don't know.

I was hoping to walk a bit afterward, but I was having such a good time in the pool, I didn't have time left.  I must have been in the pool over an hour!

Triathlon on my way, maybe?

Went to the Y today, primarily to swim. My daughter came with today, and my wife was out with her family. After about a hour in the pool doing mostly drills, and trying to swim front crawl, which I actually managed for a few laps. I got out of the pool, showered up quickly and went to find my daughter. She was reading as usual, and I messages my wife. She wasn't back yet, and my daughter wanted to finish the last chapter of her book, so I figured I might as well walk a bit whilst I was waiting. I figure I must have swam about 1500 yards, and ended up walking just shy of 4km, so a pretty workout all in all. I guess all I'd have to do is spend about 30-40m on a bike at a good intensity, and that'd not be a stone's throw away from a mini triathlon! I know I used to fairly easily hit 18mph on a bike, event when I was bigger, and faster when I I was in shape by a good bit. Used to do a 30 mile ride with the bike club in the UK every week, and it was in the evening so I couldn't have been more than two hours, and I know we used to move at good clip, easily 24mph in a pack on e level. I certainly felt I could have done another half hour of something, I wasn't particularly out of breath after walking. In fact it's one reason I don't prefer to walk that much anymore, I'd run if I could, but my knee still won't take it.

I hate the YMCA

I hate the YMCA. Yes. I do. They have a crap website that only has the pool schedule as a download as an Excel file - yeah that's nice and accessible, and they change it every three or four weeks. I have about a dozen copies of this file on my system now, because most everywhere else just has a web page with it on. I go down there today, and of course, I looked at the wrong schedule version, so the entire pool, bar one solitary lane, is being used by the high school. Okay. Two things here. Why the hell do I pay a membership for a "gym" that "has a pool", when it kinda only has a half a pool. The pool is occupied just about the entire half of the day during the week at this time of year! It gets better, the local YMCA group has a few locations, the location that's nearest me, other than being plain nasty, has virtually no regular pool access at this time of year at all! Maybe two hours in the entire day open for general use. And, why is the High School using the YMCA pool at both locations!! (different high schools albeit). They have a football field, and a hockey pitch, and a tennis court, and an auditorium even, why don't they have their own pool? My elementary school in the UK had its own pool, we only went to the nearest pool to do swim exams. My High School in the UK had a pool too. Is there another pool I can belong to that is indoor? According to Google, not, though they don't even list the YMCA under a search for swimming pools! You'd think there'd be a website for that...

Swimming w00t

I swim this morning again. Really beginning to get somewhere it seems, well, at least in terms of continuous swimming. I think I swam 500 yards without stopping, and at least double that besides. Worked on my breaststroke turn for the first time. A few incidents were plain amusing, total mistiming leading to spluttering as I nearly gasp a lung full of water! I worked with a pull buoy for the first time today. It was hard. Really hard. It also doubly showed up my leg problem on breaststroke. Clearly I'm going to have to spend a good bit of time working on that, it's kinda sad how far I was pulling to one side. I also tried to kick with the other kick pattern, as in backstroke. Not a total disaster, but pretty bad. Lots of kicking, not much motion, but some at least. I did discover though that if I kick when I'm on my side, it seems to work okay. Not sure what's up with that. Worked on my wave motion a bit too, trying to pick my head up more gracefully and dip it up under instead of smacking it back down. All in all not a great improvement in time, I ran a 1:25 when I timed it, slightly faster than the previous, but not by much, still slow. Gotta figure out a way to get the chlorine smell out of my nose though. It's more than once I end up snorting water. I'm also noticing a weird breathing pattern on breaststroke that's being a pain. Can't seem to get my head out of the water cleanly so I'm not blowing water in front of my face when I rise. I was hoping to get to Yoga this morning, but I really just wasn't up to driving down to King of Prussia to go to Yoga. Didn't sleep well the last couple of nights, so a few minutes to hold up between dropping my daughter at school and leaving for the gym was a welcome respite. My new swim shorts arrived today too, they are nice, much shorted without being obscene. Much less likely to get pulled off when I push off and less material to get bogged down with.

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.