3050 meters

OK so I had an endurance swim workout on the plan. I had picked endurance workout #2 from the "swim workout for triathletes" book. It was for a total of 3000 meters.

I started it out and when done it took me 70 minutes. But it had occurred to me that in the past few months I came Oh soooo close to the 3000 meter mark but did not have the time to continue either because it was late and the pool was closing or because my plans specified 60 minutes and I would blow that by alot. This time I had no such limitation. So I threw in an extra 50 meters just so I can say I broke through that wall :)

More important than that I think I had an even bigger break-through in my swim. I often use the warmup as the part of the workout where I focus on form. Well yesterday I was toying around with the "Catch" part of my swim stroke. I made my hand bend down a bit more than I normally do, to see if it helped. Much to my surprise it did. I mean it was noticable. I was catching up to people swimming in other lanes almost efortlessly. There was this one woman who later on in my workout came in to swim. In the past she seemed to be far faster than me ( as recently as last week). Suddenly using my new found "Catch" I was keeping pace with her quite easily.

I think what happenes is that when I put my hand to face at that steep of an angle during the entry, it forces my elbow to bend, thus creating a bigger "paddle". I was quite excited about this. For years I have felt that my swim could improve always thjought I simply had to become a stronger swimmer. But now I see what has always been said, form makes as much if not more of a difference than strength.

You can see this written in tons of books, so its no secret, but having seen it actually happen Its a revelation to me. I have another swim session tonight. I can't wait to see if it truly makes a difference tonight as well.