Trying out the snorkel.

I find it fun to share the 'not so attractive' side of triathlon.  Swimming is pretty unattractive, With the swim cap and goggles but a snorkel brings it to another level.

Adam's swim club members were required to buy a snorkel.  The point being, that you can then focus on your kick and your arm stroke, without taking your face out of the water for a breath.  Adam's coach claimed that the snorkel helped him tremendously (he's a professional ironman triathlete.)  He said that he wasn't 'catching' properly with his left arm and he only realized this with the snorkel.  Adam wanted me to try it out but warned me that it was hard to get used to.  I thought to myself, "what could be so hard? I've swam in the ocean with a snorkel looking for fish and corral several times, without any trouble."

Well, it was tricky after all.  My first lengths I only kicked, so I could get used to the breathing but I kept having to stop and take it out to get a breath.  I also kept getting water up my nose.  It was hard to keep the water blocked from coming into my nose and only breath into my mouth.  I started to figure it out after a few lengths and decided that, even though it's an ugly tool, it's definitely a helpful one.  I found it especially helpful for working on my kick.  I've been focusing lately on trying to have looser ankles (think fins or fish).  With the snorkel it was awesome because I could stay underwater in the correct body position and just think about kicking better.  I could hear my coach's voice in my head, "from the hip, soften the knee, soften the ankles."  It's coming little by little.  I must say, I love this off season work.  I get to patiently take time to improve in the details, without worrying about increasing time/pace so much.

Oh and by the way, I have decided to run a marathon.  Ok, I did it.  I put it out there.  That means I have to actually follow through on it.  I'm just going to run it on my own timing, not in an actual race.  I want to do it in December and there aren't any local marathons on a Saturday in December, so I figured I don't need the structure of a race this time around.
I ran for 2 hours today and it was ok.  As good as 2 hours on a treadmill can be I guess.  I'm building my time up to about 2.5 hours and then I'm just going to go for it.  If I'm being honest, the reason I want to do a marathon is to prove to myself that I can do it (IM Cozumel doesn't really count) and ALSO to get my body used to the idea of running that long because someday I would love the give the full Ironman another shot.

Life Lessons From The Pool.

Today at swim club we did time trials.  This is my first time starting off the swim block in a timed event.  It's also my first time being timed at short distances (I'm used to longer distance swims in triathlons.)

On our last 50 m, my dad asked to move up into my heat, so that he could race against me.  He had that "Harding gleam" in his eye, excited for some family competition.  He dived out in front of me off the blocks but I made sure to beat him.  Our coach seemed to find our banter funny, as she was giggling when we finished up.  Beyond the friendly competition, I had some "aha" moments.

The pictures have little to nothing to do with my points...

 When I get tired, it's harder to keep good technique.  I often revert to old habits.
Those old habits are buried underneath layers of all the new things I've learned and as I get tired, the layers start to peel away.  I start entering the water across my body, it gets hard to keep my elbow high and I don't glide as much with each pull.  Basically I start swimming how I used to swim  In life when I either try to do too much or don't get enough sleep, my life skills revert and get ugly too.  I sometimes see this in friends as well, who with good intentions, want to give their children lots of good skills and experiences but get too busy and stressed in the process.

Do it for as long as you can do it well, then take a break and come back to it refreshed.

I used to only do long sets in the pool.  In Ironman training, I would often swim 3,000 km straight sets.  This meant that I was swimming about 400 m with good technique and 2,600 m with progressively sloppier technique.  In swim club, we do smaller sets and switch up the strokes.  For example today the main set was 4 x 200 IM (2 x 50 drill, 50 kick, 50 swim).  It is a shorter, more focused effort on a specific skill and then you switch to something else before you get tired and sloppy.  This principle of variety and shorter focused effort applies to life.  In fact, that is how I like to clean.  I don't like to clean for long periods of time. I like to do it in shorter "bursts" here and there.

Best to learn it right the first time.  Bad habits are hard to break...but they can be broken, there is hope.
I LOVE the dolphin kick.  It's seriously so fun!  I've never tried it before and I'm glad I haven't because I came to it with a clean slate.  My coach showed me the proper motion on the first day of swim club.  (Originates in the core, really roll the hips down to the toes in a fluid motion.)  I picked it up quickly.  One reason for this is I had no bad habits to break.  In fact, I'm progressing quickly in the breast and fly for the same reason.  Freestyle is a lot harder because my stroke is so ingrained in me.  It's like someone trying to teach you to walk differently, when you've been walking a certain way for years.  Not easy.  But not impossible either.  I am learning and changing, teaching my brain and body new habits.  I felt this principle in our first year of marriage.  I felt that the habits that Adam and I set that year were going to be important.  We had a clean slate back then.  Fortunately in life and in swimming, there is still hope to break bad habits, it's just harder than setting them right the first time.

To be fast in the water, you need to be relaxed and take advantage of the glide and recovery.  
Sometimes I forget that and I think that if I give more effort, I'll go faster.  Only effective effort makes you faster.  Slugging it out like a panicked, drowning person isn't fast and it isn't effective.  I know this because in the races where I'm calm and relaxed and smooth, I always have a faster time.  Whereas when I start forcing it and stroking too fast, I tire and end up being slower because of sloppy effort.  Trouble is, I keep forgetting this principle.  Like this morning in the pool, I wanted to be fast and forgot to be smooth and relaxed.  In life, I am at my best when my efforts are used at things that help me move closer to my goals and when I take advantage of the "recovery" phases.  In my life, this looks like making sure I have some "down time" each day so that when I need to be on, I'm on.

Improvement comes little by little...sometimes it feels so meticulous it's ridiculous!
 I catch myself doubting these little improvements.  Like when my coach says, "roll a little more in the water", I think sometimes, "can a little more roll really make a difference?"  It takes a certain amount of trust too, to believe that small changes here and there will really add up.  I sometimes think, "oh, the way I'm doing it has gotten me this far, no need to change."  But that's not the way to improvement.  I need to let go of old ways and trust in higher wisdom.
I only improve as a swimmer, when I'm willing to make these LITTLE CHANGES.