6.12.2012 Swimming

The Workout: 30 minutes of easy swimming.

It's been years since I've been in the water for exercise.  All of my time as of late spent in any body of water has been recreational.  So, I was very excited to get back in it this evening and workout.

It used to be one of my favorite times in the triathlon workout routine.  When I was in the Navy, I'd go to sleep really early (8pm) to wake up everyday at 5am to get my swim in.  Since that point in time though, I haven't really done much in the way of swimming.

One of our local parks has an open swim at the lake from 6:00-7:30pm on Tues and Thurs.  I had found out about it only a few weeks ago, and have now worked that time into my training schedule. It upsets the normal nightly routine a little bit, but we'll see if we can make it stick.  The whole family came and they all played on the beach while I was out getting reaquainted with my swim form.

It started off poor.  I went back to a simple breaststroke and then switched to a sidestroke once I was getting fatigued.  98% of the people in the water (most triathletes) were freestyling.  I felt like a schmuck with my breast and sidestroke...

So, after the first few laps around the bouys I swam in and rested a little bit and assessed what I was doing.  What I was doing was waisting this time, just dilly dallying in the water while not working on the stroke I'll be using come race time.  I got back in the water determined to finish the workout doing only the crawl.  As soon as I started I began to remember everything I'd learned years ago from the book "Total Immersion."  'Be a front quadrant swimmer.' 'Maintain neutral buoancy.'  'Stay long and narrow, like the keel of a speedboat.'  'Hands reenter the water as to not produce more drag, e.g. don't splash as you bring them back in.'  After a few minutes of this I was gliding comfortably through the water.  When I was doing it right it felt effortless, as soon I started to get fatigued, my form would fail and I could feel myself dragging through the water.  It was nice, but tough at the same time.

I finished as I had resolved to after my in workout assessment, by practicing my freestyle form for the remainder of my 30 minutes.  It was an excellent workout and I was beat.  My body just hasn't worked in that manner in a long time... time to wake those muscles back up and get to it!

Oh, you may notice I missed the 45 minutes of Strength Training this morning.  I had a Dr's Appt and had to work around it.  After the results of the appointment I'll need to shift my track workout tomorrow to later in the week and just do spinning and possibly some weights.  I'll be back up to speed before long.