Just Keep Swimming....

Andrew is definitely the speedy swimmer in our family. There have been a few little breakthroughs to quicker swimming on my end, but they often seem to be short-lived and hard to repeat. This fellow and I would get along well most days....not going anywhere too quickly in the water.

But something REALLY cool happened this Saturday. We were supposed to be out riding lots over the long weekend, but plans changed due to weather and the fact that we'd both been fighting off a head cold since Wednesday. We headed off to the pool with "50 x 100m" being the goal... 10 x 100 free; then 10 pull; 10 free; 10 pull/paddles; 10 fins. The sets with toys would be fun, I knew, as toys are my buddies in the pool. I've been attempting to sever the ties with my buddies a bit more this winter, knowing that "just swimming" would help with both technique and confidence. Still, I was NOT looking forward to the free sets. But then the really, really cool stuff happened. Normally, holding 1:40 pace per 100m is acheivable. 1:35 can happen for a couple of hundreds but not consistently. Today, I swam every 100 of straight free on 1:30 - 1:33 with nicely controlled effort. WHEEEE!

Now the trick is to do it again....and then string them together for 1500 meters or more! But, I've come up with a set of rules to follow that may or may not have contributed to Saturday's success:

1. Don't train for 3 days prior due to a head cold.
2. Wake up at 3:30 am thanks to a thunderstorm and cat fight outside.
3. Don't fall asleep. Instead, get up and write an e-mail.
4. While still awake, watch an hour of Giro d'Italia coverage on the interweb.
5. Go back to bed at 6:30, when everyone else is getting up for the day. Sleep till 10.
6. Wake up. Take Lucy doggle for a rip in the country.
7. Lunch at 2 pm - LOTS of sushi. Mmmm....sushi.
8. Go shopping with Andrew for a really cool tea kettle.
9. Swim! Follow Andrew and try to keep him within 5 - 10 meters. Relax, think "long and smooth," and just DO it!


Maybe I'll stick with the pre-swim sushi part of the plan, anyway. The rest could be hard to replicate! Besides...sushi = fish, and fish are good swimmers...even the little dude in the fishbowl. Faster swimming by meal osmosis? And maybe, just maybe, at some race one day I'll get out of the water a bit more "in the mix" and not have so much work to do on the bike :)