Wow, this is what it feels like!?!?!?!?!
Last night at my stroke clinic something amazing happened.
We were practicing our drills, working specifically on the catch and the pull. We had to watch the catch and follow through with the pull. We were also doing funky things so we could get a feel for what was right and what was wrong.
So I'm cruising down my lane working my arms when it suddenly dawned on me; I hadn't taken a breath. I found myself doing that the whole night, forgetting to breath.
Now this is such a huge step forwarded I don't even think I can explain it.
One of my huge fears while swimming is that I won't have enough air. Generally I breath almost every stroke (on the right) because I freak about running out.
I think this is a hurdle that I needed to get over and didn't even realize it. Part of my freaking out is the whole not being able to catch my breath.
When you run a race (a running race) you can be all excited and take off too fast and get short of breath but all you have to do is slow down a little and you get back in the groove. You can't do that with swimming. In order to get your breath back you have to stop swimming but you really can't. You have to keep moving because you're in water and there's waves and other people and oh my god!!!!!
So I had no confidence in my swimming abilities. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to catch my breath. Last night it all melted away.
I've mastered my breathing enough that I can cover almost an entire 25 yard pool with one breath.
I know I swim as good as anyone. One guy in the clinic has done 2 Ironman and I swim as well as he does.
This clinic has also taken 4 strokes of my pool length. Saving 2 strokes would save me 100m of swimming in an 800 m swim. Since I took 4 strokes off that will save me 200m of swimming - that's a huge savings.
So what does this all mean??? I don't feel fear when thinking of the swim anymore. I know I will do just fine this time. I really think I've turned a corner here.
I am really looking forward to the tri this weekend, I can't wait.
We were practicing our drills, working specifically on the catch and the pull. We had to watch the catch and follow through with the pull. We were also doing funky things so we could get a feel for what was right and what was wrong.
So I'm cruising down my lane working my arms when it suddenly dawned on me; I hadn't taken a breath. I found myself doing that the whole night, forgetting to breath.
Now this is such a huge step forwarded I don't even think I can explain it.
One of my huge fears while swimming is that I won't have enough air. Generally I breath almost every stroke (on the right) because I freak about running out.
I think this is a hurdle that I needed to get over and didn't even realize it. Part of my freaking out is the whole not being able to catch my breath.
When you run a race (a running race) you can be all excited and take off too fast and get short of breath but all you have to do is slow down a little and you get back in the groove. You can't do that with swimming. In order to get your breath back you have to stop swimming but you really can't. You have to keep moving because you're in water and there's waves and other people and oh my god!!!!!
So I had no confidence in my swimming abilities. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to catch my breath. Last night it all melted away.
I've mastered my breathing enough that I can cover almost an entire 25 yard pool with one breath.
I know I swim as good as anyone. One guy in the clinic has done 2 Ironman and I swim as well as he does.
This clinic has also taken 4 strokes of my pool length. Saving 2 strokes would save me 100m of swimming in an 800 m swim. Since I took 4 strokes off that will save me 200m of swimming - that's a huge savings.
So what does this all mean??? I don't feel fear when thinking of the swim anymore. I know I will do just fine this time. I really think I've turned a corner here.
I am really looking forward to the tri this weekend, I can't wait.
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