Learning to swim Do - Over

I have 169 days until the start of the Triathlon

• 14,601,600 seconds

• 243,360 minutes

• 4056 hours

• 24 weeks (rounded down)

So I had better get to work. I just re-read some of the Total Immersion (by Terry Laughlin) book and realized I have been swimming harder and not smarter. I am suffering from the challenge of lifting my head when I breathe. This is not my only challenge just the most obviously detrimental one. This results in dropping my legs and negatating my forward momentum. So after reading the beginning drills again, I decided to focus on them now that I have learned to swim a half mile the hard way.

I would call it back to basics but since I never really had any basics I will call this back to the buoy. The buoy is all about balance and water balance is hard to learn I struggled the first time I tried to learn it. It is sort of like a place in your chest that you push into the water so your hips pop up. I learned it a little when I started but mostly just while I was face down. In the Total Immersion swimming form you spend most of your time swimming on your side so you need to learn to balance on all 4 sides.

Today I picked it up faster and was able to (at times) balance on all 4 sides. This work is hard to do because it doesn’t look like you are doing much in the water. I noticed how it is also a challenge to not care what others in the pool think of what I am doing or how fast I am going or what I look like while doing it. This was a theme in the Chi Running book as well. Being willing to work on your form despite what others might think of you.

So my swimming form needs more work and I am attending to it. I think my form in all 3 areas needs more work. It is also hard to resist the “mileage” = quality mentality that I picked up a little. I thought if I went 20 laps then I must be getting better each time. But really that is just practicing bad form each time. So I need to discipline myself. Follow the expert’s advice. Follow the known method for improving your form and I will be rewarded with swimming easier and more effective. Speed comes after form. Chi running says the same thing, first form, then distance, and then speed. It is funny how I want the instant gratification even in my exercising. I want to run real fast and real far right now. I want to swim real far and real fast right now. Yeah so? So does everyone. So these experts have a proven way to learn that it is time for me to shut up and listen. Just because I can form an opinion on a topic does not mean I should speak about it. Even when I am talking to myself, no especially when I am talking to myself.