Getting Back into Business

I didn't feel like training for the past few days. With all the junk food in the house from April 1st, it is too tempting. I ate some pringles last night. This morning, I felt sluggish and unmotivated. I serioulsy believe that pigging out like that does wonder to your mind and not just your body. Also make one wonder how come kids these days are so unmotivated. I try to give those Cadbury eggs, but no one wants it. Maybe I can ship it to Nytro :D

My cat, the nature alarm clock, starts meowing all over me at 6:30 am. He was hungry and he knew I was up. I didn't feel like going back to bed. I've decided enough of this laziness. Flipped on the Training mode switch... got up, fed the cat, packed my lunch, headed to the pool.

Spent 30-40 min working on drills. I met up with my Swim Coach last night. I figured I better start doing the drills he told me to do before I forget about them.

He figured my kicking is not hindernig my propulsion, we focused on the arms and the stroke.

Areas I needed to improve on:
- lead with the elbow and not with the hand, left arm, i led with my hand
- when I left up my elbow, I tend to arch backwards (cross my bodyline)
- when my arm is pulled back to my leg, I tense up my shoulder, RELAX (a difficult for me)
- sculling to feel what is like to slice the water.

He had me doing Zipper Switch over and over again. The water was freezing b/c the heater was broken. Bllurr...

He also videotaped me and it looks like I am much better than my swimming rock video. Things are slowly moving forward. I was reading Tri Bible again and Joe mentinoed that when you start to learn a new skill, at first, it is very slow and the more frequently you do it, the better you will get.

Make sense right? This is how it worked into my swimming. I was able to swim 2 km with a bad stroke. Now that I stop kicking as far and kinda improve my stroke, I don't have the endurance to swim 2 km anymore. Weird huh? It's like two steps forward and one step back. I guess my body is still adjusting using the arms as the propulsion and is not getting use to it yet. I ain't concern. Hammer down the technique. Then the distance.

Last night, I swam 21 strokes in a 25 m pool. My coach said he could do 12-13 strokes in the same pool. WOAH :). That's my potential right there. So keep at it. Next step 19 strokes.

The consultation was an hour long but b/c the water was so cold I was done by 50 min. We talked about wetsuit (he might be able to hook me up with some good one). We talked about Total Immersion. His opinion which I believe is also true is that the TI workshops that last for a weekend is too fast. It is like trying to teach a couch potato to how to run a marathon in a weekend. There is too much to picked up. My coach does a two week 10-hour program. It is more gradual and easier to pick up.

For someone like me who can't swim 2 laps, there is no way I can pick up all the TI drills in one weekend. I will absorb some but not everything that it has to offer.

Considering the fact that TI is based on building one skill on top of each other, you can't possibility to learn all that in one weekend. The technology is good, just the presentation needs improvement.

Weather here is still pretty chilly. Today there is a chance of flurries. I can't wait no more. If the weather doesn't get warmer, I am going to get a pair of booties and some wool socks so i can ride in the cold.