Swimming Lesson #33


Today I did almost an hour of freestyle, and nothing else. Two weeks ago I did a 27 second length of the pool and today I couldn’t match that, veering between 30 and 36 seconds per length. We played around a lot with refining my stroke and my kick – I’m still kicking too much, so part of it was to practice slower, bigger kicks, and the other part was to try to relax more, to move Moe smoothly through the water. I can now manage two lengths (40 metres) without stopping, which is quite the achievement. As long as I tememebr not to inhale a mouthful of water and then panic half way through. (Actually, the one time I did that today I didn’t panic and managed to carry on without stopping )

The biggest shifts for me we’re managing to turn my body more (my belly should be facing the wall of the pool with each stroke) and also massively reducing my kicks. If I do two kicks between each stroke, and not at all who my arms are pulling, I will use a lot less energy. (The legs aren’t propelling me forward, just keeping my body level, so the less I have to use them, the more oxygen I have left for the rest of me. At lrast, that’s how the theory goes.)

I was pretty tired today, and that was despite having no coffee. I had been eating a lot of junk food all afternoon though and I suppose that was a bad thing. That was to celebrate my visit to the hospital – my CT scan returned, with no sign of a kidney stone at all. So perhaps that agony a few weeks ago was just my body messing with me. It’s that or try to pass a spiky crystal, or have surgery, so I’m really not complaining


3 responses to “Swimming Lesson #33”

  1. The biggest thing for me in freestyle was the teacher telling me that I should be seeing the ceiling that’s a little bit behind me when I turn to breathe. Is that compatible with your tummy facing the wall?

    • I think so – so if you’re pulling with your right arm, your left ear should be lying on top of your left (leading arm) and your belly should be to the wall on the right. I’ve also been told to be looking backwards while breathing (whereas usually I winch my head far too high out of the water because I don’t want to breathe in stuff that’s not air)

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