Tri Training: Week 1 of Swim

Monday, 11/15:
Our first captain's swim workout at the Santa Clara Swim Center. Martin, who runs the practice announced that we only had 7 lanes to swim in so that everyone would have to share and from left to right it would be swimmers fast to fastest. It was quite cold on the pool deck so I didn't take my clothes off right away. That was a mistake because by the time I got lane choice, I was in a middle lane. Martin tells me not to worry as they would reshuffle later. So, I jump in the pool and OMG, it was deep! Most pools I swim in you can stand, this one you cannot. So, Martin then tells us to do a 200yd warm up. There were 5 of us in the lane and the 3 gals had obviously done this before. That left me and another guy who struggled for these first laps. We only managed to do 100yds before we were told to do drills.

There were 4 drills:
Drag - 100 yds of dragging your fingertips along the top of the water (this one I didn't understand)
Catch up - 100 yds of touching fingertips at the top before finishing the stroke
Thumb to thigh - 100 yds of finishing the stoke by brushing your thumb against your thigh
6-3-6 - 100 yds of side kicking (6 kicks), face in for 3 kicks, side kicking (6 kicks) **never got to this drill because we were moving on**

Next the pyramid. Our group had to do 25-50-75-100(yards) and back down with a 15 second interval between each set. For all of you thinking that's crazy... yes, it was! Oh, and I wouldn't have done any of this if it weren't for my fins and my trusty pull buoy. Apparently, I need to slow down when I swim so the pull buoy definitely helps to slow me down. After finishing with the pyramid we had to do a 200yd cool down.

Swim total 1,100 yds!! Didn't I say this was the first day?? And the lanes were not reshuffled... Thank goodness we have 4 months to train because unfortunately in the ocean I can't stop every 25yds to hold the pool edge.

Wednesday, 11/17:
Coached swim at Burgess Pool in Menlo Park. The practice began with some stretching and core exercises. This pool was indoor in "the bubble" which is what the dome is referred to. Again, we got into the lanes based on swim ability so thankfully I was able to get into the proper lane this time. We were told that the warmup would be 5 min so we should swim as much as we can in that time. I was able to get in 150yds.

Coach Keith led our group and explained how your body should be in the water in order to have the best efficiency without any drag. So, in order to help train our bodies to do that, he had us do 3 drills:

Catchup for 200 yds
Head down looking at bottom of pool with the rotation of your body from side to side for 200 yds
Side kicks for 200 yds

All of these drills I only managed to do 150yds each. I continue to have difficulty with my breathing. Again, 4 months of training. Hopefully it'll click eventually.

Swim total: 600yds (but no fins and no pull buoy)

Aloha
L