SWIM HELP

 Liz, O go to the MSU pool on occasion, I'm not sure how busy they are on weekends....

hmmmm, where did I put my 15 year old MSU ID.

Here's how I learned to love the water. Maybe it will help, maybe not. Either way, here it is.

I started swimming for fitness late August of '06. I joined a gym just up the road from my office and paid for an entire year in advance to make sure I didn't quit. (I'm pretty cheap)

The first day of swimming, I probably did a total of 10 length (5 laps) in about a half hour. I thought I was going to die, and it was all breast stroke. I continued to do BS for a month or two, swimming 3 days a week. At about that time, my knees started to hurt from the twisting motion of the kick. So, I started to do a little back stroke in there too. Notice I haven't mentioned anything about front crawl?

Around mid-December of '06 I completed my first continuous mile. It felt like I was on top of the world and that I had finally found some success beyond just adding a couple extra laps each week. It became apparent that I needed to learn to swim the front crawl or I was going to be stifled.

So, I started to try to crawl. It was a disaster, at least that is how it felt. It wasn't really though. I could only do about 25-50 yards at a time, then I'd have to stop and rest. I eventually got into a routine of 25 crawl, 25 elementary backstroke, etc. After a couple weeks of this, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and get some lessons. I called the aquatic office at the club and they set me up with private instructor.

She turned out to be awesome for me. She is super high energy and she wouldn't let me get complacent. She had some TI training and got me to understand what the glide portion of the stroke was supposed to be, how to align my body through the spine access, and most importantly that I was SUPPOSED to roll. She put everything into terms of golf, as I used to be a teaching pro a while back. After only two lessons, and about three weeks of practice on my own, it clicked. I was planning to swim 600y continuous that day and before I knew it I did 1000. The next time, I did 1200, then 1500, then 1600, then the big 1800 MILE+! It was awesome.

So for a while I just worked on swimming continuous distances. That was okay. Then the club offered a free coached workout on Wed nights. It was taught by an intern that played MSU water polo and was a really strong HS swimmer. She helped me to learn better arm paths and taught me to use the "tools" of swimmers. I don't love doing drills with kickboards, fins and pouys, but I do it and I know it helps. Plus, I like swimming the length of the pool underwater with fins. Its not really training, just fun.

So, now I am up to 3+ miles as a continuous swim, or have drills for drill days, and I still love to swim sprints, but those are 100 and 50 sprints now. I've learned to breath comfortably, and I know that I could swim as far as I would ever need to. (The Straits of Mackinaw are calling me.) So, now I'm just trying to get faster.

With all that said, I can honestly say that I have learned to love the water. I love to swim, I love to go fast, I like to go slow, I like to swim on my back, but I love to swim on my chest. Its just gotten to be second nature and I love it.

BTW, during my first lesson with Leslie, she mentioned a class that she was starting called Tri 101. It was an introduction to triathlons. I didn't take the class, but it planted a seed. I never thought that something hard like a triathlon would be for me. Well, I guess I was wrong. Thanks Leslie for kicking it off for me.

 Oh yeah, I'm not embarrassed to be seen in my jammers anymore either.  :)

waterford? sounds like a good place for a bt party...and yes, it's the deep water that freaks me out

and yes, I've been told that I swim well,  at least for a beginner, I'm just not comfortable in the water. Thanks for all the help, guys. 

Deep open water freaks me out a bit too. I didn't realize it until after my first race. Once I lose sight of the bottom, I lost form and went into my own little survival mode. I was expecting to finish 500m in 9 minutes and it ended up taking 12 with a 200 bmp hr when I got out of the water. It was nothing but a mental thing, and it happened at my second race too. It happened on training swims too, but I didn't realize it because I thought it was a lack of fitness, and I was still developing my technique.

My major swimming goal for the summer is complete comfort in OW. Once the lakes get usable I'll be in OW at least once a week, hopefully twice for nice long workouts. Trix, I'll meet up after work anywhere between Holly, Lansing, Novi, and Howell. There are some good lakes close to home/work in Holly, but I'm game to hit everyone's favorite metro parks too.

that's nice of you, and I'll totally talk you up on it.  Just as soon as it warms up 

Sounds good.  We can set up a regular weekly workout.

I was thinking of getting my lifeguard cert, partially for the heck of it, partially for race volunteering, partially to learn what it is that gets people in trouble in the first place.