I was supposed to have this very very difficult swim workout today but then some people were going swimming in a lake and one guy offered to give me a ride so I jumped on the opportunity because they were going to swim in a lake that I have never been to. So I moved the hard workout to tomorrow.
But we got stuck in traffic and basically arrived when the others were finishing. So it was only two of us which was really intimidating since this guy used to be a swimmer and I knew he would leave me in a (water) dust just couple strokes in. But fortunately (for me, not for her) one girl locked her keys in a car and was waiting for a police to come over and open the car for her so she joined me and we let the fast guy to go.
It was great! Water was not cold at all, thus I went sans-wetsuit although the others were wearing theirs. We swam to the opposite side of the lake and people say it is 750-800m. Then back. And then someone (guess who?) half-jokingly said that we should do it again. The other two were for it so we did it again. I swam 2 miles, which is the longest I have ever swum kind of continuously in my entire life I think. One day before my super hard workout! I will drown tomorrow.
The guy also gave us some tips on our swimming. He told me to keep my head down and rotate my hips only when I breath not all the time. Now that confused me a bit because I thought you should rotate your hips with every stroke. I need to confirm this. He said that otherwise my technique was pretty good for a self-taught swimmer.
He also said that I should try breathing every 5 strokes, not every 3, because it will help me to relax and save energy. I tried it and although sometimes I felt that it was little too long not being able to breath in it was good. I will practise that more because it makes sense- less unnecessary (and probably little inefficient) movements = going faster.
ITB felt great the whole morning but then something (I have not idea what!!!) happened in the afternoon and it started to act up a bit.
Oceanside 70.3 #14
1 week ago
OMG I'm going to kill that guy. The fastest swimmers rotate side to side on every stroke- so you want to be rotating all the time. And while breathing every 5 strokes would be super if you were sprinting a swim race in a pool (a short one- like 100M), the races you are swimming are 20+ minutes and the worst thing you can do to yourself in a situation like that is to go into oxygen debt. As a triathlete, you don't need to breathe less often, you need to get more efficient in breathing so you're not lifting your head too much and making your legs sink.
ReplyDeleteI knew there was something fishy about his advice:) Dont worry I will continue doing what I have been doing until now.
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