A lot to work with on my swim

Knowing how to swim and swimming efficiently are two hugely different things.

I learned to swim fairly young and I've always been comfortable in the water (race swim starts excepted). I was a lifeguard and swim instructor in high school and college, so I think I know how to do all the strokes fairly well.

Well, I've always known there are issues with my execution. My left arm doesn't come high out of the water. I keep my head a little high. My kick is not very effective (despite the huge muscles I have in my legs).

So this morning, after my hour-long run with Nancy and Latosha (ow, hamstrings still hurt. But it actually feels better to run than to walk), I went down to the lake. Regan was supposed to meet me, but she had a rough night with her baby, so she called to say she wouldn't be there. I hoped some other people would show up so I could swim (won't swim alone), but at the same time I was hoping no one would show so I could bag the swim.

Well, 7:15, Jill Fry shows up. So I head down to the water with her; she swims A LOT faster, but I figured there's safety in her just being there. And we started talking, and every time I see her we just talk and talk and talk! So she ended up offering to look at my stroke as I swam.

I went out to the first buoy and she said, "There's a lot I could help you with." She said it really kindly, of course, but I knew what she meant...and the funny thing is, I was trying so hard to swim perfectly! So she offered a whole bunch of ideas, and I tried them out. Easier said than done. I thought they'd be easy, but you get into such hard-core habits that are hard to change!

Anyway, we ended up talking for more than an hour, and barely swimming. She suggested I take swim lessons or do the masters thing at Samena, which I was already thinking about. But she really strongly said I shouldn't take my four-month break from swimming, but instead use the time between now and formal training for IMC to take lessons and get better.

She also suggested I try some of the total immersion drills (she says she doesn't do all of it - it didn't all work for her - but some things are valuable) and do a web search on "front quadrant swimming." So I guess I will. I know she's right.

She also said something very timely. We were talking about coaches and I said that I didn't think I really needed a coach that much, at least not to provide motivation. And she said, "I think you're more of the type of person who needs a coach to tell them when NOT to work out."

So I had intended to swim from 7:15 until 7:45; I was still talking to Jill at 8:40 and I had a meeting with my manager to get my annual review at 9. Um, yeah, I blame that meeting for my banana-bread breakfast (something fast I didn't have to cook or prepare in the two minutes I had between my shower and my meeting).

Here is the rest of today's data:

Food:
Pre-workout: Small banana and milk in coffee, 90 cals
Breakfast: Banana bread and string cheese (for protein!) and milk in coffee, 410 cals
Lunch: Salad with salmon, 400 cals

Exercise:
Run 1 hour
Sort of swim
My HR monitor said 700 calories burned and an average HR of 100. :-) Since my resting HR is in the low 50s, I'll consider that okay.