SubscribeIn case you can’t tell, I’m pretty excited about my swim this morning.
I’d hit the pool planning on just a long, easy effort. 4k, no drills other than watching technique. 1.5 hrs.. Did tempo drills on Wednesday and am going for VO2max testing with Ian MacLean on Sunday morning, so I figured a nice leisurely swim before my Saturday rest day would be a good way to end the week.
It was not to be the case, but I couldn’t be happier.
You see, on Wednesday, when I was doing my tempo drills, I had a few lengths (short short intervals) where, I felt like I was just flying through the water. That as fast as my arms and body could move, that’s how fast I’d go. I just getting faster, and faster and faster. Until I slammed into the end of the pool, lost the rhythm and had to start over again. (Have I mentioned how much I’m looking forward to swimming outside?!). Not really knowing what had happened, or what I was doing differently, I just accepted the fluke, marvelled at it a bit, and continued swimming.
Well, today.. about 1km into my swim, I think I figured out what was going on on Wednesday and managed to string it together. OMG! I was flying! I discovered that I was, in essence, doing the equivalent of a “heel strike” in the water. I have had a deadspot in my stroke during the recovery, where I was just coasting through the water, essentially negating any forward momentum I’d built up with my last stroke. This morning on figuring this out, I started working on making my stroke consistently paced throughout the entire stroke/recovery/stroke/recovery cycle and the difference was intense. My speed jumped almost 2x: swimmers who I’d normally outpace in 3/4 of a lap, I was catching in less than a length (< 18m).
I even know how I got to the "in water heel strike" problem. You may recall me touting Total Immersion swimming technique. It’s great! Very efficient and there’s a lot of youtube videos and stuff on their website to help you sort out your technique. One of the drills is basically working the recovery, extension and rotation aspects of the technique. I think I latched onto that drill to hard and never strung each side of the drill gracefully together (until Wednesday and now today). Hurray!
This discovery is also, a little (but not much really) bitter-sweet. I’m already, typically, the fastest person in the fast lane (and I’m not fast), so when there are 3 or more swimmers sharing a lane, I’m constantly in someone’s toes. If they don’t let me pass and the end of the length, I either have to move through my stroke very slowly (which re-enforces the poor technique I’m trying to fix), change to a breast stroke (sure it’s exercise, but not particularly useful for my training meh) or just wait for them to get a length ahead of me so that I can catch them again and repeat. (Have I mentioned how much I’m looking forward to swimming outside?!).
Also, the lack of the “coast” section of the stroke raised my perceived effort a bit, makes sense I guess: no little micro rest built into each stroke. So I’ll have a new effort hurdle to break-down. No problem, kinda fun actually.
I hopped out of the pool after 2km (40 minutes, a lot spent waiting), while I was still pretty fresh and had been working my new-found technique pretty consistently for several lengths. I wanted to stop before I got fatigued so that my body would hopefully develop some good patterning from the discovery.
I may head back to the pool later today to do another few 2-4km just to better ingrain my new discovery. I’m so psyched! Can I balance this, with my need for some downtime prior to Sunday’s testing. I guess we’ll see… I guess we’ll see. 🙂
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