Breakthrough!

Yesterday morning, just near the end of a coached swim, the coach said I should work on keeping my head more down during my stroke. Ie look at below me, not ahead of me or at the end of the pool. My first thought, was that I don't look forward, why did he say that. Then I figured he must mean while I'm breathing... I might be peaking ahead. So I started a new lap... And realized that during the whole stroke, while my head is underwater, I was looking slightly (or possibly not slightly) ahead of where I was.

SO, I worked on looking directly down, not even a little head of me, for the next few laps. and for some reason that makes a humongous difference in my stroke. It makes the whole thing much easier, and feels more natural. (This shows some of the reason I find swimming annoying... The fact that technique makes so much difference, as opposed to fitness... Makign it much harder to improve).

Anyways, we had another practice today, and I felt sooo much better than last week. Our whole group finished the workout faster than last week, which was good. My stroke just feels easier, and more natural. We did a 350 (yeah, for all those people who are actually good swimmers, and think that's nothing, go away), and while it still felt long, I could have kept going at the end... and didn't struggle at all.

So overall I'm feeling more positive about my swimming. Though at some point we will need to have a discussion about the Victoria Half Ironman... and their cut off times for each sport. That is not a friendly idea, but I'll bring that up again yesterday.


Saturday was also a good run. It was a trail game (sharks and minnows), and we ran for 75 minutes, through snow (and ice), and about 25 degree weather. I stayed w/ my mom the whole time, so I was a little slower than I might have done otherwise, but I did jog/run the entire way, and could have done more. So umm... Go training. wohoo. Oh and also, if someone could melt that ice, that'd be great. My bike does not like it.