Maybe.

Maybe.

Just maybe I am getting the hang of this swimming thing.

Maybe.

:o)

I still need to slow down, but a funny thing has happened. I feel comfortable in the water. I remembered to keep my head down, and this has helped me so much in maintaining that streamlined feeling.

When my head is down I feel slippery and smooth. I feel aquatic. When my head wonders up a little I feel disoriented and draggy. I feel like I have a parchute strapped to my feet.

The past few nioght I have felt comfortable in the pool, comfortable in my stroke, aand comfortable in my breathing. I really am getting the hang of this swimming thing!

And to show my invetment in myself - I have a lot of pool training toys now, fins, pull buoys, kick bords, and a new sweet-arsed blck and pink swimmy-swuit taht actually fits me nicely. Oh, and my biggest and bestest swimming investment? A coach.

I did it! I have a real bonafide swim coach! All to myself even! We will meet every Monday for 1 hour on my lunch break. She will give me homework an when we meet back up she will see how I am improving.

So with the decision to hire a coah, I made the decision to NOT do Masters Swim during the week. This decision was made not for any other reason but because I do not have the technique I need quite yet. I am waiting until I meet with my coach and I see some personal improvements before I go to 1.5 hour long swim practices 4 times a week.

Why reinforce bad form and technique? I will still be at my Saturday AM practices with my tri club of course. I would not miss them for the world now!

What I end up with in terms of pool time is 1 hour on Monday, 3 half-hour practices solo during the week, and 1.5 hours on Saturday - which means that I will be swimming 4 hours a week now. That is good. That is doable and good. That is leading me to forward motion.

So, what makes K a cool coach? 1-on-1 time all the time. 100% avilability to answer any and all questions... and the coolest thing? She used to teach syncro. I wonder if she will teach me some sweet syncro moves to stun people at the pool. Oh wait... that only works if there are more than one person swimming... oh well. That is still sweet.

Oh... oh.oh.oh... wait until you hear this! I can now swim 3/4 of a lap semi-decently! So my 30 day goal of swimming 1 full lap (50 yards in my case) is almost achieved. I feel that my endurance has improved a lot in the past month. :o)

I did 1/2 mile last night, and 1/2 mile tonight. All on my own. I realized that swimming is just like everything else - some days you rock. other days not.

Last night? ROCK. I was kicking, pulling, sculling, and swimming. I was in the z-o-n-e zone.

Tonight? NOT. I was kicking, pulling, sculling, and attempting to swim. But something was just off.

No worries though. I did a good 1/2 mile of drill work, and I am ready for another go at Saturday AM Swim practice. My goal is to make it the entire distance, which I think that I can do. 1.58 mile or a little more.

I hope that working with K will get me to see my own swimminess (totally made up words rule!), and to own my own stroke and breath.

I am looking forward to actually learning the correct stroke and see how far off I am from it already. Next Monday will be our first lesson, and here she is just going to get a benchmark for where I am in order to design a program that is right for me.

I am SO geeked!

USAT NCC UPDATE:

FAST now has two terams in the competition! Our lead team is #1 in teh swim rankings, and #6 overall. Our b-team is not ranked, but only haas 9 people on it. Becaause of dual teams, I have started an IntrFAST challenge. Different goals for the two teams, but a deadline to see who hits theirs first.

How exciting!!!!

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