Swim "Tall"?

How do you do that? Been getting a lot of instruction on swimming recently from the trainer we hired this morning to reading about it online. So much to learn. It really gives you a much bigger appreciation for Olympic athletes and the amount of hours they put into their sport constantly honing their skills. Any athlete for that matter.

Swimming is not about having a fast stroke and a strong kick, which I always thought. It's about balance and efficiency. Some of the terms I've heard recently: swim tall, lengthen your stroke, swim downhill, catch-up drill, shark fin drill, side balance drill, front quadrant swimming, fingertip drag. Who would have thought there was so much to a sport I grew up on? No one ever told me all those things! I thought I was a pretty good swimmer until I hear all these things and find out that my arm's in the wrong position, I'm not flat, I'm not breathing right and my kick is weak. What? My kick? I thought that was the best thing I had going for me! Anyway, guess the video won't lie. Should get it back in a week and I'm anxious to see how I look under water. (No, not really!) Part of me already knows the sad truth that I don't look like the sleek swimmers in most instructional videos, but I won't believe it until I see it!

Did my first lake swim today with the wetsuit. Not sure if it's harder to walk in the wetsuit or swim in it...definitely not the most comfortable thing to wear. Once you get it on and you want to adjust it - fuh-ghet about it. Once you get it over the mid-section, the thing begins to suction to you like an octopus and unlike pantyhose that can be adjusted w/enough strategic tugging, the wetsuit is now permanenly in place until you peel it off of you. Bummer.

However, once I got in the water, it was a nice protection against the chilly temp! After my first initial panic breaths (oh, wow - it's cold! oh, yuk, what am I stepping on? OOh, what is that wrapping around my lef???!!) and once I got past my fear of being taken under by plant life, I fared pretty well. It is exhilarating, or is that the beginning stages of panic? I just keep talking to myself and repeating that nothing is going to suck me under like the horror movies show and that there is no way I'm going to drown with 5 pounds on neoprene stuck to me -- even if I do get kicked by the swimmer right in front of me that I can't see because the water is so green and I'm breathing to the side and not the front and trying to remember to sight so I don't swim in the wrong direction! I picked a tree to sight to and forgot to notice any particular striking differences between it and the 50 around it. Luckily, on the way back there was a big building to sight to :-)

Glad I got out there and tried it before the actual race. Will hopefully go out again next Saturday before the event on Sunday and do it again at a slow pace.

Very excited!! Summer is flying by too fast though. :-(

Hang in there, Kelli - you will do fine on race day!

Happy training!
p.s. Thanks for the tip, IM ABLE about wearing tri shorts underneath the wetsuit - that is the ticket!