Message posted by: Robin C.

short history on my swimming ability first. I swam on a summer team as a kid. Probably quit when I was 12 or 13 and am comfortable in all strokes but butterfly. I decided last fall that I wanted to try to do a triathlon so I got back in the pool again. Thought I’d die after 50 yards! I had three lessons with my son’s swim coach to get a schedule together to get fit and learned some drills. I started swimming 2 x a week in January. In March I joined a Master’s group.

I went from 28 strokes per 25 yards to 24 to 21 pretty quickly, then 19 later and kinda stalled there. The master’s helped a lot with my endurance, speed (went from 2:00 min 100 when I started to a 1:40 now) and fitness, but I knew my technique still needed work and I wasn’t really making progress as I wanted to. I do much better fixing something when I can see it, so….

Last week I was in Chicago and went for a swim assesment. Basically you get in an endless pool (I want one! Just need $10,000) and he took video of me from front and sides and there is a mirror on the bottom of the pool. Talk about an eye opening experience! It was amazing to be able to see what I was doing wrong and he showed me some drills I could do to work on making the changes I need to make.

Well today was my first day in the pool since then. Stroke count 15! Wierd thing or maybe not so wierd - I was much more fatigued and out of breath than when I swim my old way at 19 or 20 strokes per 25. I imagine this is just because my body is not used to it and some of the changes I need to make are breathing earlier and getting my face back in the water earlier and I am sure that screwed up my usual rhythm and timing.

Ron - so that’s my story! Not sure if that is what you had in mind or not. FWIW - I swim 2 miles in our lake at right about an hour. It will be interesting to see when and if I get these changes down if time improves or if is just efficiency.

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