Back in the pool

As you may know already, my swim team has been on a three week break. I was able to swim at a health club for one of these weeks, but since the health club membership expired at the end of August and it was too expensive to renew, I have had no pool access for almost two weeks. That is a really long time to be unable to swim. I am used to swimming almost every day!

The swim team break was originally supposed to last until Monday because of pool construction; however, the construction finished early- which meant we were able to get back into the pool yesterday.

I was originally planning on not going back to practice yesterday since I would have to endure a long discussion about pool rules (never be on deck without a coach and lifeguard on deck at the same time, no running on the pool deck...). After almost two weeks of no swimming though, that plan changed. I missed swimming so much that the chance for some water time was worth having to endure the long pool rules discussion!

The pool rule discussion turned out not to be that bad. The coaches found a way to make the discussion interesting by talking about the upcoming swim season (I am SO excited for our first meet in October!) and by throwing in some jokes. The whole discussion only lasted about twenty minutes, then I finally had a chance to get back in the water!

It felt SO great to be back in the pool again. The time we were actually in the water was really short- only about 40 minutes- but I loved every minute of it!

I also loved how, since it was the first practice, that the coach made all the sets on really easy intervals (i.e. 10 X 50 on 1:00 instead of 10 X 50 on :55). I was actually able to keep up with these easy intervals! Normally I can never make the intervals, and I am always getting run over as people lap me. I am the slowest person in the lane by far (and I swim in the slowest lane available)! I am always getting lapped!

Speaking of being such a slow swimmer, I am really going to try hard to improve this year. It is so frustrating being the slowest person in the lane and always getting lapped. I haven't really improved my speed at all this past year. All I was able to do was to take off a few seconds on some of my swim times at meets. I was also able to keep up with some of the harder sprint sets the coach had us do in the pool this summer.

The only reason I was able to keep up with these sets though is because I would be pushing myself so hard I was literally gasping for air after every single set. I noticed everyone else in my lane was barely breathing hard to keep up the same pace.

To get faster this year, I have decided that I am going to work a lot on my stroke technique. I think there is something wrong with my stoke that is slowing me down so much. I know it is not a fitness issue, because I have been swimming at least 4-5 days a week (usually more) for the past year!

I know for a fact my stroke needs work because it takes me 30 strokes to get across the pool. I found this out during a stroke counting drill the coach had us do one night at practice. It took everyone else somewhere between 13-17 strokes to get across the pool!

My coach has stoke clinics that you can attend twice a month. There is a total of six swimmers in each of these clinics and he gives each of us personal feedback about what we can do to improve our stokes.

I attended some of these clinics last year, but I only went to maybe three or four the whole year. I was pretty busy with school and everything last year, and didn't realize the importance of these stoke clinics. Now I do and I am definitely going to discuss my concerns with my coach and go to as many stroke clinics as possible.

Don't think I am being really negative in this post. I would just really love to be able to reach my potential in this sport. I am obviously doing something wrong to prevent myself from reaching this potential if I am swimming 5 times a week and not getting faster. I'm not saying I want to be the next Michael Phelps. I just want to be the best swimmer (and the best triathlete) that I can possibly be.