Florida

I'm in Florida right now, and I am definitely loving it!

I arrived here the night of Dec. 18th. It was really late- about 1:30 in the morning, before I finally arrived at my grandparent's condo (which I am staying at for the duration of the trip).

While here, I have been able to open up the rest of my Christmas presents (I got a digital camera, money, some books, and a few other things), go shopping, and enjoy the Florida sun. I was also able to see an old friend from elementry school and visit with her for an afternoon.

I have definitly been loving the Florida sun. It is probably about 70-80 degrees here, as opposed to the freezing temperatures at home. I got to miss a couple of snow storms and a day where the temperatures dropped into the single digits. I am definitly happy about missing that!

I have also been going to the pool everyday, and have still been working out. My foot is still not recovered, so I have been doing lots of swimming, weights, and work on the exercise machines. I think I may go see a doctor about my foot if it is not better by the time I get home. I have no idea what happened to it!

With the small pool at Grandma's apartment complex, I have been spending a lot of time working on stroke technique. I have been working on bilateral breathing (it makes my stroke feel so much more balanced!), not breathing in and out of my turns (I get so much more momentum that way), and some stroke drills.

I have been doing something called a "catch-up drill" that helps a lot with extending your reach per stroke. I am really trying to get my stroke count down. It takes me almost 30 strokes to cover one length of the pool, which is not very good. I have also been trying to get my head up more when I swim freestyle.

I learned from one of the coaches on my swim team (she is a new coach, and I hope she stays around because she has really been a huge help to me) that I am swimming with my head too low, pretty much burying my head into the water everytime I take a stroke. When I tried lifting my head, it makes me feel a lot more like I am floating on top of the water when I swim (as opposed to just sinking into it).

There are also SO many other things I can do to improve my freestlye stroke. For one thing, your fingertips are supposed to enter the water (not your whole hand). I have been told by my swim coach before (not the new coach) that I "slap water". Having my finger tips enter the water first is one way I can fix that.

There are also many things I can fix to help me go faster on all my other strokes. On breast stroke, your legs are supposed to come together after every kick. On backstroke, you are supposed to rotate your hips. On fly, you are supposed to keep your head down.

This is really encouraging to me to know that I can get better at swimming. I got some books from the libray that helped me expose many of my stroke flaws (such as the ones listed above). I also got a book from the libray that has 100 different illistrated swim drills. I am going to try at least a couple of them.

For the next couple of months I am going to see how much I can improve at my swimming if I dedicate myself to it. Not only can I change my stroke, and swim faster in practice (like I mentioned before), but I can also improve my nutrition, start a good weight routine, etc.

I'm not ready to give up on a sport I have invested so much time and energy into over the past couple of years. I know my swimming is terrible, but I would really like to see if I can improve it if I work hard enough. I would really like to see how much of swimming is hard work vs. talent. Can hard work overcome lack of talent?

If I don't improve, I will start investing all my time and energy into running. Right now though, as my foot is healing and my swim season is in full swing, I just want to see how much I can improve my swim times. If I improve, that would be awesome! If not (which is highly unlikely), at least I will see the results of dedicating myself towards something. Nothing bad will happen either way.

I have always worked hard at swim practice. I go to practice almost every night, never missing a day unless I have to. I also "sprint" when the coach says "sprint", etc. Just by reading a little though, I have discovered that there is so much more I can be doing.

Swimming is not a sport like running where you get better just by doing it more often. Swimming is more technique driven than fitness driven. I completely have been ignoring the technique part of swimming because I found it so "boring".

I want to be a good swimmer though. I am sick of getting lapped every practice and sick of being ,like, 6 minutes behind everyone else when I race the mile.

My new years resoulutin (one of them, anyway) is to dedicate myself towards swimming as much as I possibly can. I found a good article about a 90 day experiment (where you dedicate yourself completely to swimming for 90 days) here:
http://www.usms.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4229&page=10

Since I don't have 90 days until the last meet of the swim season, however, I am going to have the experiment run from Jan. 1 (giving me a week to figure out exactly what I am going to do in this swim challenge) to Mar. 8 (the day of my last swim meet).

I hope to make some significant improvements, especially in my favorite event, the mile. Yes, this is the same race that I finish 6 minutes behind everyone else in.

I don't know though. If I stuck to the 5K challenge I set for myself (and will probably start once swim season is over and my foot heals), I only have to take 4 and a half minutes off my time. To feel satisfied with myself in this challenge, I would have to take 6 minutes off my mile time.

I don't know. Now I am just yammering. I'll figure out a goal soon though. Either way, I am SO fed up with being the slowest on my swim team!

P.S. You got to love Blogger's auto save feature. I accidently tuned the computer off by flicking the power button with my foot (don't ask how) and was afriad that this entire blog entry disappeared. That was not the case. Every single word was saved.

Thank you Blogger!

P.P.S. I'm still in Forida for a whole 'nother week. Gotta love winter break!