So, next week I see the doc about my stress fracture. I'm hoping everything is okay, and I'm pretty sure it is. I'm ready to run again. However, when I start back, I plan to start back very easily and slowly. This two months has not been fun and I don't want to sit out this long again. So, for the first month or two back, I'll still be swimming to get enough exercise done.
Like Dory says, just keep swimming. I gotta tell you, I'm really bad at swimming. It's a real struggle just to get from one end of the pool to the other. I keep going back, but I do not get better. But, I'm gasping for air and totally hungry and exhausted when I finish a swim, so it has to be doing some good, right?
I grew up "swimming" all summer every summer. I loved to go to the pool or beach or river. I'd stay in the water all day. I could swim well enough to stay alive and to avoid trouble in water over my head. I was never on a swim team and I never have swum competitively. I don't remember if I've even ever raced a friend to the other side of the pool. So, what I'm trying to do now is completely unlike anything I've ever tried to do before. And I'm really bad at it. Really bad.
This week, I did some laps with a few triathlete friends, and they were pretty much in agreement. I have the ugliest stroke they have ever seen. They all laughed at me. Out loud. My kick is sporadic, wide, and just herky jerky ugly. My head comes WAY up to breathe. My feet sink. I'm nearly vertical in the water. I'm pretty sure I'm a prime example of what not to do when learning to swim. Except that I keep going back. I keep getting in the water. Four or five times per week, I'm beating the water, gasping for air, making waves. But I'm touching each end of the pool and I keep on doing that until I've finished my workout for the day. So take that. It ain't easy and I don't really like it, but I'm going to do it.
This is the program I'm following.
http://ruthkazez.com/SwimWorkouts/ZeroTo1mile.html
I'd love to get up to a mile so I can think about an Olympic triathlon. I won't consider even a sprint triathlon until I can swim a mile straight and I can swim 400m in a reasonable (8:00-ish) amount of time. Right now, I'm mired in week 4 of that program. I've done the week 4 workout about 5 times now, and I am nowhere near being able to complete it comfortably.
Maybe this is where bull-headedness will help me out. I'm going to just keep swimming.
1 comment:
I am a hater at least when it comes to swimming. Like you I keep banging away at it. I am much better then when I started "Non Swimmer". I had help though. Qualified people gave me pointers and tips after watching me swim and it helped. Swimming is mostly technique. I have been swimming about 5 years and swam 178 miles last year. You will get there also I am sure.
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