The Black Turtle!

Monday's are the hardest days of the week for me. Part if the problem is I'm a night person. On the weekend, it's nothing for me to be up till 3am just watching tv. 

On the flipside, I'm NOT a morning person at all. So after staying up half the night on the weekends, then turn around and get up at 6 on Monday to go to work truly sucks! Lol

Then there's the training aspect. Monday is my swim day. I swim on Monday for a couple reasons: this is my weakest sport. I'm a slow swimmer, so I want to give it my first priority of the week. (hence the nickname "Black Turtle.") an ex said years ago "when you do the breastroke, your head comes out the water like a turtle!" lol All I could do was laugh, cuz it's true! Lol 

Back to what i was saying...Second, I want to force myself to work on my toughest sport on my toughest day of the week. I figure it'll force me to concentrate more on my form, and come race day, maybe be a little fresher than when I train, thus faster times.

Here's my pool:



It's a small pool, but it'll do! Lol I joined this gym just for the pool. (I have 2 gym memberships.) I don't care for this gym outside of the pool. But that's a story for another time.

As I said before I'm a slow swimmer, but when I'm in top shape, I can swim for a pretty long time w/o stopping. Right now, I'm working on my conditioning, which is still lacking. I'm also working on my form, because proper form is the key for swimmers.

To be honest, I just want to swim using the least amount of energy possible, because triathlons are never won on the swim, they are won from the bike or run. ( especially the run.) But at the same time, I do want to be a better swimmer.

So with that said, here's my swimming routine for the time being:

10 minutes of stretching on land
5 minutes breast stroke 
25 minutes of forward crawl as a warmup
Drills:
1 arm stroke for length of the pool
This is very hard for me. 1 arm stays out in front and doesn't move,while you only use 1 arm for your forward crawl. 

This drill helps to even out your stroke, thus making you a  more effecient swimmer.  My right arm is pretty good. My form is good and I feel comfortable on the water. However, when I use my left arm, my stroke feels very uncomfortable and I fight the water. I have no pull under water and it feels like I'm not going anywhere. Very uncomfortable!!

But this drill will make my stroke more efficient. I just have to stay at it and not get discouraged!  

I do this drill alternating arms each lenght of the pool for a total of 500 yards. When I'm done I'm dead tired. My left arm feels like I'm holding a sandbag at the end!

Next I do 200 yards of breast stroke as a recovery stroke.

Then I do 10 minutes of the forward crawl, trying to lengthen my stroke, so I can minimize how many revolutions it takes to swim a lenght of the pool.  Right now, it takes me anywhere from 10-12 strokes to get to the end of the pool, depending on how tired I am.

 Basically, the less strokes it takes, the less energy you use. I'd like to get it down to 8 strokes, yet still keep my speed the same. Thats my focus right now. Speed is the last thing on my mind right now. It's all about form and conditioning!

Lastly, I do about 10 minutes of breast stroke for my cool down, giving me an hour workout total.

I'm dead tired as I write this, but I feel optomistic cuz I had a good, quality workout. I'm 1 of the slowest people in the pool, but I do plan on working on that when the time's right!

Tomorrow I go to my other gym to lift weights. Lifting is my 1st love, triathlon is a distant second!  I'll post my weight training routine tomorrow.

Thanks for reading! Till next time, Peace!