How Beer is Like a Fish

This is a long-overdue update from me, but in my defense this is almost a personal blog. Shots? What's going on? Anyone? Anyone?

Moving on - I took all of last week off from not feeling well, but I've done well this week. I went Monday and fought for a lane, and then went Wednesday, which is what I'll talk about today. First, I totally forgot to read up on the next set of drills, so I was stuck doing the old Zipper Switch again. This isn't too bad, because it's very much like real swimming, but I still got bored with it after 15 minutes or so.

The second part was that there was not one, single other person in the pool. All 6 lanes were empty. Nobody was there when I got there, and nobody came the entire 30 minutes that I was swimming. It was freaky. Bored with my drill I decided to try some actual swimming and see what was going on with the old stroke. First, I just swam the way I always used to, the decent enough stroke I learned in high school: 1 length (25m) took me 25 strokes. Then, I tried a length incorporating what I was learning in the drills: press down on the chest to keep the legs floating, keep one arm out in front of you until the "recovering" arm is at your head and then stroke, keep the body streamlined. Result? Damn, I was flying! It felt like I was gliding along, and after 20 strokes I hit the other wall. That's a 25% increase in stroke efficiency. And I still have 2 lessons left!

I'm sold. Good thing I'm getting more efficient; I'll need the extra energy for the ride on Gin's bike and the run in Vodka's shoes...