Head down and don't breath yet!

I'm stuck at home with my little sick guy right now. It's pouring outside. Absolulely pouring. I love love love being home when it's raining. I had planned a big Christmas shopping day today. The boys were even going to take the bus home so I could have until 4:00. Instead, I am here. Making lists. Planning for next week. Next week is full of good stuff...but all that good stuff takes a little work. So I am planning that work since I can't go out and get the stuff I need to do it.

I've been thinking about swimming a lot lately. Hmmm...wonder why! It seems like it's all I've done for training this week! It's all relative though. I swam 4x times this week. In reality, that's nothing. Nothing!! I was a swimmer swimmer way back. In college, we practiced 11x week. And each practice almost double in yardage what I do at one these days. But that was all I did so it's ok. So now, as a Mom who does Triathlons, swimming 4x week is a lot. Especially because the pool isn't nearby.
Ok...so I've been swimming. I also watched the Swimming World Championships on DVR the other day while on my trainer.
You know what I Love about guy swimmers? Alright, this could be a long list but I'm going to focus on one thing here. They are very very Hot! No....that's not what I am going with here. But yeah....gotta love those swimmers huh.
No, they take their form very seriously. I find that hot quite frankly. I love that they know they must respect the water and use their bodies smartly in order to go fast. They push off the walls so incredibly tight. They are streamlined and they kick cleanly and efficiently. Their strokes are amazing. Their egos don't preceed form in the water and therefore they fly.
I hear my old coaches yelling or grimacing almost every time I push off the walls these days. can you say Lazy?? It's bad. And it's slow. Sometimes I'll be swimmign along, feeling strong and fast, I'll hit my turn and before I even pass the flags I'm pulling and taking a breath! Ahhh!! that is Bad! I realize that Most of my races are in open water now...but as a swimmer this shouldn't matter. That's just a bad turn. It's slow and lazy and messy. Jen's workout for me the other day involved working on distance per stroke. The final challenge of the workout was to descent 3x100s while keeping the same stroke count. It was a stroke count that was just below my norm. It wasn't too hard for me. You know why? I decided to suck it up, hold my breath a little, and hit those turns like I used to. I pushed hard, streamlined like an arrow, and then pulled out my secret weapon. My dolphin kick. (x-butterflier here...) I kicked like mad and hit that turn like a real swimmer. The result? A 1:10 100 yard swim with a low # strokes. Cool. Ange...do it all the time. Sheeshh....see what happens when we get lazy and sloppy? We get slower. We get lazier. If you practice the proper form all the time..it's easy to use and you will be faster when you race.
This is the same for biking and running too I believe. You must practice. Constatnly. Ride like you want to ride when you race. And run like you want to run. I dont' mean race each ride, run, or swim. Of course not. But be smart and use your skills. Dont' get sloppy. Because as soon as your sloppy, you are reinforcing that in your brain. When you hit mile 8 of a half marathon, or mile 34 in a half ironman, or 500 yards in a 1.2 swim....you will be tired on some level and your body will fall back into the bad form you reinforced while training.

My new mission is to hit all turns next week like a real swimmer. This used to be a strength of mine. Good starts and good turns. So I will get that back. No more laziness off the wall. Details, yes. But it matters.

back to the planning.