Week 26: The Eternal Reach of Time

11/18/13

1800 yds.

47 min.

Missed 42-lap workout on 11/17/13, due to tornado weather.  Made up 36 of those laps today.  Now I am behind 6 laps for the week.  Focused on 45-degree stroke, straight pull and two-beat kick.  Also focused on keeping my head lower in the water, keeping legs higher, keeping feet closer together, making each kick shorter, and rotating more.  Also focused on tring to drop arm sooner and lower, to improve catch.  My time was not great, however.  I lost time due to having to stop to rest, because winded.  It did feel good to continually lap the triathlete in the next lane, though.  Also, I had less of a bubble trail.  I really need someone to critique my stroke, now that I am trying the TI technique.  Will continue to watch tutorial clips, etc.  My chiropractor today instructed me to do wrist exercises by lifting a half-full milk bottle a certain number of times per day. 

11/20/2013
1800 yds.
52 min.
Missed 42-lap workout on 11/19/2013, due to traveling due to bomb threat in Decatur.  Made up 36 of those laps today. Now I am behind 12 laps for the week.  Focused on 45-degree stroke, straight pull and two-beat kick.  Also focused on keeping my head lower in the water, keeping legs higher, keeping feet closer together, making each kick shorter, and rotating more.  Also focused on tring to drop arm sooner and lower, to improve catch.  However, 52 minutes is a very slow time.  I felt exhausted during the workout, and my lungs felt heavy when breathing.  I don't think I am sick, just very tired; perhaps not fully back after the pneumonia.  Need to take Vit. D and get better sleep. I really need someone to critique my stroke, now that I am trying the TI technique.  Will continue to watch tutorial clips, etc.

[Missed 11/21/13 workout of 42 laps, because completely exhausted.  Now behind 54 laps for the week.  Discouraged.]

Week 25: The Flesh That I Fight

11/12/13

1800 yds.

44 min.

Focused on 45-degree stroke, straight pull and two-beat kick.  The two-beat rhythm felt completely automatic.  Missed my mile-long workout on the 10th, because we were out of town, and pools were closed on the 11th for Veterans Day. Now I am 36 laps behind.

11/15/13

1250 yds.

35 min.

Focused on 45-degree stroke, straight pull and two-beat kick.  I felt exhausted, slow and discouraged.  I have not been sleeping well, due to shoulder/arm/wrist/hand pain, due to pinched nerve at C5.  When I don't sleep well, I skip workouts or don't swim well during them.  While swimming, I felt pain in my left shoulder.  However, I swam through it.  I fell short of my 36-lap goal, only swimming 25.  It felt rather hard to breathe.  Now I am 43 laps behind.

Week 24: Getting With the Program

11/3/13

1200 yds.

30 min.

Focused on 45-degree stroke, straight pull and two-beat kick.  The two-beat rhythm felt completely automatic.  My time for each 100 was about 1:51.

11/5/13

1400 yds.

38 min.

Focused on 45-degree stroke, straight pull and two-beat kick.  The two-beat rhythm felt completely automatic.  My time for each 100 was about 1:51.

11/7/13

1600 yds.

40 min.

Focused on 45-degree stroke, straight pull and two-beat kick.  The two-beat rhythm felt completely automatic.  My time for each 100 was about 1:51.  I met my goal to swim 3x this week!  Up until now, I have found this to be very difficult.  My biggest challenge has been fatigue.  I am really trying to fight through that.  I also met my distance goals for the week!  It was strange starting at only a 1200, but I needed to start slow, due to coming back from pneumonia.

11/9/13

200 yds.

25 min.

64-degree water at Upton Lake!!!  Clint and I did it!  The most encouraging thing is that the Strait will most likely be 5-7 degrees warmer than this!

Week 23: Rehabilitation

10/27/13
Distance: 600 yds.
Time: 15 min.
Focused on 45-degree stroke, straight pull and two-beat kick.  The new two-beat rhythm felt completely automatic.  John helped time my 100's.  I stayed at a time of 1:51 with this new technique, much faster than the 2:05's of the previous technique ... and this was after a bad illness!  During the nights of pneumonia, I would dream and dream about swimming.  I would dream about my deep longing to swim.  Most of all, I would dream about swimming with the two-beat kick.  My brain was processing this new motor skill while sleeping!  During this workout, it felt as though I had never swum any other way. ... On the day I got pneumonia, I found out my thyroid disorder has been in remission, even off medication!  I am praying it stays in remission, so that I don't experience any more setbacks to this training.

10/29/13
Distance: 1200 yds.
Time: 31 min.
Focused on 45-degree stroke, straight pull and two-beat kick.  The new two-beat rhythm felt completely automatic.  My time for each 100 was about 1:51.