Bad news is my weight and diet aren't great, thanks in large part to Girl Scout cookies and Halloween candy. I was 144.8 this week (on Wednesday, or maybe Thursday. I forgot to weigh myself on Tuesday).
On the other hand, my exercising has been really consistent. I haven't managed to bike to work the past couple of weeks (blame Halloween preparation and Claire's basketball schedule/Connor's therapy schedule) but I've been at the gym running and swimming regularly--once a week on the swimming and two to three days a week for running. I'll need to increase that over time but I am, at least, managing to hold on to my level of fitness in running and improve my swimming slowly. I think most of my swimming improvement is from equipment--first the goggles made life much more pleasant and then this week I got a swim cap that made everything easier. I had been having difficulties with hair getting in my mouth when I'd breathe, so this took care of that problem, but I didn't realize until I had the cap on how much my hair was also getting in the way of my arms moving freely. So now I look like a total dork, but a total dork who went five minutes faster this week over last. I still don't understand how people can just keep going and going and going when they swim without a pause to catch their breath or a stop halfway down the lane to choke on water. I'm not sure they sell equipment to help me with that problem.
2 comments:
It's all in the timing. You can practice your stroke out of the water so it makes more sense. You want to turn your torso in the same direction of the arm you're using. Kinda like throwing a ball. You'll want to bend your elbow. You can exaggerate it a bit more when you want to breathe -- so you're not relying on twisting or turning your neck to breathe. So, say when you're reaching with your right arm you're helping your body turn thus minimizing strain on your neck. Also make sure you're pulling thru the water when you hand enters. Help yourself as much as possible. Keep your legs straight, too, but keep them loose and kick with your feet.
Swimming is a lot about finding a speed and cadence that works for you. Then you can swim forever and forever. You also can add some sprints in there, too. Kinda what you'd do when you're training to speed up your running.
It sounds like you're doing great! It's always nice to see improvement. Keep up the good work. Maybe I can come up there and give you a lesson. I haven't seen you in ages anyway so it'd be a good excuse. :-)
Oh! You both are inspiring me! I was supposed to go to water aerobics on Saturday with Gloria - but her cat got very sick Friday night... Then we were supposed to go on Sunday morning, but I slept too late (8:45 - the class was at 9am). Anyway - I was dreaming about the water aerobics while I was sleeping through it. I dreamed I swam laps afterwards. One of the reasons I belong to Brick Bodies is because of the pool. I HAVE to start using it!
Post a Comment