Had another great choppy swim yesterday at the lake. This week, the wind was coming from a different direction, so I had to experiment with my strategy.
First, a bit of background: I swam for a year with a Master’s swim team. One of the great things that the coach told me was to “Play with it”, meaning experiment with my stroke to see what works best for me.
I really did that today, and it was a blast, even tho it was hard work.
Fighting cross current
The wind was pushing waves toward the shore, from my left as I swam south. It was incredibly difficult to swim straight toward my target of the bushy outcropping on the opposite side of the cove.
I thought of how you steer a canoe by pulling harder to one side. I tried pulling harder with my left arm with each stroke. The current was so strong that this change was not enough to steer me on course. So, I tried purposely dropping my right elbow (GASP!) to give my right side a weaker pull, I also focused on high elbow and hard pull on the left. This did work, altho slowed me down considerably.
For the next lap, I decided to try something different. As I completed the stroke with my right arm before it exited the water for recovery, I added a little push and a flick to the right, toward shore (rather than straight back toward my feet). This gave me a little sideways nudge. I also tried to focus on high elbow strong pull on my left. This really worked well, better than the first idea.
Waves hitting my Face
I was searching Google images, and found this photo gallery from the Duke 1/2 2007. You can really see the chop!
Now I’ll tell you about the return trip of each lap. Last week, the way out was very hard, and the way back was easy. This week, the way out was pretty hard because of the cross current. I was expecting the way back to be easier. Nope. It was way harder.
Even though I worked all winter on balancing my swimming by breathing every three strokes, I still cannot swim strong breathing to my left side. During a race, I have to breathe to my right every stroke. Well, when waves are coming at me from my right like today, it is extremely challenging. So, I played with different ideas.
· Tried breathing to my left. Too weak…I slow way down with each stroke.
· Tried breathing every three. That just doesn’t give me enough air for some reason.
If only I didn’t have to breathe at all!!!
· Tried breathing every four to the right. This doesn’t make sense but it worked. What I did was really get my head low into the water. I slowed down the cadence of my armstroke, and really tried to lengthen each stroke. Sort of like doing a “DPS” drill (that means distance per stroke). That way, I didn’t need as much air, so breathing every four was doable. I felt like this actually gave me the fastest speed in these conditions. Once in a while, as I breathed on that fourth stroke, a wave crashed into me, so I had to close my mouth quickly, before getting any air. On those occasions, I just did one more stroke, and then took my breath. Once, I really just could not wait for air, so I rolled over and did one stroke of backstroke, then rolled over again and resumed freestyle. I played with that idea too, but it slowed me down, so only used it when I really needed air.
As I was playing around with swimming in choppy water, I wondered “what exactly is the definition of athletic?” I’ve always told myself and others that I have zero athletic ability. But this workout made me think, “Wow, maybe I am athletic”. Maybe athleticism is simply the willingness to “play with it”. To keep tri-ing until you are the best that you can be. Like Jonnyo.
Weather Data for Today:
Lake Temperature: 78 degrees.
Time (EDT): Temp.: Wind Dir: Wind Speed: Conditions: 5:51 PM 86.0 °F / 30.0 °C East 10.4 mph Mostly Cloudy 6:51 PM 84.0 °F / 28.9 °C NE 11.5 mph Mostly Cloudy
Wish I was there. Great swim.
Bob