Tuesday - Feb 5, 2013 - Swim

Tuesday - February 5, 2013

After resting yesterday from skiing, I headed to the pool today for my swim.  I was there a little early and grabbed my pull buoy and hopped in a lane.  However, I decided not to use the buoy at first.  I wanted to see how I could do without, after all I've been swimming pretty good with it for a while (2-3 months).  Without the buoy, my waist lays lower in the water, which creates more drag than staying flat.  This drag slows me down some.  But, without using my legs to hold the buoy I'm able to lightly kick more and this more than makes up for the drag.  I had a great swim today.  In 30 minutes, I swam 34 laps with a few minutes talking to a guy who shared my lane.  It was weird sharing a lane for the first time, but after a lap I found that half of the lane is plenty of room for my freestyle stroke.  Today was the first time I felt like a "swimmer", since I ditched the floaty. 

I find myself enjoying the swim so much, I wonder if I'm neglecting my bike and run...

I plan to swim without the buoy for a while, and add flip turns also.  They might take some practice though.  My wife and I will be ordering wetsuits before the season starts.  I can get a Neosport Triathlon full suit for $114 new off Promotive.com.  It's a good deal as wetsuits can cost anywhere from $250 to $1600.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention something.  Normally, I roll out of bed and head to the pool with nothing in my system except maybe a Gatorade.  On this day, I made and drank an Advocare Spark drink on the way to the pool as I thought this might help me wake up.  The Spark has caffeine and some other stuff, and normally works well when taken before a workout.  I started drinking the Spark to give up on soda (Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max are like crack to me, zero calories!).  But the combination of my decreased caffeine intake, having nothing in my system yet for the day, and the Spark kicked in after a few laps in the pool.  This increased my heart rate enough to notice and affect my breathing.  I didn't have to stop or anything, but I will try to avoid having any "uppers" in my system when I swim going forward.  Controlling my breathing seems to be half the battle with swimming, and caffeine throws it for a loop.  Caffeine, however, helps with biking and running. 

Here's the TYR Freak of Nature, the $1600 suit.  Pretty sweet looking!