Swimming again

This morning I knew I needed to practice my open turns so I didn't forget how to do them. Good thing, because it took me a few times (OK, more than a few) to feel like I was getting them again. I know that they could still be better, but at least I have the basic idea. I have no idea how many laps I did - I just worked hard on the turns, swimming rapidly in between them, and also doing a bunch of kicking drills. I was not very good at some of the drills in class, so I practiced the hardest ones - kick and roll, and also kicking face down with my hands at my side. That last one is the hardest - to get a breath you have to get unbalanced by lifting your head, and then rebalance to kick. It's a great drill though.

After 20 minutes I was bored of this, and since I wanted to swim for 30-35 minutes I decided to do a short ladder. 50-100-150-100-50 on the 1:05, 2:10, 3:15, 2:10, 1:05. I was doing each lap in about 1:00, so I got a little rest before each set - about the perfect amount. I think if I wanted a really hard workout I could dry to do these on the 1:00 instead of 1:05; today was hard but not really difficult. The 1:10 we did in class Thursday was a little too easy. I'm still slow, and will probably not be much of a swimmer, but at least I'm getting better.

I finished the swim and changed into workout gear and then did 4 miles on the elliptical in 31:51. I really had to push the last 2-3 minutes to make it to 4 miles before 32:00. I hate the that ellipticals are all calibrated differently from each other; I have no idea if 4 miles is really 4 miles, and it seems to be quite different from machine to machine. Oh well. I like thinking that I could run 4 miles in 32:00. I probably could do it on the roads, if my IT band would hold up. Maybe. But I don't really care about running that much, other than the curiosity I have about how fast I might be able to be. I suspect I'd be a good runner but not quite good enough get age group awards in local races. Probably top 10%. But racewalking...ahhhh, now THAT'S a sport I really care about. In a few weeks I'll get to do it again I hope.