kyliechops
08-11-2009, 03:11 AM
Last Friday I left work early and drove down to Canandaigua Lake to swim a continuous 2 miles in preparation for the Betsy Owens Memorial 2009 USMS 2 Mile Cable National Championship on 8/15 in Lake Placid. Canandaigua Lake has a buoy line that is 1 mile round trip. I decided to swim with my tempo trainer, but tend to do better if I go a bit slower at first to warm up, so I set it at 1.26 and swam out ~500 yards to the first buoy, then I took a few seconds to change the tempo to 1.22. I swam the rest of the first mile and most of the second mile at 1.22, then took a few seconds when I got to the final buoy to change to 1.18 for the BIG FINISH into shore. My time was an exciting 1 hour 10 minutes, which for me, was almost 10 minutes faster than my previous 1 mile times would've put me at.
Afterwards I wasn't tired, just hungry... it was dinner time! I was amazed that it was much easier than I thought it would be. I had a few different focuses during the swim: streamlining/lengthening, keeping my arms wide and deep, and my hip drive, but my main focus was relaxing with the beep and trying to make each stroke as good, if not better than the previous stroke. I ended up swimming faster than I ever had before; it took maintaining my focus, but it wasn't physically demanding at all. Now that I know I can do it, and that as long as I keep my focus, I'll be fine, has helped alleviate a lot of the apprehension I had about the upcoming race.
I started TI in February 2008 and have spent a majority of the last year and a half relearning to swim; doing lots of drills and swimming slowly so I could focus and imprint the new movements, hence I've been having problems swimming faster because my neuromuscular system has been stuck in slow-mo. With help from my TI coach, Kim Bade, and Terry's suggestions on the proper way to increase my speed using my tempo trainer, I've been able to increase my speed significantly.
Afterwards I wasn't tired, just hungry... it was dinner time! I was amazed that it was much easier than I thought it would be. I had a few different focuses during the swim: streamlining/lengthening, keeping my arms wide and deep, and my hip drive, but my main focus was relaxing with the beep and trying to make each stroke as good, if not better than the previous stroke. I ended up swimming faster than I ever had before; it took maintaining my focus, but it wasn't physically demanding at all. Now that I know I can do it, and that as long as I keep my focus, I'll be fine, has helped alleviate a lot of the apprehension I had about the upcoming race.
I started TI in February 2008 and have spent a majority of the last year and a half relearning to swim; doing lots of drills and swimming slowly so I could focus and imprint the new movements, hence I've been having problems swimming faster because my neuromuscular system has been stuck in slow-mo. With help from my TI coach, Kim Bade, and Terry's suggestions on the proper way to increase my speed using my tempo trainer, I've been able to increase my speed significantly.