Another night, another session of splashing

As I've noted before. I'm dropping my Wednesdays weight sessions, so that I don't compromise my recovery. Instead, I'm doing a short, slow run, just to add some miles, and help recovery after the Tuesday speed sessions. Today was the first time through this. It was kind of refreshing to get home, pull on a pair of shorts and hit the treadmill just to work out the kinks. I could feel the muscles loosening over the course of the run, so it's already paid its benefits.

Run: 3 miles @ 6.5 mph

Then, after dinner and some relaxing (and a lone trick-or-treater; disappointing, but more treats for me), it was back at the pool. Once more, the reminder of "good weeks and bad weeks" paid off tonight.

I know that I have a far from perfect stroke, but I also know that it has improved considerably in these few workouts. Tonight, things felt somewhat rougher than last week, but some of that is changing feedback. My speed was faster than any previous night (most of my lengths that I timed were in the 55-58 second range). My endurance was up (on four separate occasions I did 100m non-stop). My breathing was better and more relaxed (multiple lengths using bilateral breathing, only dropping to every second stroke near the end of longer efforts, to avoid splashing from a passing swimmer, or to do off-side work). And for the first time, I was able to slow down and not be going all-out. So why did things feel so rough?

As I clean up various parts of my stroke, I'm becoming somewhat more attuned to where the problems are in other parts of the movement. The cues that I used last week are still not automatic, so I had to remain focused on those to keep the form I could, but as I moved through the water, I could note where things were still not feeling right: I wasn't rotating as much last night, unless I really though about it; I don't glide much; my hips drop more when breathing on my left than right, and I sometimes seem to barely pull with my left arm.

I start with the coach in two weeks. I know that I should be doing drills to work on some of these issues, but it's tough during crowded lane swimming hours. I'm sure the coaching sessions will include drill work, especially for "new" swimmers like me. There's seven months until my first triathlon, and another 2.5 until the 'A' race. Lots of time to figure all this out.