Wednesday, December 16, 2009

oh yeah! the swimming is coming along

The great thing about swimming is that you can measure improvement quite easily since you are basically a ping pong ball in a 25 yard space; the distance doesn't change! There is no second guessing your GPS watch or your bike computer. If you only went a 1:35 for the last 100, well, you only went a 1:35! The pool's size did not expand or shink ;)

The other cool thing is that you can measure efficiency really easily in the pool. So you just swam the last 100 yards in 1:35? That's cool, but how many strokes did it take you? Was it taking you above 20 per length? 30? Were you in the teens!?!? The lower the stroke count, the better the efficiency, especially if your times are becoming faster. This means you are using less energy, which is GOOD!

So today in the pool I felt like I was on autopilot and I was wondering why I felt so good. So I counted my strokes and I was finishing each length on only 15. That's REALLY REALLY REALLY good for me. Last season 19 was my average and if I took only 17, I was having a great day or I was exaggerating my glide. The fact that I was averaging only 15 was a big confidence boost for me :)

....now I just gotta get faster ;)

What is your stroke count? Do you even bother measuring it?
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And I was on the trainer @ oh dark o'clock/the crack of stupid for an hour this morning. I am VERY thankful for Netflix's online movie watching. I can only watch action movies cuz they take my mind off of the bike. I think my power spikes when an intense gun battle happens! haha!

4 comments:

  1. Mine is 19 or 20. Fifteen is AWESOME.

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  2. I try counting my strokes sometimes but I usually get distracted and lose count before I get to the end... Oops! I'm going to try to count next time and see where I'm at.

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  3. this is too technical for me. lol.

    congrats on ur accomplishment! if u say 15 is good, then i believe u.....and this is from a girl who probably could not make even 1 length or lap in a pool. basically, i cant swim.
    so to me, if u just made it from one end to the next, that is fantastic!!!!

    good job!

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  4. Congrats on the swim improvement, I haven't counted mine in a while but I used to average around 17 (swimming background)...I guess I should hit the pool again soon!

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