SNORK!

Remember the Snorks? I really don't, but it would be kinda cool to breath underwater. Oh wait, they make snorkels to do just that! ;)

(source)

So I finally bought a snorkel for the pool, the Finis Center Mount Swimmer's Snorkel. I couldn't not buy it and not get pictures!

Gimme Cross-Eyed!

Gimme Creepy Smiley

Now gimme ANGRAAAAAAY!

I then proceeded to chase the cats around making Darth Vader breathing noises.

I got it because I have been working hard lately on getting symmetrical in the pool by breathing to both sides and getting my rotation even. I find it easy to rotate to my breathing side, but not my non-breathing side. By taking the breathing issue out of the equation, there is no side to favor, just both.

Do you ever do face down drills where you run out of breath so fast that when coming up to breath you lose your momentum or form and it takes a bit to get recomposed that by the time you reach the wall, you only got in 3-4 good cycles of the drill? Frustrating, right? This happens to me with skulling and catch drills. These drills are slow because you have little arm pull and you rely fully on kicking to propel you. Since kicking is so oxygen expensive you have to breath often.

With the snorkel, that is no longer an issue!

Here is a REALLY good catch drill that have helped me get a better "feel" for the water....also known as the "Ice Cream Scoop" drill:



I tried it out tonight and my first reaction is that a nose clip is a MUST HAVE. Water goes right up your nose! You don't haaaaave to use a nose clip, but I would highly recommend it. I got by without, but next time I am using one.

So I did some catch drills and they are MUCH easier to do CORRECTLY by not having to breath to the side. I HIGHLY recommend getting a snorkel for drills like this! After doing the drill, I swam normally and OH MY GOD I have a catch! haha! Getting that catch as early as possible is so critical in grabbing that water and getting more propulsion.

I did:
500 WU
500 yard mix of catch drills
5 x 100 on 1:45
500 yard mix of catch drills
5 x 200 on 3:30
---------------
3000 yards

Finally, if you want a great read on some do's or don'ts for us mere mortal age group triathletes, my coach, aka THE MAN, wrote up a nice piece.

My favorite part:
"If going long in training, dial down the intensity. If going short, make it count. Duration usually doesn’t cripple us. Intensity doesn’t either. It's combining the two that gets us into trouble."

I wrote him an email tonight explaining "over the past 7 weeks of working with you, I feel sorta super human for this time of year!"