02 October 2009

A little bit extra

OK, now that I've been congratulated for making A THOUSAND YARDS, I decided to do it again and, really, it's getting kind of old-hat on the second day of A THOUSAND YARDS. So, afterwards I decided to do something extra.

I've been reminded more than once by Chopstick that swimming is more than freestyle (this coming from someone who is probably going to be a Flyer when she grows up). So, I thought I'd try a couple of laps of those "other strokes."

I know I can do backstroke (not well but I can make it across the pool) so that one wasn't even on the table. But breaststroke? That is possibly a more unnatural movement than a golf swing...it just shouldn't occur in nature. I kicked off the wall (neglecting the zoom as I don't actually understand what that is) and started channeling my inner-frog. Umm, I made it to the other side but I would be hard pressed to actually call it breaststroke. I was under the impression that the forward motion comes in the glide portion of the stroke but the only way I moved was when I was pulling back. As to the the kick? Chopstick's coach is always talking about the kick "firing"...mine was more "fizzling." But, still, I made it across. Though I think I would have been DQ'd.

I wasn't about to try a full on butterfly. That would have been suicide not to mention humiliating. So I tried to just dolphin across the water, something I have found fun in the past. Chopstick gave me instructions last night on how to breathe while doing it and that was all good except that my forehead kept smacking the water after the breath. Turns out I'd never tried 25 yards of this particular "fun" exercise. It's definitely not as fun when breathing is introduced into the equation. Halfway through, I realized that and just swam back to the wall giving up on my aspiration of rock-hard abs for one day at least.

So, that was a bit of a failed experiment other than the new milestone I hit today: ONE THOUSAND FIFTY YARDS!!!!!

2 comments:

  1. Try dolphin kick on your back - similar muscles but you don't have the same challenge trying to breathe. :)

    Congrats on the yardage!

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  2. 1,050 - that's wonderful! You're almost at 1,100!! If it's any consolation, I've been swimming with a US Masters Swimming program off and on for nearly 3 years, and I *just* learned how to do the breaststroke proper. (Nearly killed me, but I get it now!) See my blog post at http://mastersswimmersblog.com/post/what-kind-of-sicko-invented-the-breaststroke for the dirty details. Unfortunately, I overdid it and missed all last week - where we were instructed in the backstroke. This coming week we'll be "perfecting" our freestyle. You're welcome to come join us and try it out. Keep up your great work and determination. Love reading about your progress.

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