The drills you say? The book I bought, Triathlon Swimming Made Easy, has a series of drills (13 I think). The first five deal primarily with balance. I've tried 1-3. Simplified, they are something like this:
- Float on you back, hands to your side, gentle flutter kick.
- Same position, rotate body slightly so one arm, shoulder to hand, is out of the water. Keep eyes, head looking straight up.
- Same position as #2, but take lower arm and extend forward in front of head, slightly under the water's surface.
Tuesday I didn't get past #1, I floated on my back ok, but was extremely tense the whole time. I attempted to go into #2 position once, it didn't work out. Today was a different story, and I got into drill #2 and #3 without much issue. Three has the added benefit of keeping me from hitting my head on the wall, not that I'm ever moving that fast.
The first part of the swim was primarily drill #1, with an odd length of back or front stroke. After I figured out 2 and 3, I alternated between the three drills and more odd lengths of actual swimming. It was at this point I was actually almost having fun. I could see it, that little glimmer of hope, that tiny ray of light at the end of the tunnel. Some day I might actually be able to swim.
On a somewhat related note, I work down in Verona a lot, probably there 2-3 times a week for a couple of hours at a time. Figured I'd look at the Verona pool schedule, see if I could work in a swim there at lunch instead of at Monona Grove. Did a search for "Verona Pool", didn't find much, searched for the high school, looked around there, turns out Verona doesn't have a pool.
Verona has a natitorium. This is a term that's new to me so I had to look it up. According to Merriam Webster, a natitorium is, are you ready for this, an indoor swimming pool. On principal, I will not be swimming in the Verona pool. It's a pool, call it a pool, reminds me a George Carlin skit on language, it wasn't this one, but it still gets my point across well. Why on earth do we need to add unnecessary complexity to common terms in the English language. Us simple folk don't get it.
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Last night the thought of running in the Syttende Mai intrigued me. I thought maybe tiredness was making me crazy so I thought I would sleep on it. Upon waking, I am still intrigued. I'm possibly setting my sights on Syttende Mai '09. Sounds like a good title for my venture, should I decide to proceed with it. I told Steve and he asked why. I told him I need a goal--a motivation to keep me going. He said I could find something else less drastic, which are fighting words in my book. Thanks for the inspiration.
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