Last JCC class, more success, longer swims.

We had the last stroke swim class, read: insane aerobic interval training, last week, and it was a doozer.  My workouts during the week paid off, although the support staff calmly went about her business of making it look easier as always.  About the middle of the workout, when the instructors said, ok now 6 laps of freestyle in a row, I had to say, "You have got to be kidding me."  But I went ahead and did it, although there was some confusion about the distance that provides an interesting intersection of phenomena:

Classic catch-22 SNAFU:
1. Rather than keeping track of laps, the instructors were watching for the support staff to stop since she is always ahead of me.  (Cognitive Miser)
2. I though I was done, but figured the instructors kept better count, and they said to keep going. (Informational Influence)
3. So it is up to the support staff, who...you guessed it...was waiting for me to stop.  She did that so she could do an extra one--to really put me in my place?  (Downward Social Comparison)

This sillyness could have gone on for quite some time.  But after 7 laps, I had had enough and wanted some answers.  I thought that the instructors had just pulled the old aerobics instructor trick on me (5 more, now 4 more, now 6 more...) but the truth was even more interesting.  I was pretty annoyed for a moment, but got over it because it added up to doing 250m--a new record! 

It is legitimately hard to keep track of laps when you are flipping your body around and generally low on air.  Now 250m is something I can do a couple of times a workout, which gets you to 650-750m workout in a hurry.  I will keep pushing out the distance I do all at once, although I am not upping the distance too much because it is nice to not be totally exhausted at the end.  The 900m all freestyle workout is the goal for the next couple of weeks, if I could do 3X300m that would be pretty great.  For sure we are over the initial really bad challenge of breathing, and now repetition and muscle buildup combined with technique work will gradually get me the rest of the way.

Major Breathing Breakthrough!

I finally broke through the 100 yard barrier in a big way.  I waited Sunday to Wednesday to be fresh and then started my workout with 150m swim without breaks, then on Thursday I did the same out to 200 yards!  Each time, I wasn't frantically out of breath at the end, and actually felt pretty calm.  The workouts were 750 yards and 650 yards total, making them longer than in the past. 

The last key adjustments were to slow down my strokes (more time to breath in), and to move my head over to breath even before the window opens so I take advantage of the whole time to take in a less rushed breath, and fill my lungs.  It takes an act of conscious attention and will to focus on doing what I need to for quality inhales.  The slower stroke rate means that one-sided breathing doesn't come at such a hyperventilating speed as well.  Getting away from the panicked feeling of breathing is really huge, because that has always led me to use my arms too quickly to make it to the end of the lap so I can stop.  Now, I hope to stay within myself and push out that distance gradually.  I can actually imagine a 900 meter swim, at least in the pool, for the first time, yeah!

Verdict: Not a Natural Swimmer

My official position will come as no surprise to my 3 loyal readers: swimming is not natural, not for me anyhow.  I don't swim, I drown in one direction until I hit a wall, and then I drown in the other direction until I can't take it anymore, then I stand up and gasp for a while, then repeat.

While I have been killing myself to the tune of three 600m yard workouts a week, the support staff saunters in to our weekly swim classes (read: torture sessions) with no preparations, and casually reels off laps one after the other.  While I stand hypoxic between sets, I get flashbacks to SCUBA diving, where the rest of us are on empty and the support staff has a 1/2 tank left.  My goal is to be less frantic and take longer inhales, slowing speed down a little to improve calm.  Again the parallel with SCUBA, where calm is King. 

Mundane updates: Marie Reed Pool is super convenient to where my guy friends live, and a great place to practice flip turns because it is a 25m yard pool.  Earlier in the week, I did reel off a couple 100m yard swims there, so the other modest goal this week is to make it 125m yard or 150m yard.  We shall see.  The flip turns are great technically speaking, but that is more time you can't breathe, so that isn't great.  I have pretty much given up on running since swimming is wearing me out so much.  Turns out my dislike of running in the cold is stronger than my fear of running out of air and drowning--go figure.