Engine swim

After taking last week off, I headed up to Cook & Phillip before football for a thrash up and down the medium lane.

This was my first swim since the lesson last Thursday and so I was keen to put into practice some of the ideas that my instructor had given me, namely to try and develop some kind of engine with which to up my pace a bit.

Surprisingly the pool wasn’t too busy and so I was able to swim freely for the most part and I got straight into it, focusing on the pull and trying to generate more traction in the water with my arms and pull myself through the water, using a bent elbow whilst trying not to send my right arm across my body in front of me…

I’m not sure if I was actually any quicker as I didn’t have a watch with me, but I found the session particularly hard work! Which I guess is a good thing? So much so, that I struggled to put together more than 200m in any one interval before needed a rest. Most of the intervals were actually only 100m so that gives some indication of the effort I was putting in.

Overall I was certainly feeling like I was pulling through the water with a lot more effort and a lot quicker after my hand hits the water in front of my head. I also tried to focus on using a bent elbow to try and drive me through the water, thereby creating some momentum with my stroke. Having said that I was cream crackered by the end of the session!

All up I swam for about 20-25 mins for 1km all up.