Daily Log 1 April 2011 - Swim

If it looks like I seem to be writing about swimming a lot, it's because I've been swimming almost every night for the last 2 weeks. It's my desperate attempt to master this portion of the triathlon in the quickest way possible. I think I'm making good progress and am hoping to be able to some long slow swim soon. There's also the open water swim which I have to experience soon. In the meantime, the pool will do.

SWIM This is what my workout consisted today.: Warm up Freestyle 4x50m Superman glide 2x50m Fins and kickboard 2x50m Kick with kickboard 2x50m One armed freestyle with fins 2x50m Touch and Go (aka Catch-up Stroke) 2x50m Closed Fist 2x50m Freestyle 6x50m Freestyle with fins 2x50 Total Laps 24 My POLAR RS 800 data are as follows: Time 72 minutes Average heart rate 60% MHR Calories 648 kcal Notice that I've added more drills for my leg kick which is very weak at the moment. I manage to swim all the laps so far without kicking at all. As soon as I start to kick aggresively, my heart rate would shoot through the roof. I put on my fins and just used my legs for propulsion and my hands on the kickboard. That was really tough. It was difficult to maintain a good kick technique at the moment (but I have to admit I actually don't know what a good kicking technique looks or feels like). I then tried the same but without fins. It's tough for me to do with fins but without? It was virtually impossible for me to move forward. Actually it was as if I wasn't moving at all and it took me ages to finish 2 laps. Tomorrow I'll have my 3rd swimming lesson and I can't wait to see and feel what good kicking technique is like.