Swimming slump
I've known for several weeks that my swimming has been "off". I've been avoiding discovering how "off" it's been -- I've intentionally not timed myself. Today, I had to stop avoiding the issue, as my coach pulled out the stopwatch.
It was bad. Really bad. My 25 meter time was ok, for some reason, but my 50 meter time was six or seven seconds off my personal best. That's a lot of seconds for just 50 meters. Fortunately, we ran out of time before we got to the timed 100 meter swim. I really didn't want to know.
My coach says my stroke is off and I'm not pulling through the stroke. Ok, so I have to work on this. But here's the thing... I used to love swim workouts. Tonight, I realized that I wasn't even having fun. I've long claimed that all the speed work and even much of the form work we do in the pool contributes very little to races. When I swim in open water with waves and undertow and a lot of people, the last thing I'm thinking about is whether or not my elbow is pointing up or if I'm pulling through my stroke. Ok, so I may get in a bit of a sprint at the end. That takes five or ten seconds off my time, but I pay for it with a slower transition. I'm having trouble making the connection between really hard work in the pool and payback in races.
I do believe that there is value in swim workouts, of course. Better form and stamina in the pool do a lot for your confidence when you get into open water. But the thing is that I can swim 2000 meters at a steady pace without a problem. I can even do it after I've done a hard workout (the pace will be slower, but the distance doesn't bother me). This is in stark contrast to some of my teammates who have greatly improved their stamina in the water due to a lot of form drills and even speed work.
So where am I going with this? I don't know. My teammate and best friend says it's just a slump and once I get through it, I'll stop thinking so negatively. He compared it to his own cycling slump. But when we do a bike workout, he can see a direct connection between the damn hill that we have to ride up ten times or riding at 90% effort or riding 100 km and his race times. He knows that if his legs are a little bit stronger or if he pedals a little bit faster that he'll take 10 or 20 or even 60 seconds off his 20 km bike time. He knows that if it's not working for him this month, it'll work for him next month. I don't know that doing yet another dreaded anaerobic sprint in the pool will help me keep ahead of the pack and possibly swim fast in a race. What I do know is that I'm frustrated and angry and that's making me swim even worse. In fact, my coach told me that I'm so angry that he actually saw me balling up my hands as I swam and he emphasized that I'll never get my speed and form back until I relax.
But how on earth can I relax when I'm so damn frustrated?!
It was bad. Really bad. My 25 meter time was ok, for some reason, but my 50 meter time was six or seven seconds off my personal best. That's a lot of seconds for just 50 meters. Fortunately, we ran out of time before we got to the timed 100 meter swim. I really didn't want to know.
My coach says my stroke is off and I'm not pulling through the stroke. Ok, so I have to work on this. But here's the thing... I used to love swim workouts. Tonight, I realized that I wasn't even having fun. I've long claimed that all the speed work and even much of the form work we do in the pool contributes very little to races. When I swim in open water with waves and undertow and a lot of people, the last thing I'm thinking about is whether or not my elbow is pointing up or if I'm pulling through my stroke. Ok, so I may get in a bit of a sprint at the end. That takes five or ten seconds off my time, but I pay for it with a slower transition. I'm having trouble making the connection between really hard work in the pool and payback in races.
I do believe that there is value in swim workouts, of course. Better form and stamina in the pool do a lot for your confidence when you get into open water. But the thing is that I can swim 2000 meters at a steady pace without a problem. I can even do it after I've done a hard workout (the pace will be slower, but the distance doesn't bother me). This is in stark contrast to some of my teammates who have greatly improved their stamina in the water due to a lot of form drills and even speed work.
So where am I going with this? I don't know. My teammate and best friend says it's just a slump and once I get through it, I'll stop thinking so negatively. He compared it to his own cycling slump. But when we do a bike workout, he can see a direct connection between the damn hill that we have to ride up ten times or riding at 90% effort or riding 100 km and his race times. He knows that if his legs are a little bit stronger or if he pedals a little bit faster that he'll take 10 or 20 or even 60 seconds off his 20 km bike time. He knows that if it's not working for him this month, it'll work for him next month. I don't know that doing yet another dreaded anaerobic sprint in the pool will help me keep ahead of the pack and possibly swim fast in a race. What I do know is that I'm frustrated and angry and that's making me swim even worse. In fact, my coach told me that I'm so angry that he actually saw me balling up my hands as I swam and he emphasized that I'll never get my speed and form back until I relax.
But how on earth can I relax when I'm so damn frustrated?!
posted by bari | 00:42
1 Comments:
Maybe you're still having trouble with your shoulder. You might be tensing your shoulder during the super long workouts to protect it and that's affecting your stroke. You could try getting regular massages and easing off practice for a while.
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