Swim Improvements?

Swimming is not natural to me, I don’t really enjoy it and I am a poor swimmer. I have always said that and thought I always would. I do however sense light at the end of the tunnel the more I get in the pool. Last year I probably swam less than 15 times which explains why I am so slow, I think that 4 of those occasions were in races, it is not a surprise I finish the swim in the bottom 5%. Having high expectations on the swim with that level of training would be like getting on a bike ten times and then expecting to finish in the top 10% of L’etape.

The practice drills (swim stroke exercises) I have been doing have really helped how comfortable I feel in the water, I have been doing them consistently for several weeks now in the pool at work. The pool is small, maybe 12 metres long which makes it not terribly suitable for doing long swims, there is too much turning and not enough distance on each length to get into your stroke and breathing pattern. For this reason I have been focussing on my drills in this pool and saving straight swims for the local pool in the town. Doing most of my swimming in London, I have spent a good deal of time on my drills: Balance, Kick and Breathing. The drills I am doing are focussed on addressing the weaknesses in my stroke highlighted by the weekend video session down in Bath. I managed a swim in the 25m pool this week and it felt pretty good, the first 20 lengths did, before I started to tire. I could feel I was a lot smoother and glided much more than I previously have done. The down side is that I was not really much faster than I was before, 35seconds per length which equates to a 17.5 minute 750m swim; that would actually be my fastest Sprint Triathlon swim and bearing in mind that in a Tri I would be quicker due to the wet suit and potentially drafting for a small time then in hindsight that is pretty pleasing! 30s per length is my target so I have a good deal of work to do.

Some research online indicates that the first step to getting fast is to build reliable stroke at easy pace and then work to increase that speed. I am still building that stroke but I am much more comfortable with it now than I was 6 months ago and with a couple more months I should be able to maintain that stroke without having to concentrate on each element the whole time and hence it could be solid enough to withstand a gradual increase in stroke rate and hence speed.

Training Done:- Swim: Drills; Bike 30' Z2; Swim: 1K; Rugby (But scoring a try counts double so that makes 2!). A pretty poor week really.