swim freestyle

I love it for a lot of reasons – the solitary nature can be fun, given the correct frame of mind. On some days I want more interactions, but most of the time I enjoy the me-against-me aspect of learning to swim properly.

At this point I could probably mark ‘swim freestyle’ off my list, but I’m going to wait until I can do 10 consecutive freestyle laps. Yesterday I did 30 total laps of swimming which takes me about 35 minutes (actually, that sounds a bit fast – I’ll time myself later today). 30 laps is my new record. I was able to do 4 consecutive laps of freestyle. It’s still a running out of breath issue – and from what my Masters coach tells me, it’s mostly likely just being out of shape. I’ve got decent form for a relative freestyle beginner – but I just get winded.

My favorite part of a swim now is doing sprints toward the end. I get to swim on length of freestyle as fast as I can and return with the breast stroke. I love it.

At one point in the beginning of December I was able to do 5 consecutive laps of freestyle in a 20 lap total swim. So, 20 laps was where I topped out (or decided to stop) but I could do 5 freestyles in a row and, at my peak, 10 total freestyle laps (broken up by breast stroke) in one session.

Today I’m able to do 25 laps, sometimes a few more, but I’m finding it difficult to do more than two freestyle laps in a row. The good news is I’ve learned to sprint with that stroke toward the end of the workout. One fast freestyle length followed by a breast stroke back, etc … for about 5 laps. I’m hoping to have an endurance breakthrough in the coming weeks.

I plan to attend my first Masters Swimming class on Friday. A quarterly Masters swim membership is $60 and you can attend as many as 6 swims a week with a coach/instructor. From what I’ve observed of the Masters group, it’s the whole gamut: beginners to badasses. I plan to begin as an ass and see how far I get.

After a couple weeks of limited winter break pool hours and not swimming much, I’ve managed to get in 4 swims this week (it’s only Thursday) but I’ve slipped from being able to do 5 freestyle laps in a row to 2.

Which really has nothing to do with my progress on learning to swim freestyle. Suffice it to say I started this goal about two months ago, but lost my entries today when I was doing some CS work for 43 Things and trying to recreate a user bug.

The big news this week in swimming is that I bought a new pair of goggles and they are totally awesome! I had no idea that goggles could be truly anti-fog. When I started a couple months ago I bought a $7 pair of goggles from the pool where I go. I just bought a new pair of $8.50 Speedo goggles from Amazon and used them last night. Incredible! I can see clearly the whole swim whereas with the old goggles I was clearing out the fog with pool water every couple laps.