Sunday, April 10, 2011

All Catch, All the Time

I just had to get this out their before I got scooped by Jon or Holly. Well, let's be honest, Holly is the threat, but I said it first. OK, enough grade school antics.

I worked pretty hard this weekend at Jon's swim camp. It was so worth the effort for many reasons:
  1. Got to see Jon, and his lovely assistant, Holly.
  2. Got some more feedback on my swimming - obviously, it was a swim camp.
  3. Got to try some new pool toys - my arms are tired!
  4. Will get to see some video of myself in the pool. I can compare it to old video from tri-swim when Ken Olson did that for us.
  5. I now know how to steal your water....
Jon really focused on maximizing the "catch phase" of our stroke, which I guess is the whole point of swimming and being efficient. He had some good drills - wounded seal, sculling, 1 arm swim. (I stand corrected Grant and Ellen - the non-swimming arm is by your side - but I almost drowned doing this!)

Then we got to use some new paddles - just holding small ones in your palm with no straps and maintaining constant pressure while sculling and not losing the paddle. Big ones that covered your palm and forearm to emphasize the catch - that one was hard! Wouldn't want to do too much of it b/c it would kill the shoulders. And then the "wounded seal", which I think Grant calls "superman drill". Jon gave a good analogy for this - try to use your catch/pull to push your body up and over your arms. I'm not telling how to steal your water, but I'm going to try it at Wasa.

So, all in all, a great weekend. Jon's run school ABC's look as good as Grant's now. Jon also shared some of his day to day routines and how his diet and race preparation has changed. I don't think he has his race schedule for this season yet, but I'm sure he'll let us know when his races will be. It was so good to catch up with him and I'd say he's really getting a lot out of his time in Victoria!

I think this will improve my motivation for the next phase of training leading up to my first triathlon at Wasa on June 12, 2011. I have the Police 1/2 Marathon next weekend and I'm not feeling very prepared for it, but even if I use it as a "training run", as Dan suggested, that isn't a bad way to look at it.

I'm half way through my photography course now too - really enjoying it and am trying to get out and take some pics each week. It'll be easier now to get out and about since it's finally getting to be bike weather (for us fair weather bikers).

Ciao, Cindy

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