Here we go. This is real, live video of your girl in the pool this morning. Struggling.
Each time I watch these videos, I crack up laughing. Not only because of my declaration of “I’m Spent” in the second video (3 laps into the entire production, by the way), but also because I look ridiculous. Trust me, I know this. Don’t mistake this as one of those “I’m fat (now tell me I’m skinny)” type of statements. I realize how silly I look, and I’m OK with that.
It’s my THIRD time swimming, and I clearly need some more practice. Is it just me, or am I like completely pulling my head up and out of the water at some points? That just looks weird.
Besides my less-than-stellar form, I really need to know how to not get so winded. I get severely tired and out of breath. By the time I’m halfway down the pool, I’m literally gasping for air on my breaths. I’m not sure if it’s my faulty asthmatic airways (the chlorine fumes seems to aggravate me), or if it’s just a matter of needing practice. Whatever it is, it’s going to have to get better before I TRI, that’s for sure.
I’m dedicating three days per week to swimming practice (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), I’m running on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I’ll be biking 2-3 times per week as well. I’ll just toss the biking in where I can fit it in. What I’m saying is that the swimming part has me a little nervous. Right now it feels like I’ll never get any better, but I also understand that is not a realistic statement.
I’ve felt the same way about every fitness goal that I’ve ever made. There was a point in my life when I couldn’t even run for 2 minutes straight. So. Patience is my focus right now.
Thankfully, the wonderful Coach Meg has offered to give me some tips throughout this process, and believe it or not, my swim on Monday (pre-tips from Coach Meg) was even worse than it was today! I complained to her on Monday that it seemed like my legs were sinking in the water, and she instructed me to put my head further down into the water, which would pull my hips up.
Score 1 for Coach Meg, because I did not have a case of cement feet today!
She also told me to use the rhythm “stroke, stroke, breathe”. Although I’m still struggling to get air, it was definitely easier today than my previous rhythm of “stroke, stroke, stroke, breathe”. I suppose that I can alter the rhythm at some point, but I have a hunch that I’m going to need to breathe as often as possible, considering my aforementioned faulty airways.
Such is life with asthma. I suppose I could just sit at home with my inhaler and never move, but that would be so much less fun than having asthma attacks in public places.
So, here we go. I’m open to tips, suggestions, tattoo artist referrals, swim cap placement tutorials, etc.
#1 (this one has a fairly long pause while I catch my breath at the end of the pool…you know, in case you doubted my weak lung capacity).
#2 (“I’m Spent!”).
