Critique My Swim Stroke

When I decided to do my first Triathlon in May of '09 I was an extremely poor swimmer and really had not even tried to swim a lap since I was a 7-year old kid trying to obtain my Tadpole Badge from the local YMCA.  I was terrified of doing the 500-meter swim so I spent a lot of time in the pool trying to learn how to swim freestyle.  All that time in the pool got me through the swim in my first Tri but the 2:37/100y split was just slow and I knew if I wanted to get faster it was going to take a lot of hard work.

Not being one to back down from a challenge I joined a Master's Class at the LifeTime Fitness and started swimming regularly.  Many of you may remember that from June to November last year I consistently put in 10,000-12,000 yards per week and blogged about seeing some improvements in the pool.  I have a really great coach who makes minor changes from time-to-time and I am feeling very good about my swim. 

Right now I am averaging about 1:35/100 but know I can still get a lot faster.  I "feel" good in the pool right now but being that I am a visual type of learner it makes it easier for me to make corrections if I can "see" my stroke for myself.  So on Tuesday my buddy Dave took a couple videos of me doing a few lengths and I thought you all might enjoy seeing these as well.

These are at 4:45am on a Tuesday morning, be gentile on my scrappy appearance:

Video #1:



Video #2



Many of you readers have awesome swim experience and knowledge and I'd love to hear some critiques.  I am not sensitive and encourage constructive criticism so please don't hold back.  I have already taken a few notes myself so it would be great to compare.

Only regret is I never took a video of my stroke back when I first began.

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!

Thanks for Reading (viewing),

Jeff

Rainy Monday and Training Recap

The alarm went off at 5:30 am today as a reminder that I was going to get in a brisk 45 minute run.  I got up and went to let the pugs outside and that is when I heard the crash of thunder.  That was quickly followed by some heavy rain.  Normally, I would jump on the trainer and get in a bike ride, but for some reason I went back to bed and did not get up until 7am for a work conference call.  Not the best way to start a new week!  Oh well, after work I am going to hit the pool and then watch Jack Bauer on the trainer - this should get me back on track!

Last week was a scheduled recovery week and here is how it shaped up:

Planned Trainings:
Swim - 1hr 30 mins
Bike -  1hr 45 mins
Run -  1hr 45 mins
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Total Planned -  5 hrs

Actual Trainings:
Swim -  0
Bike -  4hrs 37 mins (83.30 mi)
Run -  1hr 13 mins (9.32 mi).
-----------------------------
Total Actual -  5hrs 50 mins

The volume was good but I over did it on the bike and put up a goose egg in the pool.  This is mostly because the weather has finally changed for the better and I was dying to get outside and I also did the Duathlon on Saturday at the last minute. 

The funny thing to me is that the more time I spend on the bike my run conditioning is improving.  However, when I was putting in 120+ mile months running in the fall it really did not do much for my bike splits.  So, with this little bit of knowledge about myself if I can get extra time in the saddle than that is what I shall do!

Found this video today on My-Triathlon-Training.com.  It shows some Triathlon specific swimming drills.  Not real sure how I feel about a couple of them?  Let me know what you guys think?




Thanks for Reading,

Jeff