Mastering the swim

Today's Master's swim class was awesome. There were only 2 other students today, one of them being my husband. We started off doing some drills, and Coach Rich lent me some flippers to try out. I'm amazed at how fast I move through the water with them on. After we were warmed up, the two advanced swimmers practiced their drills together while Rich coached me in the slow lane. More breathing with my head down, focusing on keeping my head only to the side and below me not up. Then he had me attempt to breath on my left side which was worse than the first day attempt at breathing on my right. He said as long as we were rewiring my brain to learn to swim correctly, we might as well learn to breathe on both sides. After a few laps I felt a little better with it, mostly because my nose and mouth were saturated with water, and I didn't think much more would get in there. So every time I swim, I'm supposed to try at least 2 breaths to the left. Worked a lot on getting my arm position correct, and keep my elbows up. Did some finger drag drills, focusing on touching my thigh as my hand comes down. I had to really concentrate on keeping my fingers together, pushing my hand down and letting it relax on the way up. Kick practice involved more of the whip with my legs using my upper body instead of the knees. Trying to remember to be more relaxed with my kicking. I learned today that it's mostly the arm stroke that moves a swimmer through the water, and the legs are just added help. He also showed me how to do water running, so I can add that to my solo workouts. He had a friend who trained for Marathons that way, every time he was injured he just switched to running in the pool, and would run about 10 miles in the water that way. It takes some practice and getting used to, and is definitely harder than running on land. He also said I could try some barefoot running (on land of course) or do it in sandals. He himself has just purchased a pair of vibrams, and runs in sandals or barefoot too. After the running experiment it was back to more stroke, kick and breathing for a few more laps and then I was done. I got to watch the Captain and Juan Carlos swim a couple 50's before they were done and they made it look so easy and effortless. I really enjoyed today's class. It was great to attend class with my husband, and to watch him swim. I've been reading his blog, and listening to him tell me about his progress for so long, that it was really meaningful to see him in action. I love that we have another activity to share with each other, and I'm thankful for the extra time together. We have had some great discussions about both of our training over the last several months. I appreciate that both of us becoming athletes has really strengthened our bond with each other.