After great success last week eclipsing the mile mark, it was time to ditch the training fins and move to the next level of no assistive devices.  No pool buoy.  No training fins.  No snorkels etc.  All items I had used at various times up until this point since October to garner some wins, positive experiences, and learn how to swim.

During the last few weeks, I had consciously tried not to use my legs much (and thus the power of the training fins) as coach informed me that you want to save your legs for the cycling and the run in a triathlon.  Without the fins, I found that they were, in fact, a big defining accessory.

My first swim without them was rough.  I had set out with the idea that I was going to do 1,400 yards.  I ended up quitting at 850.  The technique was bad, I felt I was sinking again, tough to breathe, no rhythm, and I had no idea what to do with my legs.  As you can see below, my pace was dramatically slower than with fins.  My pace dropped from 2:59/100 yards to 3:39/100 yards.  Proof that there was a definite advantage by using the training fins and I was clearly using my legs.  Liar!

Not one to give up, I headed back to the pool the next day.  Unfortunately, no real improvement.  Just more frustration.  However, in the end, I thought I had figured out some sort of better technique for my legs.

The next two days were spent reviewing YouTube triathlon swim kicking technique videos on the internet.  I learned about flutter kicks, two beat kicks, kicking from the hip and not the knee, etc. I also learned that there are some crazy fast swimmers out there.  It is so frustrating to see how incredible these people swim and how pathetic I really am when it comes to this sport.  I have to keep reminding myself that it will be a lot of little wins that will get me there.

Friday rolled around and I hauled my sorry swimness back up to the pool to see if I could put something together.  Thank you, YouTube.  Google is good.  Although my pace did not show big improvement, my overall time did.  You will notice below that my swim time wasn’t a big improvement, but my overall time in the water dropped by almost 10 minutes.  This means that I was able to keep on swimming more and stop my sorry self to rest tremendously less.  I credit this to an improved technique of the kick.  I was wasting less energy, propelling more efficiently, had an actual rhythm, breathed better etc.  Definitely not where I want or need to be, but a step in the right direction.  Hope.