This is a clip from a video my swim instructor took today. She usually takes a couple videos during each hour-long session, and I find it incredibly helpful to see how my swimming is progressing. It’s easy to see in different videos what I was focusing on, and when a skill we’ve been working on sets in a little and continues to be correct even when my focus is elsewhere.
In this picture, I’m working hard on keeping my arm elongated forward during each side of the turn so I have a good glide on each side. See how straight I am, and how stacked my hips are? This is a big improvement from even a few weeks ago. Today she told me that she’s excited about my progress and it helps that I’m really motivated. It felt great to hear myself described as motivated 🙂 I try so hard to listen carefully and put all my energy into following each instruction so I’m not wasting my time with her. I practice once a week on my own too, for the same reason. It’s so rewarding to have the effort noticed!
I still feel exhausted and out of breath after swimming a length of the pool, but Brittany (my instructor) assures me that with correct form and enough practice I’ll get through that.
Swimming the day after a long-run
I was a little worried that my schedule meant I had an hour long swim lesson the day after a long run, but it ended up being all right. I was a little tired at the end, but I’m always tired at the end. Swimming is hard.
It’s so fun to improve and to see the difference when I look at the videos taken week-to-week.
I feel really grateful to have access to a great pool and instructor so I can learn a new skill. It felt like a real splurge to buy swim lessons for a grown-up, but I truly love it. Swimming complements running so well, I find it pretty easy to run the day before or after.
Swimming complements running so well, I find it pretty easy to run the day before or after. I’m hoping that this will be a life-long pleasure that I’m investing in up-front.
Time to haul a scooter off to preschool for pick-up… don’t tell my legs, though. They think I’m driving.