Sunday Morning Swimming

I'm in Georgia this week and need to get some work outs in, as time is rapidly passing by and Augusta Ironman 70.3 and the Marine Corp Marathon will be here before we know it! I reached out to a few nationwide triathlon groups on FB about places to swim and Ann-Marie responded. I was excited that Ann-Marie not only gave me some suggestions of places to swim but offered to swim with me. Game ON.... or so I thought.

Ann-Marie and I first met at the track at Piedmont Park to get some speed work in. The workout was hard, as expected, but the humidity made it tough on the lungs which made the rain much welcomed. I was a little pressed for time, so we had to cut our time at the track short and head to the pool. Yeah... Ann-Marie neglected to tell me beforehand that she swam competitively back in the day. I knew that she gave swim lessons earlier that morning and that she probably wanted to get a swim in herself, instead of coaching me, but urra uhm... that is what ended up happening after she saw me swim.

She just had this "look" on her face and so I decided to welcome any tips or suggestions.... and then it began. Ann-Marie first told me about a few things I was doing wrong and suggested that I do this and that... Then,  she pretty much just let me have it, with a big old Georgia smile. All I could do was laugh. This chick basically told me "You ain't going NO where fast if you keep up that SUNDAY MORNING SWIMMING!".  I was so focused on my swim form and trying to gliiiiiiide through the water and swim prrretttty and not disturb the water, but basically she told me to pick up the pace and do the dang thang! She told me to say this in my head as I swam, "1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2" and stroke each time I said it. I decided to say "1-PULL-1-PULL-1-PULL", because she had told me that I wasn't really PULLING ( This is when your arm is underwater and you are stroking back. You are supposed to really PULL yourself through the water). So, I guess I have been lollygagging as I swim and taking it easy like Sunday morning. Okay.

I tried the "1-PULL-1-PULL" tempo in my head for a lap and was breathing HARD at the end of the lane. She said, now THAT is how you swim when you are trying to go somewhere. She pointed out that for my cool-down, I could go back to my "Sunday morning swimming", but if I Sunday morning swam the whole time, my cool down would just be to stop swimming. Ha! She then told me of a lady she coached for an Ironman that was a "Sunday morning swimmer". She said in 2 weeks, this lady had gotten dramatically faster. Well, damn. I got it!

No more Sunday morning swimming for me! Thanks Ann-Marie!!

7 weeks until Augusta! YIKES......