Letting It Sink In

I have spent the past week doing different workouts. I have been devouring Steven Munatones' book on Open-Water Swimming. Since I was away on a business trip and holed up in a hotel, I optimized use of the sporting facilities. I swam alone, twice, in a four-lane indoor pool. I did my swim drills with a large pool-buoy, which I had difficulty gripping between my thighs.

I also worked on indoor-riding with the Life-Fitness stationary-bike (75 minutes each session). I followed this up with strengthening work on the circuit-gym set. I did weight training focused on my back, shoulder and legs. I was not unduly sore from weight training, but more from the strength sets in the pool. I wanted to focus on a complete stroke, with full extensions on the beginning and finish parts of the front crawl.

My efforts are beginning to reveal themselves in my results. I feel stronger in my elbow extensions, allowing me to propel forwards in the water. I am still not firing my latissimus muscles fully, so will have to work on enervating them in proper sequence; still too much effort in the shoulder joint instead of my shoulder girdle (scapula). I am looking forward to tomorrow’s open-water swim (OWS) in the lagoon. I want to take advantage of the high tide and waves. I am beginning to enjoy OWS and its training. I have decided to do the Kapas-Marang 6.5K sea-swim next year soon after Ironman New Zealand.