sunny side up
another two weeks of swimming are complete--this time, with no strained triceps or calves. the water at deep eddy is 74 degrees--a full 6-8 degrees warmer than usual--allowing me to swim relaxed without a cap.
after today's workout, i stuck around the pool to practice something sandy taught us a little bit about last saturday: flipturns. in general, flipturns are considered "totally sweet" by neophytes like myself, but in reality are rather technical and difficult to get right. you're simply not used to having three degrees of motion as you go about your daily life.
as you approach the end of the lane, you actually point your arms back in the other direction (i.e. along your hips, towards your toes) before doing anything else, then you flip the rest of your body around and push off of the wall to catch up with your arms, which have been pointing in the new direction all this time (see video). when done properly, you actually finish the turn belly-up, requiring a simple half-twist to resume swimming.
one can imagine the calamity of errors trying to get this right: tipping to the side, not being close enough to the wall (whereby you kick like a mule, only to come to a halt as your feet fail to discover a surface of resistance), etc. after several tries this morning, however, i hit it. lungs full of oxygen, arms straight back, head inches away from the wall: tuck the chin, crunch the abs, plant your feet and push. my view swiftly changed from dark green of the concrete basin to the overexposed light of the sun. exhaling off of the push, i could watch the bubbles of my breath rise above and break the surface of the water.
rest assured: my next attempt wasn't much to write home about. the potential, however, is most definitely there. i'll have to say: it was totally sweet.
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