Swimming lesson

Oh, it was a particularly amazing lesson this afternoon, fairly quiet and focused and very much to the point only with moments of mild hilarity. We worked only on backstroke, which we have been somewhat neglecting; I did do a couple 80s of IM (yes, it is a 20-yard pool!) to warm up, and some fly down-breast back while I. was rearranging things at one point, but it was amazing how much progress I made on that stroke just over the course of an hour.

We began with what I. had been threatening last week--she had made a funny skinny lane for me in the middle of the pool, and I kind of yanked myself down it (with pull buoy) and then backstroked back up to try and get the right shoulder-blades-together feeling. Also used it to keep arms narrow/close to body on regular stroke. We worked a lot on the elbow position and really pushing forward properly, then added a couple further refinements--some interesting little stuff here and there with different drill combinations. And then at the end we had an even skinner lane, only a couple inches wider than my shoulders, very interesting if a bit abrasive!

Only two more lessons--this is just as well from a financial point of view, I find that almost everything fitness- and triathlon-related is more expensive than one quite thinks possible but swimming really takes the cake. They have been extraordinarily useful though--was I not just in September bemoaning what seemed like the true impossibility of ever knowing how to do a hundred IM?!?

Then a CU triathlon meeting--sort of stuff I know already (mostly equipment-related), but I haven't been able to go to any of the workouts this semester, so it seemed worth showing up. I feel I had a nice triathlon-related respite from real life, and I still must do a short bike this evening and that 10K tomorrow so I must make sure I extract every ounce of enjoyment from 'em to sustain me mentally through ongoing work stress!