My last one with JB - it was a reprise of one that we had last year, focusing on the deceptively simple but absolutely essential thing of keeping the head neutral while swimming freestyle and powering from the hips. I am not the worst offender in the world, but it is certainly the most obviously bad thing about my freestyle that I have a strong tendency to lift my head up out of the water when I breathe - it messes up all sorts of other things in the stroke (you lose the whole streamline as your hips and legs sink down lower in the water).
The essential drill is first of all achieving buoyancy in a vertical position in the water, with arms by sides, then pushing forward into a streamline and waiting very patiently for heels to reach the surface. Kick, and then rotate onto side (there are various different options for the arms - I find it easier to do the version with one arm forward), concentrating on keeping whole body just as relaxed and straight-necked as in the initial balancing act. You build up from this to the 6-3-6 drill (with six kicks on the side, rotate from hips with 3 strokes, onto other side) - I should just do this some every week, it targets my single worst freestyle habit...
I did about 20 mins. of Spinervals when I got home, but am feeling very lethargic and could see that my heartrate was significantly lower than it should have been - decided to pay attention and cut it short.
Tomorrow morning I'm doing the Columbia Fun Run (I have invited English department grad students to join me, and hope to see some of them there - we will run more or less as a group, except that there are some fast folks who will dash ahead! Anyone else reading this and planning on doing this should come and say hello before the start) - just a 5K, at 8:30 (I should put it on my events sidebar!) - and then I have my last appointment with Trainer P. at 9:30. After that I will IMMERSE myself in novel revision - Friday and Saturday this week are my two big days for getting a ton of stuff done on that (it's due on Monday the 26th).
I will run 16 on Saturday morning, I will go down to Chelsea Piers late Saturday afternoon to sort out membership stuff (I decided to go for it - there are some promotional incentives that brought the price down, and in the end I just couldn't get the thought of that lovely swimming pool out of my head) and also to take my bike in for a tune-up - I must get that missing bar-end plug replaced before my next race, I jerry-rigged something for the NYC Triathlon but it needs proper dealing with. And I'll do a 3-hour trainer ride on Sunday evening. Otherwise, though, NOVEL NOVEL NOVEL novel novel novel novel....
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Many, many people have issues with head position in freestyle! My analogy is that you imagine a wire running through your central axis ...
We do the 6-3-6 drill as three seconds of kicking, 3 pulls, 3 seconds of kicking. It is another variant for you to keep you thinking.
Have a Fun Run!
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