Back in the swim

Ok, so I have had a little break after my DV ride. Thursday I ran 4 miles along the tow path starting at Hinkle fieldhouse, I was planning to run with Indy runners but apparently forgot to learn the secret handshake or something because I could not find them. So I ran by my self with several groups of college age people passing me and letting me know that I need to start picking it up if I am ever going to find my youth again. (grin)

I had come to the conclusion after the DV ride that I must be deficient in magnesium and that is the cause of my cramping episodes as well as the night cramps that I have had in my calves for over... a year and a half. So I did some online sleuthing and discovered that my best source is dark green vegetables.

Great,,, who has time for that, (i do my best to eat my greens but convenience, seasonal availabitlity of quality product and time can make the best of my intentions go south)

So I decided to find a supplement that would make things easier. It occured to me if dark green vegetables are the ticket then perhaps liquid Chlorophyll was the answer. I did some research and found that the vitamins and minerals contained in LC must be a deep dark mystery, as all of the websites that I found googling, "Liquid Chlorophyll nutritional information" only produced manufacturers sites making wonderous claims about the benefits one could gain or claiming that LC is as close to red blood cells as you can get...... like I want to drink blood!!

I finally found the following site http://www.energiseforlife.com/wordpress/2009/02/11/health-benefits-of-liquid-chlorophyll/
that was quite helpful and verified what I thought I would find, LC is an excellant source of magnesium. So I bought some and started loading my Reliv (multi vitamin, fiber, health food shake that I take) with the gross tasting green liquid.

Suprise, my legs felt better with in 24 hours and I am not having night cramps in my calves for the first time in .... a long time.

Oh yeah, back in the swim

So today, I went swimming for an hour, spending my time working on some focuses that I really need to get imprinted in order to take my swimming to the next level.

Key focuses

• balance - the ability to keep my body level in the water with minimal kicking
• staying long - pointing toes while kicking, keeps my kick powerful and efficient, and stroking in the front quadrant, never letting both of my hands come back lower than the top of my head at the same time, in fact keeping them out as far as I can while stroking
• breathing - breathing out through my nose continually while my head is under the water, to promote normal intake and expulsion of air, plus keeping my head down when I roll to breath, so as not to upset my balance.

So how did I do?

• I swam about 1100 yards total either 25yds at a time or 50 between short breaks
• I did 150 yards just kicking to warm up and get myself centered on my balance and posture
• I swam the rest in underswitch (not pulling my hands above the water) and over switch (hand out of water but fingertips dragging)

I was able to improve on all 3 of the above points and learned that I need to improve on or do the following.

1. I need faster recovery on my stroke - I will stroke down to my deep pocket position (picture the Michael Jackson crotch grap) which serves well to propel me along with my 2 beat kick. The issue is that I am slow to bring my hand back on top for the entry and catch. I need to finish my stroke instead of stoping at MJ position.
2. when I breath left, I need to keep my head down. I have to rotate a little farther for this, but I keep lifting my head, which throws off my balance, causes me to sink, and makes it difficult to keep my mouth clear long enough to breath and bleeds off my momentum. I was getting better at this by the end. I think it will take a lot of hours to imprint keeping my hand on target and my head down for that left breath, but I am committed to making it a no brainer
3. I need to make an hour per day 5 days a week my minimum and 2 hours on Saturday until I can accomplish the above.

All in all a really good work out! Every time I get in the pool, my goal is to become a better swimmer and I can definitely say, Mission accomplished this time arround