Thursday, June 14, 2012

8 Weeks of Master Swim

Today was my last class of Master Swim.

I never participated in a swim class before so I didn't know what to expect.
For the 8 weeks, classes @ 530am, Mon- Thurs, and Sat&Sun. Classes were not mandatory, (since we are paying adults), and I was able to go Mon - Thurs. In the first few weeks, I went everyday Mon - Thurs, but then as the weeks went on, I would go miss a day here and there. I made sure to go at least 2 times a week. On average I went to 3 out of the 4. (Most Monday mornings were just too hard to wake up.)  I didn't really know most of the "swim lingo" terminology, so the Coach always had to dumb it down for me, hehe :)

For 7 weeks of the class, we swam the Width of the Olympic pool which was 25 meters. We did drills and were able to have a lane to ourselves the whole time. Coach Louis knew that I was training for Open water Triathlons, so he would give me different drills to do which would help me in Open water. The 8th week, because its summer vacation and high school kids train at the same pool, the lanes were switched to lengthwise @ the 50 m Olympic distance. I really like swimming the longer distance, 25 just seems so short.

A few random weeks, Coach had us swim on the deep end of the pool without lanes to simulate open water swimming. He also had us practice diving (which I've never dived before). I didn't belly flop, but my hips and thighs took a bad beating hitting the water. We dived about 30 times. After that session, my hips and thighs were all bruised.

When I first started the class, my 50 meter sprints were about 90+ seconds. Mid way through the course, my 50 m sprints dropped down to <60 seconds. My 100 meter sprints dropped down to <2 mins.

I definitely feel that I am a much stronger, faster and better swimmer, but I know I still need alot more training and practice. The ladies next to me, can do a 50m sprint in  <40 seconds.

I'm excited to keep training and to get faster and stronger. :)

happy swimming!

2 comments:

  1. I need to find some sort of adult not quite beginner sort of swimming class. I'd really like to do a tri some day, and I'm not going to be able to with my current swim prowess (or lack thereof). I'm like Rocky in the pool at the beginning of the 3rd movie. It's bad.

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  2. hehe I'm really bad too. I always call myself Shark bait when I'm swimming because I'm so slow.

    If you're close to any community colleges, see if they offer classes.

    I found this class at the local community college. They had 2 type of classes. 1 was fitness swimming to teach you strokes and to practice swimming/getting a workout. And 2 was Master Swim, where the coach has you do drills and to get faster and stronger.

    It was a good deal too, $120 for 8 weeks. Other swim programs I found were really expensive and not as long either.

    http://www.mtsac.edu/instruction/continuinged/feeclasses/swim-programs.html

    I'm lucky to be so close to Mt Sac. they have so many classes; martial arts to yoga classes.

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