Fun swim today. Today was the first day I felt I just might be able to beat my goal of 1:30:00. I tried two new things in my swim: 1) breathing more and 2) stroking differently.

As I mentioned in my last post, I realized that I did a lot better when I breathed more frequently, so this time, I swam the first 15 laps as usual but then made an conscious effort to breathe after only two strokes for the next 5 laps. Thereafter, I breathed after every three strokes, but whenever I felt short of breathe, I relaxed to breathing after every two. This turned out to work very well. I never felt short of energy.

The second thing that worked well was changing my stroke. Turns out there are some merits to watching the Olympics. The other day, my father and I saw a news clip, analyzing Michael Phelps' stroke. Turns out, Michael Phelps minimizes the number of strokes he takes by stretching his long arms in front of him with a stroke-stroke-glide motion. He propels himself mostly with the gliding, allowing his arms to rest and optimizing his stroke. My father pointed out that Michael also does not form tight "cups" with his hands--in fact, he just lets them relax. This is a bit contrary to what they teach you when you learn to swim. So I tried copying this stroke for the first time today, and it works really well! I felt like I could swim forever.

By combining this new stroke with the change in my breathing pattern, I marched down the pool at an easy 1 min per lap for 65 laps, with no hussle and plenty of energy for the sprint at the end (which I never got to, because the pool closed). With my old technique, I would start slipping from this pace around lap #20, so this is definitely a huge improvement.

I want to take these two things and optimize them this week. I have exactly 2 weeks before the race.