The Novelty of the New (or overcoming my own dumb prejudice) ..
Let me start by saying I have a strong prejudice against the Butterfly Stroke. I think it's ungainly, and I wonder who on earth decided that it was a good stroke for a water sport. Consequently I've avoided it most of my entire time spent in the pool... any pool at any point.
So today was a pool day (obviously). I got there early and got in the pool to start my warm up before my class. I did an easy 100m free. By then the Cindy (the instructor) had shown up.
Warm up was: 100 free & 100 kick (x2). Then 4x 50 meters choice. Total warm up: 600.
Here's where we get to the novelty part. The next 100m were fly. *groan* Cindy suggest I put fins on my feet and just try the body movement portion, no arms. The first 25m were awkward, but I concentrated on putting my head in the water and pushing down with my chest and letting the rest of my body follow. OMG - I got it! smile. The next 25 was far more cohesive, as was the rest of it. What's even better ... I liked it. I like the core workout it giving my chest and abs. The main set looked like this:
4 x 25 - Fly
3 x 50 - Backstroke
2 x 75 - Breaststroke
1 x100 - Freestyle
Today I really worked at completing each element without to much of a break. I'm still struggling with finding the right set of earplugs that keeps the water out, so there's constant futzing with my earplugs and cap. Other than that, I did pretty good today.
Cool down was 1 x 100 choice, and because I'd enjoyed the body motion of the fly so much, I used that for my cool down. I really like the fins on my feet because they give me the extra *umph* at the end of the stroke - and Cindy said I was doing so well with it, I really should try the arms. So, I think I will next week. How's that for turning a prejudice on it's head? Oh, and workout total today: 1300 meters. *fist pump and dance*
Also, I've been tracking my exercise progress on my Nutrisystem program and it says that an hour of vigorous swimming of laps burns 905 calories. Swimming, for the win. Tomorrow is going to be a treadmill day. I need to get back to working on my running.
So today was a pool day (obviously). I got there early and got in the pool to start my warm up before my class. I did an easy 100m free. By then the Cindy (the instructor) had shown up.
Warm up was: 100 free & 100 kick (x2). Then 4x 50 meters choice. Total warm up: 600.
Here's where we get to the novelty part. The next 100m were fly. *groan* Cindy suggest I put fins on my feet and just try the body movement portion, no arms. The first 25m were awkward, but I concentrated on putting my head in the water and pushing down with my chest and letting the rest of my body follow. OMG - I got it! smile. The next 25 was far more cohesive, as was the rest of it. What's even better ... I liked it. I like the core workout it giving my chest and abs. The main set looked like this:
4 x 25 - Fly
3 x 50 - Backstroke
2 x 75 - Breaststroke
1 x100 - Freestyle
Today I really worked at completing each element without to much of a break. I'm still struggling with finding the right set of earplugs that keeps the water out, so there's constant futzing with my earplugs and cap. Other than that, I did pretty good today.
Cool down was 1 x 100 choice, and because I'd enjoyed the body motion of the fly so much, I used that for my cool down. I really like the fins on my feet because they give me the extra *umph* at the end of the stroke - and Cindy said I was doing so well with it, I really should try the arms. So, I think I will next week. How's that for turning a prejudice on it's head? Oh, and workout total today: 1300 meters. *fist pump and dance*
Also, I've been tracking my exercise progress on my Nutrisystem program and it says that an hour of vigorous swimming of laps burns 905 calories. Swimming, for the win. Tomorrow is going to be a treadmill day. I need to get back to working on my running.