this weeks swimming training

I must remember to keep my head down in the water.

Keep my legs long and straight rather than bending them.

Roll my shoulders when I do arm strokes.

Pay more attention to the left arm movement ... I have to exaggerate it so that I am aware what I am doing. I am so busy preparing for the 'breathing' that I am not really even aware what I am doing with my other arm.

Fingers have to break the surface of the water in front of you, then go forwards and then push the water down and back....

As soon as your left hand touches the water you can start turning to the right for air.

Keep left arm and hand extended in front of you as you turn to the right for a breath.

I have to keep practising leaving my arm out in front of me for the count of 3 ... i.e. left arm in front 123 as I am taking a breath on the right, stroke, then right arm in front 123 then stroke.

Have to refer to my mental visual image of Jennie doing this to remember what I am aiming for.

I was in a lot of pain by today ... having difficulty turning my head and neck and with a very sore shoulder (all on the right hand side). I think this is because I have been straining and tensing so hard to make sure I get my head up and out of the water for a breath.

I was considering not going swimming today and maybe visiting a physiotherapist instead ... but decided I would try and keep working everything and just be very conscious of keeping my movements relaxed and controlled rather than frantic.

It seemed to work ... I don't think I made the situation any worse ... and at home I started doing as many different kind of stretching exercises I could think of. I also massaged myself as hard as I could with the other hand ... and tried tensing and then relaxing the muscles to see if I could convince them to let go.

Jennie had given me a tip about putting a tennis ball in the sore spot and pushing the tennis ball against a wall or cupboard so that the curved surface is pushed into your muscles and rolls around eventually relieving and removing the knots.

This was impossible for me to do because of the position of the ache.

I have been feeling very sympathetic towards Uni lately because I am pretty sure that what I feel now is very similar to what he feels when his neck is playing up. His physiotherapist gave him the same "tennis ball" advice so it obviously is believed to work ... if you can get the ball and a wall anywhere near where it is meant to reach.

I am still feeling very tired after swimming ... I went for about an hour today and I think I overdid it ... but I definitely recognize what the correct body position in the water feels like now and I tried to do a lot of work without flippers, trying to concentrate on even steady kicks.

I briefly got into the right rhythm of arms etc ... I just have to try and maintain the correct body position while I swim and pay more attention to what I do in my non breathing stroke.

Now that I also know what the right position for floating on my back is I am doing better at backstroke too. I can't for the life of me steer straight though and constantly end up crashing into one rope or the other. Lucky the lanes are wide!!!

About an hour and a half after finishing I got the swirly patterns of light in the eye thing (no headache though ... as my goggles are comfortable ... even to the point of loose enough to let in some water). I lay down for a few minutes (and was so tired that I could actually have gone to sleep) .... and then went to pick up KT from school. I think if I had only gone swimming for 30 minutes I would have avoided any hassles completely.