Aquaman!

I've been thinking about this guy for a while now, but during this past Thursday's swim I actually was formulating this post in my head. Okay, so Aquaman is this older guy that swims every Tuesday and Thursday evening at roughly the same time I swim. He wears a long sleeve compression shirt or something like that and it is yellow, the only thing he has in common with aquaman. He also wears compression shorts and black goggles with grey tint - no cap. He does not drill or do varying timed sets (as far as I can tell). He just gets in and swims - very slowly. Okay I have been really working on drills for the past 4 weeks, trying to improve my form. I've been working on Total Immersion drills, and for those who are familiar these are intended to be done in a slow, relaxed manner. I am also the queen of consistency as my 100 times is consistently 2:30 give or take a few hundredth. This is slow - no Olympic gold hopeful here, just consistency slow. I lap Aquaman during my drill sets.

The problem is his form, I do not claim to be an expert, but from my limited knowledge of swimming technique, his form stinks. When he freestyles his arm enters the water and basically stops. I think he just lifts his arm out of the water, slaps it into the water, then lifts it back up again. His kick - practically non-existent. He also swims the butterfly for almost a 25 yard length, usually finishes the last 10 yards with breast stroke. His version of the butterfly is that of a suicidal butterfly. His breast stroke - he does not fully stroke - we're talking quadriplegic frog here. I do not mean to critize; in some sense I actually admire him. He keeps coming and swimming every T&TH and doesn't care what his stroke looks like or what others think. Unlike me, who constantly wonders/worry what other's think about my style and efficiency. The pool manager finally asked me what the heck I was doing - after about 3 weeks of doing a lot of underswitch and zipperswitch drills. She was very complementary though; "you look so fluid and smooth." "I can tell you are getting faster." This boosted my ego a bit even though the clock is still calling me the queen of consistency slow.

On another note - what is up with the wind? It is November, my least favorite month, and the wind is blowing like it is March making this month even more miserable. I delayed my bike workout until this morning, due to the fact that the dirt was already being blown to Texas by 8am yesterday morning. The goal was to get in as long of a ride as possible before church. It was beautiful and calm, but cold. By the time I gathered and donned enough layers it was no longer calm but slightly breezy. No problem, I was so worried about freezing my backside off that the breeze did not bother me. I stayed warm and for the first half of the ride - no complaints, then I turned around to head home and what the heck, but the slight breeze was now a decent gust. Nothing like riding against the wind all the way home. I was comfortable temperature-wise until I turned around and the breeze chilled my perspiring self. I got home and hit the shower and much of my normally white body was that patchy red color and all the fat areas were ice cold, and I live in the freaking dessert. I hate being cold. I think what irritated me most besides the fact that the wind always gets windier during a ride, is that I'm riding the first half unaware of the wind that is pushing me faster - so I'm feeling real good about myself and patting myself on the back for how fast I'm riding, only to turn around and wonder for the entire length of the ride how fast I would have ridden if the wind wasn't pushing me. I kept telling myself this was good practice, that the Polar Bear could be windy. Later that morning while I was making record time getting ready for church, SD asked what I wanted for Christmas - "A bike trainer!" Yes a trainer would be nice on these cold, windy days, but also on those days that I miss training because he's out of town and such... Need advice on what to look for in a trainer...