Long and Slow

    Yesterday was my long swim, 2.5 miles. I was not happy with my speed, I seemed to be swimming slower than usual. I blame it a bit on too big of a breakfast too close to my swim time. I will say, they were epic, gluten free, high protein pancakes topped with peanut butter and banana, so totally worth every excessive bite, but it was too much before a hard workout. All that aside, I swam slower than I wanted, but realized that if I couldn't go for speed, then I would work on technique, and power. "Power is work over time." The only way to get faster and stronger is to swim and swim and swim, all the while focusing intently on technique.
    As I swam I thought about the mindfulness of swimming. That is one thing I truly love about swimming, you have to remain mindful, and in the moment. You cannot let your mind wander too far afield. You can't zone out like you can while cycling and running. You have to remain conscious and conscientious of every stroke. When the mind wanders it is too easy to let technique falter, and that is an instant recipe for slowing, fatigue, and failure. Swimming makes me mindful of every nuance, or at least to attempt to be mindful of every nuance. Swimming is so much about subtle movements. It is far more tactile than running or cycling, as my body is totally enveloped in the medium I am moving through. At times I swim eyes nearly closed, feeling the water slide around my body, feeling the pressure against my arms and hands as I reach, grab, pull, and stroke my way through the water, whether it be at the pool or in The Cove. The moment I let myself become distracted by anything else I can feel my stroke become short and choppy, my body does not rotate as far, my rhythm begins to feel off, and the water feels somehow thicker. I think this is especially true on long swims, when the mind is more likely to stray, and fatigue becomes a more viable threat.
    Yesterday, despite feeling slow, I focused my energies on making every stroke count. I thought about my body alignment and position, and made a few subtle changes to help me streamline even more. The funny thing about making subtle changes, it can cause me to have to make changes elsewhere. Yesterday I was working on keeping my shoulders pressed down, this helps keep the body parallel to the surface of the water, but also makes the body ride just a little deeper underwater. This in turn made me have a little trouble rotating my head for breathing. It was a peculiar feeling, almost as if I were too submerged.
    I also swam several laps trying bilateral breathing, alternating which side I took a breath on. Honestly, this sucks. I have the damnedest time breathing on my left side, it makes me feel as if I am going to drown. I will try to make myself do this for a few laps every swim, but that is going to take a monumental effort. As I was heading out to the parking lot after, I did have a funny thought, one great thing about self coaching; when the coach tries to make me do something I really don't want to, I can tell the coach to "fuck off." I mean after all, what am I going to do, fire me?
    Despite being slow, it was a good, solid swim. I do need to work on speed, I need to be able to swim a 5K in less than 2.5 hours. I would prefer to be able to do it in 2 hours. All I need to be able to do is consistently swim a 40 (or less) minute mile. That is 35 laps in 40 minutes, I can, and have, done that often enough. I just need to be able to always do it.