New Year - Re-Newed Determination

When the New Year rang in, so did the bells in my head to nail down this swim thang. Yesterday was the finale of my weekend swim clinic, and Rick took some final video to see if I'm (able) to improve my faults we discovered on Sunday. There's SO much to remember in about two seconds - breath, arm entry is where?, cupped hands, leg kick not to hard-yet hard enough to keep a decent pace, head down, suck in gut, stttrreeetttcchhh the arms once in they are in the water, rotate hips-shoulders will come along for the ride, don't splash, am I breathing on the 3th or 4th stroke, should keep practicing the bilateral breathing. ARGH! Yes, the arms look better, hand entry in the water is better; thus improving the arms. But its looks as if my breathing is screwing up the stroke too, so that's the next thing to work on. I found two swim instructors on the Xterra Website that provide free swim clinics to Xterra athletes. But they are in Idaho, so I emailed and asked if they'd critique a video (for free) and they said yes! So that's my next step. Ricky does an ok job of critiquing, but there's nothing like a little professional help too - especially when its free! They also will be attending some races to offer free advice- I'll be the first in line! This swim training reminds me of 7 years ago when I first took up mountain biking, I was about 20 pounds too heavy and always bringing up the rear in a social ride. So determination to "get better" led me to racing. Where could a better swim stroke lead me if I'm already racing? Time will tell, I'm sure!

Happy New Year!