Off the Deck

If you’re a regular reader, you know by now that I’ve been working on improving my technique a lot lately. Current focus is freestyle, breaststroke, turns & starts, and streamlining, streamlining, streamlining all the time.

So if I am sore in new places, that’s a good sign, right? As in “I am using my body differently in the water.”

My soreness is also movement-specific per muscle group, another sign I think I am successfully making adjustments in the water. For example, the freestyle tweaks refer back to my new lower lat and tricep soreness. Major changes to my breaststroke has brought on inner thigh, glute and outside hip fatigue. And that emphasis on streamlining 100%? I can feel it in my core, all the time.

Perhaps the flip side of this equation is equally important to note too: I no longer have shoulder pain after practice. On second thought, maybe it’s more important. Pain-free swimming hopefully means my body agrees with the “gentler” (i.e. emphasis on recovery phase per stroke) approach I am learning from Coach Mark. Less wear and tear on my body? More years in the pool as I age — yay!

Being sore while training isn’t fun, but I know it won’t last long. And, if a little soreness now translates into less effort but swimming faster later, heck yeah — bring it on!

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Swimming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.