Showing posts with label kicking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kicking. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

More swimming

Since the pool will be closed starting tomorrow for about 12 days, I decided to get another swim in. I swam 3,200 yrds or slightly more than 1.75 miles. The first 1.2 miles I swam freestyle without a break. Then I did half a mile using my flotation buoy to work my upper body muscle. I finished off with some more freestyle.

There was one other guy in the pool and he swam quite a bit faster than me. I could keep up with him when he did breaststroke, but his freestyle was just way better than mine. Ironically enough, he was a pretty big guy with a distinctly protruding belly. He was also not lying flat or near the surface like Alistair does. His legs were hanging down a bit although they appeared streamlined. I also noticed he kicked very little and certainly not continuously but rather in bursts. So I have to infer than his arm stroke exerted a lot more power than mine. Or maybe those bursts propel him along?

Right now I do believe I swim faster than say a year ago, but I have trouble keeping the pace for more than 1,000 yrds. Two things happen: one, my arms get tired as time goes on and they start feeling "empty." The second, perhaps more troubling, is that I get leg cramps, either in my calf or in my foot. I am not quite sure why that happens as I kick very little and I am also a lot more relaxed now. Could this be due to blood circulation issues?