Best Swim Day Yet

One of the things I learned while golfing (years ago, don't have the patience for it now) is that I could only have one swing thought in my head at a time.  By that I mean I could concentrate on improving one aspect of my swing.  I would focus on that for a period of time until it became habit, then I would move on to a different aspect of my swing that needed improvement.  If I attempted to work on more than one thing at a time my swing usually went to hell and the results were disastrous.  I think swimming needs to be approached in the same manner.  When I first started I tried changing too many things at once and the results were similar to what I would have expected from my golf experience.  For the past month I've really focused on high elbows during the catch and pull.  This has gotten to the point where it has (almost) become habit and has allowed me to start focusing on being long in the water and actually kicking.  Today I saw the fruits of my labor as we swam sets of 100y (after more than 1000y of warm up and sprinting) and I absolutely CRUSHED them!  Historically I've been a 1:45 - 1:50 min/100 swimmer.  Today I hit every single interval at 1:34 - 1:36.  That's a HUGE improvement and I didn't feel like I was working that much harder.  Of course there is something to be said for being consistent (hitting the pool 2x per week for the past 6 weeks) and getting stronger, but technique is a large portion of the swim and I think that's had a lot to do with it as well.

Next up will be breathing.  It sounds simple, but it's not!  I need to work on bilateral breathing as I often find myself struggling to get enough oxygen by the end of these intervals.  That's fine when you are in the pool for a 100y session, but a much bigger concern when you have to swim 1.2 miles without stopping.