Nothin' but freestyle, baby

Yesterday's workout: Swim 700 meters
Today's workout: Swim 1350 meters (all freestyle!)

The normal swim coach wasn't there tonight, so she sent her brother as a substitute. I told the guy a quick back story - race in two weeks, been swimming for six months, anything is helpful, etc. I also told him not to be afraid of being mean. By the end of the lesson he was stopping me every couple of laps to bark out what I was doing wrong. He did give me some very good tips though:

- Keep my knees together so my kicking is more efficient
- Don't separate my fingers
- Dig my hand into the water half way through my stroke and keep my arm on top of the water, not in the air. He told me I should be making an "S" shape.
- Keep my arm tight when I come up for air. My arms flail about when I come up for air.
- Try to breathe out of the side of my mouth. I'm bringing my head above water more than I should need to.
- Don't look ahead of me when I come up for breath, just tilt my body and come back down.

I could definitely notice a change in my efficiency over the course of the hour. I was able to do 200-300m at once without freaking out. Yes, I was tired at the end of it, but that's the farthest I've ever gone without having to flip over and do 25 meters of backstroke to catch my breath.

We might try and go out to the park this weekend where they are holding the race. I'd like to get in the lake and try it out. The temperature of the water is supposed to be around 67 degrees at the start of the race, so if I need to rent a wet suit I should do that soon.

Fifteen days to go.