Today I swam with Yanni and Xay. I added 100 to swim a total 0f 1900 yards. As we know, 1800 is a mile. Here’s the breakdown: 200 free, 200 back, 200 breast, 200 IM, 100 back stroke with no arms for most of it, 100 IM, 25 elementary, 50 free, 25 elementary, 100 IM, 100 elementary, 100 IM, 100 elementary, 100 IM, 100 elementary, 100 free, 100 back.

I swam the 200 IM, the first cooldown, the first 100 IM, its cool down, and the next 100 IM, and its cool down with flippers. Then, I swam the rest of the set without flippers. I raced Yanni and Xay on the flipper IMs and got extremely tired! We timed the second (flipper) 100 IM. My time was 1:58; Xay’s time was 1:52; Yanni’s time was 1:27.

I was hot on Xay’s tail in the first 100 of the 200 IM, but was exhausted by the time I started the breast stroke. I found that even the flippers didn’t help me with fatigue. That’s when I realized that flippers help you train your heart to move at higher speed! Yanni and Xay kept their flippers on longer. Yanni swam a 100 IM kick with flippers, and she finished before I’d even started the breast stroke length!

I am working on my flip turns, and they are rough! My backstroke flip turns are better than my freestyle turns, but I have a hard time coming out of the turn into a streamline. Xay told me that I’m supposed to start my freestyle underwater on my back with dolphin kick, and do three strokes before I breathe. I tried this in the first set, breathing on the third stroke. It got me out past the flags each time, but was very hard.

Today was also the first time I swam in the maternity suit. It rode up at first, and I found myself colder in this suit than my regular suit. I may hold off on wearing the two-piece maternity suits for a little bit yet.