Slow to be Fast

Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time. -- Voltaire

I had my first swimming lesson on Monday.  Paraphrased conversation with the coach before the lesson:

Coach:  What are you hoping to get out of lessons?
Me:  I want to swim faster.
Coach:  So you can swim?
Me:  Yeah.
Coach:  OK, how do you swim?
Me:  Slowly...
Coach:  No, I mean - is this for fitness, triathlons, what?
Me:  Oh, triathlons
(He didn't tell me this until later in the lesson, but apparently he did an IM last year where he was among the first guys out of the water in his age group - holey moley!)
Coach:  OK, what have you been doing?
Me:  I've been going to Masters - I thought I'd get faster, but I'm not.
Coach:  Oh, you've been swimming with Karen?
Me:  Yeah.
Coach:  You should be getting faster then.
Me:  That's what I thought.  It's not working.
Coach:  Hmmm.  Well, we can fix that.

I get in the water and swim a warm-up while he watches.  He stops me at the end of the first 100m.

Coach:  Do you know how many strokes you took per length?
Me:  Yeah - 28.  That's what I always take.
Coach:  Yeah.  That's not going to work for you.  Basically you gotta slow down to speed up.

So we swim and talk and drill and talk and swim some more.  Apparently I am 1) short stroking, 2) not gliding, and 3) breathing too infrequently.  Basically I'm doggie-paddling under water?  Who knew?

Doing some of the drills, I managed to get to 17 strokes per length!

At the end of the lesson, he had me do another 300, timed.  He told me to go for speed but try to use good technique.  I swam the 300 in a minute less than I did a few weeks ago at the time trial (the one that spurred me to need swim lessons)...which is awesome.  And I did the first 100 in 2:00 - which is really all I'm shooting for.  I don't need to be a speed demon.  I just want to be able to average 2:00/100m over a long distance.  And during that 100, I was at about 21-22 strokes.  The last 200 of the time trial, however, I swam 2:15 and 2:17...and by the last 100, my stroke count was over 30.  Yikes.

Stroking less and gliding more feels like I'm swimming so slowly - but the evidence is clearly to the contrary. Weird.

I have a lot of work to do.  I went last night and practiced - just swimming slowly, gliding, etc.  I never got back down to sub-20 strokes per length, but I was in the very low 20s.  I'm not sure about the breathing more often thing - it doesn't feel natural - but I'm willing to give it a shot if he says it will help.

My new swimming mantra - swim slowly, be fast...swim slowly, be fast...swim slowly, be fast...