Breakthrough!
Yesterday, the swimmer I talked to emphasized the importance of not swimming flat, but of rolling the body from side to side with every stroke, which, in addition to being more hydrodynamically efficient, would make it easier for me to get more time to breathe.
I had read this last year in a book my friend Eve loaned me, on the Total Immersion technique. In my early swimming attempts last year, I tried to adopt it, with some degree of success. But this year, I bull-headedly have focused less on technique and more on just trying to muscle through the water and the fear.
This morning, I felt pretty beaten-up from yesterday, but I was anxious to get in the water. I swam three 200-meter lengths. On the first, I rolled a lot, and it was difficult. For a short time at the beginning, it seemed to kind of work, sporadically, but I still got too far out of breath, and I still had to stop six or seven times, and it still took me ten minutes.
Near the end, I resorted to the breast stroke, trying to keep moving forward, and trying to not have to resort to standing up.
I was disappointed, but found a little more determination, a little more fight than I had before, and there's hope in that. Coming back up Barton Springs, I alternated breast stroke and freestyle, anything to keep moving forward. I stood only three or four times, and got through it about 30 seconds faster. OK, 30 seconds less really-slower.
One last shot at the 200 meters. Before I started, a girl that was no more than five or six swam in front of me, stroking quickly but smoothly. I saw the roll, got it firmly in my mind, and went at it again.
It was still not pretty. But 8:30 later, with only a few stops and a few times resorting to the breaststroke, I was at the other end.
It's not much, but it's something, something to build on and give reason to believe I can get through this.
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