Thoughts about synchro and training

My synchro beginners series ended in November. Since then, we've been practicing with whoever can coach us on any given day.  However, with the new year starting, we have a new commitment to training, and the coaches have worked out a schedule with us.  S*** just got real!

Now practices are 2 hours long, include a lot of drilling, and some very specific coaching on skills.  There are, so far, three of us beginners who want to go on to compete, and we are talking about going to two invitational meets this spring, to get practice with competitions.

I've committed to synchro for this season, and am looking forward to the intensity of training, learning something new, and getting to be on a team.  It has been about a decade since I last seriously trained for an event, and I love the discipline of it.  I know this is going to be a hard path. Although I was worried about if training would take the joy out of swimming last year, it didn't. And I think that the training will be part of the joy of synchro!

This past week we were working on front layout to pike, and I was able to do it.  I hadn't been able to do it on prior attempts.  Seeing progress is fun.

In no time, we will be looking like this:

Photographic proof

I've been swimming all winter.  And this week an excellent and talented photographer came along with a partner to steer the canoe while he shot.  He got some excellent shots, including these of me.

I'm in the back there, and this is me swimming with my two best swim friends (BSF). We always goad each other into the water. And if I do crawl, I can keep up with them.  When the water is choppy and I do breast, I'm a bit slower.

Doing breast. I love that he got the background in this one to give perspective. And you can see the temperature, by the way the walker is dressed.

I wear the black gloves in the winter to keep my hands warm.  Without them I probably could only stay in about half as long.  This swim was 26 minutes.

This is probably my favorite of the set. I hate breathing on the left, but am glad I was practicing the bilateral that day!