I was catching up with him and fellow Iron Virgin, Curly, to go over our race day strategies. During the course of the discussion Dave and Curly noted how we hadn't had a technique session for a few months (basically since summer started) and so Dave suggested we have a light technique session at the pool on Saturday afternoon as a tune up to make sure we were all on track with our stroke.
So it was set, and I was quite looking forward to it. Afterall I felt that in the last month my swim had really come together and I was now calm and relaxed in the water, and my open water swims were no longer the mental battle they once were. I was interested, though, to see how I was looking in the water and so on Saturday morning I got St Pete to take a couple of short videos of me swimming at Lake Pegasus. There are a couple of bridges going to a small island on the lake so Pete was able to stand on the bridges and get some good footage of me approaching, going underneath the bridge and heading away the other side.
At the pool I guess I optimistically expected to get some positive reinforcement from the coach that I was on the right track and things were looking good to knock off the swim in Lake Taupo. But it didn't quite pan out that way.
Turns out my arm was straightening out in front just a fraction too much and my 3/4 catch up had almost reverted to a 1/2 catch up and so I spent several lengths swimming and having my arm held up by a stick from the side of the pool as Dave tried to prevent me from stroking too soon.
When I wasn't laughing (and drowning!) from fighting this stupid stick I was suggesting to Dave that 3 weeks out from the event is maybe a little too late to be trying to fix my swim stroke.... I know he meant well and they are only minor adjustments, but at this late stage (and with the swim being my achilles heel) it was starting to feel pretty major.
All is not lost, though. I have a one-on-one session with Coach Dave on Thursday. (I've dubbed it my remedial swim lesson!)
Hopefully between the two of us we can crack this nut in a simple way for me to remember on race day.
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