Flip Turn Mania

I started incorporating flip turns into my swim workouts on Tuesday. First, let me just say that this is something I have never attempted before. It has turned into a pretty fun way to swim. Here's the story...

I normally head to the club early for swim workouts - like, really early. Usually, I am the only person except for one guy. He is always there before me and still swimming whenever I leave - no matter how long my workout is. In fact, it could be entirely possible that he never gets out of the pool. Wait, lets hope he gets out of the pool for some things. *shudder*

Anyway, this guy looks like a retired Marine or a Navy Seal. I call him "The Swimming Soldier". I'm a little scared of him. I try not to splash in fear that at any moment he could jump the lane rope and quietly send me to the depths of Davy Jones' Locker. His form is perfect, flip turns are perfect, this guy has to be training for an Ironman - he has never stopped swimming long enough for me to ask.

The Kahuna issued an order a while back for all of us to start flipping. So, I've been watching the Swimming Soldier's flip turns quite closely for the last few weeks - watching, planning, waiting. Well, Tuesday was the day. I felt really strong and decided - "Today's a good day to die". The first one was, well, interesting. My nose burned like I had just stuck a firey torch up it. But, I had survived! Survived! How exilarating! So, I continued flip turns at the far end of the pool. Hoping to hide from more experienced eyes - as though my public flailing wouldn't attract attention. But, I pushed on.

At the end of Tuesday's workout, I had worked out a system and learned a thing or two. What was that feeling... ah yes... something many triathletes feel as they build, step by step, toward a goal - confidence.

Fast forward -- Today -- 4:30AM and The Swimming Soldier was already churning water like a motorboat. I started out with a warm up of 250M, flip turns at the far end of the pool. Confidence. OK - self, time to close the loop here. for the next 4x500's I did flip turns at each end of the pool - stopping only 30 seconds at the end of each 500 to recover. Amazing. Confidence.

I finished out with a strong 1000M's to round out my long swim workout for the week - flip turning every chance I got.

So, here I sit drinking coffee at the LTF cafe. More confident. This was a good swim week. I updated my training log. Holy Smokes - my average time -- 1:55 / 100M. Could that be right? Is the almighty flip turn responsible for shaving nearly 3 seconds per 100 off my normal average split?? Well, I'll take it.

See ya out there...