Butterfly and Battle Wounds

Oh dear butterfly, why do you hate me so?  You have such an innocuous name to be so torturous.  Yep, added some laps of butterfly to my workout today.  I usually don't work butterfly into too many of my workouts because, well, let's just say horrendous can't even begin to describe how I feel that I am swimming it.  Just close your eyes and imagine a cat being thrown into a pool.  I'd say that is probably how I look when attempting fly.  I think it has to do with the hip thing - I'm not getting nearly enough of that crazy Michael Phelps-ian undulation thang going to give my arms a decent chance to get a stroke in.  Now here's the crazy thing - anyone who knows me (or who has attended an open-bar wedding reception with me) knows that I have the hip action of Beyonce on the dance floor.  No lie.  Why can't that translate in the pool?  I mean, come on, I always have music going when I'm swimming - and trust you me, it's all good booty-shaking music.  I'm going to keep trying - and I know that as I continue to build core strength with dryland, the swimming will improve to an extent.  Or maybe I just need to channel the Michael Phelps/Beyonce thing.  I'll keep you posted on how that works out.

Now to the battle wounds...  Well, I have to admit, I may be the clumsiest person this side of the Mississippi (I hear there are some real klutzes out in California.  I digress).  To defend myself on this, I must ask you to keep in mind a few points: firstly, the pool I use does not have lane lines, also the bottom and sides are painted the exact same color, and lastly there are no ladders on the side that I swim on.  Now you probably can't wait to hear this - it's really not that ridiculous, I swear.  So I'm doing a run-of-the-mill freestyle, only a few laps in, and apparently got a little too close to the side wall.  How close you ask?  Well, close enough that I have a really cute concrete burn from mid-hand to mid-forearm.  Oh yeah, sexy.  However, it is definitely not the most painful pool-induced mini-injury that I have incurred.  Let's just say backstroke + super hard concrete back wall - paying attention = you get the point.  Well, enough of this silliness for today.  I think tomorrow I will introduce you guys to my awesome strength & conditioning coach - stay tuned!

xoxo

L