What is Up with The Fly???

Ok... so as you probably know or realize, I'm new to swimming! At least beyond the Marco Polo and Cannon Ball zone of swimming! :)

I've been at it seriously now for right at a year. Finally starting to make a little progress with my free-style and think it's slowly coming together!

Well, all my super-swimmer blogger friends out there keep talking about "The Fly." You know... the Butterfly stroke.

The insanely difficult Butterfly stroke!

How hard it is to do just 25 or 50 or heaven forbid 200!

Danielle... aka Pedergraham in all of her swim studdness presented another swim challenge this time involving a little bit more of a traditional swim approach somehow involving some of the other 3 strokes that exists in the swimming world.... the Back stroke, the Breast stroke, and the Butterfly, or what is called the IM, which stands for Individual Medley.

When I first started swimming, I didn't realize that the lanes were broken up into swim pace groups, hopped right in one of the "FAST" lanes and proceeded to ask one of the guys in that lane what IM meant, because that was part of the workout on the board?? :)

He was nice, but was probably thinking, "Uh... would you please get the heck out of my lane!"

Fortunately for the both of us, he kindly explained, one of the coaches came over and told me that was for the "non-triathelete" swimmers, and my group was on the further side down on the pool :)

I was so clueless.... at the time I didn't even know better to be embarrassed! I just hopped out and meandered my way down to the "triathlete lanes." :)

So, up until Danielle's new challenge... I've read about Marit's attempts to do the Fly. Elizabeth's explanation of the triathletes that have never tried it and fully recognized myself as one of "those" people! And have briefly thought about it, but have never really had any sort of reason to try. Honestly, as far as I know, most of the triathletes DON'T worry about IM. So???

But.... I'm also one of "those" people that can't resist a good challenge!

So of course I signed on for at least some version of this new swim challenge presented by Danielle!

I couldn't make it to Master's yesterday morning, so Jen wrote me a workout. Low and Behold... 50 Fly.

Instructions... watch the video's on Danielle's page, read up on it, and give it a try!

Ok. doesn't seem too bad. What's all the fuss about??? :)

During my warm up, I even put my fins on, grabbed my kick board, and did some dolphin kicks, which I've also never done before, just to kind of get the feel.

I then proceed through my main workout. Main Set: 3000 mixed of pull sets and FAST 100's!

So by the time I get to this 50 fly, my arms are already tired. Fortunately, I was at a brand new pool that just opened in a new gym where all of the other people in the pool are spending more time hugging the wall than they are wading through the water. Hey... Don't get me wrong, I think it's GREAT that they're in there and they're exercising. It's just funny because they all think that I am some sort of pool stud!! HA HA!! If they only knew!

So I wasn't too worried about attempting this here because I figured that none of those people would know if I was doing this completely the wrong way!

I start out, and my initial reaction: This is so completely AWKWARD!!

Before I hit the 25 mark and turn around... I've gotten water up my nose. I keep forgetting to kick. I realize I'm doing something wrong as I can't seem to pull my head out of the water enough to breathe! I turn around SLOWLY thinking WHOA... This is ALL wrong! But I keep moving...

More water up the nose...

More attempts to pull myself up out of the water to breathe to not get far enough and miss my chance!...

More having to remind myself to use my legs and not just my arms...

Finally.... make it to 50. It was NOT pretty. It was NOT anywhere close!

So here's my question... Did someone sit around one day and say, "Yeah, so what you can do a Free Style 100 in less than a min.... Let's see you swim in this RIDICULOUS hard way and do it!"

Was it some sort of bet of who could come up with the hardest possible way to move your body through water???

What's the deal??

Because the ONLY reason why I see a person actually participating in this sort of activity is for the PURE challenge of it. The simple... Look What I Can Do fact of it!

Don't get me wrong... I haven't given up on it yet! :)

I'm definitely game. I'm seriously just wondering it's purpose in life! So to all you swimmer studs out there... PLEASE enlighten me!

And FYI: My Dad is doing ok. We got Good news and Bad news yesterday. We thought he had another blockage, which would then hopefully explain the reason why his blood pressure keeps creeping up above 200. After doing another Cath. there is no blockage, which IS the good news, but the Bad news is that it's not a situation that they can throw a stint in there and kind of alleviate a lot of the problem.

The simple fact of the matter is is that my Dad is 63 years old. He's been Diabetic for as long as I can remember. He's been overweight since I was born. He smoked for 40 years. He has heart disease and high blood pressure, and those aren't problems you fix over night. His kidneys only function to 50% because of the diabetes. So the goal is to restabilize his blood pressure to as close to normal as possible through medicine, diet, and exercise. Other medication can help not heal his kidneys but slow down the deterioration process. He needs to lose weight!! I've tried walking with him before, and he owns a treadmill that I ride his case about walking on. I've honestly not been on him about it the way that I should so I've already told him that he's about to become my own personal project!

Diet and exercise program WILL be designed by next week. I'm going to head down on Sunday and help my mom grocery shop for him, go over some food with him, and be there to watch him walk at least 2 x for 5 min each. They THINK he's doing ok, but the truth is he's not. And though I've bought him books and highlighted areas for him in there before of diabetic nutrition and what not, I don't stay on top of him about it and therefore he doesn't either. So, I am going to see what I can do to help him out. Cooper and Gracie have 10-13 more years before my Dad can enjoy watching him them play high school sports and what not, and if I have anything to do about it, I want to be sure he's here.

So... he'll be ok. I think he gets out of the hospital today or tomorrow and then the REAL work begins. Wish us luck! And thank you so much to everyone for your support and kind words. I can't tell you how much it means to me!!

Have a GREAT day!

K :)