Bonaire Eco-Swim meets Igor's stupid drills

I sent the following letter to my beloved coach Igor this morning....



Hello my darling Igor,

I'm back from Bonaire.
Just wanted to let you know how invaluable you are (and have always been) to me.

I swam the 5k last Saturday, but once again, half-way through, my bicep/shoulder started to hurt. The pain was getting very bad, and since during my last 10k race in Bermuda I swam through the pain and was not able to lift my arm for days, and worse, messed up my training regime, I thought it might be wise to not push through this particular pain again.

So instead, I swam the last 2k doing one arm backstroke (occasionally alternating one-arm breast/fly).

After my initial rising panic, consequently going nowhere fast, I stubbornly waved off a concerned kayaker and managed to settle down and get comfortable enough to maintain (new) streamlined form and timing. Eventually I was even passing some swimmers. One-armed!  But more importantly, I finished the race. Without injury. Most importantly of all, of course, I avoided the boat-ride of shame.

So thank you for all those endless stupid drills. If you hadn't trained me to get so comfortable taking apart my stroke, I would have never been able to finish. But don't ask me what my time was--I was afraid to look.
love you,
Patricia


Bonaire 2008 race recap & photos