Three is the magic number

For more than 2 and a half months, I've been developing my swimming base by hitting the pool twice a week. After I got to the point of being able to swim a reasonable distance without stopping (2000 yards), I started to decompose my stroke and try to increase my speed and efficiency. I read some helpful articles and watched some swim clips online. I knew what I would have to do to improve my swimming: up my swim frequency and work on form.

Most people say that in order to swim better, you need to swim more. A simple thing to do, right? I started with a technique day on Monday to make sure I got the new stroke (my entry and pull for now) into my muscle memory. After swimming 2000 yards of just focusing on my entry and pull, my Thursday swim was a breakthrough. I started to get "the feel for the water". I took to the new form but wanted to see how it would affect my endurance. I swam sets of 2 x 500 yards and a 1000 yard swim. My efficiency was much better and I felt stronger throughout the swim. This morning, I wanted to take it to the next level and see how it would effect my speed. My main set was 3 x 300, 200, 100. I'm happy to report that every set felt strong and smooth. My times in every set seemed to be PRs! I have never felt more encouraged to hit the pool more often.

So three must be the magic number!