Spaghetti Arms meets The Pull

Last month I started my tri-swimming clinic out in Oberlin, which is a really great town. The downtown district is full of locally owned restaurants and shops. They still have a five and dime and no Wal-Mart. After the clinic, I visit the Black River Cafe (named after the nearby Black River, shown in the pic below) for blueberry and banana pancakes to refuel for the hour long drive home.
In month one of the clinic, we focused on kick drills and keeping our legs popped up in the water....the same things I've been working on for the last year in the pool. I did start incorporating a flutter-kick drill into my training which has helped me keep better form when getting a breathe.

It is now month 2 of the clinic and we've begun to work on our pull. Whilst learning the technique of a proper pull and trying to execute the drills @ the clinic things were a bit off. I couldn't quite coordinate my pull, kick, body rotation, and well....my entire stroke was ugly to say the least. I Regressed to my early experiences in the pool, where I was flopping and flailing around at a snail's pace. I was looking forward to getting back into the water to work things out.

As most of you know, I don't exactly have 24 inch pythons. They are....smaller. And as you might figure my upper body strength is not what you would call powerful. I fit better into the long and lean category than the big and buff category. Yesterday it showed. My shoulders were burning as I concentrated on keeping my elbows high and my hands near my center line on my pull. My stroke count had to drop a ton, but man was it painful. The good news is that I made big, big strides in getting everything back to a smooth cohesive stroke.....albeit a stroke that quickly creates a searing burn in my shoulders. This will make me a much better swimmer. My pull was about as inefficient as you could imagine. I'm taking my lunch break (a.k.a. swim workout) in a couple minutes. No ham sandwich for me, just a little fire burning deep in the back of my shoulders and a little water up my nose.