Fistgloves

Rather than arriving late to track (I spent 1.5 hours discussing a 13.5MB Excel model with a coworker and couldn't leave work early enough to beat traffic), I went swimming tonight and used my fistgloves from Total Immersion. I've had them for a while, but this was my first time using them. Although "fistgloves" sound like something you'd buy at a porn shop, they are actually rubber (similar to what swimming caps are made out of) mits that have a big pocket to wrap around your fist and a smaller enclosure for your thumb. The forces you to swim with closed hands.

For the first half hour, I struggled to complete any of the "zipper" drills I had set up to accomplish. I couldn't complete a full lap of any of them. The only thing I could do was "skate"; even "under skate" was a challenge. I also tried front crawl with even more disastrous results, but I should have known since there was no way I could swim if I couldn't even drill properly. My legs kept on sinking and I felt like I was swimming uphill - the opposite of what I was trying to achieve.

After half an hour, I took off my gloves and swam a couple of laps with minor improvements. Then I put my gloves back on and something clicked. I was buoyant and could balance comfortably in water. I was quite excited and started swimming some relaxing laps.

I wanted to swim longer but it was getting late and the pool was getting crowded. I'm going to swim on Friday to try the "zipper" exercises again. Hubby will be en route to his bachelor party in Yosemite, so I can dedicate this weekend to training and wedding website development (finally)!