Golden Road Master Swim. 2600m, 1:03 time.

Cold morning in LA; my car said 41°F at 6am. Water was a little bit warmer than the air, but still freezing.

Coach Charles has been encouraging me to get a snorkel. The snorkel is suppose to let me focus on the arm placement and pull through. For me specifically, I’m suppose to stop crossing over with the right arm.

I got a good one Tyr Ultralight Snorkel. During the pull sessions, I wore the snorkel. The snorkel itself is great. The lower portion of the tube also has a valve. This is an awesome design, because it allows water to leave your mouth and flow DOWN and out. It also allows for 2 exits for exhalation. It’s a nice fit with the forehead strap. Mouthpiece is okay fit. I try not to chomp down too hard.

However, I’m really lame. I have a mental block on the breathing with a snorkel. I try to inhale slower than usual so that the negative pressure in my nasal cavity doesn’t draw in water through my nose. It definitely is a mental focus to work on the breathing in and out through the snorkel. Even after several 100’s, I had a mental lapse and turned my head to inhale and it all went south.

Charles was coaching this morning.

Mike was swimming this morning.

[Update 11/18, a day later.]

I removed the red cap on the end. The cap has a smaller hole to limit air flow on purpose. I took that off and now I can breathe. Wahoo. Much better. I tried a new rhythm today: Breathe in through the snorkel and out through my nose. The out through my nose is the same as regular breathing. Today, I did fail once. I instinctively turned my head to breathe in and took a whole inhale of water. Fortunately, I was in the shallow end and was able to stand up and cough it out. It’s getting better. I did 400+ meters today with snorkel and could concentrate more on my stroke than on my snorkel.