Left-handed swimming. Running 50 miles.

I started left-handed swimming yesterday. When I changed my swimming form for the better this summer (thanks to Total Immersion), the externality was a further etching of my right-arm dominant swimming stroke. Even before my near debacle during the Alcatraz swim two weeks ago, I knew I need to switch up my breathing and stroke pattern, so September will be that month to undo more than five years of my right-arm swimming addiction.

Rumor has it that even Aquaman had to overcome a right-handed swimming addiction.

I started this week with two 2500 yards swims already, almost entirely left-side breathing with some trilateral breathing. The first 1500 yards of the first workout were brutally bad – it felt as comfortable as brushing my teething or throwing a football left-handed The last 1000 yards got a little better, so I left encouraged. The second workout was less bad, so all is trending in the right direction. I’m planning on three swim workouts a week this month, all of them left-handed.

Once October rolls around, I’ll move to trilateral breathing permanently. I’m hoping to find some long distance open water swims throughout the Fall and Winter, even I have to travel to places like Florida, Hawaii, or the Carribbean. Suggestions welcome.

Now if I could only learn how to do flip turns…

On the running front, I’m registered for The North Face Endurance Challenge 50-miler. Super pumped for this event. I did their half-marathon distance in 2009, then tried the 50k distance in 2010 and withdrew around mile 18 because of an injury.  The course is awesome and I remember the event organization to be very, very good.

I got back into running mode with 19 miles last week and I’m on track for 20+ miles this week. That’ll ramp up over the next few weeks to the 30 mile/week range, and I’m planning a 20 mile/30k trail run sometime in late October/early November as a precursor to the 50-miler in December. Suggestions welcome here too.

Once I bag the 50-miler, I’ll get to work on running back-to-back 50 milers by early Spring as training for The California Challenge.