Swimming lessons

I started swimming lessons this evening. I've been swimming for 30 years, but never very well. If I'm going to go to the pool to get in some worthwhile cross training, then I want to know how to do it well, so I enjoy it and get a good workout, and don't come away afterwards having drunk half the pool, or with cramp from trying too hard and too inefficiently to swim that extra length.

I've started a six week course at tfd to learn breaststroke and crawl; how to move my arms and legs correctly and when and where to breath. Today - breaststroke: I learnt that I shouldn't move my arms in a complete semi circle; and that my legs were next to useless as my feet were too pointed, so were hardly propelling me through the water. Ok, so I know how I should be doing it now, but it's hard work and will take some practice to throw off my ingrained bad style to get it right. If I'm thinking about how my feet should be working, I don't move my arms properly, and if I try to remember my arms, I forget to breathe and so my brain gives up controlling my feet... and then I'm back to square one!!

Back running tomorrow....