Sounds more like uphill running with a huge tailwind ;-)

Alternate on and off paddles and on and off flippers in order to increase awareness to different things in the water. And if you can, use zoomer-like flippers and not those scuba dive huge flippers.

When I take them off I become acutely aware how small my hands are.

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

don't you need a swimp3 player for cyborg swimming.

and a heart rate monitor

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

How timely. I just logged today's swim and mentioned the same thing to my coach.

I love the strength workout that paddles and fins provide but more than anything I like being able to tweak my head and body position to feel really streamlined.

For example, in the past few sessions swimming with fins I realized for the first time how far back I look when I breath instead of keeping my head straight and just rolling to air. When I'm moving faster through the water I can feel the difference in speed and resistance. I swim so damn slow I had just never noticed it before.

The best part is that I am able to translate and still make use of a lot of this feedback when I take the gear off. I am making sure not to use these as a crutch but only as a training tool.

Is this a crutch or something that strengthens? It seems to me that when I have the paddles and fins on and assuming I am swimming the same amount of time, that I am stressing my my legs and strengthening my kick way above and beyond kicking without. Same for the paddles. It seems to my that it builds strength again like running uphill vs. flat ground.

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

I think it goes without saying that the strength part is there because of the additional resistance. Especially with the paddles. Be careful though as I have felt strained shoulders after too hard of a pull session.

The main benefit that I am seeing, however, is in body position. I am making sure to still do lots of yardage without the gear on as I don't want my body position and technique to rely on the tools (which was what I meant by a crutch.) But, I am finding that the time I do spend wearing them has allowed me to get a better feel for how my body is moving through the water because I am going through it faster. In a way it is like feeling yourself slicing through the water after pushing off the wall just that it lasts the whole length.

I'm actually finding that swimming with the zoomers alone to be the most beneficial. By going faster and paying attention to my catch and pull I can really tell how much water I am holding. Once again, I go so slow with my regular swimming that the whole "feel" changes dramamtically with the little bit of speed that the fins provide.

I am just very conscious about trying to remember this "feel" and recreate it when I'm back to normal swimming.

Beautiful, and agreed. I hate wearing paddles (rarely use them at all), and always love the feeling when I take them off. But the Zoomers, well, that's the opposite. I only allow myself a few hundred yards per swim with them. They are like swimming heroine. My usual 1:45 pace drops to about 1:35 or lower with minimal effort.

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Too f@ckin depressed from various injuries to care about having a signature line.

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