New Swimmer in the Family

If there's one thing better than having an adorable grandbaby, it's having an adorable grandbaby who loves to swim. We're up visiting my step-sons in Spokane and this was the little cutie's first time in the pool. She's so adventurous, the water didn't faze her at all. She loved it.

 In fact, it reminds me of another water baby I once knew, one who is now a swimming, water-polo-playing 13 year old dynamo. Her little tutu-ruffled swimsuit was a sparkly blue, but otherwise she shares a lot of the same personality and daring. As I recall on this vacation, once we introduced her to the pool, every time we walked by it she would fling her little arms out to the water and screech her lungs out. 

Some of us are born to the water, and it only takes once to know that's where we belong.

So I hope you don't mind if I take a pause from talking about triathlon training, clean eating, swim technique, and martial arts, and share a little video of grandbaby's first swim. Check out the smile at the end. 

Making the Most of a Hotel Workout

Do you know how hard it is to be down here at Ironman Arizona and not be able to run? I never thought I'd say this, because I was always a "Running Sucks" kinda gal (and I laughed out loud each time the guy wearing the shirt that said exactly that came through my aid station at IMAZ), but it's emotionally difficult to not be able to run. And to not know when or if I'll ever be able to run again. But I'm not one to cry into my morning tea, so I have to count my blessings - I'm down here in the Arizona sunshine and I have a POOL.

I've ranted here before about trying to squeeze in a workout in a hotel pool. They can be short, narrow, kidney-shaped, and full of splashing kids. Somehow, when it's your only resort, you find a way. I got lucky this week, the pool may be oddly shaped, but at least it was almost 20 yards long. I did discover that when you do a flip-turn on a curved wall, you end up heading sideways and if you're very lucky you won't crush your skull on the other wall that you're headed straight towards.

But, since I can't run, I've been swimming over a mile a day in a crescent-shaped bit of sunny water and loving it. My home state is being hammered with 60 mile an hour winds and 5 - 10 inches of rain (and no, that's not even a hurricane, I live in Oregon, that's just a typical winter storm.), so while I'm here, I'm going to love every 18 1/3 yard lap!

Swimming Long: 10K National Championships

The only thing more fun than swimming several miles around a beautiful lake on a sunny day is doing it with a bunch of your good friends. And once cannot have better friends than the Aquaducks, my Masters swim group.

I have never swam a 10k in my life, nor can I say that the thought of doing so ever crossed my mind. But the Aquaducks have been venturing to ever greater distances and events, and this year the 10k National Championships came to a lake within spitting distance of my hometown, so how could I resist??

How do you pace a 10k swim? I had no idea. I asked around the more experienced competitors, some of whom had traveled from the other side of the country to compete. The consensus seemed to be "Go out slow on the first lap (2.5k), go a little faster on the 2nd, a little faster on the 3rd, and on the 4th lap, give it what you have left." Sounds like a good plan. My personal goal was to finish feeling strong, so I planned to pace the first lap accordingly. I hoped to finish under 3 hours, but had no idea how reasonable that was (or wasn't).

Most triathletes would run screaming at the thought of swimming 10k, especially when the words "No Wetsuits Allowed" are appended. But swimming in lakes is what I love best, and I'm always sad in a triathlon when I have to get out of the water. My only real worry for this race was my left arm, broken twice at the elbow in the last two years. The elbow especially tends to fatigue, and the wetsuit acts as a sort of neoprene brace that holds it together for longer. Not having swum this far without a wetsuit, I was just hoping it wouldn't give out on me before I was finished.

The swim start was a dream, especially after the mosh pit of Ironman Coeur d'Alene just a couple weeks back. As it turns out, open water swimmers are quite polite compared to triathletes. They all swim straight, kick neatly behind themselves (instead of doing big scissors kicks that knock the triathletes to the left and right) and pace themselves correctly. So the swim start goes off without a hitch, everyone just surging forward at the appropriate pace. I concentrated on swimming smoothly and evenly, with a good steady but non-aggressive pace. The first 2.5 loop went great. Water temperature was ideal, probably about 76. The loop was an odd shape, following the shoreline and had many turns. This kept it more interesting than the standard triangle or rectangle that I'm used to. It also meant you had to be good at sighting, and at distinguishing which buoy you were aiming for.

At the end of the loop, you're back near the swim start and you have your nutrition out on a table, so you swim up and take your drink mix or gels, then swim off again. First loop time was 41 minutes for me, but I had a pretty good draft from the big group at the start, so I figured the next few might be slower. As it turned out, the next 3 loops all took me 44 minutes and change, leaving me with a time of 2:56. I was very happy to have broken 3 hours, and my left arm held up through the whole thing with no problems. My only regret is that I didn't strategize and get into a good drafting group. There was a big group that finished just a few minutes ahead of me, but I let them get away from me in the first loop. Considering the time difference wasn't that great, I should've been able to hang with them. As it was, I swam almost the whole thing by myself. Next time I will strategize better!

Overall, my time was 2:56: 35, good enough for 15th overall in the women's field - at the National Championships! I'm happy with that, my first time at the distance. I will definitely do this again, it was much more fun than I anticipated, and strangely easier than I had imagined it would be. It was great fun camping out by the lake with our group, and you can't beat the scenery and camaraderie of this event. Highly recommended (if you don't mind swimming a long long ways without a wetsuit, that is).

Ask And It Shall Be Answered

Wasn't it just yesterday I was asking if you could fuel an endurance athlete on bananas alone? Today the answer appeared on my doorstep, in the form of John. John is a 66 year old cyclist embarking on a solo journey across the United States, and one of the coolest humans I've had the pleasure to meet. But I'll talk more about him, his journey, and the reasons behind it tomorrow and add some photos as well.

As it relates to my banana question, John informed me that he cycled across Vietnam eating largely nothing but bananas. There, my question has been answered! Man can live on bananas alone. He also started telling me that he eats rather differently now than he used to, he's on a mostly "caveman diet" now. I had to stop him from explaining further as I know exactly what he was talking about. He was right at home in our Paleo household.

Since my own burning question has been answered, I think I'll go on to address a couple of questions I've gotten this week. Both are swimming related.

The first is from Kathy, who asks:

Can I request a post? I've read about running frequently vs long runs and cycling in the same vein but do you believe swimming is the same? I.e. swim shorter distances but more frequently as IM prep? I'm already sold on running 6 days/week (but 1:2:3 ratio) but wonder if swimming 4-5 days/week would be "better" than 3 days (for the same distance).

 I don't think swimming more than 3 days a week would be harmful, assuming your stroke has good mechanics and you aren't going to give yourself an overuse shoulder or elbow injury. But I also don't think it would be necessarily any better for IM training for several reasons:

1. The swim is such a small component of the Ironman. Any extra time you put into swim training is not going to buy you much of a time advantage at the IM distance. Putting the same amount of training time into extra bikes or runs would probably give you a better net gain in your total time.

2. Swimming for most people is time consuming. An hour of swimming typically involves travel time to get to a pool or open water and may take as long as two hours to accomplish, where a bike or run can happen right from your front door. You get less training bang for your buck from hours spent swimming. Increasing the number of swims means also increasing the amount of wasted time (unless you live on the ocean or a lake or have your own pool).

3. If you're a fast swimmer, then extra swim sessions won't make you considerably faster in the grand Ironman scheme of things. If you're a slow swimmer, you're better off spending your swim time working on your technique, and for that you can optimize your time with one coached session, one session to work on what you're learning from your coach (more on that in a minute) and do some intervals, and one session to work on endurance.

Which leads me to the next question, from Stephanie at FitMomInTraining.com, who says

I need tips/training on how to increase endurance in swimming.

The answer to this one goes back to the discussion of technique above. When people think about endurance, they think of gradually building up the ability to go longer and longer. This works well with sports like running and biking, where if you just keep upping your training distances in small increments, you will eventually be able to go longer without fatiguing.

Not so with swimming.

And here's why: Both speed and endurance in swimming are more tied to technique than anything else. Water is more than 700 times denser and 55 times more viscous than air. That means that while you can wave your arms at your friends and family all you want while running a marathon, the slightest pinky out of place when you are swimming will cost you dearly in terms of increased drag.

Most swimmers do not take all the possible steps to reduce drag in their stroke, and many incur additional drag by making very common stroke mechanic mistakes such as keeping the head high or weaving from side to side. It takes a huge amount of energy to overcome this additional drag in water, therefore much of the reason for a swimmer's lack of endurance is simply that they're spending far more energy than they need to.

As a case study, I'll mention a lady in my swim class. On Monday night, I was watching her stroke. She has gotten the hang of a nice long glide phase in her stroke, which extends the "vessel" of her body in the water and reduces her form drag. Over the months we've worked together, she has also ditched her habit of crossing the centerline of her body on hand entry. This has greatly reduced her side-to-side wiggle, which in turn also reduces drag immensely. As a result, it now takes her 18 strokes to move from one end of the pool to the other, instead of the 28 that it used to take. You can easily see how her endurance can be greatly improved simply by the fact that she's taking 30% fewer strokes to go the same distance!

Beyond simply reducing drag, you can also increase the efficiency of your stroke. Many swimmers spend time moving water in all sorts of directions (downwards, upwards, to the sides) but the only direction that counts is moving water straight behind you, because that's the only way to gain propulsion in the forward direction (assuming you DO want to swim forward, right?). ALL of this muscle power that you may be using to move water in random directions costs you in terms of fatigue and reduced endurance.

So the bottom line is that to increase endurance in swimming, the best and easiest method is to improve your stroke and reduce your drag and therefore your effort in swimming. Finding a local Masters swim group or coach can be your best bet. If you live in an area with no available swimming resources, you can consider video coaching (which I offer, among other online swim coaches). As a last resort, I'd consider self-coaching using a book or DVD like Total Immersion.

My Triumph Over the Worst Hotel Pool Ever

There are a lot of bad hotel pools out there. The competition is fierce, but folks I think we've found a winner in the San Jose Hilton at the Convention Center. Measuring in at just over 3 feet deep its entire length, with a width smaller than my armspan, and a length of about eight or so yards. Special features include a knee-busting concrete shelf that runs half of the length of the pool to teach anyone foolish enough to attempt a breaststroke or two a lesson. To enhance your swimming pleasure, the wall to the right blocks most of the sun through most of the day, so you can freeze in the shade instead of being refreshed.

Mackenzie and I are taking this week to toodle around central California, and included a stop-over in San Jose where we took in the Museum of Technology. We got to stay a night with hubby who was in town for business, hence the Convention Center hotel.

Most people, faced with the ridiculousness of this pool might've thrown up their hands in despair and given up, but not I. Since this is the one upper body exercise I can do with my arm, I'm loathe to give up so easily. I managed to eek out 1000 yards in this disgrace of a swimming pool, counting three lengths as one 25 yard length of a real pool. For those of you who are counting, that means I swam 120 lengths of this silly little body of water just to get my 1000 in. It's crazy-making, I tell you.

My point however, if I had one, is that we can let circumstances get us down, or we can soldier on. The people who are successful at maintaining fitness are the ones who get their workouts in regardless. They are the businessmen I saw in the tiny fitness center lifting weights, and the folks who take the morning walk regardless of the weather or the setting of an alarm. And yes, the ones who swim 120 lengths of an eight yard pool.

Mish Mash

Some alphabet soup of what's sloshing around in my brain today:

First try at the SwiMP3 device was pretty positive. They're bugger all difficult to get on with only one hand (hold down swim cap, pull goggles plus device over head, seems like you need three hands) and they didn't work at all for aquajogging because you lose the sound when your ears are out of the water, but I swam four laps with only one arm and in that span they worked beautifully. I loved how it sounded like the music was just coming from all around me, not little tinny sound being piped into my ears. I'll write up a proper review later, but first time around I'm pretty hooked.

Being injured sucks. I'm such a lousy patient. It's so hard not to do too much. Everything hurts. As it turns out, the broken arm isn't the worst of it. Feels like I pulled some muscles in my shoulder/neck/back and they're all complaining. Possibly even damaged some of the area where my upper ribs connect. The docs didn't look at any of that, despite me saying I got in a pretty bad wreck. At least I got to go to my magical chiropractor. He said it was all too inflamed to adjust anything, but he used his little torture machine electrical current acupressure thingie to help the muscles heal. I feel slightly better.

Packing for vacation helps alleviate the pain. Seriously, it's raining and grey and gloomy here today, but here's the forecast where we're going:

YES!!! Oh I know, I'm not supposed to say on the internet that we're going out of town. But we have some housesitters. And one of them is the Hungarian Street Fighting champion Barnabas Gaspar, who's 6'4" and 300 pounds of MEAN. Okay, just kidding. But we do have housesitters plus the vicious dogs and the attack chickens. So I feel like I can tell you that our daughter is DANCING at DISNEYLAND! Woot! Her dance team will be performing there on the Carnation stage, so exciting. I'm most jealous of the fact that she gets to go backstage underground in all the secret places. I'm a Disney Junkie and I would so love to go with her. But I'll be satisfied with just doing Disney.

It's so Un-PC in my town to like Disney. I live in Crunchy Hippieville and I swear half the kids here can't even watch Disney because Disney screwed up the true story of Pocohantas and they don't adhere to the real Grimm's fairy tales and they objectify women and it's an environmental drain and blah blah blah. Normally my liberal little bleeding heart would agree with all of that except that I Freakin Love Disney. There's no rhyme or reason to it. Hubby and I went there before we had kids. I've gone every few years of my adult life even without the kids as an excuse. This will be my fourth time there with the kids and we're all excited. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride here we come!

Hopefully by the time we get back, I can start gently working out again. I looked through my logbook from last time and saw I started running at about 3 weeks post arm-break. So hopefully it won't be too long before I'm back to training.

Speaking of which, I am kicking around the idea of signing up for IM Coeur d 'Alene. Hubby thinks I shouldn't do it. The course wouldn't be great for me, potential heat is always my nemesis. But let's face it, if I don't do that one, I probably won't be doing any IMs for a couple of years. So do I want to suck it up and face the fire? I've got a week to decide. Stay tuned...

How To Get Faster, Better, Stronger Using Kaizen

 

As I coach people on a regular basis, I see them over time improving their skills, strength, and conditioning. But a few improve so dramatically it's like watching a shooting star.

So what can you learn from these shooting stars? What is the secret to their achievements? Once again, it all boils down to kaizen, a Japanese word for "constant, never-ending improvement" I was talking with Dan Mayhew, one of my swimmers, after practice on Saturday. I had just noticed something in his stroke after observing him underwater for part of the practice. Keep in mind, I give stroke tips all the time to my swimmers, this is not uncommon. But what Dan said next is: "I'll add that to my comments file."

Yes, Dan keeps a list of everything anyone's ever said about his stroke. He also keeps videos illustrating the principles about his swimming stroke that he wants to improve on. He is constantly working on those elements of his stroke that he wants to get better. No surprise, over the years I've known Dan, he's gone from a back-of-the-packer who struggled with many aspects of the stroke (give the guy a kickboard and he could kick all day and not go anywhere) to swimming in one of our fastest lanes.

Luckily, Dan works for this cool new company called Vizme. They make it easy to encapsulate text, videos, pictures, and all kinds of information and media in something called a Token. You can share these tokens via email, Facebook, Twitter and all kinds of social media. So here's Dan's swimming token. As you can see, he has a comment file tracking everything anyone's ever said to him about his stroke, from lane mates to professional coaches. After that, he has links to all kinds of videos and tips that he's used to make himself faster.

This is the key to improvement in any sport - the active seeking of information. Then steadily applying that information to get better. My athletes who do this shoot forward in an arc of improvement that's awe-inspiring.

Here's how to harness the power of kaizen in your own sport:

Pay attention: Athletes around you frequently give helpful advice. Some people ignore this, and some get downright upset about it. Notice that Dan tracks it in his Comments file. Sure, perhaps all well-meaning advice isn't worth taking, but if you pay attention to it you may notice some common themes (you can see in Dan's notes that the dropped elbow keeps coming back to haunt him from many different people's observations).

Keep Track: It's hard to notice trends unless you're tracking them. If several people have mentioned something, perhaps it's worth changing or researching. You can use something as simple as a notebook or logbook, or something as cool as Vizme to track things you want to be working on. Otherwise, it's out of sight, out of mind.


Focus on One Thing At a Time: Pick something you want to work on, gather information (whether from your coach, a video, a seminar, an online training tool), and focus on it until you see improvement.

Don't Give Up: That  may seem like simplistic advice, but I think the one thing that derails most folks is simply throwing their hands up in the air when improvement doesn't come as quickly or easily as they'd like. If you work through the tough spots, chances are that the results you're seeking are just around the corner.

Under Armour Is Not Swimwear, And Other Swimming Guidelines

Miss Manners I'm not, but folks there's a few important bits of pool etiquette that we should all be aware of, for our own protection. Here's just a few that have sprung to mind in recent pool sessions:

1.) Guys, Under Armour is not swimwear. In fact, it's quite a bit more revealing than the infamous red cycling shorts, especially when wet. Go buy yourself a Speedo. If you don't want to wear the traditional style, the "jammer" style looks just like Under Armour long shorts, yet not transparent. Go with black. Trust me.

2.) If you make noise underwater, we can still hear you. Sound travels better underwater, so if you happen to make sounds akin to a humpback whale's mating call while lap swimming, we will all hear you. Ditto if you hum along to Lady Gaga on your SwiMP3

3.) However, even while keeping Rule #2 in mind, Humming Keeps Water Out of Your Nose During Turns. As long as you're not too loud about it, a little hum during flip turns lets air out your nose and keeps the water from rushing in when you're upside down. Just don't sound like a humpback whale.

4.) If you thought that your humming travels well underwater, the incessant beeping from your pace watch can be heard off the coast of Guatemala. A couple of laps while using one is fine. Anything more is grounds for a kickboard or two that "accidentally" float into your lane. Just sayin'

5.) If you jump into the shallow end to start your swim off with a bang, it creates a sort of tidal wave that fills the mouths of all swimmers near you unlucky enough to be trying to breathe. We really don't want to think about where that water's been, so don't make us drink it.

6.) And this one is serious: If the sign says "Parental Supervision Required", that does not mean you can leave your four year old on the pool stairs while you chat with your gal pal in the hot tub. Especially if you can't see your four year old from the hot tub. Especially if your four year old doesn't swim. I'm not paid to be the lifeguard at any pool, but I can't tell you how many youngsters I've saved from possible death by drowning  (in public, private, hotel pools, hot tubs, lakes, rivers, and creeks). Supervision means to supervise. Please let your kids grow up to be swimmers old enough to be annoyed by the man who created the tidal wave in Lane 1 and is now making the whale sounds with every breath. Thank you.

I'm So Zen I Can't Stand It

Those of you who have met me would probably not utter the words "zen" and "Robin" in the same sentence. I don't inspire that kind of warm, fuzzy, calm feeling. More like "zanily energetic" on a good day, and "close to psychotic" on a bad one. My former boss once confided to me that when he called on one of my references, he was told "Robin is an unstoppable force of nature. She's okay as long as you don't get in the way." I'm still not really clear on whether that was a good reference or a bad one.

I blame it all on my mother. No really. When she was pregnant with me, her doctor (in all of his 1960s doctorly wisdom) didn't want her to gain too much weight. Like no more than 15 pounds. I myself gained approximately 280 pounds when I was pregnant. Well, maybe 60 or 70, but it felt like 280. So back to this doctor. He prescribed her some appetite control pills. Which we all know back in 1966 were probably something like, oh, amphetamines. Yep, I came out looking for that energetic high. I was just lucky to get hooked on exercise, not something worse.

By the way, I don't really blame my mom. She's awesome. Really. Our kids adore her, she does cool things like kayaks and hikes, and she wears hats like this that fold out and double as a fan (really!). I totally forgive her for listening to her idiot doctor back in 1966, and also for that time she made me go to the county fair with her when she was dressed in a chicken costume (yes, I've finally worked through that one in therapy), but really I had no chance of being normal. None whatsoever.

Which is all to say that I don't usually inspire feelings of zen in people. Except that this week, I'm just all over the zen thing. First of all, okay I do use the word zen when I talk about swimming a lot. Because in order to swim well, you have to "turn the eye inward" as they say in the zen business and really notice what you're doing. Lots of people just go swim laps, go back and forth and back and forth at the same speed with the same technique and never really get any better. In order to swim better, you have to start by paying attention. So when Julie used the word Zen when she blogged about our first swim coaching session, it didn't surprise me all that much. Fortunately, she's like a zen master already or something and was able to incorporate the whole gliding and stretching thing out and decreased her swim golf score by an astonishing amount just in one pool session.

Then, just while I was basking in the whole glow of someone actually grokking what I was trying to tell them in the pool and getting all zen with it, I get an email from a Buddhist magazine asking to use one of my photographs to accompany an article. It's always exciting to me when my photos get published, and I'm honored that they think it's worthy to go with such introspective thoughts.

That all collides nicely with this week, which has already become one of the shit-craziest scheduling nightmares in my parenting life so far, and has ominously shown itself to be the harbinger of things to come. My daughter is taking seven dance classes (no that's not a typo), plus theatre, choir, horseback riding, and French. My son is taking Spanish, training at the brown belt level in karate (lots of time at the dojo) and I'm coaching his robotics team. These activities are in all sorts of different places. Throw in my coaching gigs at three different pools, taking karate myself, and teaching kickboxing, and you've got twenty-five (I counted) different places I need to be each week. Those are just the scheduled things, that doesn't account for the playdates, field trips, and unscheduled appointments that might crop up. So needless to say, if I'm going to feel any measure of zen in the coming months, I'm going to need to create it myself. So now it's after midnight, I'm done blogging for now and I'm off to meditate my way to a state of inner peace. Namaste and goodnight.

Precious Precious Days

In October, sunshine is precious. It poured grey rain all weekend. The outdoor pool is only open for 20 more days (but hey, who's counting?) and with Pool Perv gone for good I am pinning my hopes on at least 20 days of mild weather. There's nothing as dear to the heart of an athlete as those last few good weather outdoor workouts in the fall before the rain, the sleet, the hail, the frost, cold, and snow make outdoor runs a test of will and fortitude.

Luckily, I get to go run with @juliejulie tomorrow and the prediction is sunny and 73 for our inaugural run together. Sounds auspicious, no?

I hope you all are enjoying the precious days of fall!

Fitting It In, Hotel Pool Style

We just got back from the Reno Air Races, a fantastic experience (can you beat sitting out at the pylons while planes like Corsairs, twin-engined Hellcats, and P-51 Mustangs zoom just over your head at near 500 mph???)! While in Reno, we went running a couple of times in the very early morning before heading out to the races. The air was quite chilly and the altitude was definitely a factor (almost a mile high, wheeze, wheeze), and the strip of casinos isn't a running route I would normally pick. Without my bike, I tried to fit in my workouts as best as I could. Of course I didn't want to go five days without swimming, so you know what that means.....

The Hotel Pool (cue dramatic music).

You've probably been there before: traveling for business or with your family, wanting to squeeze in a swim workout, faced with The Hotel Pool. Maybe it's kidney shaped, or round, maybe it's only three feet deep, maybe it has a staircase that spans one end, preventing turns. It's always a challenge. This one was at least rectangular in shape (that's a bonus), and the staircase didn't reach ALL the way across, leaving me a narrow strip of wall on which to turn (I'll count that in the "plus" category too), plus it was saltwater (niiiiiiice). But it took me six, count them six strokes to get from one end to the other. This, as you might imagine, made for some very vexing lap swimming.

My motto however is Just Get the Workout In, so laps I did, probably hundreds in all (I didn't count, that would've been too depressing) and after awhile I just found my rhythm, got in the groove, and got the swim done. So instead of looking as bad as it might've with the vacation thrown into the mix, my first week of taper looked rather reasonable. I bookended the time I was gone with bike rides, so I got at least two into the week, three relatively short runs, and three forty-five minute sessions in the 12 yard hotel pool left me with a decent workout schedule for the week. That and all the airplanes I could ever hope to watch!

Gigantic Swimmer Boy

I took my 13 y.o. son with me to the pool today to swim some laps. Gosh I wish this kid had a competitive bone in his body because he can swim like a fish. No like a dolphin. Like his mama, he was born to be an aquatic mammal. Gosh he's good! And he hasn't swam since last year, yet I had to work to keep up with him. Some of it is that, like me, he has enormous hands and feet (size 13 and counting). Great paddles and flippers. And he's grown an inch in less than a month, making him even with me at 5'7", a fact he is very excited about. All that growing of course makes for a very clumsy land mammal and about every time he moves around the house he knocks something over, breaks something, stubs a toe or knocks a knee or elbow (many of you taller guys can probably remember the awkwardness of the teenage growth spurts).

Since he's hoping to get into a great college and go to med school (I about faint if I allow myself to think about what that will cost), I am encouraging him to think of the word Scholarship. Swimming or water polo would be good, and with hands the size of small snow shovels, I think he'd be great at water polo, a sport I wish had been around when I was a teen (much more fun than just swimming boring laps). If there's one thing I regret I think it's that I didn't start swimming competitively before college. I really struggled my way financially through college, working more than one job at a time and cobbling together whatever academic scholarships I could get my hands on. But those don't touch the kind of scholarships that athletes can land, and I probably would've been better set if I'd focused on swimming in high school. Unfortunately, the swimming coach was a Jerk with a capital J (you hear that Mr. Freeman???) who once famously told me just how "unathletic"  he thought I was. If there's one thing I've done in my life, maybe it's that I proved that one wrong, LOL.

In any case, my real goal with the kids is that they're both proficient swimmers and that they both love the water. I think that should be every parents' goal. As a coach who frequently works with adults who have traumatic experiences with water (sometimes at the hand of well-meaning adults when they were children), I know that the most important thing is that kids are comfortable and safe in and around the water. In my family, not swimming is not an option (my son calls this part of my "tough shit" policy). So whether or not he swims for his supper, at least he'll swim for fun.

Herding Cats

I got to try my hand today at something new: coaching kids! I have worked with a few younger swimmers before, mostly teens who want one-on-one stroke instruction. But I've never tried to give stroke instruction to an entire kids' swim team before. Let me just say that I have a whole NEW level of respect for kids' coaches in general, and my daughter's swim coaches in particular. That is some hard work. It's difficult to explain complicated stroke mechanics in a way that kids can understand, and more importantly will want to try to do. It's actually hard enough just to be heard with 30 or 40 kids, many of whom are bobbing up and down in the water and some of whom are chattering. My voice is very hoarse now.

The one thing that went over well was having them count strokes and try to reduce their stroke count. After doing the catch-up drill, most of them were able to reduce their stroke count and they were all excited to tell me their numbers. Coaching them is not something I'll be doing on a regular basis (this was just a one-hour stroke clinic), but it was cool to have the opportunity to work with them today. More than anything, I love how excited they are to be swimming and how hard they're willing to work at it. In a way, I can picture them as the Master's swimmers of the future, decades from now I hope they'll still be loving it the way I do.

Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning: What to Watch Out For

Since so many of us are going to be open-water swimming this summer, often with others who may be new to the open water, and since so many of us are parents who will be in and around water with our kids and with other kids, please take a moment to read this webpage on Why Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning and how to identify someone who is truly drowning.

The statistics given are eye-opening:

Drowning does not look like most people expect.  There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind.  To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this:  It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult.  In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening

 Take a moment and read the article. It could save a friend's life, a child's life, a stranger's life. I have pulled one drowning child from a river, he was on an inner tube yet could not swim. He was wearing cut-off jean shorts that became very heavy when he tipped into the water. Many other adults were present yet none recognized that the child was in trouble. It's not always easy, and always best to err on the side of caution (especially with a child). Be safe!

Swim Coach: Out of the Brain Rut

When you go to the pool, do you swim the same workouts? How about the same intervals? Do you always start at the same end of the pool, use the same kickboard and pull buoy, bring the same water bottle? Is your workout in a brain rut? Remember that exercise is a mind-body connection and if you're only exercising the body half of the equation, you're missing half of the workout. Just like your body, parts of your brain can become lazy with inactivity. We know that exercise helps improve brain function and actually protects against cognitive decline, and so does changing up your mental stimuli on a regular basis, forcing the old gray matter to forge new neural paths.

When I plan workouts for myself or my swimmers, I like to throw in the occasional curve ball, change things up a bit. I don't always include intervals that end in :00, :15, :30, etc. We don't always end up on the same end of the pool, do the same drills, or use the same pool toys. Today some of my swimmers complained about the odd intervals, I am forcing them to do mental math at the end of each set to determine the next send off, plus every other set ends up at the other end of the pool. But I guess I figure if my swimmers aren't complaining about something, I'm not writing good enough workouts up.

So here's today's Saturday Master's workout.
You can see the drill here . This is one of my favorites, and if done correctly can halt the lazy drift into the catch that many swimmers unconsciously perform.


SKILL: Catch on surface, high elbow
DRILL: S2CC  (Shoulder to Cheek Catch)

Warm Up
300 Swim
4 x 50 S2C Drill
4 x 50: S2CC Drill
2 x 100 Kick IM Order


Main Set

200 – Moderate @ 3:10
2 x 175 – Neg. Split @ 2:55
3 x 150 Descend @ 2:20
4 x 125 Descend @ 2:00

Rounder
5 x 100 Drill S2CC on EZ interval 1:45

6 x 75 @ 1:10  Descend x 3’s
7 x 50 @ 50     Descend x 3’s and hold last fast
8 x 25  @ :30 Descend x 4’s, last 4 EZ


Total: 3900

Nope, Not Today

Went to the pool. Looked at the water. Didn't even look appealing, that's so rare for me. I almost always always always love to swim. Got out, went to the hot tub, then the steam room, then the shower.

I guess there IS such a thing as too much swimming. Who knew???

State Meet Day Three: Lessons Learned

Wow, I learned a lot this weekend about swimming in multi-event, multi-day meets. Namely, that lactic acid accumulation sucks, and that nutrition and hydration get complicated when you need to time them appropriately for sprinting at your maximum pace. I guess I had gotten used to the triathlon race-day groove: get up early, get my shower, eat a big breakfast, take a Clif Bar and some Accelerade to the race start and some gels in my pocket. That's about it. It's different when you need to warm up at 8:00 am, do a distance race at 9:00 am, sprint at 9:50, cool down, warm up again, sprint at 11:00, sprint at 12:30 and at 2:00. What the heck do you eat, and when?

Needless to say, I threw my Paleo diet out the window. The idea of eating chicken drumsticks and yams while trying to keep up a grueling start/stop/sprint/rest schedule was beyond me. I got up in the morning, made my famous breakfast oatmeal custard and took some Clif bars and bananas along for good measure. I actually did eat some chicken breast at one point on Saturday, but that was Not A Good Idea and I didn't repeat it. I did figure out my groove for how long to warm up for each event (hint: A LONG TIME) and my arm never really felt sore until the end of the last day, somewhere after the 100 Fly and before my attempt at participating in the 200 Free Relay.

It's funny, but I don't remember thinking of any of this when I used to swim at meets in college. I guess warming up didn't matter so much because I was younger and springier, and I probably just ate whenever, whatever and didn't worry about it. If I remember right, it involved lots of pasta and pizza and our coach bought enormous boxes of donuts on the way to the meet (early day gels, just not in liquid form).

Our team had a great third day at the meet. Two of our swimmers set state records, lots of PRs all around, some fun swimming on relay teams. For lack of other female swimmers on the last day, I even got to swim in the final relay, clocking a :30:81 for my 50 yard split, even with having to start in the water and not on the blocks. So that makes me wonder what I could do if I actually worked on sprinting again. Hmmmmmmm!

And doesn't this photo make you hope that you look this strong at age 70??? He set a state record in the 200 backstroke by 8 seconds, which is an amazing margin, with a 2:44, which is way impressive in my book. This is on the blocks as the anchor for our one of our relay teams. Our guys took 2nd and 3rd in the relays.

Although I forgot to go and pick up my ribbons (dang!), I ended up the meet with two 4th place in my AG (100 and 200 Free, no surprise there as I had no sprint in me), three 3rds (500, 1000, and 1650, again no surprise since my distance stroke was not as affected), and one 2nd (100 Fly, which was basically one long slog up and down the pool - not pretty. Must. Swim. More. Fly. before the next meet). My time on the 500 today was a reasonable 6:44. Overall, very happy and excited with my first meet in over two decades, and now I am off for some much-needed sleep!

State Master's Championships Day 2

More fun today, the meet really filled up on Day two with over 250 swimmers there. Wow, that was really something! I tried my hand at the 200, which totally stunk. I might be able to swim distance with my arm, but I really really cannot swim any faster at all. And the 200, you're kinda supposed ta swim fast, KWIM? I just don't have the strength or joint control in the left arm to catch and move the water (all of those things I talk about in swim class and coaching all of the time), so I couldn't get up any steam. Clocked in at 2:30.

The 1000 was better. Based on my 1650 time, I figured I could swim a 13:53 for the 1000. My arm was a little on the stiff side this morning from yesterday's swims, so I gave it a looooong warmup. As it turned out, I came in at 13:47, and my splits were darned near even at 6:53.5 for each 500. With my wall start instead of the blocks, I was a good couple of body lengths behind everyone at the first turn, but I started reeling them in one by one. My teammates said that the way I was picking up steam if I'd had another 50 or two I would've had everyone in the heat. As it was, I ended up 3rd in my AG, not too shabby.

So far for me: two 3rd place AG, one 4th. plus having a great time cheering on my teammates. One of my Master's practice lanemates set the state record in the 100 IM in the 70 - 75 AG and he had to break 1:15 to do it. That's pretty darned fast. No make that really darned fast! I also love seeing some of our newer swimmers competing for the first time and finding out what they're capable of. One of our younger swimmers beat her estimated 1000 time by a minute and a half! And it's just so heartening being around all of these terrific swimmers, I especially find the older age groupers to be really inspiring because we are capable of so much more than we think we are as we age. These people are amazing and they truly look terrific, healthy, and fit. A role model for our whole population, for sure.

Not So Bad After All

First day of the swim meet, I only had the 1650 to swim. I had no idea how I would do, how the arm would feel, how fast or slow I would be going. That made it a very strange return to swimming competitively, but strangely also took any pressure off since it all seemed like a total crapshoot as far as expectations.

I put down 24:00 as my entry time, about a 1:27 pace. I can't go off of the blocks due to the still-fractured arm, but did a wall start. My goggles fogged instantly because I forgot to dunk them (geez, I feel like a newbie at this, it's been so long!) and I think I missed about the first 6 turns and couldn't see my lap counter at all. My goggles finally did clear about about the 1000 yard mark but by then I was in the groove. The arm fatigued some, but not as bad as I thought it might and I think I picked up steam toward the end. I did a 23:03, something around a 1:23 pace. Not as fast as pre-broken-arm, but not as bad as I thought it might be.

Even more exciting than anything I was doing, our swimmers did really awesome. One of our guys set a state record for the 400 IM, 55 - 59 age group clocking in a PR (by 3 seconds!) with 4:52 (holy smoke!). Another swimmer did his first 400 IM ever, and came in just over 5:00 and 2nd in his age group. Another, who started out in my Swim Conditioning class a couple of years ago and has really worked on his stroke and moved up to Masters set a PR in the 1650 at 24:14. Plus just watching some of the A-MAZ-ING master's swimmers: a guy who swam in the 1956 Olympics, and is still clocking in outrageous times, I think he was seeded in the 1650 with a 22:00. Wow. And another gentleman in the 85 - 89 age group who swam it in 28:00 (I know more than a few triathletes who couldn't match this guy who is twice their age.)

More excitement tomorrow: the 1000, the 200 and some relays. Sunday will be the 500, the 100 Fly, and the 100 Free plus relays. They did say I could swim on the relays and do a wall start instead of a block start, so if we don't have enough women for the relays, at least that's an option and I can fill in.

If you see someone drowning, LOL

I wouldn't want to swim on this beach!