April Swimmies

[roadie gal]

I went for another lesson with my coach yesterday. I wasn't inspired when I got in the water, but he was able to motivate me. We did about 400yds of drills, including the zipper drill. I'd never done that before and it seemed awkward. Once he explained what I was supposed to be learning from it: learning to keep your arm at an angle so it catches water better, it made sense. Then we did about 10 50yd laps at various speeds - slow, tempo and sprint, with a moderate rest in between. I was able to do a couple of them at 42 seconds! It's not fast for you fish, but it's a HUGE improvement for me. Yay! Now if I can just extend that 50yds to 1.2 miles...

[daisylubob]

You are obviously training for a tri? Which on?
I love swimming!! WIish there was an outdoor pool in my town to swim in during summertime.

[tribogota]

LOVE ZIPPER DRILL!
sometimes I do it just to relax

[GLC1968]

Great job, roadie gal!

I had my swim class last night - first time in two weeks since we were off last week for spring break.

Our main focus was turns, which I was excited about because I needed instruction. I have noticed that people swiming a similiar pace as me would turn and be off the wall way faster and I figured I was doing something wrong. Turns out, I was. ;)

Anyway, we did open turns for a bit and then he offered to teach flip turns to those of us who were interested. The whole class wanted to learn! I did ok with the open turns, but for whatever reason, I did much, much better with the flip turns. I'm amazed, actually. I'm really looking forward to my next swim session so that I can try tying them into actual laps. If it works, I might just be adding that skill to my swims. I'm going to feel kind of silly doing flip turns in the 'slow lane' at the tri - but whatever. If it works for me, I'm gonna use it!

[Selkie]

The last few days have been heaven at the pool---decidedly uncrowded! Alas, the madness of circle swimming will start again Monday, probably, and continue until the outdoor pools open in mid-May.

I've been pushing myself more lately, endurance-wise. Passed another milestone this week---logged my 100th mile in the water since January. I'm not training for an event and actually, swimming is my zen time. There are days when I'm in the zone and it's hard to get out of the water, even though I have to go to work.

Everyone else sounds like they are doing great and making progress toward their goals. GLC, you've really made great progress since you got back in the water!!

[roadie gal]

Daisylubob - I'm going to try to do 3 tris this year: Try for Real Oly in June, the Donner Lake Oly in July, and the Black Diamond HIM in September. I've felt for a while that the swim is my worst sport. It's taken me a few years, but I finally found a coach that I really like.

Mickchick - 100 miles is a LONG way! Good going.

[GLC1968]

I meant to post this over the weekend, but I got distracted.

I swam again on Saturday. In fact, I cancelled a hair appointment so that I could get in a swim! I did a total of 1550 yards. The big news is that I did my first 500y straight. I was doing mostly 100s when I thought that it might be fun to time my tri distance even though I wasn't sure I could do it. So I started my watch and started swimming. I did it in 12:52. When I signed up for the tri, I told them I could do 500y in 12:00 - so I'm almost there. What a guess!! Actually, I had to stop twice - once to adjust my goggles and once to set up the lane lines so that I could count my laps, so if I took that out, I'd probably be pretty close to 12:00 already. I still have 5 more weeks of training, too. I'm so stoked!

Thanks, mickchick! I'm pleased with how much I enjoy this and I aspire to swim the kinds of distances you swim... some day! :)

[Veronica]

That's pretty cool GLC.

Veronica

[Blueberry]

I finally get to post! I went to the pool and actually swam for the first time in many (9?) years. Wow! It was awesome. The muscle memory really is still there. I had just warmed up when a very nice lady asked if I was there for the stroke clinic - turns out it's a free clinic offered to help swimmers work on form. She let me join in - so I have lots of new drills to work on.

I am NOT coordinated enough to count, so I have no idea how far I went (how do you all do it?). I did swim (with some rests and lots of breast stroke) for over an hour. Yay!!

[GLC1968]

Yay, CA!! That's great!

I suck at counting. I've just got too many other things to think about as I work on this swim thing that I can't waste precious brain power on counting. That's my excuse, anyway!

I do two things to keep track.

1) I use my HRM watch and set it in chrono mode. Then I just hit 'lap' every time I start or finish a lap. This way, I get my lap times and my rest times. At first I messed up a bit here and there, but now it's become almost second nature to hit it. If I'm doing 50's, I hit it at 50. If I'm doing 100's, I wait and hit it at 100, etc. I can tell from the times what distance is what (since I don't have set swim workouts yet). My only issue is that my watch doesn't download to my excel sheet automatically, so I have to key the times in manually. Kind of a pain, but I'll live.

2) When I forget my watch, I push all the floats on one of the lane markers down to one end. Then I slide one float over for each lap I do (whether I'm counting 50's or counting 100's, etc). That works in a pinch but I feel silly doing that if there are a lot of people in the pool. Luckily, there is hardly ever anyone at my 24-hour fitness pool, so no one cares what I do!

[Susan Otcenas]

My pool has done it's seasonal switch from 25 yards to 50 meters. I loooooove swimming 50 meters. I feel so lucky to be able to swim in a pool this length!

[GLC1968]

Ugh - had a lousy swim last night. I swam in the pool I first started swimming in and it was crazy in there. Kids hanging on the lane lines (lessons in the next lane), 30 overweight people bobbing up and down in unison creating massive waves (water aerobic class), and the fact that the pool has a diving well in the deep end which makes the transition from shallow to deep VERY steep and the transition was bothering my eyes and making me kind of nauseous each time I swam over it. :mad: The lanes are also 25M and it messes with my rhythm since I'm used to 25y (or at least, I think that's my issue).

Anyway, I managed 1200M in 40 minutes. Did mostly 50's with :20 or :15 rest or 100's with :30 rest between. I wanted to try timing another 500, but I was running out of time. Plus, there were just too many distractions (being forced to move lanes, people coming and going, kids, etc) to get an accurate read anyway.

Then I had to dodge about 20 kids and their moms in the locker rooms. The whole time I kept thinking "see...this is why I don't have kids".

[Blueberry]

Another stroke clinic today (they do them Wed and Thurs). This one was on Duke West Campus (no parking), so I biked! Not far (5 miles round trip) plus an hour + a couple in the pool. The instructor may be being kind, but she says my stroke looks pretty good. Yahoo! Now to work on endurance. The non-stroke clinic part of my work out has large portions of breast stroke in it as recovery laps. I'll get there. Am working on lots of drills to get more comfortable breathing on my "bad" side. Sadly, once I'm back at work in May, I won't be able to attend the stroke clinics. I'll take advantage of them for as long as I can, though!

Crazy wind here today - Gusting to 20 with giant clouds of pollen flying around!

This swimming thing is fun!

[roadie gal]

Swam again yesterday. I was in the outdoor pool. Yay. Winter is supposed to return tomorrow I think. So I'll be back to the rec department pool. :(

I'd had a rough day, so I wasn't in the mood to do the workout my coach had sent me. Instead I just did laps for as long as I could stand it. I did manage to do 1000 yds without stopping, although it was slow. Then I sort of piddled back and forth for another 1000. So I did manage 2000 yds, but it was kind of pitiful.

[Selkie]

Ugh - had a lousy swim last night. .. Kids hanging on the lane lines (lessons in the next lane), 30 overweight people bobbing up and down in unison creating massive waves (water aerobic class)...Then I had to dodge about 20 kids and their moms in the locker rooms. The whole time I kept thinking "see...this is why I don't have kids".

You stuck it out through all of that?? You should have posted some of this in the "things that piss me off" thread!

Your description made me laugh, though, because most of us who swim have been in similar situations. I had a visual of the "noodler" class, bobbing like corks and creating tsumanis! When I swam at an outdoor pool last summer, there was only one lap lane and there were NO rules. No circle swimming, either. People just got in and swam, dodging each other---collisions or near misses were the rule, not the exception. And of course, the lifeguards wouldn't keep the kids out. I took matters into my own hands more than once, making the kids get out, and thank God, their mothers were afraid of me! ;););)

The lap lane area of the pool where I swim now is 6'6" deep with no kids allowed in the lap lanes. I swim early and avoid them, thank God. There is an instructional pool where they swim, and when the tank is not designated for lap swimming, they are allowed to swim/play there. I have to admit that the times I've been at the pool when kids are present, the parents and lifeguards keep them in their designated "areas" and under control.

I can't deal with the mothers/kids thing in the shower room, particularly when mothers bring their 7 or 8 year old SONS in there (the pool has private "family changing areas" with showers/toilets/sinks, so there is no reason those boys should be in the women's locker room).

[GLC1968]

I can't deal with the mothers/kids thing in the shower room, particularly when mothers bring their 7 or 8 year old SONS in there (the pool has private "family changing areas" with showers/toilets/sinks, so there is no reason those boys should be in the women's locker room).

YES! Honestly, I'm not all that modest. I don't flash my white butt or chest while I'm changing mostly to not make others uncomfortable (who wants to see that?!), but I've never been embarassed to take my clothes off in a locker room before. On Wednesday, there was a mom dressing her daughter while her son just stood there (already changed) and started at me. Stared - and from only about 3 ft away, too. I'm not good at judging kids ages, but he was no toddler. WTF? I putzed around until they left (luckily they were almost done) so that I didn't have to undress while he was there. It made me VERY uncomfortable. :mad:


So, on a brighter note - I think I got an 'A' in my swim clinic last night! I was seriously rocking the whole swim thing. :D We had a bunch of instruction about the pull and did a few drills. Then we were given pull buoys and straps for our ankles and we did upwards of 500 yards of drills. Then we dropped the 'toys' and did some swimming. The coach/instructor walked around and answered questions or gave instruction/tips. I took advantage of the opportunity to get in a good workout and get more experince in this pool (same pool for my first tri). I wasn't keeping track, but I know I swam more than 200 yards using all my new 'skills' to the best of my ability. It felt good, though I was getting tired. Anyway, at one point the coach/instructor apparently walked the length of the pool as I swam, watching my stroke. I didn't realize he was watching but when I got to the other end, I saw him standing there, so I paused. He said I looked really good. He said my stroke looked well timed and strong, that my body position was excellent and that my rotation was perfect. He also said that there wasn't anything that he could suggest that I work on, and I said 'except my cardio conditioning?' and he laughed. I was thrilled!

Today my upper body is sore (particularly my forearms - which I figured because they were quite tired after a couple of the drills we did). Unfortunately, I don't get to swim again until Sunday but I'm really looking forward to it!

[kacie tri-ing]

Hey! I've been swimming, but busy. Did 4000yds last week :-)

[sfa]

Swam for the first time since last summer over the weekend. I tried back in January, after being released from PT for my SI joint injury, and was in horrible pain as soon as I hit the water, then didn't last a full lap. It just hurt too much.

So this weekend I tried again and got a bit further--I managed ten laps, but had to rest after every two and I was SLOW. I've always been slow, but didn't think I could get any slower than I was last year! And I got out of breath way too easily (thus the rests). And my SI joint was in pain again afterwards for a full day. I don't get it. Last week I ran 4 miles with no problems, rode 35 miles easily, went on a hilly 8 mile hike, put in a hard 35 minutes on a rowing machine, did yoga and pilates and general strenghtening exercises--none of these cause any problems, and while I'm slower than I have been, it's the sort of slower that you'd expect after time off, not the sort of slower you'd attribute to a complete beginner. It's only swimming that causes so many problems.

But if I managed ten laps this weekend after zero in January, I should at least be able to work up to the distance of the triathlon in the next four months, but I think after that I'm done. There are so many activities that I truly enjoy that I don't want to beat myself up about swimming anymore.

Sarah

[sfa]

That was....dare I say it?....almost pleasant.

Just back from the pool. I was there on Tuesday and had a frustrating workout--I managed to go the distance of the triathlon, but with LOTS of rests, and at a slow pace, and with my heart rate all over the place. And at the end, my SI joint hurt like hell, then was even worse on Wednesday. I had planned to swim again on Thursday but the pool was closed (cloudy water, they didn't know why but weren't letting anyone in).

So I was back today and it was so much easier. On Tuesday I did a bunch of drills on my back and I think that made my SI joint hurt more than usual, so today I did just straight, steady laps. I essentially didn't use my lower body at all, kicking only enough to keep from sinking, and that seemed to help both my SI joint and my heartrate. Surprisingly, it didn't slow me down that much either (any slower and I'd sink like a stone). I need to go stretch and twist my joint back into place a bit, though. I think the trick of the next four months for me will be to swim just enough to keep me in shape for the race, but not so much that I hurt too much to do anything else. My inclination after Tuesday was to crawl into bed and stay there until I felt better.

Sarah

[Veronica]

I did my monthly swim today. :p Warm up was 200 S - K - P. Then I swam 1,000 yards. It was suppose to be a time trial but I wanted to see what the time would be the way I plan to swim in my race. I was pretty happy with it - 18 minutes at about 5 - 6 effort level on a ten point scale. I wish running was so easy.

Did a 100 to cool down for a total of 1700.

Veronica

[roadie gal]

My workout called for a total of 1300 yds, with the main set being 5 X 100 fast. Somehow, I managed to do the first one in 1:35. That's 5 seconds faster than I've ever done it before, even at a lower altitude! I thought it might have been a fluke, but the second one was 1:36. I slowed a bit after that, but my 5th, and slowest, was still only 1:40. I'm thrilled!

[Veronica]

That's terrific! Are you still working with the swim coach?

Veronica

[roadie gal]

That's terrific! Are you still working with the swim coach?

Veronica

Yes, although I haven't been able to get together with him for a few weeks. I'm also having him coach me for my tri season.

[badger]

I've been swimming regularly with a Masters group for 10 years, and tonight a lightbulb went off. Honestly, TEN YEARS, and I finally figured out how to do freestyle stroke properly.

I've never been a good puller, and whenever we used pull buoys my shoulders would kill me. And I mean it felt like someone was sticking a knife into the joint on both sides.

It wasn't busy tonight so I had attention from both coaches on how to correct my stroke. The zipper drill came in very handy to get my elbows high and to engage my chest muscles as opposed to just using my shoulders. And to let the tension out of the arms and reach under the water as opposed to over as I was erroneously instructed a few years back.

And what a difference that made! it was actually relaxing, and got my stroke count down to 15 in the 25 yards section of the pool.

I learned more tonight in 30 minutes than I have in the last 10 years...

[roadie gal]

Badger, that's great! Isn't it amazing when it suddenly works?

[Susan Otcenas]

Thursdays are "endurance/tempo" days for me. This morning's 2200 meter workout included my longest continuous swim so far this season - 1000 meters. It came in at 25:15. I did it at a pace that I could maintain without breathing hard, and a pace at which I would have been able to extend for additional distance.

So, based on that, I'm feeling pretty good that my HIM swim should come in sub-50 minutes. My goal is 45 minutes. I swam 36:01 for the 1500 meters on the same course for the Olympic last year, which would be a 48 minute 2000m.

2 weeks to the 1st tri of the season, and 9 weeks to the HIM!

[Veronica]

Sounds like you're right where you want to be Susan.

Veronica

[Susan Otcenas]

Sounds like you're right where you want to be Susan.



Relatively. Really, I want to swim like YOU. :D Based on last years results, a 45 minute swim time would put me around 350th of 475 participants. Closer to 400th for a 48 minute swim time.

But that's OK. I'll catch up and pass lots of them on the bike. ;)

Susan

[Veronica]

Yeah and you'll pass me on the run. :-)

It's all fun though.

Veronica

[roadie gal]

1750 yards yesterday. I thought that maybe Tuesday was a fluke, but I'm still going faster than I had before. I did 400 yds in 7:15, a 15 second improvement. I have no idea what finally clicked, but I'll take it. I'm going to try to swim with my coach again next week. I think our next step should be to do longer intervals, but we'll see what he thinks.

[Selkie]

During today's long swim (4,000 yards), I was in such a meditative zone that time went by so fast. I got into a rhythm and just kept going. I barely noticed when lane mates changed (no circle swimming, but I ended up splitting the lane the entire time). Even though I wasn't trying to work hard or push myself, I was pleasantly beat when I got out of the pool. Went home and recovered with a Jethro Bodine-sized bowl of Special K Chocolate Delight cereal!

All week, the water has been COLD. I think they must have changed out some of the water or switched to the "spring/summer" temperature.

Outdoor pools are opening in TWO WEEKS, and some of my fellow early bird swimmers will be going to there to swim (one club opens at 5:30 --- heated pool and these folks will go there to swim when the outdoor temp is in the 40s!). Hopefully, this means things will get less crowded.

[tribogota]

yippeee spent 30 minutes floating in the pool today holding on the railing...it felt soooo good

[Selkie]

That's great!!! Were you inside or outside? How's your DVT? My husband had one a couple years ago and it ended up moving (Pulmonary Embolism). How about your other injuries? Hope you are healing quickly.

[Susan Otcenas]

2450 meters this morning, with the longest continuous swim being 1300 meters. Exact same pacing as my last endurance swim, putting me right on pace for a 50 minute 2000 in the pool.

I've been a little intimidated by the sheer distance required in the HIM, but as it gets closer (7 weeks!) and my endurance swims in the pool get longer, I'm starting to feel a little better about it. Last year, it felt like the 1500 in that lake would never end, but I'd also not done any continuous pool swims that long, so I wasn't mentally prepared enough (it had been 6 years since my previous Oly, and my memory is short. :o )

[GLC1968]

Had our last swim clinic last night. We did a warm up, 9 mini/max 50s (counting strokes and timing to get min strokes with max speed) with 20 sec rest between them. Then we did 500y continous for time so that if any of us needed to change our time for the tri, we could. I did it in 11:15 (DFL for the 8 people who showed up last night, btw) which is almost 2 minutes faster than I've ever done it before. It's also faster than the time I registered for (12 min), so I contacted the organizer to update it. Yay!

The weirdest part as we were swimming that 500y was how hot I got. I mean, I felt like I was burning up by the end! I don't think the pool was particularly warm last night, either. I really, really hope its not hot out next Saturday or I'm going to be in trouble by the end of the tri!

I'm swiming again after work tonight, but I'm not sure what I'll do for a workout. I had an interval workout on my schedule, but the mini/max's last night pretty much covered that. We'll see what I'm in the mood for when the time comes...

[Selkie]

January through April's swim total - 137.02 miles! Getting ready for this morning's long swim---since it's warm/clear outside, I'm hoping everyone takes it OUTSIDE instead of going to the pool. :-)

GoSwim has a new drill that I might try sometime (backstroke dolphin kick w/kickboard). I've never really tried to dolphin kick, so this might be a good way to learn it.

[sfa]

I swam a mile today! Well, not a real mile, but a swimmer's mile--1650 yards. This is such an improvement from a year ago--I trained for the 1000 meters for the triathlon and ONLY that distance, no further. I hated swimming so much that as soon as I hit that mark, I got out of the pool like a shot. So when the practice OWS turned out to be longer than the race distance, I nearly didn't make it.

Then I took all of the fall and winter (and well into the spring) off to let my SI joint heal and have only been back in the water a few weeks, but I've gotten my endurance back up quickly. Today I decided to try a mile to see if I could, and not only did I do it, but I felt great afterwards--I could have kept going easily.

And then I went into the locker room and discovered that someone stole my gym bag while I was in the pool! I didn't have too much valuable in there (iPod and phone, but the iPod is four years old and the phone was cheap and annoyed me anyway), but I'm pissed that the cute outfit I was wearing is gone! And also pissed that the bag itself is gone. Grrrrr. I hope whoever stole it is enjoying the worn out underwear and half empty toiletries, though. Idiot. Thank goodness for the soccer coach, who found me shorts and a t-shirt to wear the rest of the day (and I'm sure I looked fetching in my office in a soccer uniform, flip flops, and reeking of chlorine). I'm glad I didn't have any afternoon meetings!

Sarah