Goin' swimmin'

[Lise]

OK, the truth is, I hate swim training. I like swimming. I just don't like...check the Y schedule, get over there between senior citizen water aerobics and guppy swim class....change into swim suit...feel fat...get colored hair wet and put conditioner on it so it doesn't turn green...go swim...come out, shower, condition hair some more...dry off...pack away wet stuff...get dressed.....come home.... too much work for 15 min in the pool! I guess I could spend 30 min if I'd train more often...:rolleyes:

But, I'm off! I'm doing it today! My reward: I get to ride my bike when I get home. How about you guys? Enjoy the swim training? Not so much? Avoid the swim training? :cool:

I am a triathlete, I am a triathlete, I am a triathlete...

[Jones]

Swimming is my favorite part. It is the only workout I can ever get any one to do with me. I love being in the water and I like the time doing laps and really being able to focus on your stroke and getting everything right.It is like meditating.I do find that it is easier to swim if I have a work out planned.
Jones

[Lise]

I like the actual swimming. It's peaceful, and it makes me feel strong, and at the same time, like a little kid. Since I got Lasik, it's even better. It's just all the hullabaloo around getting into and out of the pool, and the limits on lap time at my Y.

And then. Today I got in, started out gliding under water as I always do, swam to the end, and my wonderful AquaSphere goggle-mask was leaking. Huh. I hate that. It's never leaked before. I pulled it off my face, restuck it, and off I went. I lasted all of 4 laps, because my goggles filled with water by the end of the 4th. ARGH! My eyes were burning from the chlorine, and I just called it quits.

What's your experience with goggles? I've had these for a little under a year. I liked them better than the smaller ones. I had a better fit and less leaking until today. Oh well, more bike time! :cool: L.

[Running Mommy]

WOW! You sound like ME!! I've been in the pool ONCE since IMAZ!! Umm that's almost been a month!:eek:
But in my defense, when I DID get in the pool I had some issues. I still have cyclist palsy in my right hand, so I can't put my fingers together to make a strong pull. It was really frustrating. My arm/hand still isn't better, so I think I may have to go to the doctor.. sigh.. I HATE going to the doctor!!
Anyhoo.. I really should go back and at least work on balance drills. I've just been enjoying my bike soo much! And I was soo burned out after spending so much time in that stupid thing! A 25 meter pool is not condusive to long distance swimming thats for sure!

[Lise]

I swear--I was trying to talk myself into doing laps without goggles--NO--and I thought, How did Denise do so many danged laps? Hours and hours of laps? Hats off to you. Hope I can figure out the goggle situation. I've got my first sprint, in a pool, on 5/21. :eek: L.

[Running Mommy]

You know I find that I only get about 6 mos out of my aquaspheres before they start leaking. I think it has to do w/ the amt of clorine they dump in the Y pools. Now that I'm in a smaller pool here in the hood it's not as bad. But yeah, for some reason after awhile they start giving way!

[yellow]

I swear--I was trying to talk myself into doing laps without goggles--NO--
Head up freestyle. I think I can do about 100 yds of that and I have to rest for 5 minutes. :p Seriously, head up breaststroke is better than nothing. It's great for your inner thighs.

I should have gone swimming today (it's my "recovery day" exercise of choice when the weather is bad--the pool is indoors). But I didn't. Why? Get s**t together, drive to pool, do all the hair stuff, swim, get out & shower, get dressed, dry hair, drive home, scarf something, go to work. I spent the time trying to figure out what to do next to/with my hair and trying not to visit the fridge every 5 minutes.

I really like the Tyr goggles for small ADULT faces. The gasket is silicone. Though it sounds like you don't want the skinny goggles. So I'm of no help!

[DirtDiva]

It was beautiful weather (sunny and about 24C) and I wasn't working, so I took the time to walk to the pool (45mins or so), which was lovely. Then I swum, like, my furthest ever (2000m with only one rest in the middle) and even did about 3 tumble-turns (over the course of 80 laps :rolleyes: ) that didn't suck heinously. Then I inhaled a banana (nothing makes me as hungry as swimming does) and walked home again and made myself some lunch. It was nice and quiet at the pool, because it was the middle of the day and all. It was great, great, great. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

The whole swim process is always so much better when you don't have any real time pressure.

[JoyfullySo]

I love the swim.

As a homeschooling mom, and the wife of a triathlete-in-training who likes to bike/run with me, the swim provides an hour of solitude. Funny how I find water to be such a source of spiritual and mental rejuvintaion.

The only thing that makes me nervous is that I am not able to do an open water swim here because of these silly little reptiles called aligators.. Seems as if hydrilla(sp?) has grown everywhere, and those 'gators just love to hang out in it. Call me a chicken, but......

Sooo, I realize that swimming in open water is different, so I have really been working on a stronger, more effcient stroke. I am also trying drills, like stopping in the middle of deep water, staying still for a minute, and starting again. Silly??? Just based on all that I have read, nobody has regretting the time they have worked on swimming, and out of all the parts of the tri, the swim seems to have the potential to be the most frighenting... is that true?

Oh yeah, the hair color thing... I will NEVER color my hair while training for a tri again....What a pain in the fanny....

[Lise]

Five years ago, I went to Jamaica for 7 weeks, with a midwifery project. I stayed in a small town (Oracabessa), about 13 miles east of Ocho Rios. I was about a block away from the ocean, just walk down a dirt road and hop over a gate, if it was closed, and there you are. A small jewel of a cove with one tree for shade. I swam almost every day. The BEST time to swim was right after it rained, because the shiftless men would've cleared off the beach, and I'd have it all to myself. The water would be warm underneath, with a cool 1cm layer of rain on top. It was wonderful. Otherwise, as long as I was in the water, I was good. When I was on the beach, there were always plenty of men who wanted to talk me up. :rolleyes: So I spent a lot of time in the water!

I also walked everywhere, and ate mostly veggies, beans, and rice, because the electricity was iffy, and we cooked over a one-ring gas burner. I didn't have as many students or as many births as we'd expected, so I mostly cleaned the birth center, swam in the ocean, read, and cried over the ending of my (truly awful) marriage. I came back leaner, stronger, and mostly cried out! That summer I saw my first triathlon, and here I am.

Swimming is great. It's all that other crap. My hair is finally looking good, because I'm finally paying someone else to color it, so I most certainly will grease it up to save the color!!! :p

Denise, thanks for the tip on the goggles. I'll just buy some new ones. The problem with the little goggles is that I have yet to find a good fit. Also, it feels like they're sucking my brains out through my eyeballs :eek: and leaves me looking like I have black eyes. Sooooo....new goggle-mask it is!

[Jones]

When I find a pair of goggles that I love (this is not easy) I try to buy multiple pairs, you never know when they will stop making that model.

[Lise]

When I find a pair of goggles that I love (this is not easy) I try to buy multiple pairs, you never know when they will stop making that model.
Good idea. I think I'll buy one pair now, and then several more this summer, at some triathlon expo or other!

[JoyfullySo]

Okay,now I get to eat my words....

A girl here in town does tri's frequently, so I call her after reading this thread to ask where she practices her open water swim.

So, in one hour, we are going to swim in the MIDDLE of the river following her husband in his boat. She promises that the gators aren't around where we are going.:confused: I think I have lost all good judgement..

[Lise]

Okay,now I get to eat my words....

A girl here in town does tri's frequently, so I call her after reading this thread to ask where she practices her open water swim.

So, in one hour, we are going to swim in the MIDDLE of the river following her husband in his boat. She promises that the gators aren't around where we are going.:confused: I think I have lost all good judgement..
Gators. Good grief. :eek: We just risk hypothermia. Gators. It's good to be a Yankee somedays!

[JoyfullySo]

Glad to report that all limbs are intact. The only dangerous critter spotted was a snake crossing the river about 10 minutes upstream from the sandbar.

The swim was good, it taught me a great deal. The current was quite strong, so after we went around the buoy, we were sssloooowwwww.

LOL at the Yankee comment.. I am not orgionally from this area, and sometimes I still catch myself laughing about living here. I promise this place is like Mayberry sometimes...

[DirtDiva]

I would rather get up at five in the morning and walk through ten feet of snow in bare feet (uphill, of course) than even think of going to the pool on a Thursday evening again. Hell, I'd get up at four and wait outside the Leisure Centre for an hour until it opens at six, wearing nothing but a paper bag to stave off frostbite.

Turned out that Thursdays are women only night rather than adult lane swimming, but I figured "oh well, I'm allowed to be here." It was so hideous. Firstly, it was so busy that I had to wait for over half an our before they'd let more people in. Then, I get into the pool area. It's a 25m, eight-lane pool. They have a lane rope down the middle and one half of the pool is free-swimming. Reasonable enough. The other half is divided into two double-wide lanes, one marked "slow" and the other "medium" with signs clearly showing to swim clockwise. Not ideal, but I can totally live with that. I'm a confident swimmer, but let's just say my form could use a little work: "medium" is my comfort zone for laps. "Medium" does not mean that you doggy-paddle on the wrong side of the lane and stop half-way for a rest. "Medium" does not mean you zig-zag along doing some weird kind of backstroke/butterfly thing nobody has ever seen before. "Medium" certainly does not mean the lifeguard has to haul you out of the pool when you let go of the wall at the deep end and promptly sink.

The pool was kinda dirty that late in the day too... *barf*

GRRRRRR AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHH!!!

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming. ;)

[Running Mommy]

WOW! Sounds like the Ymca in Santa Rosa or Marin, or come to think about it- any "Y" that I know of!! :p

[Brina]

I promised myself that I would go swimming today. Sunday D was sick and Tuesday L was sick and apparently, today was my turn. But I was not going to be a wuss, I was going to swim today. I got my bag packed, the boys in the car and headed to the health club - only to learn that it is closed for three days for the annual spring cleaning.

[DirtDiva]

It is the equivalent to a Y, really. I've never had it be so bad like that before though. Usually there's just someone in the medium lane who can swim, but should be in the slow lane, and they tend to get the hint once you've mowed 'em down a couple of times during those first few laps when you're still fresh. ;)

I think I'll just save the swims for days I don't end up working so I can go in the middle of the day.

[Lise]

I know, I know, I started this thread whining about swimming. And I was SO MAD that day about my stupid goggles. But the tri is in 8 days, and I needed to SWIM! So I threw all my running and swimming clothes in the car before work, remembered to stop and buy a new padlock (how do you lose a padlock?!?), did come home to get my IPOD and post all over TE land, then went to the Y. I ran 2.5 miles on the treadmill, not bad. Got in the pool with my smaller goggles, which leaked and fogged just a smidge bit, but it was bearable. My swim distance in the tri is 400m = 8 laps in the race pool = 10 laps in my Y's pool. Last year in the same race, my swim time was 11:38. Today I swam that distance in 12 min, more or less. Including stopping and panting for 6 breaths after each length.

What's so cool is that by lap 7, it started to feel easy. I couldn't believe it. I was focusing on my form, and it just wasn't so hard any more. My right shoulder was the only thing that didn't feel fine. Oh, yeah, and panting as soon as I stopped. But it was kind of cool. I never, ever felt that way swimming laps before. I know some of you were/are competitive swimmers, so this must sound slow and strange to you, but I feel great.

In complete contrast to tlkiwi's swim from h*ll, when I got to the pool, family swim was still going on, but it was just two moms with three little kids. Two lanes were roped off for laps, and I was the only one swimming. Heaven. tlkiwi, I am so sorry you had to endure that BS at your pool. "women only" should not mean "feel free to be inconsiderate and irresponsible".

I feel much, much better about doing this tri in 8 days. If I could swim that well (for me) after a hard week of lots of work and little sleep, and a 2.5 mile run, then I'll do just fine in the tri. YAHOO! Wow, do I wish I'd known you women last year. It would've been much more fun. :) L.

[DirtDiva]

Glad you had a great swim, Lise. The thing that made my swim so frustrating was that the lifeguards had set the pool up so poorly for the number and type of swimmers. Why not have a double-wide slow lane for people who can't swim a length but seem hell-bent on trying, a single medium lane for the folks who can manage 25m, even if it does take them an hour, and a single lane marked "tlkiwi"??? :p I will concede, a number of the folk there may not have been able to read English very well (there are a few multi-lingual signs in the place, but not all of them for some reason), but mostly it was poor management and poor enforcement by the guards; it is a saftey issue, after all.

[Lise]

...mostly it was poor management and poor enforcement by the guards; it is a saftey issue, after all.
That's what I was thinking as I read your post. Let the Center management know--you may not end up with a "tlkiwi" lane :rolleyes: but they will end up with injured swimmers and a lawsuit from somebody if they have unsafe conditions. You may even get a decent "medium" lane in the end. Good luck.

The pool is certainly the most frustrating part of swimming. Oh, and the fact that when I take off my small goggles, it looks like some giant squid was sucking on my eye sockets!!! Getting new goggle/mask today. L.

[DirtDiva]

No tlkiwi lane? Bummer. How about an antipodeans only lane then? :D

[Lise]

How about an antipodeans only lane then? :D
Ummm...people from the other side of the earth (ie NZ) only?