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. 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).