April Swimmies

[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).

[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.


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. 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 :-)