June Swimming!

[Susan Otcenas]

Thought I'd start a new swim thread, since we seem to have skipped May.

I had an AMAZING swim this morning. Which I really needed mentally because my last swim (just 3 days after my 600K) was absolutely terrible. No air, no energy, etc.

Well, I must be fully recovered because I had one of my best swims ever. 2600 meters and I felt like I could have done 2600 more. Everything just came together. Even during hard intervals, I never felt short on air (my most common problem) and felt like I was gliding really well.

Why or why can't they all be like that??? My usual swim mode is roughly akin to chopping my way through molasses.

Susan

[Selkie]

Susan---sounds like a swim to remember. If you did it once, you can do it again... :-)

The long weekend gave me the chance to spend some extra time in the pool. On Saturday, I swam my longest ever---5,000 yard in just over 2 hrs. Got in 4,500 yds on Monday and 4,000 Tuesday (took an extra day off from work). The pool was pleasantly uncrowded, which made it difficult to get out of the water! This is a trend that I hope continues, as the outdoor pools are now open. Surprisingly, I felt decently strong.

[Susan Otcenas]

Wow, mickchick, those are some serious distances!

Tonight I'm heading to Hagg Lake for my first OWS of the season. It's been soooooo cold and rainy here this year that I'm way behind schedule on getting outside. I have an Olympic Tri on Sunday (I'm doing the swim & bike on a relay, as I have an injured foot and don't want to run right now) and don't want my first OWS of the season to be at race pace!! That would surely provoke a panic response...

[GLC1968]

My swim last night was predominantly focused on improving distance per stroke and I was pleased with my results. I managed to do multiple 50's with 18 strokes per length and maintaining my best speeds (~0:54/50y). This is a HUGE improvement over when I started where I was doing at best 23 SPL and a time of ~1:05/50y! If I really pushed hard, I could drop it to 16 SPL, but speed suffered a bit AND I found that I couldn't maintain my bilateral breathing. I needed air sooner than my strokes would allow it at that pace. If I breathed every stroke (all on one side) I could easily do 16, but speed still suffered some and it wasn't as comfortable as 18 SPL.

Overall, 1300yd workout and some TIRED upper body muscles (which may have more to do with Tuesdays weight workout than the swim, but still...it felt good!).

Tonight I'm going to do my very first OWS in a wetsuit!! It should be interesting. I'm actually really, really looking forward to it. I miss swimming in freshwater lakes, even if it promises to be cold!

[GLC1968]

What, no update from Susan yet?

We did our first OWS of the season last night. Air temp: 52F and lightly rainy. Water temp: 55F at the center (maybe near 60 where we were?).

Three of us swam for about 35 minutes. I have no idea about distance, but considering how slowly I was swimming, it couldn't have been far! Though, with all the zig-zagging I did, I might have traveled double the actual distance.

I had issues with breathing - first with the cold (I was in a sleeveless suit) but even once I warmed up I had problems. My suit was choking me. The more experienced wet suit swimmers tried to convince me that it's a normal feeling that I just need to get used to, but today my neck is really sore in front (to the touch)...so I think my suit was truly choking me! I have an abnormally long torso for a woman, so that might be why. Luckily, if I can survive Saturday's swim, I won't need it for a race again until September so I might be able to figure something out by then (like a 2 piece?). And of course, right before my first swim in it, I managed to punch a hole in the back of my leg!

Susan was more consistent than me overall and only slightly panicky in a few spots. For someone who really freaked out in OW early in the season last year, she did REALLY well. Plus, she's clearly a better swimmer than me. She at least managed to travel in a relatively straight line!

[colby]

55 degree water and you're in a sleeveless, that's cold. I did that once last year and my arms were pretty chilly. It was harder to focus on making straight lines.

Last pool swim before they shut the pool down today. I did a 400wu, my 1000 T-pace test, and about 700 more yards (whatever got me to 45 minutes). I think my T-Pace number was something like 1:45/100. I felt tired and out of sorts, it's not the usual time when I swim, and my massage guy worked my shoulders last night so they were definitely trying to recover. That would come out to a 28 minute 1.5km swim and I know I'm capable of sub-25 minutes. I guess the T-Pace is something you can go 10-20 seconds faster than and 10-20 seconds slower than, sort of like LTHR and BPM, so maybe it is right, and my 1.5km race pace is more like 1:30/100.

Ah well, I haven't focused on swimming this season, but I plan to stick with it better after Ironman so I can chop some time off my sprint/Olympic races. I'm usually first or second out of the water and a fast cyclist, but they all catch up to me on the run, so if I can buy myself more time out of the water and on the bike, I can be a little more competitive

[Susan Otcenas]

What, no update from Susan yet?

We did our first OWS of the season last night. Air temp: 52F and lightly rainy. Water temp: 55F at the center (maybe near 60 where we were?).

Three of us swam for about 35 minutes. I have no idea about distance, but considering how slowly I was swimming, it couldn't have been far! Though, with all the zig-zagging I did, I might have traveled double the actual distance.

I had issues with breathing - first with the cold (I was in a sleeveless suit) but even once I warmed up I had problems. My suit was choking me. The more experienced wet suit swimmers tried to convince me that it's a normal feeling that I just need to get used to, but today my neck is really sore in front (to the touch)...so I think my suit was truly choking me! I have an abnormally long torso for a woman, so that might be why. Luckily, if I can survive Saturday's swim, I won't need it for a race again until September so I might be able to figure something out by then (like a 2 piece?). And of course, right before my first swim in it, I managed to punch a hole in the back of my leg!

Susan was more consistent than me overall and only slightly panicky in a few spots. For someone who really freaked out in OW early in the season last year, she did REALLY well. Plus, she's clearly a better swimmer than me. She at least managed to travel in a relatively straight line!

Definitely NOT 60 degrees. I've done races in 60 degree water and this was much colder. Low to mid-50s is more like it. The water in that lake (reservoir, actually) comes straight out of the coast range. Brrrrr. Even with swim socks and swim gloves, I lost all the feeling in my fingers and toes. Not good.

GLC is right - my first OWS of the season last year was an unmitigated disaster. I had a major panic attack and got bailed out by two friends. Yesterday was a HUGE improvement over that! I had a couple moments of feeling breathless, but got over it quickly. (I think most of the breathlessness was because the water was so d@mn cold that it was a shock each time I put my face back in! ) Plus, it helped that GLC and I stuck together, so neither of us felt alone, which definitely would have made me feel less comfortable.

I'm hoping for warmer water for this Sunday's Oly. The lake we'll be in is shallower, and tomorrow is supposed to be mostly sunny, so that ought to bring the temps up a little.

[HillSlugger]

My swim last night was predominantly focused on improving distance per stroke and I was pleased with my results. I managed to do multiple 50's with 18 strokes per length and maintaining my best speeds (~0:54/50y). This is a HUGE improvement over when I started where I was doing at best 23 SPL and a time of ~1:05/50y! If I really pushed hard, I could drop it to 16 SPL, but speed suffered a bit AND I found that I couldn't maintain my bilateral breathing. I needed air sooner than my strokes would allow it at that pace. If I breathed every stroke (all on one side) I could easily do 16, but speed still suffered some and it wasn't as comfortable as 18 SPL.

Overall, 1300yd workout and some TIRED upper body muscles (which may have more to do with Tuesdays weight workout than the swim, but still...it felt good!).

Tonight I'm going to do my very first OWS in a wetsuit!! It should be interesting. I'm actually really, really looking forward to it. I miss swimming in freshwater lakes, even if it promises to be cold!

When you say "50's with 18 strokes per length" do you mean 18 strokes/25?

[Selkie]

I can't imagine doing an OWS, particularly in cold temps! Does the wetsuit make you more buoyant (in addition to keeping you warmer)?

I broke down and ordered the lap counter that GLC recommended. :-)

[Susan Otcenas]

I can't imagine doing an OWS, particularly in cold temps! Does the wetsuit make you more buoyant (in addition to keeping you warmer)?

Yes, much more bouyant! Warmer too. Your body heat warms up the thin layer of water trapped in the jersey material on the inside of the suit. Works remarkably well.

[Susan Otcenas]

I'll do a full race report a bit late, but in the meantime....

I'm sooooooo happy to report that I had a kick@ss swim today! Official results aren't up on the race website yet, but I took about 3:30 off my Oly swim from last season. No panic attacks, no breathlessness. It was awesome. (I'm still slow, but I went from 37:00 to 33:30, so I'm a happy camper!)

I'm so glad I did the race, even though I couldn't run. It really gave me the confidence to know that I can manage the swim in the HIM in 3 weeks!

[GLC1968]

When you say "50's with 18 strokes per length" do you mean 18 strokes/25?

Yes, 18 per 25 (yards). I have some type of mental block that keeps me from being able to count after a turn...so I just count each length and keep track that way.

[GLC1968]

I did the Blue Lake sprint distance on Saturday and wow, what a difference! The water felt like bathwater in comparison to Hagg! I seriously would have been overheating had I worn a full suit.

I sucked though. It was VERY bad. I just kept seeing the distances and thinking how 'hard' I felt like I was working and I worried that I'd be spent before I got to bike or run. So I scaled WAY back on my effort. Clearly my lack of experience hurt be pretty badly here. I actually side-stroked almost the whole way! I would swim freestyle for a bit - catch up to a group in front of me - swim side stroke for a bit - fall back to another group - switch to freestyle - catch up to the next group - swim side stroke....etc. When I rounded the last bouy, I told myself that I would swim NO MORE SIDESTROKE and that I'd be fine. Yeah, I was...and I wanted to kick myself for not doing it sooner in the race. Ugh.

Oh well, here's to a PR the next time! (and MUCH more OWS practice this summer!)

[colby]

I swam last night in the $8.48 per swim pool. It's a nice new pool with many lanes, starting blocks, and a deep end, but it's about 15 miles from home vs. my local pool which is a couple blocks down the street. We'll see how the local pool looks after the cleanup work.

I did as many 6 minute hard efforts as I could fit before the pool closed (about 45 minutes worth) after a 5-10 minute warm up with one 50 of arms only and one 50 of legs only inbetween each set.

Probably going to start OWS this week, even if I just go to the public beach and swim in the swim area - it's the same water and is close to shore so it'll be warmer and won't require a kayaker, but it will be like pool swimming in that the area is only so large so I have to do laps.

GLC, it gets easier every time, just stick with it. Congrats, Susan, on your super-huge improvement!

[salsabike]

I did the Blue Lake sprint distance on Saturday and wow, what a difference! The water felt like bathwater in comparison to Hagg! I seriously would have been overheating had I worn a full suit.

I sucked though. It was VERY bad. I just kept seeing the distances and thinking how 'hard' I felt like I was working and I worried that I'd be spent before I got to bike or run. So I scaled WAY back on my effort. Clearly my lack of experience hurt be pretty badly here. I actually side-stroked almost the whole way! I would swim freestyle for a bit - catch up to a group in front of me - swim side stroke for a bit - fall back to another group - switch to freestyle - catch up to the next group - swim side stroke....etc. When I rounded the last bouy, I told myself that I would swim NO MORE SIDESTROKE and that I'd be fine. Yeah, I was...and I wanted to kick myself for not doing it sooner in the race. Ugh.

Oh well, here's to a PR the next time! (and MUCH more OWS practice this summer!)

First tri with an OWS, right? I did my first much the same way--freestyle, sidestroke. Pause to look around. Freestyle, sidestroke. Not to worry. You get more comfortable with it all over time. Good for you for getting it done!