Off the Deck

After decades of dashing out of the locker room after practice with wet hair, it just occured to me that walking around with wet hair may strike others (i.e. all non-swimmers) as odd. Especially as I am female.

Over the years, I’ve been known to arrive just about anywhere — class, work, errands, movies, resturants, appointments, parties, conferences and more — with wet hair. (I do draw the line at interviews and first-meet business appointments though). Unless people know I am a swimmer, now I’m going to assume that they think I live on the extreme edge of time since I arrive everywhere looking just-starting-my-day-freshly-showered.

Honestly, part of this behavior is explained by laziness. It takes time to dry hair. And, it requires technique with styling tools, which I lack and don’t feel compelled to learn. Part of it is priorities — I’d rather have an extra 10 minutes of swimming instead of “grooming.”

The final reason, and this one is key because it explains why I can get away with it, is “hair type.” I have long, fine, wavy hair (or “seaweed strands” as my best friend refers to it) which does best when left alone. That means no hair dryers, no styling, not even brushing it (seriously, this is a hairdresser directive) except for when right out of the shower.

Yes, I suppose I could pull it back (I see many of the age group girls do a loose bun-type thing after their practices), but then my hair would dry “weird.” Cutting it short is not the answer either — I am not loping off locks just to streamline their drying process.

Nope, I have swimmer’s hair and I’m proud!

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

Many people, (even some fellow swimmers!) often ask how the morning practice group on my team manages to get up early enough to hit 5 a.m. weekday practices. (In case you’re wondering, my alarm clock is set for 4:15 a.m.)

The easy answer is “well, we’re all morning people!”

Of course, this simply isn’t true. Trust me — getting up pre-dawn year-round is not what your body instinctively wants to do, no matter how much of a “lark” you are.

For me, it takes a system to get up that early on a regular basis. Foremost, I have a bedtime in common with the under-10 set because I need sleep, and a lot of it. (Speaking of which, I highly suspect that some of my teammates, who I will not single out here [but you know who you are!], seem to be slightly vampire-ish and thus able to function on a scant 4-5 hours a night on a regular basis.)

Second, I have to be organized down to the last detail. That means on “practice nights” my bag is packed and by the door, my alarm is set, my pre-swim snack is on the kitchen counter and my suit and sweats are stacked by my bag. The morning routine is streamlined. One of the good things about heading off to a pool that early is that there’s little need for grooming, such as face washing or hair brushing. Again, trust me — you don’t want to lose any potential sleep time to wrangling before heading out the door at 4:30 in the morning.

The third thing that works for me is sticking to a sleep pattern. Although the time I get up and go to bed varies some what from day to day, I do try to stay within the same two-hour window on each end. And, even if I don’t plan on going to practice, I still rise early (5:30-ish) to prevent the “wide awake” syndrome on the same evening.

Until next time,
Rebecca, the swim evangelist

Last week turned out to be a long one because I was waiting to hear whether the “oddly pigmented” divet of skin excised from my back was cancerous or not.

It started during a skin-screen check up on Monday. This little preventive medicine appointment became an annual event ever since my friend’s “small blemish” right above her lip turned out to be cancer a few years ago.

I’m ashamed to admit that it’s taken me decades to embrace the “take care of skin” message and thus actually take action (annual skin screens, daily sunblock application, avoid or cover up in intense light). After all, how many warning signs did I need? Although I didn’t grow up in a sun-drenched region like So Cal, Arizona or Florida, I’ve logged a lot of hours in outdoor water over the years. I’m fair skinned. My dad’s had a few bouts with skin cancer. And, off the top of my head, I can think of at least seven fellow swimmers who are my age or younger who have been diagnosed with skin cancer.

So, I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised when my dermatologist wanted to immediately remove the suspicious patch of skin and get it tested.

Luckily, it was beign. The incident has left me more vigilant though. Sunblock will be applied to my back before every outdoor swim, even if I have to ask some random stranger to slap it on for me. I hope this will inspire every reader to do so as well.

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

p.s. May is “skin cancer prevention month” in America. If you don’t have health insurance, please google “free skin screen” to find an appointment near you during the last two weeks of this month.

Today’s main set was 24×100. I know reading that will make a lot of people groan, just as it did earlier today when everyone saw it on the board after cruising into the wall following warm up.

To be honest, my first two thoughts were 1) oooh, that’s going to get boring, and 2) eeek, I hope I can hold the interval that long. Not exactly positive.

But every time we do an “old school” set, I end up really appreciating and liking it. Here are my top five reasons why:

5) If done regularly, these kinds of sets (10×200, 5×400, etc.) are terrific interval, repeat time, and thus condition “check in” opportunities.

4) When intervals are wacky (descend by five seconds; something odd like 1:25 instead of a nice, neat, and quarterly interval like 1:15) much of my brain power is devoted to factoring the next send off time. But when we have a big, consistent, free set with a fixed interval that I don’t need to work out per repeat, I can focus entirely on my stroke and turns.

3) Before I get on a block for the 1500 at the end of long course season, confidence flowing from solid training is very calming!

2) Yes, it’s sappy, but I like how these sets pull everyone together. There’s a lot more pep-talk exchanged between repeats and way more “good jobs” bandied about at the end of 24×100 versus 8×50.

1) The sense of accomplishment is much greater. It sounds sick, but being a little bit intimidated by a set then conquering it without missing a repeat or an interval is really satisfying.

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

Yesterday at practice I swam with a teammate that I haven’t seen in months. Turns out he got the same plague I did this past winter, then got caught up in land-life demands such as finishing up a degree.

In between repeats and sets we managed to carry on a discussion about coming back after a long layoff. His plan from day one? Move down a lane or two and concentrate on getting his strokes back. Once he feels confident in the water again, he’ll switch his training focus to building speed and endurance.

Very smart! He’s absolutely right too. Swimming is an incredibly technical sport. It’s also an incredibly brutal one in terms of conditioning — one week off feels like a month on that first day back. Therefore, you need time to find your strokes again, to allow your muscles to rebuild while they get back into the very repetitive use-groove of swimming.

During my first few weeks back after being sick for two months straight, I found that I didn’t have much power or strength to apply to my strokes. Still, I didn’t take the sensible approach. I let my impatience and stress over approaching Long Course Nationals (now only three months left to train!!!) get to me.

After thrashing my way through more sets than I care to think about now, I wish I had followed my teammate’s plan. Especially because I felt like an awkward-jerky marionette in the water for a good month-plus. And, continually coming up short when chasing peak condition intervals didn’t exactly boost my already “I’m trying to get in shape while everyone’s tapering for Short Course Nationals” low morale.

Today, I’m really grateful that I see the error of my ways, particularly because I squeaked by without an injury and thus avoided a second training set back. Hopefully, I won’t have another unintentional long lay off again due to illness. But if I do, I’ve learned my lesson. I swear on this blog today that I will take the sensible route back!

Until next time,
Rebecca, the swim evangelist

P.S. Congratulations to my fellow DUAquaholics who swam in Austin this week — it was very exciting to “watch” you (hooray for real time event results and heat videos via the ‘net!) throw down PRs and bring home national titles. Excellent swimming, one and all!