Off the Deck

Before I begin today’s post, a moment to address my recent slacker-posting, as in “none for two weeks.”

I’ve been busy!

And truly, a lot of it has been swim-related. First, I was at USAS; since being home I’ve been thrashing around trying to broker pool time in the a.m. Both are worthy actitivies that merit their own posts. So more on each soon.

Right now, however, more on today’s swim epiphany. It all began earlier today when I signed up for my first meet since April — I’m lost when I get to the “affiliation” box. After a few years of watching my team slowly fall apart, a year of swimming everywhere* searching for 90-minute pool time and taking a break from training/competition this summer, I no longer feel part of any local group.

Yes, the whole thing has been wearing down on me (i.e. “summer break” reference above.) Suddenly it occured to me: if I am mostly on my own for now, why not make the most of it? Once I was in that frame of mind, an idea quickly came to me: I like creating weird challenges for myself, so why not see how many different groups I can “swim with” in one year on the local meet circuit?

Absolutely, I can’t mess with this at the national level. I am registered as CMS and that is the banner I swim under on the national/international level. But locally, designating a “workout group” at little dual meets only matters for team points, relays, etc. And at most fun meets, no-one keeps score, etc.

My plan to date is to favor who ever is the host. If they don’t want a renegade swimmer, I’ll ask around before signing up. I’m curious to see what my total is after one year — we have a lot of local workout groups!

But the real question for now is: will anyone (who hasn’t read this post) notice?

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

*and I still lack consistent pool locale/time

Back east, where I grew up, we went back to school on the Tuesday following Labor Day. So it seemed fitting some how, to choose Sept. 8 this year as the day I returned to training after my summer break.

I swam on my own that Tuesday (scm/outside). After a summer of goofing off with distances I rarely swim (100 and down), lots of “kick with fins” sets and pushing off the wall whenever I felt like it, I chose a base workout (4×200, 4×150, 4×100, 4×50) to ease back into mid-distance+ sets.

Since then, I’ve swam more on my own and even a 90-minute team practice, another base workout (4×200, 4×100 kick, 3×200, 3×100 kick on down the line to 1×200 and 1×100 kick). If you’ve been reading along, you arleady know that I am back to weights as well — two times a week for the next two months or so.

Back to “official” training also means I’m using the pace clock again and recording my practices (I write down workouts, how I felt, intervals, and as many repeat times that I can remember) in my training log.

So far, so good. I think the summer off did the trick. I am not exhausted for hours after practice or weights. Certainly, by the time we hit that last 200 at Saturday’s team practice, I had little left to “descend” it properly as instructed. But I suspect this more related to re-building endurance than anything else. And hey, if you apply yourself, shouldn’t you be kind of tired by the end of practice?

It also feels good to be swimming more challenging sets, logging more yards/meters and swishing around in a team milieu again. I even have a good attitude about recording sets/intervals: if they are a little off now, it’ll be really rewarding to see them drop down over the next few months!

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

Heck yeah, there are a lot of differences between the rec and competitive swimmer. Probably because we have different goals and thus approaches.

But one thing I don’t get is the tricked-out rec swimmer. Seriously. I spent more time than usual swimming during lap hours at rec pools this past summer while on my personal no-compete break. And I saw A LOT of people decked out in gear. I’m refering to the rec swimmer who has “wave webs,” a snorkle, a pullbuoy and fins on. Really. All at the same time.

And now that it’s a little cooler outside in the a.m.s, rec swimmers are showing up dressed for Antarctica –everything from neoprene long-sleeved tops to full suits.

I don’t get it. First of all, are you really “swimming” if you’re relying on head-to-toe gear to get you through your entire workout?

Second, it’s not THAT cold! The air temp hasn’t dipped below 60 yet; the flags haven’t been stirred by wind all week. And the water temp remains a pleasant 79 degrees.

Is it a security thing? Does equipment compensate for endurance, allowing rec swimmers to exercise longer than without it? Is there some tri-geek spill over effect, meaning rec swimmers just like gear?

I guess I find it kind of ironic that people who “specialize” in swimming may use one piece of equipment for a set and then move on, yet rec swimmers are tricked out for an entire session. I want to ask a rec swimmer for a gear rationale, but I’m afraid of getting hit in the head with a kickboard…

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

Last Tuesday I went to see Neil, “worth his weight in gold” PT guy to start weights again after taking three months off from these workouts.

I started lifting weights (anyone recall the first line of Natulis machines?) to supplement my swim training when I was a middle schooler. Since then, I think that this summer’s break was the longest period I’ve gone sans dumbbells.

During my first month off I was so tired I didn’t even think about weights once. It was just such a relief to be resting. Mid-July found me longing to weight train though. But by then, I was committed to sticking to the original plan — three months off! My appointment with Neil was booked for the first week of September. Time off was really good for my body, but I was really ready to get back to training.

Going in, I suspected I’d be a bit tired during the appointment. Reality check? Sweat was pouring off me. People were staring. Soon I couldn’t see because so much sweat was running down my face and into my eyes. It was also kind of scary to feel totally winded/weak. But I stuck with it and finished all three sets of each exercise of the new strength-specific workout.

When not focusing on learning new form, my only other key thought during the workout was: “I’m going to pay for this tomorrow.” Sure enough, I was sore the next day. Three months off, after all, is enough time to get kind of deconditioned.

Sore or not, I’m still thrilled to be back at weights. One thing I learned about myself this summer is while I still might swim a couple of times a week, if I’m not doing weights, I don’t feel like I’m “training.” Now that I feel “officially” back in training, I’m looking forward to building up my strength, power and endurance again this fall while shaking off the flab…

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

Wow — I was really, really, really tired this past May before I took the summer off.

I knew I was more “off” than usual, but I tend to suck it up and push through a lot based on the assumption of “well, living with asthma and allergies, two chronic conditions, can take a lot out of you.” After all, it’s tough to know how you’re “supposed” to feel when you live only in your body.

Luckily however, I got a lot of good information and advice in May. First, there was Neil, my PT guy who suggested a summer break from training and weights. His theory was that I hadn’t taken a break since he’d known me (years by now) and I had been under a lot of stress for the past few years.
Then I had my blood taken during a check up and found out I was severly Vitamin D. All things considered, I decided that even though I was really scared to take such a long break from swimming competitively, I really needed to give my body a chance to rest and slurp up Vitamin D.

Along the way, I learned lots of cool things about my body. Foremost, it regulates its weight pretty well. I was terrified I’d blow up to the size of a house sans weights and less intense workouts. But you know what? The scale didn’t change, my clothes still fit, and several people that I hadn’t seen in awhile asked me this week if I had lost weight recently. Heck yeah, I feel flabby as all get-out by now, but I know that will turn itself around after a month or so back on weights.

During the first month of my break, I pretty much slept. Most nights I was hitting 10-11 hours. There were a few days in there that I was scared I was turning into a sleep-zombie, but ultimately I didn’t care that much because I was actually getting sleep for once. I’ve never been a good sleeper. In fact, one of my childhood names is “Spook” because I spent many a night thrashing around the house.

Thankfully, one of Vitamin D’s job is to regulate hormones, and hormones in turn regulate sleep. Now that I was swimming in 10,000iu per day, I began dreaming again — a very good sign that I was entering the REM stage and getting some sound sleep. By the second month, I felt as if my brain was perking up, and I was actually waking up refreshed. After years (lifetime maybe?) of having trouble falling asleep and waking up every hour or so, this was nothing short of a miracle. Seriously, I can’t express how much “getting sleep” has improved my health overall.

Whenever I swam this past summer, I didn’t count yardage, adhere to intervals or pay attention to the clock. In the beginning, it was because Neil told me that I could swim, but only if I didn’t “train.” After a week or so though, I didn’t want to look at the clock. I was starting to become aware of how crummy I felt — I didn’t want to see that reflected in the clock.

It’s tough to ignore the clock 100% though. By July, I was worried that I would never bounce back because when I did catch an interval or two, they weren’t pretty. But something magical clicked in by the end of that month — I started to feel “better.” And I couldn’t help but notice that my intervals were back down to where they had been right before tapering for last summer’s Nationals. I regarded regaining speed as another miracle, but Neil, who knows the human body, said eight weeks is pretty much the standard window of recovery. Certainly, my endurance is not what it used to be, but similar to the body flab thing, I am confident it will come back with training.

The final big aha! of physical discovery for me this summer concerns diet. Before my break I was pretty much on auto-pilot concerning food. I ate certain things in certain amounts at certain times, all based on notions such as “recovery” or “pre-swim fuel.”

After a summer of eating what I want when I want and stopping when I’m full, or even not automatically eating just because it was “meal time,” I’ve seen that I don’t require as much food as I thought I did. It’s O.K. to stick stuff back in the fridge for later when I am hungry. It’s O.K. to listen to what my body wants. It’s O.K. to be a bit hungry. Consequently, I am eating lighter, having my last meal of the day earlier, and I’m favoring real food over sports bars and drinks, which in turn has really helped me cut back on sugar.

Not focusing on training and competition this summer gave me time and space to not only recover, but to break some bad habits and develop healthy new ones. Of course, there’s always room for improvement across the mind-body-spiritual spectrum. After all, what fun would life be if you had peaked already in everything and there was nothing left to learn to achieve? But I’m off to good start — a much better one than if I hadn’t taken several months off.

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

First, I apologize for the delay in posting the “mental” lessons, the second of the three (mind, body, spirit) elements I’d planned to discuss in regards to my summer break. Sometimes you just have a really busy week and you can only cover the basics beyond the immediate demands!

So without further ado, here’s what I learned about my mind and swimming since May, when I began my “no swimming to train, no competition” summer break:

1) From now on, regular breaks will be built into the training schedules: Hopefully, if I take regular, short breaks (weekend here, a week or so there away from the pool and weight room) I won’t need to take months off to rejuvinate myself.

2) Cross-training is good: Everything about trying out running this summer was good for me. I saw new sites outdoors. It challenged my body in a different way. I learned new skills. And it was so easy to just roll out of bed and walk down the street to the park for a run. Even better, now I have a new sport to balance swimming with. There are many payoffs beyond staying mentally fresh by switching up my workouts. Two key ones? When pools are closed, I can still get in a terrific workout, and I’d like to think I’m preventing repetitive over-use injuries in my upper body while building my lower body (maybe my weak-kick days are coming to and end?)

3) No more “garbage yardage” : If I find myself mindlessly plodding though yardage again, I now know to heed the waving red flag to take a break. Doing something else for a few days won’t negatively affect my swimming that much during most of the training phases I cycle through per year. More importantly, I’ll return to the water with renewed enthusiasm and focus post mini-break. I also pledge to check-in with myself on a regular basis from now on and make adjustmenst as needed. Bored? Still get a great workout by swimming in a different pool with a different team. Need a challenge? Try a new event and commit to having fun with it. Need a mental break from yardage? Throw in a spirit workout or a technique session…

4) You have to develop thick skin to do your own thing: Absolutely, there are many training approaches that work really well for a lot of people. But sometimes, you have to break from that tried-and-true path, stop doing what everyone else is doing (or thinks you should be doing) and go it alone for awhile. Today, I cringe when I think about how I felt this past May. Yes, in comparison to today, it was that bad. I just am so thankful that Neil, my PT guy who is worth his weight in gold, continued to look out for my best interests by suggesting the break (and the subsquent rules) and that I had some glimmer of fortitude to not let the scary-negative comments I heard in reaction to my break sink in when I was at my weakest. I’m going to lie — I had to sit through a lot of discomfort this summer. But it’s made me that much stronger about making training decisions based on what I need most.

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist