Off the Deck

Towards the end of practice on Tuesday, we were given a 200 kick as part of the warm down set. Nothing crazy or extreme. Still, I reached for my fins. A life long weak kicker, I have gotten into what is probably a bad habit — I put fins on for any kind of kick set.

Except that I barely got through one 100 with them that day. The throbbing across the top of my left foot was so bad that I had to take my that fin off RIGHT AWAY and finish the 200 without fins.

Very odd. As far as I knew, my foot didn’t hurt at all up until that moment. I couldn’t think of a recent left-foot trauma event either — I hadn’t dropped anything on it, hadn’t landed on it funny, etc.

I switched the fins on my feet to see if maybe that one fin was somehow mangled from the great equipment bag freeze of the week before. But nope, my left foot still killed, my right was fine.

Very peculiar.

Back at home later that night, I checked out my foot. I did have a slight bump where I had felt the pain, and there was some bruising. It still ached as well. Huh — apparently I did do something to my foot.

Luckily, my home remedy treatments are working well — slap some arnica on the area, elevate and ice the foot each night while watching the entire Olympic evening program, and wear sneakers, the loosest, most supportive shoes I have in my closet, as much as possible.

Since Tuesday, I sucked it up and kicked sans fins Thursday. It didn’t hurt so much kicking as when pushing off walls. But it is getting better. Today it was only a little irritated during the one kick set we did (you’ll be proud to know that although I used my fins then, I did not use my fins for the kick portion of the warm up).

Maybe this is a good wake up call — I doubt my kicking will improve if I use my fins all the time, so it’s time to kick my fin dependency and give my foot a chance to heal.

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

Uh oh, I think I need to call myself out here: I supsect that I am swim snob.

Here’s how the whole sordid suspicion unraveled:

While sick and wallowing at home this past January, I totally got sucked into The Bachelor. After getting pass the initial “I need brainless entertainment” attraction, I got hooked on the show’s “so bad it’s good” quality. Since then, Barkley and I have been making the show an event — switching houses per week for food, T.V. entertainment, and of course much show-discussion.

Neither of us is an actual fan of the bachelor; he’s kind of dull. In fact, as the episodes have progressed, even his one seemingly unfailing appealing trait, his boyish good looks, has paled as we have seen more of (lack of?) his personality.

But last night* even physical charm couldn’t save him while we both watched in disgust as he “dove” into the ocean off a pirate ship. The dive was totally whimpy — goofy guppy-learn-to-swim “must lock arms over my head before I enter the water” position, arched back, splashy. I laughed out loud, Barkley snorted.

The swimming that followed was worse — that “breathe-one sort of awkward whole-body underwater breaststroke-breathe-and-repeat” approach. And yes, the bachelorettes “swam” that way too. (One sidebar: What’s up with Vienna’s bikini? She’s a Florida coastal native and yet she can’t nail the ultra-hip well-fitting suit thing?!?)

I’m not sure how deep my swim snobbery runs. I’m not sure I want to investigate it beyond today’s observation because it’s not an attractive character trait. One that is totally contrary to my self-proclaimed “swim evangelism.” And it worries me that I can immediately think of another swim-snobbery red flag — my penchant for using the term “tri-geek.” Uh oh…

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist (or closet swim-snob?)

*Fear Not: Olympics trump all — we only watched The Bachelor during Olympic coverage commercial breaks.

Doesn’t matter what company or brand — I have to flip through every swim catalog I receive in the mail, even if I don’t currently need anything. It’s always fun to see what’s new in prints and styles!

This includes Agonswim, even though they primarily cater to teams that want to design their own suit.

After riffling through their newest catalog that arrived this week, I realized that I don’t see any of their “house” prints around the pools. I’m assuming this is because Agonswim bases cost on order size, so a single suit would be pricer than average, especially when compared to a standard Speedo or TYR sale suit.

Although, maybe I do see Agonswim handiwork, but I just don’t realize it because it’s a specially designed and ordered team suit.

In any case, the new catalog did make me wonder about suit pattern design. Is it one of those things that sounds more fun than it proves to be? Does the final product come close to matching your vision? If you are a suit designer by trade, is it tough to come up with new designs season after season?

Must find someone in the biz some day to ask…

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

I really need to start bringing in my equipment bag for the night.

Normally I leave it in the trunk — who wants to drag fins, board, shower stuff, flipflops, cap and goggles in every evening?

Especially when I’m not rolling out of a car and into a house. No, there’s curb-side parking to be wrangled (often a block away) and many, many, many steps to reach my attic-nest in an old Victorian that dates from the 1890s.

If I could just wear my swim backpack and then have both hands free for my equipment bag, it wouldn’t be that bad. Reality? On most days I feel akin to a pack-mule: in addition to the swim backpack, I usually slog a cooler (I need breakfast, fruit, lunch and snack calories to get through the day!), a bag with work files, and some sort of “bonus” item such as grocery bags, a library book bag, or a box from the day’s mail.

So you can understand why it’s so appealing to leave my equipment bag in the trunk. And it’s not like I need any of that stuff until tomorrow, right?

Except that when you leave a wet equipment bag in the trunk, and a snow/ice storm rolls through, everything freezes.

Yep, it wasn’t what I’d call a big storm, but it was cold enough to wreak havoc on my loot. I had to run my flipflops under hot sink water to melt off the ice (in any case, there was no way I was going to put those on without a “pre-warm.”) My goggles actually shattered. Very vexing, but at least I had a spare in my backpack.

All of my shower stuff was frozen. Sitting on the warm deck for 90-ish minutes sort of started the thawing process, but it was like washing my skin and hair with a slushy.

At least my fins and cap seem to be made of tougher stuff — both survived unscathed. Or so it seems…

The new bottom line for winter? I like my stuff; I don’t want to replace it until I wear it out. I need to suck it up and bring in the equipment bag after every swim. I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know that it’s already in its new roost, leaning against the wall along side the top stair.

In the meantime, I will remind myself that extra weight load-bearing on all of those steps only makes me stronger. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

It’s fantastic to be back in the water after being out for a month due to illness. In fact, during the past two practices I swam, “Who cares! I’m in the water!” carried me through the workouts.

But knowing myself like I do, I’m sure the panick-y “I’m deconditioned!!!” thoughts are going to surface real soon.

Over the past weekend, I specifically avoided leading a lane or even looking at the clock (I just counted to five in my head before pushing off behind the swimmer ahead of me, or went when I felt ready while on my own Sunday) because I don’t want to get discouraged about intervals and repeat times yet.

Rationally, I know that since I was out for a month (and it wasn’t like I was on vacation, resting!), it’s going to take at least a month, if not more, to get back to pre-virus level.

Emotions, of course, are an entirely different thing! Honestly, I don’t do well with feeling out of shape, being super tired before I’m even half-way through the first main set of the day, and feeling exiled from my normal lanes/intervals until I am back up to snuff.

I know, I know, “suck it up.” I have bounced back well before, I can do it again.

Yes, maybe I’m a slower learner on this point. But at least I’m starting to understand that my true battle is more with my mind than body. For example, after many, many, many years of disregard, now I totally have the “listen to and obey” the body thing down pat: “Oh hey, my body is saying 3,500 LCM is enough for today, time to get out!”

Next up for sure? Figuring out how to re-program my brain to play only happy, positive messages as my body does what it needs to do while rebuilding…

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

Oh yes. One of the more unsavory swim world elements that nobody really wants to address. Maybe that’s why there always seem to be a continual need for “dialogue.”

Back at my home pool for practice this morning for the first time since being sick, I chose to swim down a lane or so. Kenny Allen recommended this maneuver to me last week: kinder than average intervals allow for the crucial endurance re-build sans relapse.

In any case, there I was in a stange lane with no real sense of anyone else’s pace or “workout personality.” Although there are many types of swim faux pas, in the interest in brevity, I will highlight only the flagrant violations witnessed today:

1) Doing your own thing: Absolutely, if you have the good fortune of having your own lane, go ahead and do whatever the heck you want. Stop at the wall in the middle of repeats. Ignore intervals. Use fins on and off willy-nilly during non-kick sets. Do whatever stroke catches your fancy at any given moment.

But if you are attending a “practice,” well, that implies other people will be working out with you. And that there may be a few common-sense rules in place just to ensure everyone gets in a good workout.

An easy, quick solution? Regroup before every set. It takes just a minute but if everyone waits until the last swimmer is in and then declares what they’re going to do next, (i.e. use paddles or fins, substitute a stroke, do all free, whatever!) you can arrange yourself according to speed.

The one exception to this “rule?” Warmups and cool downs that are “free form,” i.e. “swim until quarter-after.” Under these circumstances, swimmers can do whatever they please as long as they make an effort to stay out of each other’s way.

2) Arriving drastically late: It happens to us all: traffic jam, last-minute request from the boss, can’t find a parking spot, forgot suit in car, etc. It can’t always be avoided — sometimes by the time we finally get out on deck, warm up is over. But almost one-hour late? Even if you follow protocol and go last to allow everyone else to continue at their already established pace, it’s still pretty disruptive. All of sudden you run into someone who wasn’t there just a 50 ago…

3) Not knowing your pace: Heck yeah, every workout is different. Sometimes after warmup you realize you need to jump a lane or two because the main set really plays to your strengths or weakenesses. But after a repeat or two, you should be pretty aware that you are (or are not) in an appropriate-paced lane. For example, if I keep passing you on the breaststroke leg per 200 of an IM set while you’re swimming all free, with fins, you are in the wrong lane.

During practice today I kept looking longlingly at one of my usual lanes. They were so organzied, on interval and more… Oh well, more motivation to get back up to speed, right?

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

It’s only February, but since States information is already posted everywhere, it’s time to think about what I might swim in April.

In the past, entering has been a bit of a no-brainer because I love distance. So, normally I end up with a collection of the longest events offered — 1650/500, 400 IM, etc. with a few relay-50s tossed in to be social. The biggest decisions have usually been along the lines of: “should I go for a brute squad t-shirt?” and “should I hang around and do the 100 fly for kicks or leave right after the distance event du jour?”

This year however, I’m thinking about a radical (well, for me) approach: maybe a mix of 200s: the IM, back and fly, as well as the 100 breast because I need to start “bench-marking” that particular 400 I.M. leg to track improvement (oh please oh please!) this year pre-LC Nats.

Why the change? Two main reasons: 1) Air quality. It’s been hit or miss during practice for awhile now; during a state meet at full capacity? It’s miserable, as I found out last year during the infamous 1650 heat when everyone stopped due to lack of air. Until they fix it (and there are plans to do so this year) I don’t see the point of gearing up for a PR when I can’t breathe adequately.

And then there’s 2) I’ve been sick for a month. Absolutely, I have nearly nine weeks to get back into shape, and I am sure I will be by States. But as with most years, my focus is not SCY. It’s open water and LC Nats. Therefore, I may start training with those seasons in mind right now and oopps, do a scy meet along the way for the heck of it. So why not do a mess of short events for once?

Of course, how I feel as we approach the deadline will be a strong entry-factor. As will event order. In any case, it’s already been fun right now to think about to doing something a little different this year!

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist