Season finished

So my swim season is over and a number of us have decided to do the “couch to 5k” program. We will be running at the local park on weekly basis but I think I will go a little more often than that.

To lead or follow.

For anyone who has done team swimming they will have experienced times where they have to lead or follow.  I do not mean in the “be the best on the team and an example to all” kind of way.  I literally mean in the lane you swim, to be the first one to go (the leader) or to be second, third, or forth (follower).   When you lead your lane in a set you are basically setting the pace at which the practice is swam for you and your fellow lane mates. When you are the follower, you try to keep the pace set by the person who left the wall first.  At least that is how it is suppose to work.

I have the pleasure to swim with some pretty great people.  The women in my lane – in masters swimming there is no segregation of sexes in practice – will often ask me to lead the set when it comes to freestyle.  Not because I am a man, or I have an ego, but simply because I am faster than they are in that particular stroke.  If we were doing backstroke, breast, or my flailing attempt at fly, they would easily kick my ass and they do on a regular basis.   This is a great challenge for me because I have to push harder to keep their pace and the reverse is true for them when we swim freestyle.

So herein lays the choice.  Do I make the jump to a lane with faster pace time during freestyle sets or continue to set the pace in my current lane.  My coach’s opinion is that I should have already made the jump and he has poked me about it a number of times recently.  By making the jump I would have to work harder to keep up the pace and as one of my teammates pointed out, by staying I could mentally fool myself that I am challenging myself when really I am just swimming as hard as necessary.  Not as hard as I can.

The answer is obvious if progression is to be made in my swimming.  I will have to switch between the two lanes depending on the type of set it is.  Swimming back, breast, fly in one lane, and free in another.

How have you handled the progression of your swimming?  Are you a leader or follower in your lane?  How did you find the switch when you had to make it?

A workout diet.

One of the usual routines of our masters club is to have a chat on deck while the coach write up the routines on the board.  Today was no different in that respect but a statement that in normal conversation would seem normal got me thinking.  One of my lane mates made a comment that her friend, another swimming friend, would not be joining us tonight because she was feeling ill.   I replied that she seemed to be sick a lot (not to say she is always sick but rather a missed swim is work or “not feeling up to it” related).  It lead to another innocent comment that I rarely get sick and I think I just have a good diet to thank for that.

All this chitchat, as we prepared for what is one of my most hated but understandably necessary sets, the kick set, got me thinking.   How much thought is put into diet as apart of the swimming workout?  Diet is obviously an important part of any workout if you want to maximize your benefit but masters’ swimming is about Fun, Friendship, and Participation.  It is not about developing top notch athletes in the 20+ categories but about getting out there, having fun, and if you want being competitive as a swimmer.

As someone who has set in-pool goals such as technique improvement, endurance, and better personal times. Out of pool goals of overall tone, weight loss, and higher energy levels. I place a high value on my own diet by doing simple things.  I ensure properly portioned meals, cooking my own meals instead of frozen or pre-cooked meals, avoiding the high fat, salt, sugar content, and defiantly staying away from takeout and fast foods.   Once I got use to these changes I found them actually quite small in the grand scheme of things.

A side benefit to this has been improved culinary skills as I have had to learn new recipes and try different things to keep the pallet varied.

So how important is diet in your workout? Has any changes you made helped reach your goals?

Missed swim….

I should have been in the pool Sunday night. I should have been chasing my lane mates up and down the 25m stretch that makes up our pool but instead I was watching the back of my eyelids on the couch. Being far too tired due to the recent rotation on the night shift I had to get some sleep before rolling back into work later that night.

I am looking forward to and dreading Tuesdays swim.

Gym, I don’t need no stinking gym.

Swimming 2 to 2.5 km three times a week is quite a workout for just about anyone who is not a professional athlete or insane about personal fitness. This is what lead me to cancel my gym membership recently. Having only really made enough use of it to justify about half the cost I resigned to myself to dumping it altogether at the end of the contract which happens to be the month end.

For the most part a swimmer can do all their dry land training with a good set of running shoes, 7lbs medicine ball (or heaver if needed), two handheld free weights, and a balance ball. Since I own most of that it felt like an awful expense to be a member of a gym that I hardly went to.

So at the end of Feb I’ll be financially healthier and enjoying my core workout in the comforts of my own home and local trails.

Too fast! ME!?

One of the most positive pieces of feedback from my coach recently was to tell me that I am too fast for the lanes I have been swimming all year. The realization came during a set of 400m lengths where a lane made and I were putting 25m-50m distances between us and our lane mates after 400m. Not that we are super fast but over time even a slight difference will grow to a noticeable distance. This was demonstrated at that time and especially in a freestyle set.

While we have not move lanes because the consistent mix sets and we each have weak strokes that even out the distance through the set. Maybe in a strictly freestyle set.

Otherwise since my last posting things have been going quite well. Even with the Christmas holiday I ensured I was in the pool three nights a week and it’s paying off. A lot of my clothing fits much better and I feel generally that I have lost weight and gained tone. This only continues to motivate me to work harder, swim better, and hopefully I will shave a few seconds off my personal best during the provincial meet.

Season II

I started my second season of swimming this past month but have been keeping it low key on this blog. Actually, I have completely neglected this blog for some time but that’s a different story.

My goals for this season are not much different from my previous season’s goals. I want to get in better shape over all by becoming more toned. I want to increase my stamina and strength. I want to increase flexibility. While these goals remain the same I have chosen to add that I wish to become more competitive in my swimming. As such I’ll be entering more meets this year and have a definite path in my swimming. While the last year was focused on getting in there and doing it for my overall health this year I have expanded beyond that to becoming a faster, better swimmer.

There are no illusions in my mind that I will set any records, beat out all masters swimmers in NS to be #1, or anything of that sort. This is about personal bests and setting personal physical goals that are achievable. The one and only competition from last season allowed me to have a benchmark to start with. With official times in two swims, I am able to measure my success or failures with better accuracy.

To recap the season so far, I have requested from my personal trainer a series of core workouts that will allow me to build strength for in the pool. These workouts are helping a fair bit with my speed in the pool as I have already noticed a significant difference in my abilities. In the pool, I struggled at the start of the season but after a week or two the endurance returned and swimming a 2000m or 2200m session is an achievable challenge. The net benefit of this is a much healthier feeling and I believe I have dropped an inch or two in my chest/belly area. I have not measured this but have noticed a difference in how my shirts fit. All a net positive.

Looking forward to the first competition on Nov 1.

Kicking for time.

It’s not often that I get feedback from my swimming coach. After a fair showing at the Nova Scotia masters provincials I really never got the feedback I was expecting. I really was looking for some critical feedback on what was done right, what was wrong, and what could use improvement.

Tonight that changed. Neal, our fearless leader, stopped the three of us that swim in my lane to give us some feedback. He statements were simple and can be summed up in one word each. As he pointed to each of us he said “Elbows, Reach, Kick”. I was the recipient of the pointing finger when he said kick.

While the technical aspects of my pull, reach, and recover are good, even great (according to Neal) I have weak kick. His suggest was smaller, quicker, more powerful kicks. For my fellow swimmers it was “Reach further” and “Get your elbows up”. So right away we started correcting our small errors and I saw a huge difference in my speed.

We were swimming 100m sets and typically, with freestyle I will lead since I will pull away slightly after 75m. I usually finish 5s before the rest of my lane, but on this particular set one of the other guys went before me so I gave him a 5s lead figuring I would not catch up to him until we finished. Was I ever wrong, by the 50m mark I was already passing him at the wall.

If I keep this small problem fixed the coach figures I will be able to move from the intermediate workout group to the “advanced” lanes. They are typically longer workouts and faster times. My current problem is I do not know if I can keep that pace for a prolonged distance. Start tossing in 100m @ 2:30 times and I’ll be pooped pretty fast. Although, there is always next season!

Damn it was a good night!

On another note, I got my medals tonight. Cool!

NS Masters Meet.

This past weekend I participated in my first ever competitive swim meet. Having never swam competitively before this was a bit of a nerve racking event for me. Not knowing how badly I would get my ass kicked or how good I would do. Since it was a Masters meet I knew people of all levels and ages would be involved.

It was a small meet, only 65 or so people swam. Most of my team assisted in running the event with about 10 of us actually swimming in it. I was the only one in my age range to swim the 50m and 100m freestyle races. That said I got gold in both races obviously. I did the 50m in 33.47 and the 100m in 1:21.39. Not bad times but there is significant room for improvement in each race. My goal is to cut some time from those races and become a more competitive swimmer for next year.

Slacking

Lately I have been slack with the posting any updates on my working out.  It is not because I am not getting to the gym or pool but because life in general has been a little too busy to post.  In recent weeks I have had to deal with a fire in my building, stolen cell phone, buying a new car, and a number of other life/work related things that have taken my attention away from getting a good post up. 

That said, the working out is going well.  I have not been able to get to the gym as much as I like since meeting with the personal trainer and this is obviously becoming a challenge.  I need to get that time in as well as my pool time if I am to succeed in reaching my goals.  Since he has me on a good routine for developing core strength focusing with high reps, low weights to build tone and not size. 

The swimming is going swimmingly.  This past Sundays drill’s were difficult because of the temperature of the water.  If you ever plan on swimming lengths as part of a work out you will quickly discover that warmer water will equal slower times and quicker exhaustion.  That was the problem I had on Sunday and it made it difficult to finish the 3km swim that the coach planed for us.  I managed to get 1500m done before I had to call it quits.  Being unable to breath well really puts a damper on your ability to swim and distance.

 
Back in the pool tonight and I should be back in the gym tomorrow.  Things are starting to get back to normal at home so a regular schedule is once again possible.