swimsuit addict

It was a gorgeous day here. This morning I went over to the pool for a quick scy swim. Some of the masters I had met last year were there, but there was no group workout—we each did our own thing. Here’s my short workout:

1000 warmup (400s, 200k, 200p, 200d)

10 x 100, odds = FR pull, evens = FR/BK halfsies (with flip turns!)

200 warmdown

I'm adding in flipturns gradually--they're still a little uncomfortable for my injured ribs, and just because I can do some now doesn't mean I need to do a whole workout's worth of them. Ditto breaststroke and dolphin kicking. I'm trying to take things slow and be patient with the progress that I'm making--I will really be glad when I can get back to full training though.

The pool was being very well used this morning—the college team from Sewanee is visiting, plus the kids team was there. All 20 lanes were full. We lap swimmers had to split lanes! It was nice to have so much energy on deck and in the water—good coaches can be fun to be around even if they’re not coaching you specifically. And it was nice to see my masters buddies from last year. I was sad but not surprised to learn that there are no longer coached masters workouts down here anymore—the coach that was running them has grown too busy. With only about a dozen masters swimmers using the pool, and them wanting to swim at different times of day, it’s hard to sustain a program—much to the frustration of those few who like doing group workouts and doing meets.

When I got home it was so beautiful out that I decided to go for a beach swim too. The sky was brilliant blue and cloudless, and the water was a sparkling light green, very clear and calm. I swam 500 yards down the beach and back, then floated around for awhile—the water was 60 degrees, and very comfortable with the strong sun shining overhead. It was such a delightful sensation being surrounded by the translucent green water—like floating inside a gemstone.

I enjoyed a wonderful swim in the gulf today. It was very cold last night—23 degrees for the low, which is about as cold as it ever gets in the winter here. But by 9:30 this morning air temp was up to 37, the sun was shining brilliantly, and some moderate north winds had made the gulf as calm as a lake—there were a few ripples, but no waves, plus the water was exceedingly clear. The nearest buoy in Panama City Beach read 57. The bluff above the beach was sheltering the sand from most of the wind--this, combined with the sun, it was a very pleasant place to be. I headed out for a swim.



I walked along the sand first for a ways to check for jellies—just saw one big white ones, nothing scary. As I was heading back the sheriff’s office truck that patrols the beach and collects trash went by. I asked if they had seen any man-o-wars (I had seen a couple a few days ago)—they had not, just a few moon jellies like the one I saw. Good!

Once back at the chair I undressed quickly and headed into the water. Zoooowwwwie! It was painfully cold. I waded in up to my knees, then a little further, trying to catch my breath as I got used to the biting cold. I was originally hoping to swim a mile today, but I started to reconsider—no way this water was 57! I told myself I would duck under and start swimming after 10 breaths, so I started counting, got to 11, then told myself 20 would be the magic number. It wasn’t. I started over, and this time after the tenth breath I dove in and started stroking.

I am often skittish about swimming out past the sandbar, even though the deeper water there is the best place to swim for any sort of distance. For the last few days I have swum in the limited space between the shore and the first sandbar, even though that means changing course often to stay in sufficiently deep water. Today I resolved that I would be brave and swim out past the sandbar, so I immediately headed towards it. After a dozen strokes I had reached it, and had to stand up and wade over it to get to deeper water. Once I was to swimmable depths again, the water was significantly warmer. It felt downright balmy after the frigid water right by shore—it was 57 at least, probably warmer. In retrospect it makes sense the 2-3 feet of water inland of the sandbar had cooled way down overnight, and hadn’t had much opportunity to warm up in the sun. With no waves, it hadn’t mixed much with the warmer, deeper sea beyond.

I swam comfortably towards the beach flags ½ mile to the east. Apart from some shrimp tunnels I didn’t see anything other than an endless sandy bottom. The sun felt good and made the water sparkle, and I enjoyed the deep green of the gulf. I was a little nervous swimming out beyond the sandbar—I always imagine that there are scary sea creatures out there, though I’ve rarely seen any—but I kept telling myself to just put my head down and swim, and that’s what I did.

Once I reached the flags I turned around and swam back. The temperature continued to be comfortable, and there was negligible current or wind in either direction. The tide was heading in, and it sometimes pushed me further in towards the sandbar than I wanted to be—I could tell by the bottom getting closer, but also by the water getting colder. Occasionally I turned over to do backstroke and enjoy the view of the sky. At one point I startled when I spotted a couple of dark things rising up from the water about 30 meters away . . . turned out they were pelicans floating on the water. I stopped and waved to them, but they didn’t acknowledge me.

When I got to within 100m of my starting point I headed back in over the sandbar—I had to stop and wade over it again, as the water was mid-calf at the shallowest parts. Once inland I swam the final distance to my chair, and that was enough time in the cold inland water to thoroughly chill me. I stayed in just a little longer to explore some underwater rocks just west of where I started—not too much to see there—before I exited the water and quickly put on my parka and boots. I was pleased with my mile swim, and proud of going past the sandbar. It bugs me a little that I’m so skittish about swimming out from shore here, and I’m hoping that my apprehension of what might be out there will lessen as I swim more in the gulf. It took me a while at Brighton to be confident and happy when swimming on my own, and to not imagine that every shadow or ripple was something dangerous. I wish that confidence transferred automatically to swimming in new waters, but it doesn’t seem to.

At sunset tonight something magical happened. There are great blue herons that live down here, but I rarely see them—usually only once or twice during a season. This evening one flew in and landed on the beach right in front a few minutes after sunset. We watched as it stood by the water for a long time, then slowly took a few steps back and forth right at the water’s edge. After a while a second heron flew low by right beside the first, then they both took off and flew down the beach. They stayed there for a while before flying back down our way, settling about 20 yards away from each other. I’ve never seen more than one heron at a time down here—they’re big graceful birds, fairly shy of people, and fun to watch, especially during their unexpectedly awkward take-offs and landings. I hope they come back to visit soon.

Today was a special treat—a LCM swim in the middle of the day. Usually the only lc hours are 6-9 on weekday mornings, but the pool was closed during those hours today due to temps dropping below 30 last night. Instead, it opened at 11, and was set up long course—probably at the request of one of the visiting teams, Delta State, who was working out at that hour. I arrived at the pool around 11:30, chatted a bit with the Delta State coaches, who were very friendly, then hopped in one of the empty lanes for the following gentle workout:

1000 warmup (400s, 200k, 200p, 200dr)

5 x 200 FR @ 3:45, odds pull, evens swim [held these at 3:15-2:20]

5 x 100 BK/FR halfsies @ 2:05 [descended 1:55 > 1:40]

200 warmdown + play

In the warm pool under the strong midday sun I forgot what a cold day it was. Getting out I was reminded—temps only got into the mid-40s here today, plus there was a brisk wind. Hurray for swim parkas!

In the locker room I met a visiting masters swimmer from Germany. I had noticed her in the next lane clipping off 1:30s on some longish freestyle swims. We talked about Worlds in Italy next summer—she’s made her reservations for the meet already—and about IGLA champs in Iceland, and about the ups and downs of training as masters athletes. I liked her and hope to see her at the pool again soon.

Delta State facts: The Statesmen and Lady Statesmen (why do colleges give their women’s teams such awful nicknames) are a DII program from Cleveland, MS, and their colors are dark green and white. The Fighting Okra is the university’s unofficial mascot. They heard about the PCB pool from other coaches at nationals last year. They’re not planning any open-water training sessions while they’re at the beach, at least not after today’s cold weather. Three Lady Statesmen who retired to the locker room early report that drylands have been brutal during this training trip. They have a sweet 50m pool back home, but it’s indoors.

In beach news, yesterday I was a little concerned to see a couple of man-o-wars washed up on the sand. But I only saw 2 in a long beach walk, and today I saw none, so maybe we won’t have an invasion of the little beasties. If all looks clear tomorrow I might opt for the gulf over the pool, even though the water temp has dropped a bit and is now in the high-50s.

I had a beautiful swim in the gulf today. The water was a gorgeous turquoise green, and very sparkly in the bright sunlight. A northwest wind had tamped the waves down a bit from yesterday’s boisterousness, and with less wave action the sand that had made the water cloudy settled out, making for great visibility. I could see the bottom everywhere I swam, and when I looked out underwater into the distance the delicious greenness just seemed to go on forever.

I swam easy about 500 meters down the beach and back, then floated and played for quite awhile. I was wearing a red swimsuit, and when I submerged and looked up at the waters’ surface I could see its reflection surrounded by the turquoise water. The floor of the gulf was pockmarked by ghost shrimp tunnel entrances—they look like small anthills, and feel a little crunchy when you step on them. I felt them yesterday when I was in, and could see them today. I tried not to put my feet down too much, because I didn’t like the idea of wrecking the little shrimpie’s homes. I did dive down to get a closer look at them. Sometimes small gobi fish hide out in these tunnels but I didn’t see any today.

The population of ghost shrimp tends to fluctuate quite a bit down here—when it is high, they produce lots of castings, which float up on shore and mark the outline of the waves:



I just started seeing these lines the last couple of days—they weren’t here when I first arrived. I’m guessing the recent warm weather may have something to do with the ghost shrimp boom.

There are also spots in the gulf where there are lots of castings in the ridges on the bottom—I mostly try to avoid these, but when I do swim over them they are quite a bit warmer than the surrounding water. Maybe the dark castings absorb more heat than the white sand—the same thing happens when I swim over the occasional dark rock formation.

I also saw a few clear jellies on the beach this morning—luckily I didn’t run into any when I was swimming. There have been purple flags up for the last few days, but I have seen only a few jellies in the water or on the beach. Here’s a nice fresh one that rolled in just as I was walking past this morning:



I have been enjoying the days in the 70s, but the weather is supposed to return to more seasonal temps tomorrow. This year 4 out-of-town teams are doing training trips at the pool. I might go in tomorrow for an early-morning lc swim.

After a bit of a setback right before Christmas I am back in the water . . . a little. Yesterday I ventured into the gulf just to test how a brief swim felt. The water was 61, the air temp in the high 60s, and there were breaking waves at the shore and again out at the first sandbar, about 30m out. I navigated past the waves and swam a little bit back and forth along the shoreline. After a week of being out of the water, it felt like being home again. I swam for about 10-15 minutes, then stayed in for a bit and floated and looked up at the sky while the waves bobbed me up and down. It was very peaceful, and I felt very grateful to be surrounded by water in such a beautiful place.

Today the conditions were pretty much the same, only with a few more waves. I went in at high tide, so the water was deep enough to the shore side of the sandbar to do some real swimming (but never so deep that it was above my head). Here’s what it looked like from the 4th floor balcony—the waves never look as big from up there as they do once you’re down on the beach:



I swam back and forth a quarter-mile stretch for about 30 minutes today, and it felt good. The water was intensely green. Visibility wasn’t great—I could see where the bottom was, but it looked pretty cloudy. I didn’t see any sea creatures directly, but I did see the sand suddenly shift around a couple of times as I was swimming over it, so there might well have been rays underneath me (the ones that live close to shore here are very light--the same color as the sand—and can be difficult to see unless the water is really clear). There was a pretty strong current going eastwards, so twice I swam that way until the end of my course, then let the current bring me back to my starting point while I floated on my back. Glad to be back in the water, and happy to close out 2011 with a final swim in the sea!

I am trying to be patient and take things very slowly this time around as my rib heals up. It’s been a little frustrating because the weather and water here have been close to perfect for swimming in the gulf all this past week—I just want to hop in and go! As long as the weather stays this pretty, and the gulf this swimmable, I’ll probably devote the limited amount of swimming I’m doing to the open-water. Hoping to get in a nice New Years Swim tomorrow! (There is a “polar bear plunge” scheduled at the Watercolor Resort, just down the road from here—but it’s hard to take that name seriously when water temps are in the 60s!)

Happy New Years everyone!

I had a nice solo swim this morning at my Florida pool. The kids’ team was working there—they were in 5 of 8 lanes when I arrived, with 3 lap swimmers in the other 3 lanes. The sweetheart of a guy who coaches the team offered to consolidate the kids so that I could have my very own lane too—I assured him that splitting a long course lane with another lap swimmer really wasn’t a hardship, and that I could even (horrors) circle swim if need be. He seemed surprised. Lap swimmers here are spoiled!

Here’s what I did:

1000 lcm warmup (400s, 200k, 200p, 200s)

100 FR @ 1:45
200 FR @ 3:30
300 FR @ 5:15
400 FR @ 7:00
300 FR @ 5:15
200 FR @ 3:30
100 FR @ 1:45
[Goal of set was to go faster on the way down than on the way up the pyramid—I did, going 2-5 seconds under 1:30 pace for the 4/3/2/1 (The first 3 swims were all around 1:35 pace.)]

100 easy

6 x 200 @ :15 rest: odds IM kick, evens FR pull or IM swim

200 warmdown

Today I enjoyed a short swim at the end of a long and busy travel day. I got to visit one of my all-time favorite pools, the Panama City Beach Aquatic Center. I was hoping to run into some swim buddies when I headed over there this afternoon, and as soon as I pulled into the parking lot I saw a couple of familiar faces heading to the pool. I hadn’t seen Paul or Wil since last winter, so I took a few minutes to catch up before we headed in for a swim. Here’s what I did:

700 scy warmup

Then I did the beginning of a workout with 3 Paul, David, and John:

3 x 200 @ 3:30, desc. [I did fr/bk halfsies, 2:59, 2:50, 2:39]

3 x 150 @ 2:30, desc. [I did fr/bk/fr sandwiches, 2:15, 2:06, 2:00]

100 warmdown [There was more to the workout, but I was tired and wanted to get some food before I collapsed. I was glad I got in a swim, though, especially since some subtle pink clouds poked out of the drizzly sky during the sunset. I love swimming outdoors!]

This swim puts me over 700 miles for the year. That seems like a lot.

And before I sign off, a little holiday gift to everyone who is traveling and perhaps working out in unfamiliar pools—I really like this poem by Alison Luterman, about dealing with less-than-ideal lap swim conditions:

Because Even the Word Obstacle is an Obstacle

I had a very pleasant swim this morning at Riverbank, with Hannah and special guest lanemate Carolyn, who got up extra-early to start out her day in the city with a swim. I’m glad she did, both because it was great to see her and because it ensured I made it to the pool! The three of us had our own lane. Here’s how it went:

1000 lcm warmup (400s, 200k, 200p, 200s)

Descend set
Basic set: 500 / 400 / 300 / 200 / 100 swim, with 2 x 50 kick after each swim
Embellishments: (1) Middle 100 of each swim is backstroke, and (2) last 50 of each swim is fast.
FAQ: The middle 100 of 100 = the entire swim.
[We didn’t think of adding the embellishments until after the first 500, so that part was a little long, but it got livelier from there. We were able to kick 3-across in the lane since the pool wasn’t crowded.]

IM set
21 x 50, multiples of 3 = BR, multiples of 4 = BK, multiples of 7 = FL, earlier in IM trumps later in IM

50 easy

500 warmdown + play

My goal today was just to swim some yardage and have fun without doing anything too intense, and I achieved that. I’m still exploring what I can do in the water without too much discomfort. On the last 100 of the descend set, I found that the faster I swam my backstroke, the less painful it was. After playing around a bit more, I generalized this finding: the better form I swim with, ie the tighter I keep my core, the less discomfort I have. It makes sense that keeping my body as straight and firm as possible protects the sore rib and intercostals. I get into trouble when I do stuff that allows my upper back to arch—looking up when breathing on fly and breaststroke, twisting instead of rotating on backstroke (or freestyle), breathing too late on fly. Those are all technique errors I know I’m prone to and try to avoid, so I guess it’s in some ways nice to have immediate feedback when I do them. I was surprised and pleased that I could do fly with minimal discomfort today. I still can’t dolphin kick on my back or streamline well, though, so those 12 days of Christmas will still have to wait!

The embellished descend set gave me another idea for a Christmas set though: a pyramid, or tree, of FR swims that everyone in the lane gets to add an "ornament" to (like the embellishments above). You could end up with some fun and complicated swims, depending on the number and creativity of the swimmers involved.

This morning I swam at Riverbank with John, but we each did our own workouts. The weather has turned cold here—24 when I left the apartment—and the pool was pretty quiet. Here’s what I did:

1000 lcm warmup (400s, 200k, 200p, 200 d/s)

8 x 200 FR @ 3:30, odds pull, evens swim, desc. [went from 3:28 > 3:10 on the pulls, 3:25 > 3:02 on the swims]

400 moderate swim alt FR/BK by 50s

300 play + warmdown

It was easy to descend the 200s—I started out pretty tight and sore and loosened up as I went along, plus grew more confident pushing myself. The rib feels better, but I still can’t streamline fully or do fast flip turns, so I was glad to be swimming longcourse.

Today was my first time trying to swim since Wednesday, and the first day asthma symptoms haven’t hampered my swimming since Thanksgiving weekend. After a couple weeks of struggling in the water and trying to find ways of swimming without making my breathing or rib injury worse, I finally just gave up and spent the week recuperating. I also heeded my doctor’s advice to take enough pain and cough meds to make sure I am sleeping through the night, and that’s made a world of difference in my mood and energy levels. I generally don’t like the haziness I get from such drugs, but it was the perfect accompaniment to evenings curled up on the couch watching televised Nutcracker productions—it really brings out their magic and delight. All in all, it was a very restorative week.

And now that I have some energy and am feeling good again I am enjoying all the festiveness of the city at Christmastime. We had a nice dinner out last night to celebrate my return to health, and walked around the neighborhood enjoying the lights and trees and general atmosphere. I do feel a bit like Rip van Winkle—the space between Thanksgiving weekend and now all seems a little condensed and blurry, and the holidays are unexpectedly here. At least I have a few days to enjoy the city and get things done before heading down to Florida—I’m very much looking forward to some warmer weather and some nice beach time down there.

I swam at Riverbank this morning with swim buddies John, Rondi, and Hannah. It was a make-up birthday workout of sorts—I missed my birthday swim last week because I was under the weather. Rondi brought in fun bubble swim caps with flowers for us to wear in honor of the day. Here’s mine:


Birthday cap, with today’s swimsuit in background.

Looking forward to wearing these for some beach synchro next season!

I’m still not back up to swimming workouts. A respiratory infection that responded only to a second course of antibiotics left me with some pretty severe asthma symptoms that I’m still struggling to get back under control. But I am clearly on the mend at this point, and today was able to swim some laps of easy freestyle and backstroke while my pals did a more challenging workout. It felt good to be back in the water, and really great to be swimming with friends again after a couple of weeks off.

My challenge right now is swimming at a pace that does not trigger any asthma symptoms, which is to say a pace that doesn’t make me breathe hard. I have once again found my tempo trainer useful. Now instead of playing “beat the beeps,” though, I’m playing “don’t beat the beeps.” I set the TT for :25 - :28 seconds, then slow down if I get to the 25/50/75/100m marks before the beeps sound. If I start coughing or have trouble breathing, I just set the tt a little slower. At first I was dismayed to be limited to swimming so slowly, but after a few lengths discovered that I was finding joy in just being in the water and in moving around regardless of how fast or hard I was going.

I’m also currently hampered by a rib injury that I sustained coughing—no flip turns or tight streamlining or short axis strokes for me just yet. I was majorly bummed when this happened last week—I knew it was a possibility once I started having bad asthma symptoms, because I’d cracked a rib once before from asthma-related coughing spasms. I’m sure I’ll be bummed about this again, once my breathing is all better and the rib injury is what’s holding me back from full training. But today, at least, I’m in that post-health-scare state of just being really grateful that things are finally headed in the right direction, and feeling optimistic that even if it takes awhile I will get back to feeling (and swimming) like I think I ought.

And once things are all better I’m looking forward to the birthday make-up swim, part two—this one involving the workout David wrote for the occasion. My friends did it without me last week, so they’ve gotten a preview of the fun—it involves a 4500m set that finishes with a 250 fly. It’s a fun crazy challenge to look forward to—and one that I’ll definitely wear my new black flower swim cap for! It seems like it might take a while before I'm ready to tackle the set—I’m thinking I will probably save it until sometime after the new year, maybe down at my Florida pool--but I will eventually get my birthday properly aquatically celebrated!!

I’m still feeling under the weather and not able to swim any actual workouts, so I’ve resorted to writing imaginary ones instead. Following up on the Thanksgiving turduckens, here’s a 12 Days of Christmas workout, inspired by [ame="http://forums.usms.org/showpost.php?p=255996&postcount=41"]a comment [/ame]on the Thanksgiving workout forum thread. I posted this workout there, but decided to put it up in expanded version here as well.

12 Days of Christmas Holdiday workout, done as 12 rounds on 1 day
On the first day of Christmas, my swim coach gave to me
A 50 dolphin kick on my back

On the second day of Christmas, my swim coach gave to me
2 x half-pool sprints [2 x (12.5 sprint / 12.5 easy)]
And a 50 dolphin kick my back

On the third day of Christmas, my swim coach gave to me
3 lengths back [75 BK]
2 half-pool sprints
And a 50 dolphin kick my back

On the fourth day of Christmas, my swim coach gave to me
4 breaststroke pullouts [2 x 25, with 2 pullouts per length—surface for breath in between and exaggerate glides to see if you can make it to end of pool by the end of the 2nd pullout]
3 lengths back
2 half-pool sprints
And a 50 dolphin kick my back

On the fifth day of Christmas, my swim coach gave to me
5 streamline jumps! [in deep end of pool]
4 breaststroke pullouts
3 lengths back
2 half-pool sprints
And a 50 dolphin kick my back

On the sixth day of Christmas, my swim coach gave to me
6 fly stroke cycles [ie a 25 fly for some of us]
5 streamline jumps!
4 breaststroke pullouts
3 lengths back
2 half-pool sprints
And a 50 dolphin kick my back

On the seventh day of Christmas, my swim coach gave to me
7 lengths of freestyle [175 FR]
6 fly stroke cycles
5 streamline jumps!
4 breaststroke pullouts
3 lengths back
2 half-pool sprints
And a 50 dolphin kick my back

On the eighth day of Christmas, my swim coach gave to me
8 dolphin dives [or 50y of dolphin diving, at 4 per length]
7 lengths of freestyle
6 fly stroke cycles
5 streamline jumps!
4 breaststroke pullouts
3 lengths back
2 half-pool sprints
And a 50 dolphin kick my back

On the ninth day of Christmas, my swim coach gave to me
9 breaststroke kicks [25y BR kick]
8 dolphin dives
7 lengths of freestyle
6 fly stroke cycles
5 streamline jumps!
4 breaststroke pullouts
3 lengths back
2 half-pool sprints
And a 50 dolphin kick my back

On the tenth day of Christmas, my swim coach gave to me
10 strokes of corkscrew [25y corkscrew]
9 breaststroke kicks
8 dolphin dives
7 lengths of freestyle
6 fly stroke cycles
5 streamline jumps!
4 breaststroke pullouts
3 lengths back
2 half-pool sprints
And a 50 dolphin kick my back

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my swim coach gave to me
11 fathoms sculling [that’s 25y scull, if you can manage 1.5 fathom push-offs]
10 strokes of corkscrew
9 breaststroke kicks
8 dolphin dives
7 lengths of freestyle
6 fly stroke cycles
5 streamline jumps!
4 breaststroke pullouts
3 lengths back
2 half-pool sprints
And a 50 dolphin kick my back

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my swim coach gave to me
12 lengths IM [300 IM]
11 fathoms sculling
10 strokes of corkscrew
9 breaststroke kicks
8 dolphin dives
7 lengths of freestyle
6 fly stroke cycles
5 streamline jumps!
4 breaststroke pullouts
3 lengths back
2 half-pool sprints
And a 50 dolphin kick my back

The workout totals 4350 yards, if you stick to the yardage suggested in the brackets. Plus 40 streamline jumps. Happy holidays!

[My actual swimming today was more boring: 1300 yards easy, on my own at the Y. I’m still struggling with a cold and some asthma symptoms it triggered. I tried the “freeze a cold, starve a fever” approach over the weekend, and went out to Brighton to swim in the ocean. I managed to do my December loop, but failed in my bid to make my cold disappear. It was still worth it though, because my time in the ocean was at least a respite from the violent coughing spasms I’ve been having. I guess there’s something about immersing your face in water that stifles the impulse to cough--from an evolutionary standpoint I can see how that would be advantageous. For some reason it doesn’t seem to work as well in the pool--too bad!]

This morning I swam with Hannah at the Y. Today I was less cough-y, and more doped up on cold medicine, and that seemed better for making it through a workout. I didn’t push anything—the goal was just to stay in the water and swim a bit. Here’s how it went:

800 scy warmup

Pacman 300s (kick > swim)
300 kick
50 swim / 250 kick
100 swim / 200 kick
150 swim / 150 kick
200 swim / 100 kick
250 swim / 50 kick
300 swim
[I did most of this freestyle swim, varied kick. No intervals--we took chat breaks between most 300s.]

5 x 100 IM @ 2:00 [warmdown]
150 extra warmdown + play

It seems like my cold might have turned into a URI. I'm seeing the doctor this afternoon—hoping for some drugs that will clear things up!

I’ve been struggling all week with a nasty cold. I wasn’t feeling great this morning, but decided that five days out of the water was surely enough, so I headed over to TNYA workout. My body disagreed with this reasoning, and proved once again that it really is the boss of me. Here’s how it went:

500 scy warmup [lots of coughing breaks]

400 @ 6:20
300 @ 4:30
200 @ 2:50
100 @ 1:20
[I sat out the 200 to do my asthma inhaler and give it a few minutes to kick in. I hardly ever have trouble with my asthma, except when I get a cold.]

6 x 75, 2x through
75 FL @ 1:25
50 FL / 25 FR @ 1:20
75 BK @ 1:25
50 BK / 25 FR @ 1:20
75 BR @ 1:25
50 BR / 25 FR @ 1:20
[I made it 2/3 of the way through the second round before giving up and getting out—I was just having too much trouble with my breathing today. Sometimes it’s better to admit defeat, and live to swim another day. Just hope that day is tomorrow . . .]

I enjoyed another lovely swim in the ocean today. We had a sunny day, with little wind, and about 8 of us met out at Brighton Beach to take advantage of some late-season time in the ocean. I realized after yesterday’s swim that I had made things harder on myself than need be by fretting about things overmuchly, and I decided that today’s swim would be as calm and fretfree as I could make it. The flat ocean helped me out with its gentle lulling motion. Plus, I remembered how counting my strokes between breaths had soothed me yesterday, and did that from the start, and didn’t sight any more than I needed to on my way out. I swam to the pier and back, then on to the white house and back, and it was all wonderful, and easy swimming, the whole way. The only mildly difficult thing today was the cold. It never got too uncomfortable, but I definitely appreciated the sun on my back as I stroked along, and I was grateful to be back on dry land and warming up once I finished.

Luckily it was fairly toasty—in the 60s—by the time I got out, and I warmed up quickly in the sun. Two cool things happened when I was in the water today though. I swam through a school of tiny fishes—about fingernail sized, tons of them all around me for about 4 strokes, then no trace of them for the rest of my swim. Also, the last part of my swim was through a swarm of hundreds of gulls. I was swimming about 15m from shore, and I could see them crowding the beach as I breathed to my right. Then I breathed to my left as well, and saw that there were also quite a few floating out on the water to that side, plus more circling above me. I assumed that they had amassed because someone on shore was feeding them, but when I got back my friends on shore told me that a large flock had initially gathered in the water and were feeding on something below the surface. After the birds had been there for a while, the people on shore then started feeding them as well.

Several times over the past few days other CIBBOWSers have asked me what I’m training for with all the cold water swimming. I’ve been saying I’m not training per se, just doing something I love, but today I thought of a better answer—a December loop! It would be cool to be able to do that, and if the weather manages to hold for another week, that might just be possible!

Today I went out to Brighton Beach for a special Friday CIBBOWS swim. It was unseasonably warm (50s) for late November, and very sunny, but today there was a strong wind out of the southwest. I got there a few minutes before the 11am meet-up time, and lay on the beach while I waited for the others, listening to the rattle of sand hitting my parka hood.

There were about a dozen of us out for the day. The water was choppy from the wind, with some whitecaps, and tide was at its low point. When others asked me what my plans were, I said I didn’t know—I’d keep on swimming as long as I was having fun. I did plan to start out swimming into the wind, towards the pier, so that I wouldn’t be surprised by the difficulty of swimming into chop on the way back, and also so that just in case I got too cold and needed to get out and walk/jog back I wouldn’t be heading into the breeze.

Our tide-and-temperature expert Cara thought the water temp would be about the same as yesterday. (She later confirmed that it had indeed held steady overnight at 50.) I went ahead and got ready and waded in. It took me 20 breaths today in knee-deep water until I dove in and started swimming. The first few breaths in cold wavy water always seem hard on my neck—although I don’t do heads-up freestyle, I think it takes me 20 meters or so until I’m truly whole-hearted about putting my face in. Until then, my neck muscles stay stiff, and it feels like my head gets a little battered by the waves. Once I relax and let the water hold it up things seem much easier.

The water was a beautiful deep green in the sunlight, and I enjoyed swimming along and seeing the shore go by. It was very choppy though—not the rolling chop that carries you up and down, but the truly choppy chop that can randomly wash over your arms and head and create the illusion that it’s pushing you backwards. Sometimes I hear swimmers talk about having to fight against the chop, but I don’t much like that metaphor—I always like to think I’m looking for ways to work with the water, or at least play in it, even when conditions are difficult. But today the play seemed more of the sort of a cat does with a mouse it’s caught. And I was the mouse!

Often when I’m swimming by myself it takes about 10-20 minutes for me to feel comfortable in the water—until then, I’m on high alert. I want to sight often, I’m on the lookout for any unusual noises or sights, and am easily spooked by buoys or shadows in the water. Today there was a boat near the jetties that I was worried about—it didn’t seem to be moving, but I kept on looking up to make sure it wasn’t, since I knew it would be difficult for a craft to spot a swimmer in the chop. As I got closer I could see it had a dive flag on it, and was actually inside the jetties, so I assumed it was anchored, and it was. I’ve seen dive boats around there before—my fellow CIBBOWSers told me there are the remains of an old pier that burned down in that spot. But I spent a fair lot of fretting and sighting before I determined that.

After I passed the boat, I managed to get distracted by a low-flying helicopter, and then a very noisy boat which was in fact quite far away (I do always stop and look t see what’s making noise in the water, to ensure that if it’s a jetski I’m well out of harm’s way). But at the same time I was beginning to really enjoy swimming along—by this point I had gotten to the fanciful part of Coney Island, with the WonderWheel and the rest of the rides off to my right. Their colors were brilliant in the low bright sunlight, and I looked up at the boardwalk and hoped that there were others out enjoying the glorious November day.

I swam to the last jetty before the pier, and then a bit further before stopping. I paused only to look up at the pier for a moment—just a couple of folks up there, and they didn’t seem to be fishing—then turned around and headed back. Suddenly the swimming became super-easy—the chop was with me, and I felt like it was carrying me along without much effort on my part. I stroked tranquilly along, enjoying the sun on my face and back, and marking my progress by noting the landmarks along the shore.

As I neared the diveboat on the return trip, though, I started feeling really tired. My arms and body seemed heavy in the water, and looking at the sun when I breathed seemed disorienting. I didn’t feel any colder than I had a few moments before, but I started worrying that I was getting too chilled and that the fatigue and confusion might be symptomatic of that. When I’m OW swimming, I often fear that any unpleasantness I experience is a trend, but it usually turns out to be a passing sensation. I hoped that would be the case here. Still, in case the fatigue got worse, I decided to swim a little closer to shore, which involved making crescents inside the jetties. I also went to a bi-lateral breathing pattern, so I wasn’t looking into the sun on every stroke. I stroked along counting my breaths for a while—1-2-1-2-1-2-3-and so on—and soon I began feeling stronger and happier. Once I got past the last big jetty I was able to remain close to the shore, and I could also see my group up on the sand, so I stopped worrying and just focused on maintaining the breathing pattern. Before I knew it I was back where I started.

When I was even with the group of swimmers already on shore, I dove down, turned over and looked at the water’s surface from underneath, and contemplated whether I wanted to stop or continue. I decided to keep going, and immediately felt a burst of energy. I picked up my stroke rate and swam to the next jetty, then on to the white building. After spending much of my first mile feeling jumpy, and my second being worried, I finally just felt peaceful and blissy in the water. Sometimes it pays to persevere.

At the eastern end of the beach I turned around quickly and headed home. I was swimming into that same chop again, but now I felt really strong and relished the challenge. I was also feeling warmer than before, probably because I was working hard—kicking to stabilize myself, keeping my strokes quick and short, and minimizing the amount of time my hands spent above the water recovering (and therefore the chances that they would get stopped short by the waves). I swam hard back and was welcomed up onto the beach by the rest of the swimmers—I was first one in and last one out today.

I dressed quickly and jogged up and down the beach a few times to keep the shivers at bay. Unlike yesterday, where conditions were perfect, today’s loop was a tough one. But I’m glad I rallied and stayed in—the experience of that last mile made it all worthwhile!

I was hoping to do a double tomorrow—Asphalt Green pool workout in the morning, then right to the beach. But I’ve swum so much these past two days, and the beach is so enticing, that I might skip the pool workout. These November beach days are precious indeed!

And oh yeah--CIBBOWS was featured in the Wall Street Journal today! I swim with celebrities!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...ctions_newyork

Just a quick workout summary today:

Last night’s rowing class workout
10m warmup w/ drills


Stretching

15 min straight row, steady effort or build, varying sr as follows:
2min @ 22, 1min @ 24
2min @ 23, 1min @ 25
2min @ 24, 1min @ 26
2min @ 25, 1min @ 27
2min @ 26, 1min @ 28

easy rowing + pause

Tabata set: 8 x (:20 hard + :10 easy)

warmdown

This morning’s turducken pool workout
Swam at Riverbank with Rondi and John.

900 lcm warmup

4 x 150 k/d/s, IM order

Turduckens
4 x 350 @ :15 rest, done as
100 FL / 50 BK / 50 BR / 50 BK / 100 FL
100 BK / 50 BR / 50 FR / 50 BR / 100 BK
100 BR / 50 FR / 50 FL / 50 FR / 100 BR
100 FR / 50 FL / 50 BK / 50 FL / 100 FR

Then we talked about what to do next—in the absence of any great ideas, my freestyle-centric workout mates surprised me by deciding to do another round of turduckens!

Seconds on the Turduckens
4 x 350 @ :15 rest, done as
100 FL / 50 BK / 50 BR / 50 BK / 100 FL
100 BK / 50 BR / 50 FR / 50 BR / 100 BK
100 BR / 50 FR / 50 FL / 50 FR / 100 BR
100 FR / 50 FL / 50 BK / 50 FL / 100 FR
[On this round I turned around mid-pool whenever my lanemates got too far ahead, and did the last 200 as warmdown, so I only did about 3 turducken equivalents the second time through.]

Rondi declared that since we’d done one round of turduckens last year, and two this year, next year we’ll have to do three. Avoid the rush, and make your travel plans now to come join in the fun!

Mid-morning beach swim
After the pool, I headed straight out to the beach for CIBBOWS Turkey Dip. It was a near-perfect day—completely sunny, with just a slight wind, the water very flat, The air was a bit nippy, in the high-40s, and Cara measured the water temp at 50. I would have been happy with just a short dip and a visit with friends on the beach, but once I got in the water it was so lulling and peaceful I didn’t want to get out. I ended up swimming a 5K loop in about 1h30 (tide was low and slack, even helping a bit during the last ½ mile). If I had more time I would write 4 flowery paragraphs about how amazing it all was, but you’ll just have to trust me—it was wonderful in the water today. So I ended doing a ton of swimming, and am now ready for a feast!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

This morning I swam with TNYA. It was a crowded workout, since pool closures mean Thursday-Sunday practices have been cancelled. Our lane of 6 worked well together, though, and it was a joy to share the lane with considerate and funny teammates--we were giggling over one thing or another all the time we were at the wall together. Coach Sean was on deck. Here’s how it went:

800 scy warmup

10 x 50 K @ 1:05: odds = flutter on side, evens = choice [dolphin on back for me]

400 pull w/ breathing pattern [I decided that simple bilateral breathing sufficiently honored the spirit of the assigned breathing pattern.]

18 x 100 FR:
1 @ 1:35
1 @ 1:20
1 @ 1:35
2 @ 1:20
1 @ 1:35
3 @ 1:20
1:00 rest, then repeat
[I tried to keep all the 1:20s under 1:15—made 10 of 12.]

200 easy, alt. FR/BK by 50

10 x 50 choice:
Odds = K/D @ 1:05
Evens = D/S @ :55
[By this point in the workout our lane was down to 5, so we each led a pair of these and the leader got to pick the stroke for the whole lane.]

150 warmdown

It was a fun workout.

It’s time to re-up with USMS, and I have to figure out which of the teams I swim regularly with to register with. Right now I’m affiliated with Asphalt Green, and in many ways it makes sense for me to stay with them—they reliably have decent attendance at local meets and at nationals, and I enjoy swimming relays with them and having a coach at meets for feedback. However, next year Team New York will be hosting a local meet in March, and there’s also the possibility that I’ll go to 2012 IGLA championships in Iceland with them. They’ll have a good turnout for both events, and when TNYA turns out for an event, they do it in style—we’ll probably have around 40-70 swimmers going to Reykjavik! Being part of that would be a blast—I think the most fun meets I’ve gone to as a masters swimmers have been IGLAs and Gay Games with Team New York. TNYA is also the team I’ve swum with for the longest time in the city, and I have the deepest connection with teammates there. (But—if I’d been affiliated with them at last weekend’s meet, I would have had only 1 teammate there, and couldn’t have swum relays.)

Also, this year CIBBOWS is an official team within Metro, so that gives me a third choice. I’m thrilled that that group is thriving, and I love swimming with them and want to support them. But that choice probably wouldn’t give me teammates or coaching at meets. It’s nice to have so many options, and I do feel grateful to have so many choices for swimming in the city. I’m also thankful that so far no one has insisted that I affiliate with them to swim with them, or made too much of a fuss when I want to switch back or forth—I’m hoping that doesn’t change. It does make me miss the days when all the teams in our LMSC were lumped together in one big happy family, and you could pick up strangers at meets to swim relays with (and all hold hands and sing kum-ba-yah afterwards).

Today I swam at Riverbank with Hannah and Rondi. We shared our lane with a guy who talked on his zip-locked iphone between swims. I was grateful not to have anything that pressing to deal with this morning.

The goal today was to do a long easy swim to help the meet soreness go away--here’s what I did:

1000 lcm warmup (400s, 200k, 200p, 200 d/s)

3 x 100 FR/BK halfsies, desc., @ 2:00
2 x 200 FR/BK halfsies @ 3:30
400 (300 FR build + 50 easy BK)

8 x 150 sandwiches @ :10 rest
1-4 = 50 fr swim + 50 st (IM order) kick + 50 fr swim
5-8 = 50 fr swim + 50 st (IM order) swim + 50 fr swim

300 kick with fins

300 pull
200 IM
100 swim + play

Today I had a really great time at Aquafit’s SCM Fall Classic. Not that my times were great—they were not, across the board—but I was reminded of what I find really fun and engaging about pool swimming. The meet was well attended by local swimmers—there were about 160 of us there, and I got to see folks whom I have been competing with and against in the Metro are for going on two decades now. Our AGUA team had about 20 swimmers plus a coach in attendance, and we were able to win a close race for 1st place in the medium-sized team division. Wooohoo!

I rode out to the meet with 3 teammates, two of whom were attending their first-ever meets as masters swimmers. We got to the pool early, warm-ups were well organized, and I found plenty of room in various lanes to do the following 1900:

400s
200k, rim
200 fr, alt 6-beat-kick and ez by 25
200 d/s by 25, rim order
3 x (3 x 50 @ :55, desc. 1-3)
3 x (20 sprint kick + 30 easy)
2 x dive start + sprint 25
250 easy + play

This was my first meet since nationals at Auburn, which had not gone well, so I was feeling a little nervous about my first event, the 200 FR. Luckily it was also the meet’s first event, so I didn’t have much time to worry over it before I was up on the blocks ready to go.

200 FR: 2:33.02 (35:97, 38.32, 38.94, 39.79)

This race actually felt great—the first 100 was very long and easy, the turns were springy, and I felt joyful and energetic right up until the last 25, when I started to really hurt and it was hard to keep up my turnover. It was reassuring to feel that my body and I were on the same team for a mid-distance, and that it was responding in predictable ways to everything I was trying to get it to do.

It does look from my splits like I went out a little too fast and didn’t have much left on the last 100. It’s noteworthy that my pace slowed right when I started kicking—I think unless I’m sprinting, 6-beat-kicking might slow me down rather than adding speed. Maybe I get less rotation and engage my core less when I’m not doing an emphatic 2-beat kick? I think my turnover might slow as well. I either need to work on my kick further to make it more effective, or ditch it and go back to my usual mode of swimming mid-distance races, where I don’t throw in a kick until the final 25.

After the 200 I had about a 30-minute break, then the following events came fast and furious, spaced about 10 to 15 minutes apart:

50 FR: 31.58
50 BK: 36.65
100 IM: 1:22.76 (38.08, 44.68)
200 FR relay (they didn’t have splits)

Whew! That was fun!!

Then I had a bit of a breather before my final two events:

200 Med. Relay (swam BR, splits were messed up)
100 BK: 1:24.19 (41.14, 43.05)
(That seems like a big drop-off from my 50 BK time to my 100 split.)

All these results are well off my best times, but today I didn’t really care. It was just loads of fun being at a meet again. I feel like such a swim nerd, but I just love the whole experience of meet swimming—waiting behind the blocks, chatting with the timers, hearing those silly whistles, diving off the blocks, cheering for friends, watching the officials pace the sides of the pool, doing relay exchanges, watching the back and forth of close races, it all makes me happy. I’ve missed the sensation of being speedy in the water, and of pushing my body to swim as fast as it can for short distances. I’m not so worried about the results today—I’m confident those will get better if I decide to do more meet-oriented training. (I do worry sometimes that being so content with mediocrity might be a major character flaw, but that’s a whole nother post). Today’s meet was more about reminding myself of what I find compelling and exciting about pool swimming, and in that I succeeded.

I also had the pleasure of seeing watching some good swimming in the few moments I wasn’t in the competition or warm-down pools. Quicksilver’s 200 BK was a beauteous thing to behold—I think his stroke is longer and smoother than most any other master swimmer I’ve seen. Carolyn was in and out of the pool even more than me today, and proved that she can swim any event whatsoever! RTodd also seemed to be swimming well. Cool to have so many bloggers/forumites at the festivities! Also, I’m very happy to report that my first-time-meet teammates swam great, loved the experience, and vowed they’d be back for more. Kudos to Lisa Bauman of Aquafit and all the volunteers for putting on such a fabulous event!

I had a wonderful swim at the beach today. It was a cold morning—air temp in the low-40s. I was feeling a little nervous about the water temp, because the weather has taken a cold turn the past few days. There aren’t any ocean buoys that report water temps out at Brighton—the closest ones are at the Battery and at Sandy Hook, NJ. The latter was reading under 50 when I left this morning, and Brighton is sometimes a few degrees colder than SH. This time of year I ask myself every time I go out to Brighton whether this will be the day that the water stops being fun to swim in—I figure I won’t know unless I head out and see!

So head out I did, encouraged by the sunny blue sky. The harbor looked a little choppy when the subway train crossed the bridge, but the water looked blue and wonderful and inviting, and I felt impatient to be out in it. But the subway travels at its own pace. . . . Soon enough though I was approaching the Brighton Beach stop, excited and grateful to be out for another day of beach swimming.

At the beach it was quite windy, and there were just a half dozen diehard CIBBOWSers out, plus one guest swimmer from San Francisco, Zena. We stayed bundled up on the beach and chatted for a bit. Teddy had come out earlier to swim, and had just gotten dressed as the rest of us were arriving—he estimated the water to be about 51. That was better than any of us were expecting. After standing around in the cold wind for a little longer, we reassured each other that in the water was the best place to be on a day like this, gathered up our courage, and stripped down to our suits.

Getting in was actually fun—there were waves to help the process along. Once a wave broke over you, it was too cold to stand around wet, so not too much dillydallying today. Hannah and I started out swimming west, against the wind. The waves were delightful—nice roly-poly ones, only just occasionally breaking over us. The cold water felt energizing, and I swam happily along. I stopped and did breaststroke occasionally to sight, as I got spun around several times. I wanted to make sure I was swimming well out from the jetties, since it was hard to see them in the waves. I did some backstroke for a while and admired the sunny sky, and enjoyed watching the sparkly water break over me. The water itself seemed joyful today, and I felt like a kid on the best playdate ever as I stroked along in it.

I swam with Hannah down to the aquarium, where we stopped a bit to take stock of things. We decided to swim a little further, to the end of the mural on the boardwalk. It seemed to be taking a long time to go in that direction, but I didn’t mind because it was so much fun. Once we got to the cyclone we turned around and headed back. The return trip was maybe even better—the current was with us, plus the waves were pushing us along. On my right as I breathed I could watch the sun in the sky, along with striated clouds and a few glimmering contrails from small planes. We got back to our starting place too soon for me, and I waved my friends warming up on the beach before continuing on.

It seemed to take just a few minutes to reach the big jetty to the east, and I considered whether I should turn around or keep on swimming to the white building. I was still feeling great, but my feet and face were getting cold. I decided to turn around, and that was probably wise, because the trip back took a while—the current had gotten stronger since we started. As I swam back I moved in closer to shore hoping for some bigger waves to swim in, and I was happy to be able to see the bottom below me. The water clarity must be getting better. I dove down a few times to look for crabs before I got out, but didn’t see any. All told I swam around 3k, in about an hour, in water that was 50 or 51 degrees, depending on whom you asked. It did feel colder to me than last week, but that could have been the air temp or wind rather than the water temp that made it feel that way.

By the time I got out I felt chilled through, but in a completely pleasant way. I experienced some shivers on the beach, but not violent ones—it was a little tougher to warm up in the cold wind today than in milder weather. But I did eventually get cozy and warm, and enjoyed delicious post-swim snacks while basking in the sun—squash bread, gingerbread, homemade granola bars, and hot tea. Beach feasts are the best!

Tomorrow I totally switch gears—I’m swimming in a scm meet on Long Island. It will be a little bittersweet, as it will be Coach Craig Keller’s last meet as Asphalt Green’s head coach—he is moving to the UK in December. I’m glad to get one last opportunity to compete with him on deck—he’s been a great asset to the team and a great help to me during his time here. My events tomorrow: 50 FR/BK, 100 BK/IM, 200 FR, plus a 50 FR and a 50 BR on relays. I have few expectations—just hoping to have fun!