http://forums.usms.org/blog.php?8157-swimsuit-addict U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums en Sat, 25 May 2013 09:06:44 GMT vBulletin 60 http://forums.usms.org/images/misc/rss.jpg http://forums.usms.org/blog.php?8157-swimsuit-addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28746-Riverbank-workout Thu, 23 May 2013 00:58:20 GMT I had a good swim this morning at Riverbank. It was a crowded pool today—it seems like the Columbia U. pool is closed, and RB is getting some... I had a good swim this morning at Riverbank. It was a crowded pool today—it seems like the Columbia U. pool is closed, and RB is getting some spillover this week of young swimmers. But Hannah, John, and I found space in one of the fast lanes, and I got in the following workout:

900 lcm warmup (400s, 200k, 200p, 100 d/s)

2 x 200 IM

10 x 100 @ 1:45: odds FR/BK fast, evens easy FR

600 kick (br/bk/fl, 4x through)

Sprint interlude: 4 x (20m sprint + 30m easy), 1-3 FR, 4 FL

4 x 200 FR > IM pacman

200 warmdown

It was too cold and drizzly to stretch on the playground this morning, but I got in some good stretching after weights this afternoon at the Y. My body feels just the right amount of exercised today! ]]> swimsuit addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28746-Riverbank-workout http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28688-Multi-sport-Sunday Sun, 19 May 2013 20:46:26 GMT I enjoyed a good swim at Riverbank this morning. I didn’t have any workout buddies per se, but the pool was full of familiar faces, some of them... I enjoyed a good swim at Riverbank this morning. I didn’t have any workout buddies per se, but the pool was full of familiar faces, some of them former teammates whom I hadn’t seen in a while, so I felt like I was swimming with friends even though I did a solo workout. Today’s sets were of the spur of the moment as-my-mood-dictates sort which sometimes leaves me unmotivated and aimless, but today I stayed focused and felt like I got in some good work on some technique areas that needed addressing. Here’s what I did:

1000 lcm warmup (400s, 200k, 200p, 4 x 50 drill/swim RIMO)

8 x 50, 2 of each stroke IM order, odds = kick 25 fast / 25 easy, evens = swim build

100 FR pull with paddles, 3-stroke breathing, working on good catch on non-breathing side
50 fast FR swim with paddles (strong kick), focusing on early hip rotation
50 FR kickboard-as-buoy pull with paddles, focusing on hip rotation

8 x 50 kick, 25 fast + 25 easy, 1-4 rev IM order, 5-8 IM order

100 FR pull with paddles, 3-stroke breathing, working on good catch on non-breathing side
2 x 50 FR fast swim with paddles and strong kick, focusing on early hip rotation

8 x 50, #s 1,4,6,8 fast kick, reverse IM order, #s 2,3,5,7 easy swim (order manipulated for kickboard-at-the-right-end-of-pool purposes)

100 FR pull with paddles, 3-stroke breathing, working on good catch on non-breathing side
2 x 50 FR fast swim with paddles and strong kick, focusing on early hip rotation
2 x 50 FR kickboard-as-buoy pull with paddles, focusing on hip rotation
2 x 50 FR with strong kick, working on all of the above

100 warmdown

I was really enjoying kicking long course today. My fastest 50 kicks were right at :50 (FR and FL), but my BR kick was slow and seemed like a stranger to me today. I’ll have to start spending more time with it so that we will become friends again.

After my early swim I stretched, had a little nap, enjoyed a diner brunch, then headed out to Brooklyn for diving practice. This wasn’t our regular TNYA workout, but one with a small group of masters divers at St. Francis College. Two of their divers had visited my team’s workout this past Thursday, and had invited me to come to their Sunday afternoon practice. I took them up on it, and was glad I did—I enjoyed a good hour of going off the boards, working on my front approach. With just 4 divers and 2 boards, I got plenty of reps in, and plenty of good feedback. When I started diving my coach said that the approach and takeoff were the hardest part of diving, and the one that takes the longest to master—and that all that flipping and twisting in the air afterwards is simple by comparison. I’m beginning to see his point. I did hit a few good approaches today and could clearly feel the difference—now I need to work on doing that consistently instead of by chance

The Saint Francis pool is super easy to get to—it’s about a half-hour door-to-door from my apartment. And now I have dived, swum a workout, and played in a polo tournament there! The coach was not sure yet what the summer schedule for diving would be out there, but I hope it’s at a time when I can go, and which doesn’t conflict with TNYA’s workouts—it would be great to get in 3 diving practices a week! ]]> swimsuit addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28688-Multi-sport-Sunday http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28684-Chilly-beach-swim Sun, 19 May 2013 00:19:00 GMT I enjoyed a calm but chilly nearly-2-mile swim today at Brighton Beach. Contrary to the forecasts, it was an overcast day. The crowd of CIBBOWS... I enjoyed a calm but chilly nearly-2-mile swim today at Brighton Beach. Contrary to the forecasts, it was an overcast day. The crowd of CIBBOWS swimmers that turned up this morning were looking for the sun to come out as the day, and our swims, progressed, but it stayed stubbornly hidden behind the low-lying clouds. But the beach has its own beauty that shines in any weather, and I enjoyed being in and near the water on this silvery palette-ed day.

Cara measured the water temp as we were getting in, and it was a little colder than anyone expected—between 54 and 55. This was a bit of a drop from last week. Although swimming a loop today would have boosted my confidence for the 5k swim I am doing in a couple of weeks, I was focused more on being cautious about getting too cold, and the temp reading just strengthened that resolve. I haven’t swum outdoors much this season, so I am not as confident as I might otherwise be in my cold-water acclimation. I have also been getting uncharacteristically cold in the pool this week—on Thursday at Riverbank, when Rondi and Hannah were sighing over the too-warm water, I was quite comfortable, and even grew a little chilled when we stopped to chat. So I decided today was a day to pay special attention to my body and how it was feeling, and to be sensible about turning back if I was getting chilled.

Cara, Richard, Melissa, and I set out towards the pier. There was a lot of activity down that way, with two barges stationed towards the pier’s end, repairing the damage to it that hurricane Sandy did last fall. There was also a lot of other activity on the water today, with police boats paralleling our swim route and helicopters flying low overhead. Thankfully no jet skis out today though—one benefit of the cloudy cool day! Melissa and I separated from the others after a bit, and ended up swimming together past the aquarium and to Coney Island. It seemed like a very long time since I had been out this way, and I was glad to see the familiar sight of the Cyclone and the rest of the amusement park as we passed by. By the time we reached the WonderWheel, just a couple of jetties short of the pier, I was beginning to get chilled and was ready to turn around. Melissa decided to come with me, so we reversed course and headed back to our starting point.

I was a little worried about the cold I was feeling, but also enjoying the sensation, and glad I had a swim buddy with me today. We made good progress, even against the current—I was ready to be back at this point and was swimming harder, rather than being the sight-seer I’d been on the way out. We were swimming a bit further out now, but as we passed by the jetties I could still detect a fishy smell at each one. A couple of times I turned over and backstroked in order to watch the helicopters swooping low over us, and wondered what they were doing, and if they were watching us swim below. After the last long jetty I pointed myself towards the pavilion on shore. I could see the group of CIBBOWs swimmers congregated on the sand, and I was glad I was close to the end.

When I got out I got dressed quickly on the beach. Melissa and I had been in about an hour. I had packed plenty of warm clothes and a down jacket, even though I hadn’t been sure I would need them today. I shivered as I drank my thermos of hot tea and welcomed the others as they trickled back in from their swims. I had gotten chilled through, but not unpleasantly so. Several of us compared our mottled skin as blood flow returned the surface unevenly and made interesting patterns on our legs.

I didn’t have time to hang out much afterwards, but enjoyed the subway ride back with my pal John. The trains were packed with finishers from the Brooklyn half-marathon, which finished at Coney Island and attracted over 20,000 runners. A couple of today’s swimmers today ran that race, then swam with us afterwards!

It’s unusual that the water is warming up so late this year. The first race in the area takes place next weekend—the Great Hudson River swim, put on by NYCSwim. It’s short, and allows wetsuits, but even so I hope the water is out of the 50s by then, because temps like today’s can be a shock to swimmers unused to them, no matter what they are wearing. ]]> swimsuit addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28684-Chilly-beach-swim http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28669-They-must-have-been-from-out-of-town Fri, 17 May 2013 21:41:14 GMT On Fridays I usually sleep in and enjoy an easy mid-day swim after Thursday night’s late-night diving practice, and that’s what I did today. (For... On Fridays I usually sleep in and enjoy an easy mid-day swim after Thursday night’s late-night diving practice, and that’s what I did today. (For this mostly-early-morning swimmer, anything that ends at 10pm qualifies as “late night,” especially if it’s in the far reaches of Queens.) I swam at the Y in the early afternoon, and did the following:

1000 scy warmup (400s, 200k, 200p, 200 RIM d/s by 25)

1000 straight, done as (4 x 50 build / 25 fast / 25 easy) + 600 moderate free

100 warmdown + dolphin dives

I had intended to do 6 x 100 (50 build / 25 fast / 25 easy) as my main set, but after enjoying my own lane for most of the warmup I ended up with 3 lanemates in the Y’s narrow fast lane for the rest of my swim. They were all ultra polite, though, and tended to stop at the wall to let me pass anytime I was anywhere near them. On my first few 100s, someone had just stopped to let me go by as I was ending each one, so I kept on going. (The alternative, stopping for 10 seconds rest or so only to catch them on the next lap if they went, or causing them wait even longer time if they wanted to go behind me, seemed like it would discourage their politeness. I’m all for having lanemates who are aware of where others are in the lane and willing to stop and let faster swimmers ease by at the walls, especially at this pool where there’s little room to pass to the straightaway.)

By the time this happened a fourth time, I was beginning to wonder if there were a conspiracy afoot to keep me from ever getting any rest at the wall! But I decided if my lanemates were somehow in cahoots to keep me swimming, I would just roll with it. So instead of trying to continue with my original set, I turned it into a lovely long easy swim, and enjoyed never having to worry about catching or passing anyone. It was very relaxing, and just what my sore muscles needed.

After swimming, I went upstairs for stretching and arm weights—making some inroads in both areas.

I had a good diving practice last night. I finally learned how to do a full forward approach—until now I had been using an abbreviated two-step takeoff (lunge + hurdle). By the end of last night I was getting the hang of adding three steps and a backwards arm swing before that motion, and finding a bit more height off the board as a result. I did my best one-and-a-half yet off the 1m board, and want to add that to my dive list at the next practice meet, now that I can do it without crashing into the water forehead first. Progress is sweet! ]]> swimsuit addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28669-They-must-have-been-from-out-of-town http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28648-Fun-with-birthdays-and-primes Thu, 16 May 2013 20:07:26 GMT Today was a birthday swim morning at Riverbank for one of my lanemates. Two friends and I put on our festive flowery swim caps and did the following... Today was a birthday swim morning at Riverbank for one of my lanemates. Two friends and I put on our festive flowery swim caps and did the following set to celebrate:

800 lcm warmup (400s, 200k, 200p, photo op)

43 x 50 @ whenever-lane-space-permitted intervals (usually 5-10 sec. rest, with a few chat/calculation breaks), with all FR except prime numbers = non-free
[I did BK for the non-free lengths, and sprinted the triangular numbers and kicked the cubes just for good measure.

200 warmdown

This set really brought out my high-school-math-team-geek tendencies. Since all my sprints but one ended up being free, I wondered if 3 were the only prime triangular number. It seemed like that had to be so, but it took me a few 50s to work out a proof. After the set was over we noticed that our ages were all now prime—I wondered if this had happened before (the answer is yes, it was in fact the fourth time during our lifetimes). It would be nice to think we’ll be around to celebrate the next occurrence, but that's a ways off—I would be competing in the 105-109 age group by then!:) ]]> swimsuit addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28648-Fun-with-birthdays-and-primes http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28629-A-300s-sort-of-morning Thu, 16 May 2013 00:45:48 GMT I had a very pleasant swim with a friend at Riverbank this morning. I had done some easy swimming on my own the last couple of days, but this was my... I had a very pleasant swim with a friend at Riverbank this morning. I had done some easy swimming on my own the last couple of days, but this was my first real workout, and my first chance to swim with a swim buddy, in nearly two weeks. Here’s how it went:

1000 LCM warmup (found an earring on the bottom of the pool)

2x thru
300 FR
300 FR / BK / FR sandwich, BK fast
300 BK / FR / BK sandwich, BK fast
300 FR easy pull with paddles

200 warmdown

I followed this up with a nice long stretch on the playground outside the pool, enjoying the sunny morning and the view of the river.

I have been exhausted and very sore the last few days, and have had trouble sleeping because of some neck pain. But with this swim I finally began feeling like myself again in the water. A massage this afternoon helped too. Looking forward to getting back into a happy routine with the swimming, diving, and weights. ]]> swimsuit addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28629-A-300s-sort-of-morning http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28580-Return-from-Alabama-Mock-dive-meet Mon, 13 May 2013 00:19:54 GMT I got back to NYC yesterday evening after a difficult five days in Alabama. My aunt, who had been in the hospital since I arrived on Monday, was... I got back to NYC yesterday evening after a difficult five days in Alabama. My aunt, who had been in the hospital since I arrived on Monday, was diagnosed with pneumonia, but happily responded well to her treatment and regained enough strength and health for the doctor to decide to release her Thursday morning. Unfortunately, between the doctor’s visit in the morning and her discharge around lunchtime, she started getting very confused and seemed to be seeing people who weren’t in the room. At the same time, she was cogent if you talked directly to her, knew basic info like where she was and what date it was, and was very insistent about getting home as soon as possible. The nurses assured us that elderly people (my aunt is 93) often become disoriented in the hospital but get better once they’re in familiar surroundings, so we went ahead with the discharge and took her back home.

Unfortunately, things only got worse from there. At home she was too disoriented to get around, even with help—she kept trying to run into walls, convinced there were rooms behind them, and attempting to maneuver her walker around what looked to her like people in her way. We called her primary care doc to let him know what was going on, as well as the home health service that would be setting up some additional assistance. With some pleading, I convinced the latter to send someone out that afternoon to do their initial evaluation. I also spoke with my sister, who is a pharmacist. After hearing the problem and asking me what new medications our aunt was given in the hospital (just the antibiotic to treat her pneumonia), she did some research and let us know that one possible side effect of that antibiotic was CNS excitement, which could lead to hallucinations.

The home health care nurse came, did most of her evaluation, then suggested that we take my aunt to the ER. It had become increasingly clear that even with my mom and me both staying with her at home, we couldn’t care for her or keep her safe in her present state. So on the same day she was released from one hospital, she ended up in the ER of another one (the local hospital this time, thankfully, not the bigger one 40 minutes away). They did a battery of tests to rule out other causes, and eventually admitted her. Her antibiotic was changed.

She finally conked out around 2am after what must have been a completely exhausting and confusing day for her—I know it was for us. The next morning she was very tired and weak but no longer hallucinating, and by the afternoon she was back to herself. It was such a relief to be able to chat and joke with her again. She went from the hospital to the local nursing home the next morning. She’s technically out there for rehab, but the nursing home or the local assisted living facility might end up being a more permanent thing. Her previous situation—living alone, with my mom looking after her as needed and spending nights at her house—was becoming unsustainable as she grew more unsteady and her eyesight deteriorated, and although everyone involved had acknowledged that, no one was willing make any changes until there was a crisis. This week was it, and I feel good that I was there to help them through it and get things to a better place for my aunt and my mom both.

So, having flown back last night, I was able to totally switch gears and go out this morning to do a mock dive meet at the Flushing Meadows Pool in Queens. This event was an opportunity for local divers to get experience diving in a meet format and getting scores for each dive, but results were not official, and totals weren’t tallied. It was run by one of the local kids’ diving clubs (I had to join AAU to participate), and my dive coach was to be one of the judges. I almost didn’t go—I’m still exhausted and body-sore from several nights spent on hospital couches—but I figured that we don’t always get perfect circumstances to compete in, so I should take whatever opportunities that come up to practice competing. There were supposed to be 3 of us masters divers attending, but I was the only one that ended up going. I was a little nervous, but not too much—mostly I was just grateful to be there, amused by the kids, and thrilled to have an opportunity to practice going off the boards again. I consulted Coach Croft about my dive list—the meet offered the chance to do 7 dives, off either or both boards—and learned how to fill out a dive sheet. Then I warmed up, got some feedback, and got myself ready to go.

We were given an order—I was the first diver of 13 in each round—and things started. My first couple of dives were good, the next two were shaky, but I finished up strongly with three solid dives. Here are my scores—the first six dives are from 1m, the last from 3m:

· Forward dive tuck (101C) 5.5, 5.5, 5.5
· Forward flip tuck (102C) 6 6 6
· Forward flip with half twist (5121D) 4 3.5 4
· Back dive straight (201A) 4 3 3.5
· Inward dive tuck (401C) 5 6 5
· Back flip tuck (202C) 5.5 6 5.5
· Forward dive tuck from 3m (101C) 5.5 5.5 5.5



Afterwards, we had a little extra time, so we practiced synchro diving off the 1m just for fun. I had never tried diving with a partner before. I was paired up with a young diver who was a very good sport. She had to modify her approaches to match mine—our back approaches are different, and I’m not doing a full forward approach yet—but she was a quick and willing learner, and was able to match my movements. We did an inward tuck dive and a forward tuck dive together, and it was so much fun that now I want to do synchro diving at IGLA as well.

At the end of the mock meet mock awards were given. I ended up with an orange and a balloon. The whole morning was a blast, and the best thing is that these will be a monthly happening. I definitely want to go out and do this again! ]]> swimsuit addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28580-Return-from-Alabama-Mock-dive-meet http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28525-Always-pack-a-suit! Wed, 08 May 2013 23:05:00 GMT I was able to get out for a little lunchtime swim at Westgate Rec Center in Dothan, Al again today. I'm still at the hospital with my aunt, but things are looking better. It seems she has pneumonia, but she is responding well to treatment and will probably be able to go home (with some home health care help) in the next couple of days. In the meanwhile, I was glad to get the opportunity to take a break while my mom was here during the day. Here's what I did:


1000 warmup:
200 free
200 stroke/free by 25
200 kick
200 reverse IM drill/swim by 25
4 x 50 free, desc


4 x 100 FR @ 1:45, desc.
2 x 200 FR @ 3:30, build each one
400 FR, alt 25 fast, 25 easy


2x thru
100 IM kick
200 IM swim


100 easy


I had more company at the pool today. Lap swim hours are from 11-1; but if you come before 12 it only costs $1 instead of $2, so the earlier time ends up more crowded. I was next to a woman swimming heads-up breaststroke, and felt self-conscious about doing butterfly and making waves in the laneline-less pool. Once she left I switched to IM. Another woman replaced her soon after, but I figured she could see what she was getting into swimming beside me. I try to be be on my best behavior here, since I'm a visitor and there aren't many serious adult swimmers at the pool. If they ever contemplate adding a masters team, I'd like for the lap swimmers to be enthusiastic about it.


I'll be staying a few more days than planned down here. I hope to be here when my aunt gets released, and help get her get settled back in at home. I feel so lucky that I packed a swimsuit on this trip. I did so only because I was originally planning to go directly from the airport to diving practice on my return flight. Swimsuits--never leave home without them!


Good luck to everyone going to Indy! I'll be looking at the results online and virtually cheering on all my fellow bloggers. ]]> swimsuit addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28525-Always-pack-a-suit! http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28504-An-unplanned-swim Wed, 08 May 2013 00:19:32 GMT
Today's workout was short on yardage but long on gratitude. I flew down to Atlanta early Monday morning for a visit with my mom and aunt in southeast Alabama. Upon landing I had a voicemail from my sister. It turned out that my 93-year-old aunt had been admitted to the hospital late Sunday night for chest pains. So I drove directly to the hospital in Dothan, about 3.5 hours away, and have been here staying with her ever since. My aunt is doing better, and I'm hopeful she'll be kicked loose in the next few days. Meanwhile, I'm glad that I'm able to be here to help out, which lets my mom at least go back home to sleep at night. It can be hard being a plane flight instead of a drive away when emergencies happen with my family, so at least this time I was already on my way south when things started going south.


I'm very lucky that the hospital is within a couple miles of the only pool available for lap swimming in these parts. I was able to get in a lunchtime workout at the Westgate Recreation Center, an 8-lane 25y indoor pool. There were no lane lines, no clock, and only one set of backstroke flags, but the side panels of the building were partly open on this warm sunny day, and I chose an empty end lane to swim in because it was the most light-filled patch of water. After a day spent traveling and sitting in a hospital room, plus night spent on a hospital room couch, it felt so very good to stretch out and move around in the water. Here's what I did:


1000 warmup (400s, 200k, 200p, 200 RIM d/s by 25)


10 x 100 FR: 2@ 1:40, 2@ 1:35, . . . 2@ 1:20


100 IM kick


5 x 100 IM desc. @ 1:45


Before I left the city I had a good diving practice Sunday night. Our team added a second weekly practice a few weeks ago, on Sundays from 6-7:45pm, and this was the first opportunity I'd had to take advantage of it. I love being at the beautiful Flushing Meadows facility, with its wall of glass that faces the park, when it's still light out (our other weekly workout is from 8-10 on a weeknight). I love even more getting home at a reasonable hour. My commute to and from the pool takes about an hour to an hour and a half each way, depending on whether there's express trains running. Nights when there are Mets games are great, because Citifield is at the same subway stop at the pool, and the MTA runs special express trains back into the city after games.


My goal Sunday was to learn a front flip with a half twist off the 1m. We had a group viewing of an instructional diving video last Wednesday, and I was intrigued by the twisting dives. I'd learned a simple straight forward dive with a half twist last January, but I don't have a lot of confidence in that dive, and I wanted to learn another twister for what will be my eventual dive list for IGLA. Plus, I just wanted to feel what rotating in two different planes at the same time felt like. When watching the video, I could imagine doing the various somersaulting dives, but it was tough to get my brain around how the twisting dives actually worked. I wanted to feel it for myself so that I could understand the motion better.


I started off by doing front flips in an open pike position, then added a half twist in the middle. The movement feels very much like a round-off, only without putting your hands down on anything. I was able to hit the dive in the first try, but need to work on getting more height. My instinct when I try new stuff is to start small, and be timid in my approach and jump off the board. I know this instinct is absolutely wrongheaded--it would be both easier and safer if I approached the dive with conviction and get a bigger bounce off the board--but it's tough to change that natural inclination to start small then build up when trying new skills.

]]> swimsuit addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28504-An-unplanned-swim http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28466-A-cartwheel-too-far Sat, 04 May 2013 22:20:47 GMT I had a day of total fun out at Brighton Beach today. It was a gorgeous sunny morning here, with air temps in the high 50s when we started out and... I had a day of total fun out at Brighton Beach today. It was a gorgeous sunny morning here, with air temps in the high 50s when we started out and in the high 60s by the time we called it a day. The wind was a little gusty, but that just made the unorganized swirly swells more fun to play in. It was a day for trying out new things—new suit (a two-piece, which I loved), new goggles (some Zoggs I got for free, which worked fine but didn’t top my regular goggles, so they’re Patty’s now), new post-swim tricks on the beach (more about that later).

Cara measured the water temp at 53. That felt waaay warmer than last week—funny how a few degrees can make a big difference--and getting in was not too difficult. The water was a deep green, with unpredictable swells and some odd foamy patches here and there. I didn’t want to push things today, so just swam gently towards the big jetty to the west. Right before I reached it, I saw a fellow CIBBOWS swimmer heading back, so swam with him for a bit before he headed in. I turned over and did some easy backstroke, swam a little ways east, practiced some synchro moves, and just generally enjoyed feeling the sun beaming down upon me while the water tossed me around. It was heavenly.

Eventually I got cold just floating, so swam a bit more, floated a bit more, then got out. I probably went only about three-quarters of a mile today, but that was enough to make me feel blissy and happy to be in the ocean again. A bonus to the short distance and warmer water temp was no shivering. I got dressed in all my layers, then lay down and let the sun work its warming magic on me.

We had a dozen or more people out today, so I chatted for a bit, then started playing around on the sand, doing cartwheels and handstands, and balancing on the rocks of the nearby jetty. A few others followed my lead, and we spent a good hour playing around and trying different tumbling, leaping, and balancing feats. We had a huge swath of beach mostly to ourselves, and it was like being kids on a playground again. His-Ling and John wowed us with their tandem balancing act, and I learned that Caitlin can juggle! I worked up to doing a round-off, which I hope will help me with learning a twisting dive tomorrow. Unfortunately, I tweaked my left hamstring a bit on my last cartwheel (which was why it was my last). It seems more flexibility would help in my quest to do “good” cartwheels on my off side.

No one saw the humpback whale that had been spotted a few miles away off the Rockaways a couple of days ago, although we all looked for it, during our swims and after. But that might have been the only magic missing from the glorious day in the sun. The weekends that we have the sand to ourselves are numbered—the official beach season will start in a few more short weeks—so it was nice to enjoy this lovely day with my swim buddies on the sand and in the water.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=7q1Y7...%3D7q1Y7Y9JQto ]]> swimsuit addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28466-A-cartwheel-too-far http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28452-Diving-workout Fri, 03 May 2013 22:02:13 GMT I really enjoyed last night’s diving practice. It was a good night for our whole group—everyone seemed to be feeling brave and willing to go after... I really enjoyed last night’s diving practice. It was a good night for our whole group—everyone seemed to be feeling brave and willing to go after difficult and scary things. I got to cheer on two of our more experienced divers as they did 2.5s from the 3m (forward and reverse). Meanwhile, I worked on dives that require a backwards takeoff—back dive, inward dive, and (briefly, just to make sure I could) back flip. I was really pleased to land my inwards last night head-first. It was only the second time I’ve worked on this skill, and the first was nearly two months ago, and involved hitting the water face-first far too often. I was worried I would regress back to that, but my body seemed to remember the skill. I did these off the 3m as well as the 1m, which was a first. Back flips off the 1m were a new skill as well, and were pretty easy to land. Now that I’m gaining some confidence that I can actually do these things, I’ll be able to focus more on making my form better. Right now my biggest problem is still with the take-off—I tend to be falling backwards as I jump off the board, which has me landing far far away—not a good thing.

I have been feeling so much better the last couple of days. Tuesday’s visit to my doc resulted in a second round of antibiotics to treat what seems to be a sinus infection (which explains why the diving felt so bad last week). The coughing and asthma is now not a problem except when I exercise hard aerobically, so I’m still holding off that for the time being. I’m eager to get back to my regular activity—I’m well into week 4 of this asthma/illness deal—but I’m also ready to be cautious about pushing too hard, and finally put this whole episode behind me.

My next event is the 2 Bridges 5K swim in the Hudson on June 1. I visited the wonderful Hudson River Museum today with a couple of friends, and seeing the exhibits there and being near the river for much of the day made me more excited about being part of that event. I’m not stressed—yet—about feeling underprepared for it. I figure I’ll bring whatever level of fitness I have by then to the swim, and whatever that turns out to be, I’ll end up having fun, seeing friends, and spending a beautiful day on the water. Right now I feel very glad not to have any longer events on the horizon. ]]> swimsuit addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28452-Diving-workout http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28373-Y-swim Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:21:41 GMT It seems I overdid last week in my “hurray-my-asthma-is-finally-better” flurry of exercise. The swimming in cold water on Friday did me in for the... It seems I overdid last week in my “hurray-my-asthma-is-finally-better” flurry of exercise. The swimming in cold water on Friday did me in for the weekend, and now I’m back on an exercise-lite regimen, basically doing nothing that involves hard steady breathing until my lungs calm back down, It’s frustrating, but I’m trying to focus on doing what I can—weights, stretching, very light swimming or walking—while working on being patient and staying hopeful that things will improve. I’m seeing my doc tomorrow to get more advice on how to proceed.

I did get in an easy swim at the Y this morning. It seemed like a good chance to try out my new Agility paddles—I had ordered some after reading everyone else’s raves about them here. After trying them on, I was pretty skeptical about being able to keep them on my hands during a relaxed recovery—I can slide the paddles on without touching the sides of my thumbs, and I didn’t see what would keep them from sliding off the same way once a hand was upside down in the air. Pondering a fix, I tried wrapping layers of athletic tape around the thumb-hole of the right paddle, using enough to make some friction between my thumb joint and the paddle, but not enough to make it a tight fit. I left the left one unadorned, so that I could try them both ways, and brought my similarly sized (0.5) Strokemaker paddles too so that I could play around with different combinations. Here’s what I did:

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

16 x 25 swim with paddles, using different combinations

4 x 25 streamline as far as possible + swim

200 IM kick no board, working streamlines and posture

2 x 25 streamline as far as possible + swim

4 x 75 (25 plank kick with board + 50 kick + armstroke, focusing on tight core)

2 x 25 streamline

200 easy

The verdict on the paddles: I didn’t have any trouble keeping them on during the underwater portion of the stroke, but that’s probably because I was just doing 25s and focusing on technique. I think they’d probably be useful doing longer sets—I know I tend to splay my left hand out to the side too far on my catch once I get fatigued, and I think they would give me some feedback on that. They seemed to provide about the same or even a little less resistance than the very small strokemaker paddles I’m used to using—when I used the strokemaker on my left hand and the agility on my right it seemed fairly balanced. The tape narrowing the thumbhole did indeed help with keeping the paddle on during the recovery—the left-hand paddle came off on many lengths, or rotated 180 degrees from my palm (like a book opening) so that there was no easy way to get it back into place at the beginning of my stroke. I could keep this from happening by gripping the paddle in various ways on the recovery, but that felt awkward, and I liked the tape solution on the right-hand paddle better. (Does anyone have any other suggestions?) I’ll keep working with these and see how it goes. And once I master them I might want to try the mediums—I was right between sizes on the hand-chart, so went with the smalls for my first pair. ]]> swimsuit addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28373-Y-swim http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28346-Bonus-beach-day Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:29:54 GMT I had a disappointing diving session last night—I felt dizzy and headachy, and stayed for just half of practice. I hadn’t been feeling well during... I had a disappointing diving session last night—I felt dizzy and headachy, and stayed for just half of practice. I hadn’t been feeling well during the day, but I was eager to get back to practice after having missed a couple of weeks, and hoped that things would feel better once I was out at the pool. They didn’t—I think the lack of sleep over the last week (medication side-effect) finally caught up with me. I felt totally out of my element on the boards. I got some good work done before I bailed, but it was discouraging to travel two hours roundtrip for just 45 minutes of dive time. Ugh—bodies—sometimes it’s can’t live with them, can’t live without them! The only upside to last night was the amazing view of the rising full moon reflecting off the Unisphere as I walked back to the subway.

Today was a much better day. I awoke this morning feeling much improved, and was able to take some time off to go out to the beach, where I met up with a couple of CIBBOWS buddies for a mid-day swim. The water was around 50, I’m guessing, and I swam to the white building and back, about a mile, my longest swim of the season so far. The water was murky, but fairly flat and very refreshing. The first half of the swim was long, against the current (“Maybe I forgot how far it was?” I kept thinking to myself), but stroking back the landmarks on the beach just seemed to fly by. Warming up on the beach afterwards in the strong sun was delightful. Hoping for more beach time this weekend! ]]> swimsuit addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28346-Bonus-beach-day http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28327-Workout-with-team Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:44:34 GMT This morning I enjoyed a good workout with TNYA at John Jay College. Brad was on deck, and I enjoyed being part of a friendly and hard-working lane... This morning I enjoyed a good workout with TNYA at John Jay College. Brad was on deck, and I enjoyed being part of a friendly and hard-working lane of 4. Here’s what we did:

800 scy warmup (200s, 100k, 200p, 100k, 200 IM)

8 x 100 IM: 4 @ 1:50, 4 @ 1:45, desc. each set of four [technique goal: keep head looking down on breath in FL and BR; time goal:1:20 on the fastest ones, went 1:21 and 1:19]
16 x 25 kick, 8 @ :30, 8 @ :35

8 x 125 FR @ 2:00 [goals: 1:40s + bilat. breathing on odds, 1:35s + 2 dolphin kicks off walls (gotta start somewhere!) on evens, mostly met]
16 x 25 swim choice @ :30 [did 4 sets of 4, odd sets BK, even sets FR alternating easy / sprint]

6 x FR pull with paddles @ 2:25 [did 4 moderate pace holding 2:00, then last two warmdown]
150 extra warmdown

My asthma has improved a lot since last week—I still sometimes have a purring sensation in my chest when I inhale, and there’s some coughing between sets, but I no longer feel like it’s hampering my workouts. Looking forward to getting off the oral meds soon.

Diving tonight—been looking forward to it all week! ]]> swimsuit addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28327-Workout-with-team http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28312-Blissy-Riverbank-morning Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:46:04 GMT I enjoyed swimming at Riverbank this morning with a couple of friends. It was a lovely sunny morning, and I enjoyed the bright rays shining in the... I enjoyed swimming at Riverbank this morning with a couple of friends. It was a lovely sunny morning, and I enjoyed the bright rays shining in the windows at the far end of the pool during the first part of the session. Here’s what I did:

1000 lcm warmup (400s, 200k RIM, 200p, 200 IM d/s by 25)

I knew I wanted to do some faster IM swims today, but I waited to see what my pals were doing before coming up with a workout. They chose a longish 500-2x400-3x300-etc FR set, so I did the following on the same intervals, focusing on working the IMs and recovering on the FRs:

500 FR, neg. split
400 IM strong [7:05]
400 FR, neg. split
300 IM strong [5:15]
300 FR, neg. split
200 IM fast [goal was 3:20, thought that was a reach but went 3:16, happy]
300 FR pull with paddles easy

Building an IM: 4 x 200, done as

• 50 FL strong + 150 moderate free
• 50 FL + 50 BK strong, 100 mod. free
• 50 FL + 50 BK + 50 BR strong, 50 easy free
• 200 IM strong

4 x 100 kick, odds FR/BR by 25s, evens BK/FL by 25

200 warmdown + play

I was working on a faster turnover on my fly this morning, trying to pause just long enough to get a good catch at the front of my stroke instead of resting and overgliding there. A few times I got it just right, and it felt like I was surging forward while I was breathing, rather than having a dead spot in my stroke there. Hey, I think this might be what fly is supposed to feel like! Unfortunately I couldn’t make it happen at will, but at least I could recognize the magic when it struck. Hope I can find that feeling again, note what I’m doing differently when it occurs, and come up with some keys to do it consistently.

After my swim I treated myself to a 30-minute stretching session at the playground north of the pool. It’s a great place to stretch—there are lots of bars and rings to hang from and grab onto to stretch my arms and torso, plus raised wooden platforms where I can sit and do leg stretches while watching ship traffic go by. And it’s a delightfully sunny spot too. Having a sun-warmed, stretched-out, and well exercised body is a pretty blissy way to start the day! ]]> swimsuit addict http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?28312-Blissy-Riverbank-morning