Swimming (Freestyle) Revelations

So I've been swim training for 11 years now. Through today, in that time, I have swum 4,852,056 yards. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? Nope. Let's take a conservative daily yardage estimate for a high school swimmer of 5,000 yards. That's 35,000 yards/week. How long did it take the high school swimmer to hit my lifetime yardage?

4,852,056 / 35,000 = 138 weeks, give or take a few days

So that high school swimmer finished my yardage (and then some, probably) by third quarter of their junior year, assuming 2 weeks off per year. Now, that swimmer only got to be on the high school team because they had been swimming since, oh probably the age of 8. So I won't even begin to try and calculate what their accumulated yardage was before they hit high school.

All that I am pointing out is that when a typical triathlete (even ME) says, "I am swimming a lot," well, not so much. Swimming well and fast takes years of ingrained technique coupled with kinesthetic awareness (they are probably the same thing), so that when the coach standing on deck says to do X with your hand or Y with your feet, your brain and hands/feet are connected in such a way that you can actually just COMMAND yourself to do those things.

In my short years of trying to learn how to swim better, I have had lessons along the way. Initially I took some Total Immersion lessons, and I think they are great for getting down some of the basics of balance and body roll. Some people will develop that mind/muscle link much more quickly and acquire good swimming technique in a short amount of time. I am just now beginning to "get" this, in part because I am spending more time in the pool (I believe that despite what some people say that you DO need to put in the time), and feel like I have already sufficiently developed my kinesthetic awareness in biking and running.

I have had a swim coach observe me and tell me that I am doing a few things well:

• I am on top of the water, i.e., my legs aren't sinking.
• I have a non-intrusive kick (i.e., my feet/legs are in correct position even though my kick isn't particularly propulsive).
• When I breathe, it is just my head following my upper body, not actually turning my head. This is something I worked very hard on last year, and I know how much I've improved because I rarely have actual neck soreness for "all" the yards I put in lately. Plus when I switch over from road bike to tri bike, my neck muscles aren't going WTF from the combination of lots of swimming and holding my big stupid head up.
• I can breathe bilaterally, and in fact, I spend much of each workout doing so, even though I swim faster when I breathe to my left only (more on that later).
• I have a ton of endurance. DUH.
• I have decent body roll--at least I am not swimming flat like a barge.

Along the way, I have received tips about whether my fingers should be open or closed, hand entry position, underwater sweep, etc. The open/closed fingers thing is pretty easy for me to implement. Doesn't take much thought. When you move into hand entry position, catch and sweep territory, though, despite it sounding like you are just being asked to do something with your hands and arms, it is much more than that.

The revelation I had two weeks ago (and this is probably written down in some swimming book somewhere) is this:

Swimming well and fast is about using your legs, hips and core (call this your "roll") to put your body into an optimal position so that you can push the maximum amount of water back with your arms.

In other words, if I don't have that roll down, or I don't synchronize that roll with what is going on with my arms, I am not going to be able to move as much water as I would if they were working well together.

So, yeah, you want your hands to be in a certain position and enter the water in a certain position and your elbow to be high underwater as you begin your catch and then oh, it would be nice if you made that nice "S" underwater during the sweep. Easy to say, but the only way to achieve all that is if your feet up through your core are putting you in the position to allow you to do that.

Thing is, I know what it feels like when it's all connected and working properly, but now I can talk to myself and focus on getting that position right and feeling how that affects my ability to get my arms in the right spot, does that make sense? That is just how this works for me. Other people, like I said, might have their body/brain "get it" much more quickly than me.

For the last 9 weeks, I have been doing triceps dips (other stuff, too, but not important here) before I swim on Mondays and Wednesdays. I was already on the chin/pullup thing, and it has the bars to do dips, so I figured, what the hell. I developed this habit of watching my arm position in a mirror while I do these, because I know what good form is for dips. A nice right angle occurs at some point, and guess what it's just like the high elbow thing in swimming.

I have known for many years about the high elbows thing in swimming not just above water but also below. I think I've got the above water thing down pretty well. The last 2-3 years, I really worked hard on my left side form, because I am right-handed and I figured my right side was doing a good job so I should spend some quality time with my left side. And I made improvements to the point where when I swim breathing only to my left, I swim faster than my formerly faster right side. It has puzzled me as to why this is. Hang on, I'm getting to the point.

So last week I'm thinking about this and why have I now become faster breathing on my left and combining this with a hyper-awareness of my body position so that I can pull more effectively and it dawned on me since I had just done triceps dips before I got into the pool that maybe my right arm doesn't have that high elbow thing going on underwater like I thought it did. So now I'm swimming and I change around my breathing patterns and pay attention to what is going on with my left arm vs. my right arm, and BANG there it was--all this time I thought my right arm knew what it was doing I was wrong. When I breathe to my left side, my right arm is doing a pretty good job, but when I breathe on my right side, my right arm is all lazy and pulling almost with a straight arm. So there you go--when I breathe to my right, I am not moving the maximum possible amount of water back. But it's more than just the arm motion--once again, in my quest to improve my left side, when I rotate to that side it is the "proper" amount, and I am lazy when rotating to my right.

So...I have started focusing on my right side, and it is not just the high elbow but rotating to that side enough so that the high elbow feels natural and ends up causing that nice "S." It all started coming together yesterday. I did my usual pullups, dips, pushups, bridges, dead bugs and jump rope before I swam, and then I was determined to work on my right side in the pool. I could now feel, in my head and in my arm, when I had my arm in the right position (because I rolled properly to begin with), and during my warmup, part of my right triceps actually hurt a bit. But then it settled down, and all was good. I did not use yesterday's session to try and see if I am getting faster--that will take time--but the mind/body connection is being made.

So I guess what it took for me was to start doing something outside the pool that created a connection in my mind that I was able to carry over into the pool. How great is that? This is exactly why I think there is value in doing things besides S/B/R if you don't have that varied a sports background, because you will do things with your body that will train your mind in a way that can enhance your chosen competitive sports. I think that the more of the muscles in your body that you can sense in isolation and link in your brain so it knows precisely what is going on, the better rounded you will be. I remember back from when I was into the bodybuilding thing and how you are supposed to really focus on a particular muscle when you are doing a movement to isolate its primary motion. If you get that right, you can really sort of just become that muscle momentarily, and it's a great feeling.

I am not going to get super fast at swimming any time soon, but I have hope that I can at least move farther into that all important kinesthetic awareness, and since I'm spending lots of time in the pool, I have lots of time to practice!

Understanding "Hard" and I Get Shit For...

A couple of topics that came to mind yesterday and this morning.

First, understanding HARD.

While on the trainer yesterday banging out this workout:
WU: 15' wup, 3' su, 9' Z3, 3' cd
MS: 4x8' (2') FT,
10' 80-85%
10 x 30/30's

which I began at 12:45PM (and I had done an hour of "strength work" at 7AM including legs), I was thinking about CrossFit, P90X, TRX and assorted other relatively recent fitness programs (or if you want to call them religions, fine). I train, first and foremost, for ultra distance triathlon, but I enjoy being in some semblance of "good shape" (not any strict definition) and have a streak of vanity that when combined, push me to continue doing my "strength work." I don't do CrossFit and have never done a P90X or TRX workout. But I think I understand HARD.

My frame of reference for HARD came about many years ago when I was on a bodybuilding kick of sorts. I got into heavy lifting and at one time in my 30's would lift 4-5 hours a week, and this is not including rest time in between sets. I thought some of those workouts were pretty hard.

Fast forward to 2000 when I began training for my first Ironman. While I wasn't doing particularly intense workouts (the objective was for me to finish so it was primarily overdistance work), my body interpreted the training as hard. But it was hard in a different way than the heavy lifting. Still, I kept up some strength work during this and every so often I would ask myself which was harder--the heavy lifting or the long hours of endurance work. It was hard to say, but I knew when I finished that first Ironman that it was hard.

After the first Ironman, my body adapted, and the long endurance sessions became easier, and due to developing additional mental toughness and being able to recover better, of course I got faster for my 2nd Ironman doing effectively the same training as for the first one. But just as in lifting to build muscle, you need to keep upping the ante if you want to improve.

It was in 2004 that I began training on the bike with a power meter and my eyes were opened to a new world of hard in terms of bike workouts, like the one I did yesterday. Oh my did I figure out in a hurry that I hadn't really been working that hard in my biking. But because I really do love riding bikes, I was so motivated to explore this new world of hard (plus I have always been competitive even just with myself), and since then, I have enjoyed putting up big TSS numbers during bike workouts, and my cycling fitness shows for it.

A nice side effect of this bike training was that it carried over into swimming and running. I no longer was afraid of pushing myself to a point of fatigue or muscle soreness in selected individual workouts. Now, I've learned that I can't do that every single workout, but I do know that I have to incorporate a certain amount of intensity in order to maintain and even improve my fitness/speed. Keep in mind that I do not try and stay as fit as I am right before Ironman or Ultraman year-round. It is just not possible or even a good idea. So I do let myself lose fitness for a few weeks in the fall (I'm already through it), and then I begin rebuilding myself, measuring things along the way (mostly speed, and power on the bike) to see where I'm at. Measure and test. Work harder. Rinse and repeat.

I enjoy reading anecdotal stories about people who have gotten into CrossFit or P90X or TRX and proclaim that it has had this profound effect on their endurance sports. Well, from a physiological standpoint the answer is, uh, NO. If you want to be really good at swimming, for example, you swim a lot, you swim fast sometimes, you practice perfect technique a lot. There are no peer-reviewed studies that show traditional lifting or CrossFit or P90X or TRX will make you into a better swimmer. Or biker. Or runner.

But (and here is the revelation) I think that for some people, doing these non-endurance things (hell it could be any number of other exercises) teaches them what HARD really is, and then they carry over that notion into their target sports, and voila, they improve because they learn that they weren't pushing themselves THAT hard before and have redefined it! Or maybe those things give you that nice looking muscular physique that you've always wanted, and seeing yourself turn into that motivates you to work harder at your other sports.

So I don't think it matters, really, whether a double-blind study can be constructed to prove or disprove that some other form of exercise besides your target sport helps your sport. It's how you perceive it.

In my little study of N=1, I am glad that I had a background of serious weight lifting once upon a time to imprint in me one level of HARD. But I needed to redefine my HARD in terms of my chosen sport to progress. For me it took a power meter and some really tough bike workouts, and also a change in my run training.

So to those people who like to argue that the only way to get faster at S/B/R is to do those things a lot and sometimes very hard and that any other forms of exercise are a waste of your precious time available to train, GREAT! Let's all just agree that from a physiological standpoint you are correct, but as we also know, the human mind is extremely powerful and in many cases, our bodies can and will do something as long as our mind is convinced we can, even if we have to fool ourselves by taking up some other seemingly contrary form of exercise to convince it.

So maybe when you are doing your CrossFit or P90X or TRX or elliptical or jump rope (I'm a big fan of jumping rope and other silliness that I don't talk about) or hundreds of squats, consider not just how this makes your body feel and perform but your mind.

And now onto my other topic--things I get shit for.

I get shit from some CrossFit adherents. Hey--I don't advertise every single thing I do to prepare for my competitions, and no it is not all LSD, so shut the fuck up. I respect what YOU do. There are things you do that I cannot (or choose not to) do, and there are things that I do that you cannot do (or choose not to). Maybe when I stop wanting to do triathlon I will switch over to the dark side. Or maybe not. I really like my bikes ;)

I get shit for making a big deal about 4 extra pounds on my body. Really? REALLY??? Are you just jealous because your standards aren't as high as mine? Do you want to bring me down to your level? Is my choice to be highly fit inconsistent with your definition of what a 54-year old woman should be doing? What if I said my cholesterol was borderline high (which it isn't)? Wouldn't you expect me to do something about it?

I get shit for training as much as I do, as if I somehow have an easy life, and therefore, it allows me to kick the shit out of most canned training plans. Last time I checked, my life is no easier than most. I work full time at a job that can be quite stressful at times (I'm not complaining), I have no other income to fall back on should I lose my job, I choose to own a home and be accountable for maintaining it and I don't have any children who are going to look after me in my (already?) old age. If it makes you feel better, I have a fucking easy life. There. Are you happy?

I get shit for my sky high standards. OK, you got me there! It is who I am. I enjoy being good at things, receiving accolades at work for being a high performer, collecting the occasional hardware in a triathlon for placing in my age group, learning about the details of how the human body and mind function so maybe I can maximize my own function. Sure I could have a completely different life, but I like the current one. So for those of you who keep wondering when I am going to stop all this and live like a regular person, I guess you are going to have to wait a few more years.

'Tis the Season

...to get in some solid training hours with a different mix than spring/summer. Here's what I did this week:

Totals	Week 18: 12/06/2010-12/12/2010
Swim:	ATP: 14350 yards in 5.17 hours Scheduled: 14350 yards (8.14 miles) in 5.17 hours Actual: 14850 yards (13578.84 m / 8.43 miles) in 5.1 hours; 27% of weekly workout time Longest swim 8500 yds (4.82) miles Approx. 1785 calories burned
Bike:	ATP: 5.25 hours Scheduled: 5.25 hours Actual: 110.15 miles (177.27 km) in 5.25 hours, Total TSS=0 28% of weekly workout time Approx. 2363 calories burned
Run:	ATP: 5.75 hours Scheduled: 5.75 hours Actual: 32.27 miles (51.93 km) in 5.52 hours (28.27 miles/4.52 hrs run; 4 miles/1 hrs hike) 29% of weekly workout time Approx. 1937.86 calories burned
Strength:	ATP: 1.42 hours Scheduled: 1.42 hours Actual: 3 hours (1.72 regular; 1.28 extra crap) 16% of weekly workout time Approx. 750 calories burned
All Sports:	ATP: 17.59 hours Scheduled: 17.59 hours Actual: 150.85 miles (242.77 km) in 18.87 hours Approx. 6835.86 calories burned (9435@500/hr)
Sleep:	8.5 hours avg./night
Stretching:	3.17 hours stretching, 1 hours massage

I have one more fairly big week coming up and then a rest week and then lots of running to prepare for Gasparilla, although I've been running a lot for a few weeks now.

My ability to sleep over 8 hours a night is returning, although I have gotten into a bad habit of going to sleep around 7:30 and getting up at 3:30 or 4AM. That allows me to check on things at work before my morning workout, do a workout, work some more, then do another workout mid-day. I have always liked early morning, and if I can get a few things done plus a workout before my main block of working hours, I'm a happy camper.

My left hip/glute complex is doing quite well. Amongst other things, my massage therapist helped me identify that I had some nasty ass trigger points in my hamstrings. Hamstring trigger points can refer pain up into the glute and also down into the feet. I have nearly resolved them, though, and think I have 100% flexibility back in my left leg. Quite a change from 4 weeks ago!

I am having my old running orthotics refurbished. Meanwhile, I'm using some OTC's from Sole--the moldable kind. I can really tell my feet have become quite picky as to which shoes I run in, and I'm back on the lightweight New Balance 904's (that model is now history having moved up to 905). Even though I wear them out in less than 250 miles, I just feel better running in them.

I am still only down about 2.5 pounds, and would like to shave off another 2-3. There is no more candy in the house, and I'm being watchful of my overall intake. I know some fat has come off and I've tightened up my midsection, so I'm moving in the right direction.

I'm feeling pretty good on the bike now, and (gasp) I may have even raised my FTP, although I am not currently measuring watts. I can tell on the trainer by my average speed, and it's going up, and I'm able to hold a pretty good gear for a long time now, even when I'm starting out already tired, like yesterday I ran 30' and then walked an hour and then got on the bike for 2:15. Not bad considering I'd swum 8500 on Friday! And then today I ran 1:55 and then swam 1,000 (just to chill out) and felt pretty solid.

I'm still not at a point where I expect to be too fast either running or swimming, although I am seeing hints of speed in the pool and on the run. That is fine for now, as it's a trick for me to maintain the volume I need to be at and also be working on speed. Too much intensity plus high volume is a recipe for disaster. I was glad that today after running 1:40 pretty much Zone 1 on the treadmill that I was able to bust out some just over 5k pace running on the track.

During Friday's swim, I got bashed on my left hand by a crappy swimmer next to me. Dude tried racing me a few times, and I was more than happy to speed up to show him who's boss. So I guess he decided to reward me by clocking me real good. I had to stop and ice my hand for a few minutes, and it's still a little tender even today, but no significant damage. Add that guy to the list of people who shall forever be afraid to swim next to me, which is fine by me! I practically hug the lane rope and yet these dufuses manage to hit me every so often. The guy had hit me once in one of my calves before he got my hand, and when he hit my hand, I stopped and said "That's TWICE." He knew it, too. He immediately high-tailed it for the end of the lane and got out. Fine, buddy, stay away from me.

Then this woman got in the lane with me, and she will always get in my lane even if there are other lanes with only 1 person. Why, I have no idea. Within a few minutes, I noticed she had moved my stuff on deck. She had nothing with her. I was kicking to cool down so I asked if she moved my stuff and she said, "Yes, it was in the way." In the way of WHAT? You standing on deck for like 10 minutes deciding when you were going to get in? I told her to never touch my bottles. I don't want someone else's germs on those when I am drinking out of them, you know? I know I'm such a bitch, but too bad. She's a crappy swimmer, too, and she's clipped me many times with her imitation backstroke. There needs to be lane signs that indicate not speed, but "able to swim on one side of the lane and not touch the other person in the lane and also not touch the person in the adjacent lane." I have been clipped by someone in the next lane, too, doing imitation breaststroke or backstroke and sometimes by wide-swinging front crawl. Hey people--I know I'm cute and all, but STOP TOUCHING ME!!! As long as it doesn't hurt, it sort of just makes me laugh. If it's a good swimmer, I don't even mind.

I have also been having discussions with the Y management about the pool temperature. On Wednesday it was EIGHTY SEVEN! That is nearly deadly if you are lap swimming. On my way out, I saw the guy who allegedly maintains the pool and asked him why it was so warm (it is supposed to be kept at 84), and first he says something about how hard it is to keep the pool cool enough (what the fuck when it's only 15 outside????), then I called him on that statement and then he comments on the old ladies who ask him to make it warm. So I had a chit chat with the facility director, and inquired as to whether the temperature was a negotiable thing. I thought so, it is NOT. And she's all like she needs to study how it's done, and I tell her NO, I have swum at many pools, many with cavernous buildings and windows and all that and SOMEHOW they manage to keep the temperature within a narrow range. Today I saw some clipboards with paper and pen attached for people to write comments, and I saw someone had written about how the pool is too cold and I wrote back THE TEMPERATURE IS NOT NEGOTIABLE. All they have to do is post something that the pool is X temperature as a compromise to lap swimmers and others, and that is what it will be kept at so SHUT THE FUCK UP. I would like it colder than 84, but I am OK as long as it doesn't go a hair over 85. If it stayed like that, I would have no complaints. But over 85 and into 86 or 87, and I am very uncomfortable, as are other lap swimmers. Oh well, yet another thing to make me spend time on something I would rather not. But many people will do nothing, and that is just lame.

I just sent email to Ultraman Hawaii folks asking when I can apply. I assume they will let me in for next year ;) I was lucky to have a long conversation with a friend who did both UMC and UMH and got to hear all about Hawaii. It will definitely be harder on Day 1--way more climbing on the bike. I do intend to do more bike training this time around, as I want to be well prepared to hopefully PR in Kona. I can't do much about the heat, although I will do some specific heat acclimation workouts in the weeks before I get to Hawaii, and I will get there over a week in advance, depending if I can stay with someone else and work from there for a few days.

Some days I can't believe my life is the way it is. My life isn't perfect, but I have the physical strength and health to do something I love A LOT and I'm doing distance I could never even CONCEIVE of just 5 years ago. How great is that?

And now my plan is to lay on the couch and watch a Bears game. Even though I'm not a big fan of winter, it is nice in that I'm not doing super long rides and there is no more yard work to do (except incidental snow removal) on weekends, so laying on a couch I will do!