Every now and then I have one of those 'I have completely forgotten how to swim' swims. Where I spash and kick and choke on water, and the only direction I seem to be able to go is down. Or sometimes backwards. The kind of swim where I am at the back of the rotation in the slowest lane, and am still getting lapped during 150 IM sets. The kind of swim where I shorten my 100m cooldown to 50m, because I truly don't think I can swim the last 50. I wish I was exaggerating.
It was just a bad swim, and they happen sometimes to everyone. From the novice flounderers like myself to speedy pros to you, your mom and everyone else. So I try not to let it get to me...but of course it does, just a little. Or sometimes a lot.
Did I want to give up? Yes. Did I want to jump out of the pool and hurl my pull bouy at the workout whiteboard? Yes. Did I want to yank my coach into the water by his ankles and yell, "If it's so easy, let's see you do it!" Yes.
But I didn't. Because I'm trying to be an adult.
When I'm frustrated about a workout, especially a swim workout, I try to focus instead on what I can do right, in the moment. So during my workout when I was swimming slower than I maybe ever had before and couldn't seem to get my flip turns right no matter what I tried, I decided it was a good time to focus on rotation. And high elbows. And high hips. And all those other little technique elements that get so often overlooked by self-taught swimmers like myself. If I'm going to swim slow, at least I can swim right. So I splashed on, throwing my hips around with each stroke, and scraping the ceiling with my elbows. Almost. Good technique did not make me swim faster. I know it won't until I put it all together, correctly, and learn to swim properly.
And if even that fails, there's always chocolate.
And if chocolate fails (as if!) there is this fantastic article on swim technique. I can't help but hope that reading it in bed with chocolate will make me faster.
Showing posts with label swimming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swimming. Show all posts
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Masters and Mastering
Since my last post, I've been working on mastering a lot of elements in my training, namely consistency and diet.
Consistency..I'm not great at consistency. I always find myself readjusting my training schedule to accomodate other things. I spend so much time and energy on reworking my schedule, and am almost more focused on that than on my actual workouts. Then last week I reached a point where I realized that it's easier to just do the workouts as planned, instead of wasting so much time trying to reorganize everything every day. There are so many elements of triathlon training, and trying to adjust a tri training schedule every day is exhausting. Over the last week I've found that I've been a lot more consistent in my training. I'm still far from perfect, but I'm getting better. I don't know if this new mentality will stand the test of time, but right now it's workout out pretty well for me. I'll just keep taking it one day at a time!
In my post about water, I mentioned that since I'd been drinking more water I'd been getting less dizzy spells. Well as soon as I got back from Mexico they started up again. I decided it had to be something more than water..so I got tested for hypoglycemia, and also got my thyroid, calcium and iron levels checked. Everything came back normal, but I'm not convinced. A few days after I got my negative results I had a really bad episode on a run..I got dizzy, lightheaded, 'hot', weak and was having a hard time walking a straight line. I went right home and checked my blood sugar..68. Pretty low, but not dangerously so. Still, it's low enough to explain how I'd been feeling. So I'm keeping track of my blood sugar, and sure enough these episodes seem to occur when my blood sugar levels are below 85 or so. I've been focusing on what I'm eating more, and making sure I'm eating the right things. I've been feeling a little better overall, so hopefully I'm on the right path!
The other new development in my training..Master's swimming! Today will be my third workout with the group, and so far it's been amazing. Everyone is so nice and helpful! I'm learning so much at each workout, while I am sort of taking a step backwards in training, in that I'm focusing a lot on the basics, I'm still getting in a great workout at each practice and am breaking down everything to learn it right from the beginning. Just what I need, as a self-taught swimmer! Although breaststroke might get me into trouble..after working on it on Wednesday, I woke up to serious knee pain on Thursday morning. I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs, and definitely couldn't run or do yoga as I'd planned! I spun on the trainer but the pain didn't go away, so I decided to call it a day and rest up. This morning my knee feels %100 better, though I think I need to ease into breaststroking a little slower. Can't have knee injuries--I need my knees (haha--get it??)!
I'll post more about my actual training sessions later--I just wanted to write about some major steps in my overall training changes!
Consistency..I'm not great at consistency. I always find myself readjusting my training schedule to accomodate other things. I spend so much time and energy on reworking my schedule, and am almost more focused on that than on my actual workouts. Then last week I reached a point where I realized that it's easier to just do the workouts as planned, instead of wasting so much time trying to reorganize everything every day. There are so many elements of triathlon training, and trying to adjust a tri training schedule every day is exhausting. Over the last week I've found that I've been a lot more consistent in my training. I'm still far from perfect, but I'm getting better. I don't know if this new mentality will stand the test of time, but right now it's workout out pretty well for me. I'll just keep taking it one day at a time!
In my post about water, I mentioned that since I'd been drinking more water I'd been getting less dizzy spells. Well as soon as I got back from Mexico they started up again. I decided it had to be something more than water..so I got tested for hypoglycemia, and also got my thyroid, calcium and iron levels checked. Everything came back normal, but I'm not convinced. A few days after I got my negative results I had a really bad episode on a run..I got dizzy, lightheaded, 'hot', weak and was having a hard time walking a straight line. I went right home and checked my blood sugar..68. Pretty low, but not dangerously so. Still, it's low enough to explain how I'd been feeling. So I'm keeping track of my blood sugar, and sure enough these episodes seem to occur when my blood sugar levels are below 85 or so. I've been focusing on what I'm eating more, and making sure I'm eating the right things. I've been feeling a little better overall, so hopefully I'm on the right path!
The other new development in my training..Master's swimming! Today will be my third workout with the group, and so far it's been amazing. Everyone is so nice and helpful! I'm learning so much at each workout, while I am sort of taking a step backwards in training, in that I'm focusing a lot on the basics, I'm still getting in a great workout at each practice and am breaking down everything to learn it right from the beginning. Just what I need, as a self-taught swimmer! Although breaststroke might get me into trouble..after working on it on Wednesday, I woke up to serious knee pain on Thursday morning. I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs, and definitely couldn't run or do yoga as I'd planned! I spun on the trainer but the pain didn't go away, so I decided to call it a day and rest up. This morning my knee feels %100 better, though I think I need to ease into breaststroking a little slower. Can't have knee injuries--I need my knees (haha--get it??)!
I'll post more about my actual training sessions later--I just wanted to write about some major steps in my overall training changes!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)