The Long Post
I’m putting the stuff with pictures and videos and interest up top, but I’ve written a lot this week and had no time to edit and post. Until now. So I’m putting it all here. Good luck.
In the Open Water Again!
Saturday 7 March 2020 – I entered the ocean again and was so happy to be there.
I spent some time on the drive to the beach thinking about how people who have never been stay-at-home parents can never really understand what it’s like to have to ask permission to leave the house alone for 10 years. Not that my husband wasn’t a full parenting partner or didn’t say “yes” when I asked if he could watch the kids. He pretty much always did. But it’s the having to ask, the having to plan, the having to be the one that makes sure everyone is taken care of all the time. If E wanted to go somewhere, he just… left.
I love that I got to raise my kids the way I did. I chose it and I would choose it again every time. They are two of the awesomest people I know, and it was very cool to have a part in that (not that I made them awesome… but I claim to have avoided screwing them up 🙂 )
But it is nice to be regaining some freedom after a decade of constraint. It’s nice to have a big goal again. It’s nice to find myself coming out from under a pile of laundry, sippy cups, board books, and party favors (where do they come from? How are there so many of them? Why do they like them so much?).
UGH! Sorry for the big spaces above videos – I will fix this!
Good swim today – water was 54 degrees with about the same air temp and an absolutely biting wind. We started in the channel by the Blockade Runner and swam to Bob’s house. I still don’t really know where that is, I just followed the group. (Well, now I do cause I went to download the map from my phone.) This was my first time in since December at about the same water temp, but the first 5 minutes were about the roughest cold entry I’ve experienced. Part of it was definitely the wind, and the fact that we had to wait for a sailboat doing a class to complete its docking procedure before we could actually start to swim, but I think part of it was that acclimation is a thing. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow and next week.
After I warmed up I felt really good, and hadn’t even a slight claw for the first 30 minutes. After that we were stopped several times, and I eventually started to claw a bit and my lips got cold enough that v’s were no longer pronouceable. But I never felt bad and the walk to Bob’s house down the LONGEST DECK IN THE WORLD was way worse than the swimming 🙂 But his hot tub was awesome. (Eventually. I have trouble getting into hot tubs even when I’m not a popsicle. So I hovered above the water shivering for quite some time. )
We sat there and chatted for a long time – reminding me as always that swimmers are awesome and that the experience trumps the result every time. Don’t get me wrong, I love results… but they are the 1%
We went out to dinner at Hieronymus, which it turns out I had been to before with the fam. We actually tried to go to a sushi place in downtown Wilmington first, but the wait was almost 2 hours. Hungry swimmers ain’t got time fo’ dat! Even the time it took to get back in the car and drive to Hieronymus was dicey, but they were quick with the life-saving rolls, so we made it.
It’s getting late on Saturday night (for toddlers) and I should get some sleep. Curse you daylight savings time and your sleep-stealing ways!
Sunday 8 March 2020 – Low of 34!?! Work with me, weather!
We swam Henderson to Coast guard (Intracoastal) at 49 degrees! It was cold, no doubt, but totally doable. 52 degrees when we finished. About 45 minutes in the water. And an interminable time trying to deck change by my car with fingers that couldn’t take my suit off and ice block feet that resisted going into shoes. It brought those days changing in the parking lot by Aquatic Park in SF right back to me. Except there were fewer people staring at me this time and no one waiting for my parking space. Note to self – just put your parka on next time!
Doing that swim and then driving back and coaching was pretty tough. Hopefully it will get easier. I went to bed painfully exhausted around 8 PM. (Does anyone else start hurting all over when they run out of energy? I used to think of it as a headache, but it’s really an everything-ache where the head is just the most noticeable part.)
PS – The video shows a temp of 50F, but it measured 49 at the surface, and that’s where I was swimming, so that’s what I’m calling it. So there.
Monday 9 March 2020
Deep shoulder pain – hurt to breathe (to clarify – deep in the shoulder, not intense pain). Got better as I swam, but my
test 100’s were 1:22, 1:21. 1:20, 1:21, 1:20
Thank heavens it was IM day. One of my all time favorite sets: 4 times through 4×50 IM order on :50 and a 200 IM on 3:15. It really felt good, even the fly. (Weirdly, once I got going the shoulder/back muscle only hurt on flip turns and breaststroke pullouts).
9200 yards
I’m pretty tired – yesterday was pretty tough, and 11 hours of sleep/laying there awake did not fully recover me.
Going to bed before 8:30 Monday night. (Ahead of a 5:30 alarm.)
Tuesday 10 March 2020
The weird shoulder thing is gone; but I have plenty of general soreness and exhaustion.
100’s were 1:22, 1:20, 1:18, 1:16, 1:15
Not stellar, but better than yesterday. But since I didn’t have any get-up-and-go, I downed a peanut butter packet and a chocolate milk. It didn’t give me wings, but I managed to make it through a 7000 yard(ish) practice and didn’t crash and burn, so I’m happy enough. Came home and ate lots of pizza and breadsticks (cause that’s what there was) and read a book on the couch. That was bliss.
I’m continuing to do the yoga and pilates – in the interest of brevity I’ll only mention it if I don’t or if there’s something noteworthy.
Still not finding time to do channel prep. I can write about stuff, do administrative stuff, OR train. Three at once is not enough hours in the day. I’m hoping as I get into better shape not to need so much sleep. And rest.
Wednesday 11 March 2020
About 6000 yards
I got there a little late (in favor of a little more rest, which was a great idea), so no time for test 100s. Did a long DPS set, and I
held 14 strokes/25 yards on a 1:20 pace all the way up to a 500.
I’m feeling pretty good about that – it’s not as fast as I’d like to be, but it’s efficient and I felt like I could have held it forever, even as tired as I was.
Thursday 12 March 2020 – the COVID-19 practice
Coach John came in and called the Senior group to a meeting – one which he said was unique in his experience, save perhaps after 9/11. All USA Swimming meets are being cancelled. Some Wave swimmers were behind the blocks waiting to warm up when Sectionals in Atlanta was suspended. Other swimmers will not have a chance to compete in meets that they qualified for, and some swimmers will be short on opportunities to qualify for Olympic Trials.
I feel really bad for all of these kids (and all of the kids out there) who have worked so hard and not been able to perform, due to no fault of their own. I am feeling pretty bad for myself as well, since it’s hard to imagine at this point that my Croatian cold water swim camp is going to happen.
We warmed up and then did what I tagged to myself “the stress relief set”
200 Dolphin Dives
200 Corkscrew
200 Hawaiian Breaststroke
200 Dolphin Dives
200 Backwards Reverse IM
It actually was pretty stress-relieving. And it turns out that I am a better than average backwards swimmer – now I know my event 🙂
Oooo – has anyone swum the Channel feet first? I see a record in the making.
Friday 13 March 2020
As I said in my ThankYouFriday post – it’s the Ides of March and Friday the 13th combined. Our part of the world has finally become part of COVID-19 reality.
And I seem to have psychosomatic COVID – I don’t feel great, and I was really hot this morning, but my temp came up as 96.9, so I think the fact that it was hot in the house and that I was reading the news combined to trip my brain out. Our brains are so funny that way. And I am not usually susceptible. (Oh, except for lice. Mention the WORD “lice” and I start itching my head. I am doing it right now. Stop it, Brain!)
Oh, and also at 3 in the morning. I always think it’s the Ebola at 3 in the morning. But other than that, my conscious and subconscious mostly present a united front on stuff like this.
It’s amazing the difference 48 hours has made – everything is shutting down and being cancelled. The kids will likely be out of school for 3 weeks (have NOT wrapped my brain around that one yet). Travel may be very limited for an indeterminate time. They are talking about the possibility of millions of deaths. We are headed to the store (where it’s craziness) to avoid worse craziness tomorrow.
Sitting here trying to write about everything that is happening, I just feel tired. Partially because my fins rubbed a good portion of my big toe’s skin away and it has kept me restless the last two nights (how COULD you, beloved fins?), but also just at the sheer unimaginable scope of the thing. I love post-apocalyptic literature, and have thus spent a lot of time imagining scenarios like this (well, much worse than this), but real life is never the same as books.
Amongst all of this, it is worth noting that today was the first day that the tennis ball and stick did not absolutely kill my neck and shoulders. I MIGHT be getting back into shape at long last.
Saturday 14 March 2020
I’m really feeling better athletically. For the first time since I started training again back in February, I feel better not worse. And I’m stronger in the water for sure. Gotta post this and get on the road to Wrightsville – time for more open water!!!
