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Coastal Masters FUNvitational

A fun, if exhausting, weekend in Wilmington – 7 of my swimmers competed in the Coastal Masters FUNvitational, which totally lived up to its name. Thanks to awesome organizers Celia and Alicia, and everyone who made this meet happen!

I’m going to try to keep this post short – I’m starting recovery week, and some time recovering is definitely what the doctor ordered.

For instance, you know your stretching has become extended and intense when you start needing a water break in the middle of it 🙂

Thanks of the Week

The people I am appreciating right now include:

Yoga with Adrian – As I struggle to hold body and shoulder together, a few things are really helping to make it possible. One of them is Yoga with Adrian. I started with this one – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho9em79_0qg – thanks so much to Heidi for the suggestion!

Coach Susan from age group – We were so lucky to have her for the too brief time that she was at the North Central West Virginia YMCA. I truly don’t think I’d be doing what I’m doing now without the base she provided all those years ago. She was the first coach to really push me, and to give me the kind of workouts that would develop all that endurance I had lying around. I wonder if she remembers me coming into a Saturday practice and, upon discovering that I was the only one there, saying “I want to see how many yards I can do in two hours.” I’ve now met a whole bunch of swimmers who think that a T-120 is a fun way to spend a Saturday morning, but I definitely hadn’t back then. But she let me do it. I wish I could remember how much I did 🙂

Even with all of the training I’m doing now, and the increased knowledge of 30 years, I still can’t beat the 13-year-old me that she created. I remember shattering 6 minutes in the 500… after the last set of most practices for me was 5×100 on 1:10. I appreciated the heck out of her at the time, but after all of these years of swimming and coaching myself, I appreciate her even more.

Finally, thanks so much to Craig, who brought fresh-made bread to me at practice. As noted below, it takes a lot to keep this engine running right now, and I appreciate every bit!

This week’s lesson learned

Do. Not. Skimp. On. The. Food. 

Or the water. Or the sleep. Possible? Not always, but if I want to do this I’ve got to try. 

I came back to the hotel and collapsed after the barbecue following the meet on Saturday. I did time the meet, and enthusiastically cheered everyone on, but nothing that should have induced a complete wipe-out. I couldn’t go to the beach and out to eat with the fam. For anyone who knows me, both the beach and going out to eat are very, very high on the priority list. I was supposed to do a bit of a swim in the afternoon, but instead I fell asleep. And then fell asleep again. And my head hurt and so did moving anything.

That’s not totally unusual – sleep is important too (I’ll get to that in a second), but in retrospect, there were several times that I was desperately hungry and didn’t eat enough, starting Friday after practice. The problem is, it’s becoming such a normal state of being (desperately hungry), that I don’t always recognize it anymore. And hydration is always a struggle for me – and as always, it was really hot in the pool.

It’s also easy to be bamboozled by the fact that I really, really love to eat – it’s hard to realize that food ever could be the right amount but feel like too much. Most of us spend much of our lives wishing that we could eat more than we do. But at 40-50,000 yards a week, I’m already starting to have to cram it in. And I haven’t even added in the cold yet.

So eat, drink and be sleepy!

Hotel Heaters

I’d compose an ode of hatred to these to match the one to flipturns, but I’m too tired. (Get it?) Why, oh why, would you put something sooooo loud 3 feet from where you intend for people to sleep? The beds at the Holiday Inn Express were also too hard for my liking, but it was the heater going on and off every 15 minutes that earned my eternal ire. Getting back to my own bed last night was heaven.

But seriously, am I the only one with this problem?

Open Water – Taking it Easy

Bad Jokes

In honor of the weather cooling off…

Q: What detergent do swimmers use to wash their wet suit?

A: Tide!

England Business (Oct 25-29)

Super awesome swim over the weekend, feeling amazing and well-prepared… And then comes Monday. And a crap ton of administrative crap. Is there anything more prosaic (and less like swimming 7 miles in a beautiful setting) than scheduling dentist appointments for the family? Or the 19 other scheduling and email-responding things I did this morning? No England. Sorry England.

Also, a relatively extended conversation about Feeding Friends. I have trouble taking into account that everything, no matter how worthy, takes time. So, give myself a break when worthy causes steal some productivity. Or make a change. In this case, I’m good with it so far.

On Tuesday I had time for couple of England things. I can’t remember the first one (I’m writing this on Wed morning, after Annihilation Tuesday), but I checked the CS&PF site documents, and it looks like my pilot will email me the application form after I book. I assume that means after I put down my deposit next month, since he has not done it yet. It’s not due until April, so I think that it is fine to wait until November.

I had a bunch of emails – I dealt with all of the ones that weren’t school stuff – that’s Wednesday’s task

And yet again on Wednesday, had another bunch of crap to do, but got started on England just after 11 – it looks like piano lessons for J in Bournemouth will work – we’ll just need to rent/buy/find a keyboard while we’re there. At least Google Classroom is a silver pandemic lining. From there on, I was looking for schools. But at least made some good progress.

On Thursday I did some emailing about kids’ schools, and I worked on setting up a six-hour qualifier. Thanks to everyone interested in potentially kayaking for this! I also contacted the CS&PF to see if my observers can switch off – waiting to hear back.

Friday was emails relating to school stuff and emails relating to a potential Qualifying Swim.

I considered writing a manifesto here about Wake County being OK with taking kids to school on buses and then telling parents that they might have to bring them home (Bus driver strike), AND the experience of having a kid with a sniffle in these Covid times (and the untenable-ness of current policy going into cold and flu season). But I had to deal with all of that, so who has the time to write about it? Suffice to say, some of Friday was lost.

The Week at the Pool

Summary – Ups and Downs

Pool yardage ~38,600

OW swim ~3500

Temp – 73?

Total Yardage ~42,100

Monday’s test set of 10×300 on 4:30 went well. I held mostly 3:43’s and a 3:40 at the end. As always, I’m sad I’m not faster, but glad I’m not slower 🙂

Annihilation Tuesday was so much easier than last week. And I felt a lot better afterwards… until Wednesday.

Wednesday may have been the worst I’ve ever felt in the water. Ever. And I have forgotten what it was like not to spend an hour stretching every day. I was really, really annihilated (they don’t call it Annihilation Tuesday cause you feel awesome the next day). My shoulders were masses of ropey knots.

It’s funny – I think something that my body is good at is shutting down when it needs to rebuild. Now, I do not always love this, because I do not get a say in when it chooses to shut down, and it does it pretty emphatically. But on the other hand, I come back stronger, and maybe should trust my body a little bit. Wednesday – complete shutdown – body says “No more tearing down the muscles; we need to build back.” But Thursday, body says “Here you go – new muscles.”

Thursday’s practice went really, really well. I finished a 5,000-yard set with a 500 in 6:02. Many thanks to Coach Besch for the encouragement on that last 500 – it was essential. (And he would appreciate that I did laugh when he motioned to lengthen my stroke. Stoke lengthening has perhaps never been so not an option).

And then came Friday’s Halloween practice. We drew slips out of a pumpkin (hat) with 10 “trick” sets and 10 “treat” sets. Suffice to say, I think we got every IM trick set in the hat. However, as a kid in my lane said, “Well, on the bright side, we got a lot of good IM work in.” Good for you, kid!

The Gory Details

Monday 10/25 – Theme: Stop being scared of practices! (~7000)

I was putting a Masters workout into Team Unify and couldn’t stop myself from clicking on today’s workout for my group. The thing about me is, I just don’t need to see the w/o ahead of time.

• 150 ez
• 1600 w-up
• 10×50 1-arm :50 (I was crap at these. They bug my shoulder at first. And I never got to at second.)
• 10×50 overkick :50 (This was great to work on new new troke)
• 10×300 all out 4:30 – held 3:43’s and a 3:40 at the end
• 200 ez
• 10×100 back on 1:45 – held 1:20’s
• 150 cd

Tuesday 10/26 – Theme: Annihilation Tuesday #2 (~12,700)

Practice 1 – Theme: Rest is the Best (~1500)

• 150 ez – love these. It just takes me a minute to get moving (and 45 minutes to actually warm-up 🙂
• 500 w-up
• 16×50 FR swim/BK kick 1:00 (so nice to have rest)
• 50 ez

Practice 2 – Theme: IM… recovery? (~6500)

• 1600 w-up
• 8×25 IM kick :30
• 8×50 IM drill 1:00?
• 8×75 no free IM (except for me) 1:15
• 8×100 IM 1:30
• 8×200 IM 3:05

(my lane didn’t make all of the 100’s or 200’s. Workouts like these are so much easier for me, since I’m not doing any fly this year in order to protect my shoulder)

• 200 ez
• 18×50 kick 1:00
• 200 ez

Practice 3 – Theme: Macon Makes My Feet Cramp (~3600)

We are forever going off the blocks and/or putting on fins. But I did not get any actual foot cramps this week – victory.

• 200 w-up
• 25 ez
• 3 relays (50 each) – free (a ghastly :31), back, and corkscrew/head up FR
• 7×25 off the blocks / running start
• 100 ez
• 5×100 fly kick with fins (75 hands at sides/25 prayer)
• 100 ez
• 3x:
• 300 fr/bk/br/fr 5:20
• 4×25 fast :35 (well “fast” – I struggled to hold :17’s 🙂
• 100 ez, breathe every 5 on 2:00 (worked on being Florian Wellbrock late in the game)
• 8×100 – 1@1:30, 2@1:35, 3@1:40, 2@1:45 (get the same rest each time)
• 50 ez

Practice 4 – Theme: Fins again?!? (~1100)

• 200 w-up
• 4×100 bk kick
• 6×50 fly kick w/fins – u/w to the first yellow (made it, and no foot cramps)
• 200 cd

This went really well – I was a bit logy during pre-senior practice, but I felt much better overall than I did last week. And an avocado and 1 piece of pizza, plus the second peanut butter banana casserole that I had packed, was plenty to keep me on my feet while I coached afterwards.

Wednesday 10/27 – Theme: Recovery Kick (~5800)

Wow. I think that is the worst I’ve ever felt in the water.

1600 w-up

3x:

• 3×100 1:55
• 4×25 :35
• 2×100 1:55
• 4×25 :35
• 1×100 1:55
• 4×25 :35

All kick. Rnd 1 FR, Rnd 2 St, Rnd 3 FR w/fins. 1:00 between rounds

• 100 ez
• 10×25 all out :25 (I did manage to hold :17’s after the first couple. Sad when that’s a victory)
• 100 ez
• 10×50 Dr/Swim Ch :50
• 500 ez

Thursday 10/28 – Theme: I love distance Thursdays (~7600)

1600 w-up

• the lines indicate 100’s ez on 2:00 (I only did 50’s – shhhh, I’m old)
• I made it all (missed a couple by a second, but only because I was behind people… I would have made it no question)
• The last 500 I did in 6:02. Pretty happy about that.

5×100 drill

(I made up the 250 I missed with easy swims before and after practice)

Many thanks to Coach Besch for the encouragement on the last 500 – it was essential. (And he would appreciate that I did laugh when he told me to lengthen my stroke. Stoke lengthening has perhaps never been so not an option).

Friday 10/29 – Theme: Trick or Treat (~5500)

500 w-up

Then, we got to draw sets out of a pumpkin (hat). There were tricks and there were treats. Some of the sets available were: 15 min social kick, 10×25 on 1:45, no faster than 1:15, 10×25 underwater on 1:45. What did my lane get?

• 1000 Tiger IM for time
• 10×100 IM 1:45
• 5×200 IM 3:30
• 3×400 IM 7:00
• And then, finally, 10×50 dolphin dives on 2:00
• We finished up with part of a a 500 backwards reverse IM

As a kid in my lane said, “Well, on the bright side, we got a lot of good IM work in.” Good for you, kid!

I took it as yet another opportunity to embrace the hand that fate deals me. The Channel may have no mercy, why should the trick or treat set pumpkin?

We each drew these sets out of the hat. So you feel like you’ve done it to yourself 🙂 I drew the 3×400 IM. Two years ago I drew 5×200 Butterfly. They should not let me draw.