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Come on, shoulders!

It’s a more encouraging and less commanding catchphrase than Jens Voigt’s famous, “Shut up, legs!”, but hopefully it will work for me. I feel like I have been babying the shoulders for quite a while now, but even with the past week being extremely favorable to recovery (low yardage, good rest, good food, a trip to the chiropractor), the tennis ball still found several areas of concern this morning. I’d really like to feel like I can hit Christmas training with a big stick next week, so hopefully everything continues to loosen up this week.

Book Review

I’ve been reading “Endure” by Alex Hutchinson, and I *may* have figured out the breathlessness of my 100 backstroke sprints. I am a backstroker, and one of the things I like best about it is that you get to breathe all the time. But, even with this advantage, the 100’s we did on 2:00 during taper had my wondering if I had covid (I didn’t).

In Hutchinson’s chapter on LCHF (low carb, high fat) diets, he recounts studies that have found that “fat-adapted” athletes on these diets required more oxygen to sustain a faster pace. That particular study was done in speed walkers – athletes who don’t need to sprint (which the low carb diet has been seen to be bad for) but who do need to maintain a pace for a long time.

I stopped eating added sugar over 4 years ago, and not too long after that, upped the percentage of fat in my diet. The results (for me) were spectacular, especially along the lines of what researchers have found in other athletes – I can exercise at aerobic paces for long periods of time without needing to refuel. Since I specialize in sub-maximal efforts for longer-than-marathon periods of time (and do it in the ocean where eating can be challenging), that explains a lot about why I have found this diet so successful for myself (it also keeps me on a more even energy keel in daily life and makes any additional efforts to maintain a healthy weight unnecessary… well, when not training to swim for 12+ hours in 60-degree water).

Thanks to Hutchinson, I now know that it may also explain why I am even less capable of achieving maximum effort than usual. Although, a caveat to this – when I ramp up my training, I do eat carbs as I feel I need to. In practice, this results in more rice and pasta consumption with meals, and an added bowl of fruit some days. I’m looking to feel good and train at my best, rather than subscribe to a LCHF cult. And according to the research I just read about, this type of mixed training may offer the most benefit to athletes.

Another conclusion reached on my own but confirmed in the studies presented by Hutchinson – you can train on fats, but you should race on carbs – hence my “I only drink chocolate milk in the ocean” feed plan 🙂

Anyway, really enjoyable book if you are interested in human performance!

Correction-ish

Last week I stated that I was “acclimated as hell.” Looking around the internet, it seems like both might be OK, but more common usage is that I am “acclimatized as hell.” If anyone has insights on whether they are, in fact, interchangeable, let me know!

“No”

A few days ago, I was listening to a Duolingo Spanish podcast about a Mexican opera singer who had to fight through everything from his parents’ expectations to a spectacular failure his first time on stage to become one of the best opera singers in the world. And I was thinking about how ordinary people achieve greatness. That guy was probably not ordinary, but his struggles can probably inform us all.

For the past four months, I’ve been getting a practically daily dose of “no.” Can my son attend your school? No. Can you kayak for me this weekend? No. Do you think I’ll be able to find a flat? No. And let me be very clear – I am not (usually) faulting these no-sayers. Sometimes you have to say no, and for very good reason. (NAYsayers are a different kettle of fish – but thankfully less common).

But from my perspective, it requires a lot of mental fortitude to keep going day after day, facing rejection, until you finally find the “yes.” Or figure out another way. Or decide it’s not essential to your goal.

I wonder how many of us could be better at facing rejection. I know that I can. And I am getting a crash course in it this year.

Now, filling out a gazillion forms – that’s a whole other level of Dante’s Inferno 🙂

No Open Water This Week

Instead, I got my Level 3 USMS Coaching Certification on Saturday. The course was good, but the chairs were not super comfortable – I started questioning whether it was harder on my shoulders than swimming would have been 🙂 

Uncomfortable with the emoji above being necessary to convey the (admittedly mild) humor of hurting my shoulders attending a coaching class, I decided that today was the day I would learn how to write humor, you know, the best. So I googled “funny blog.” I’m sure I would have learned a lot, but partway through, the school called – A has another cold. So I picked him up, stopping by the covid test mill on the way home. Now I’ll never be funny.

I couldn’t help but notice that sites like The Onion have an advantage – if you’re there, you already know they are joking. Would it enhance your experience of this blog for me to go ahead and tell you that I’m joking?

If you are not laughing, I have failed again. But that will not stop me from wasting more time reading other people’s funny blogs.

England Business (Dec 6-10)

12/6 – Lodging, lodging, lodging. Posted to Durley Sea Swims. Emailed Bournemouth peeps.

12/7 – Updated computer. Lost a morning.

Got a comment from someone in the Bournemouth open water group… about how hard it will be to find an apartment. Stress stress stress.

Later – good suggestions from OP about steps to take. People may be negative about the market, but at least they are giving me action items.

12/8 – Getting some good “flat” “letting” work done today 🙂 Going through everyone’s advice about how to proceed (contact everyone, everywhere) and starting lists of the people I’ve contacted and links I’ve used. Nothing like bringing some Laura-brand organization to the task. Without lists, would I sleep at night?

It’s a lot of work, but if this is what it takes, this is what it takes. I found a great place last night – I would consider starting to rent it now if that would work out – waiting to hear back from the “estate/letting agent”

12/9 – I called the letting agent of the place that is kinda perfect (except that it’s available now) – even if we were willing to go ahead and start paying now, there’s a problem with the “rent check” that landlords have to do – they need to see my stamped passport and plane ticket, apparently. Which is pretty difficult if I’m not already in England. I’m contacting another agent to see what he says. This could gum up the works, even closer to our actual start date.

12/10 – I took some rest today while waiting to hear back from people. I needed it. Also went to the chiropractor (good), and made applesauce.

The Week at the Pool

Summary

Pool yardage ~ 17,600

No open water

This week was a sine wave – peaks of feeling pretty OK on Tuesday and Thursday, with Monday, Wednesday and Friday being less good. More details below, but I’d sum it up as a typical, boring recovery week.

The Gory Details

Monday 12/6 – Theme: Recovery (~4300) (w/fins)

I felt like I was going to fall asleep while I was swimming. Which was a bit strange, since I slept pretty well (other than being awake for awhile in the middle of the night feeling vaguely nauseous – I swear I could feel all of the waste products being made while my body tried to heal itself from Saturday). And then I spent the day blogging and doing email in my bed. Mentally challenging, perhaps, but a physical cakewalk. But there I was, practically nodding off. [Note after reading “Endure” – for what it’s worth, perceived effort has been shown to increase markedly after challenging mental tasks.]

After over an hour of stretching/tennis balling this morning, I decided I was going to wear fins for the whole practice, and I did exactly that, with the exception of a single 100 at the end. I have found over the years that there is no better recovery for my shoulders than to swim slowly to moderately with fins on.

We talked for about an hour about the kids’ meet and my swim the past weekend. I tried to let them know how thankful I was about getting to swim with them – my eloquence was not particularly up to the task.

• 1000 ez swim (fins)
• 1000 50 kick/50 drill (fins)
• 1000 pull (only fins)
• 8×100 descend on 2:00 (fins – 1:20, 1:18, 1:17, 1:15, behind backstroker, 1:12, 1:09, 1:07)
• (I did not push these – it felt fine to go that fast with the fins on, and I do feel like it helps recovery to get the heart rate up a little bit.)
• 500 cool down (400 fins)

Shoulders were still a bit clicky in the shower, but nothing really hurts at this point. I was more than glad to hear we’ll be keeping it low key this week, before ramping up towards Christmas training next week. My sole purpose at this point is to get myself ready for doubles.

Tuesday 12/7 – Theme: Recovery? It’s all in the expectations (~5400)

I was led to believe this would be no more than 3000 of sets. It was more. 🙂

Still wearing fins to aid the shoulders in their recovery. But less.

• 1600 w-up (fins) 
• 200 ez
• 10×50 3-touch (arm up, back, up) 1:00 (fins until my shoulders loosened up)
• 10×50 free kick on side on 1:00 (did some fly kick on back – I don’t know why the free kick on side hurts my shoulder, but it does
• 200 ez
• 10×50 overkick on 1:00
• 200 ez
• 10×50 back L drill on 1:10 (these got a bit dodgy. I thought they’d be fine since they were backstroke, but I should have put on fins)
• 200 ez
• 10×100 free/back 1:45 as cool down (fins)
• 50 ez

I got tired and hungry at the end – even though I’ve been eating more than I feel like I need to. My shoulders and neck are kinda tired. I probably should have skipped the 10×100. I did go super, super ez.

Wednesday 12/8 – Theme: Not feeling great today (~3400)

Felt really bad when I got up this morning, wondering if I overdid it yesterday, but after stretching feel better. We’ll see how it goes…

My shoulders were better this morning with the tennis ball, especially the left one. But there was still plenty of tightness there, and I had to work on them for a long time. I felt a bit off throughout the day and it was one of those practices where it just feels unusually hard to put one arm in front of the other. A headache did not help. So when practice turned to water polo, I (wisely) decided not to throw a ball with questionable shoulders – I did 1000 more yards on Besch’s recommendation and then got out. I think it was the right call.

• 1600 w-up (fins)
• 200 ez
• 10×50 br kick on front, hands at sides on 1:20 (these felt way easier than they did in September)
• 100 ez
• 5×200 ascend on 3:15

I’m on the couch now, totally out of processing ability. Time to stare mindlessly at Big Bang Theory

Thursday 12/9 – Theme: Now THAT’S Recovery (~2000) + sharks and minnows and water polo

I’m continuing to bask in the glow of my swim on Saturday. Although I would have liked to get further, I know (from having swum that beach a lot), that that was one of the hardest pushes I’ve ever swum against there. But if I did need confirmation, one of my masters swimmers was vacationing at the beach that weekend – when she asked how the swim went, she also said, “I hoped you weren’t swimming south!” I was, of course, swimming south. So I’ll be looking to my next big swims (in the early summer) to get a better idea of what kind of pace I can expect of myself in the Channel.

But, distance aside, it was great, especially temperature-wise. I hardly had any afterdrop, and I felt like I could have done it all day. I’m curious how much colder that temperature water (60ish F) feels in the dark – I haven’t yet had the chance to try it out.

• 1600 w-up
• 200 ez
• 8×25 on :40 12.5 u/w, touch the black line, 12.5 sprint
• Fun

Throwing the ball wasn’t perhaps the wisest of all decisions, but I felt so much better today. I think it was OK – we’ll find out tomorrow.

Friday 12/10 – Theme: Well, it doesn’t feel like a week of recovery. Hopefully by Monday. (~2500)

• 500 swim
• 12×25 on :30, one more dolphin kick each 25
• 4×75 with dryland (skipped it)
• 16×25 climb out walk around (did half, swam back in secret lane)
• Water polo (skipped it)
• 4×100 back (some with fins)
• 6×25 (fins)
• 4×25 (fins)
• 300ish cool down

At the chiropractor, my right rotator cuff may have shown some signs of having thrown a water-logged water polo ball overhead. Nothing that seemed too dire, though.