May 12-15

My First Podcast Guest Appearance

It was fantastic to get to do this podcast with University of Ottawa School of Human Kinetics Professor François Haman. I’m looking forward to following his whole series.

If you want to see me and see how I was thinking at the end of April, I think this came out really well. I believe we recorded this on Wednesday, April 27th, and it’s already fun to look back at it and see how much has changed in a month. (It came out on May 29th, but I’m including it here. Because I can.)

Reflections on Overtraining, After a Break

Preface: I was ***really*** tired after we got back from Ireland. My original plan was to do an ocean swim on Tuesday after we got home. My mental response to that once we were actually back in the apartment? “HA!” I didn’t even consider it. I would have gone to practice on Wednesday morning, but it was cancelled due to construction at the pool. I couldn’t summon up the energy nor find the time to go on my own. It bears repeating – I was extremely tired after our adventures in Ireland and night spent “sleeping” in the airport. And, you know, all of the training ever. In retrospect, taking those couple of extra days off after the trip was a good (and possibly necessary) break. I swam MUCH better than I had been when I came back on Thursday.

Something I think about a lot are the times I’ve heard or read that, basically, if you get overtrained you are screwed. You might as well give up for awhile, because it is going to be a months-long recovery.

I consider myself to be someone who flirts with overtraining routinely, but I don’t actually know, because I’m not willing to shell out the moolah to get tested. And I suspect that, in my case, it is just a flirtation. I have considerable body awareness, and something my body is pretty emphatic about is shutting it down when it feels I might be doing long-term damage. But who knows, unless you have the data.

But what I was thinking about on my first day back from a 4-day break in Ireland (and then the unintentional morning off because the pool was closed) is how you don’t really know how bad you feel, until you feel better. It took 3 days of eating my way through Dublin and surroundings before I felt full. I never feel full for any stretch of time anymore – only just after I’ve crammed a bunch of food in my mouth. (And thank you to Irish food for making the filling up process most pleasant.) I’ve heard the saying, “There is no such thing as overtrained, there is only underfed,” and whereas that seems extreme to me, years of endurance training have shown at least a grain of truth to it in my case. If my nutrition can just keep up with what I want to do, I’m usually all right.

Anyway, what I was really thinking about is that there are times when I certainly feel overtrained (although I have no proof other than the typical symptoms), but I am able to carry on after a short rest period. But of course, I am not training at elite levels. And I do question if I am as fast as I could be if I never let myself get overtrained. How I can get faster has occupied my training mind a lot lately – I’ve got two months, what is the best use of my time? Endurance is the most important thing, but the more speed I have, the less endurance I need.

But here’s the thing – the times when I feel overtrained?… they all occur after training speed, none after training endurance. Perhaps this is unsurprising (in someone who doesn’t own fast-twitch muscle fibers), but going long doesn’t hurt me, only going fast.

It’s a really good question (how much to train speed vs. endurance in the lead up to an ultra-marathon swim… and how NOT to suffer from debilitating overtraining), and one that doesn’t have a lot of data behind it. Elite marathon swimmers are preparing for a 10K – a very tough 2 hours in the water, but 2 is nothing like the 7 of the fastest swimmers, or the 12 or more of a mortal like myself.

Shout Out to Wrightsville Beach

Training in WB the last few years was just fantastic preparation. In addition to getting to train with all of the awesome folks there… Not only is WB one of the most interesting places to train (barring tropical fish), with ocean-side, Harbor Island, and the intercoastal to play around with, conditions on a given day were much more challenging than I’ve found (at least yet) on a given day here. Of course, it’s effing cold here in the Northern Atlantic still, which is great training for the Channel… or perhaps it was just trying to keep up with Michel that was keeping me warm all this time 🙂

OW Swims

15 May 2022 – No videos. Not sure why, but I was pretty tired that day.

Channel Prep

I can’t remember when all of the following were getting done/being thought about, so I’ll go ahead and let my stream-of-consciousness stand again. Here were many of the things occupying my May:

More debate over swimsuit, setting up boat swim with Paul and Will, night swim, 10-hour swim?, peaches (ack, no can opener!), mint mouthwash, coconut oil, Nesquik substitutes, pork pies, goggles and straps, ear drops, so much shopping! Lanolin, got hair cut – must try out fastskin cap

The [Time Period] in the Water (Thursday 5/12 – Sunday 5/15)

Summary

Pool Yardage ~ 11,700 M 

OW Yardage ~ 21,200 M

Total Yardage ~ 32,900 M

OTHER:

 miles of running – 5.6

 miles of walking (plus, you know, a lot more) – just the usual

 miles riding – 10.8

32.9 K in 4 days is really not too shabby. Turns out you can really crank it out when you put your head down and swim for 3 hours straight in decent conditions.

The Gory Details

Thur May 12 (~6500 M) 2 h; .5 mi run, 2 mi bike, 2.2 k OW swim (40 min)

Masters (~5000 M) 1 hr 30

• 400 (150 swim; 50 catchup)
• 400 (IM kick/drill)
• 6×100 (25 fr/75 bk) on 1:45
• 2x(2×25 fist drill on :35; 50 fast on :45 – came in somewhere just under :40)
• 4×200 on 3:10 (held somewhere just under 3:00)
• 300 ez w/fins
• 4×200 on 3:05 (held about 2:55)
• 300 ez w/fins
• 4×200 on 3:00 (held 2:45)
• 300 ez w/fins
• 200 CD

This may have been the first time since I moved to England that I looked up at the pace clock and was pleasantly surprised. The 2:45s required some effort, but they felt fine, were obviously sustainable and I didn’t feel like I was going that fast. Rest is an amazing thing. (Oh, and don’t feel too sorry for me – 1) a lot of times I’m not even looking at the pace clock because it’s so tough to see and/or lap swim and the pace clock are not friends, and 2) My times might be better than I think – it takes a while to turn around and then focus in on the clock. So no worries, but a nice boost this morning.)

Lap Swim (1500 M 30 m)

• 500 ez (75 free/25 bk)
• 10×100 on 1:50 (and then changed to 2:00? Don’t know what was going on at the front of the lane). 50 fr/50 bk

I thought about doing some faster pace work during lap swim, but made the (correct, I think) decision – not my first day back. But that’s how good I felt.

OTHER:

Run and Bike to practice (.5 mile, 2 mile)

Getting A to and from school – some running involved, but only to get to and from bus. Trying to take it a little easier and see how I feel.

OW swim – took it easy on my first one back. Sort of. Sauntered down to the beach and only went 40 minutes, but my pace was pretty good (2.18 K) considering that included getting in and out. I had a smooth ride down to the marker, but then felt like I was in a fight with the ocean on the way back – the wind was intense and the chop was about as bad as I’ve swum in. I kept picturing Will beside me, hurrying to get to dinner 🙂

• Water temp about 12
• Air temp about 57
• W-I-N-D-Y!
• Temp before: 36.7
• Temp after: 34.4

Fri May 13 (~5200 M) 1 h 50 m; 4.6 mi run

Masters (~3150 M) 1 h

• 400 – 100 fr/100 IM (missed a couple 50s)
• 4×200 (supposed to be on 3:10, actually on 2:55)

• 2x:
• 2x(25 fast on :40, 2×75 on 1:00, extra :10 (didn’t take the first round), 25 fast on 1:00 breathing every 5 (haha no).
• 200 ez

• 4×25 fly (kick/ swim)
• 2×50 fly/bk
• 4×25 fly (drill/swim)
• 2×75 fly/bk/br
• 4×25 fly (swim)
• 100 IM
• 200 CD

Lap Swim (2050)

• 50 ez

• 5x:
• 4×50 bk, descend on 1:00 (general pattern was :50 ish, under :50 ish, :45 ish, under :45ish)
• 4×25 kick, IM order on :40, reasonably fast

• 500 CD (and I did the last round of the previous set fairly ez)

I felt pretty good again today.

Sat May 14 (11,000 M) 3 h; 4.4 mi ride

Good OW swim on my own this morning. Pretty darn happy with 11 K in 3 hours. Temperature-wise, I felt fully comfortable for the whole time for the first time since I’ve been here – onward and upward!

• 9-12 AM
• Water temp – probably 13
• Air temp 54-59
• Very sunny
• Calm sea until the 3rd lap, then some annoying chop. Good practice.
• Temp before: 36.5
• Temp after: 34.5

Rode bike to and from. Walk up the hill at the end is the worst 

Sun May 15 (~8000 M?) 2.5 h; 4.4 mi ride

Well that was interesting. After yesterday’s swim, my plan was to see how I felt – my right shoulder was the teensiest bit questionable, so I figured I’d go at least 2 hours but not too hard, and then decide from there. Will and I swam a LOONG way down the coast, which meant that we had an hour and a half of waves to fight on the way back. Eventually my OTHER shoulder got a bit dodgy (the feeling was new to me – it started as almost a muscle cramp feeling, but it wouldn’t go away and it got harder and harder to lift that arm. But not like when I was against the wind in the Charleston swim.) Anyway, I invented a new stroke – ULAR (ultra-low arm recovery), which made my shoulder feel fine but also made me go too slow to stay adequately warm. It was windy and wavy and rainy and it was clear my shoulder was done for the day, so I got out when I got back to the beach hut at 2 h 30. All in all, a good weekend’s work!

In retrospect, I remember this as one of the hardest, most demoralizing swims that I did. I’m really impressed that my attitude was that good afterward 🙂

• 9-11:30 AM
• Water temp – 13
• Air temp 59-61 (allegedly)
• Mini-washing machine (but the kind where half the time that you go to breath you get a mouthful of salt water instead).
• Temp before: 37
• Temp after 34.8

Good practice. Different arm and shoulder muscles for sure.

Oh, forgot to say – my watch said I did something like 10.5 K. Obviously that’s impossible, so I’m going by what Will’s watch said when he did his feed at the hut. And that, my friends, is why all of this is approximate and you can’t get too hung up on yardage. (Or whatever they call it here.)

Did I mention the seaweed? Oh, the seaweed. I can’t remember now exactly when it started, but now there are absolutely gobs of it in my suit when I get out. Pounds of seaweed. And swimming through it is like swimming through an underwater forest of hair. Bad-smelling hair. On the worst days, it covers the bottom in huge patches that made it look like I was suddenly swimming over a dark abyss. It’s totally fine, but I’m not a fan.

Rode bike to and from. The ride home into the wind was brutal-feeling.