Not off to a good start. I stayed home from work today trying to get over this cold. I have a wicked cough and no energy. I have stayed out of the water for four days. I plan to work tomorrow but wait one more day before going back to the pool. Sunday was the first time ever that I skipped a swim at the Club. Hard for me to swallow, but I couldn't imagine getting up at 4:30 to jump into cold water for over an hour.
I'll be back next weekend. Everyone has been very clear that an extra day off will make my recovery that much faster. Last week I was feeling a bit down and put some of my worries out on the English Channel Chat room. The response was over whelming. I received so much support and advice. It will take me a while to digest it all. But I feel so much better knowing that so many people are pulling for me to succeed.
The recommendations seem to generally be: vitamins, more sleep, better nutrition, more variety of training, cross training, and massage!
This all sounds reasonable and possible. I have made an appointment to meet with a "trainer/nutritionist" who I can workout with twice a week (with weights) and get nutrition guidance as well. I will see if I can afford her services for the next 5 months. I think it will be more bang for my buck that joining a gym and getting a trainer there. I think I will also visit the doctor and get blood work done since several people suggested "anemia". I don't run to such issues, but how stupid if I didn't check it out. I have had this cough on and off for over four weeks...
The massage sounds lovely. I need to find someone who will be therapudic as well as pleasant.
All good advice, now if I could just get back to it!
More soon...I hope!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
WEEK 21 (not so good)
2.18.10 Thursday and I am just starting to write. Not an auspicious start to the week. I had to drive my daughter to school Monday and Tuesday so I didn't get to swim at all. Wednesday I was back in the pool and damn glad to be there. Today I have an inkling that I am not doing this training thing properly. I have certain constraints in that I only have access to a pool for an hour early in the morning on weekdays and then I can swim in the bay on weekends. So I can't swim 4-6 miles 4 days a week and then a long swim on the weekend like I have seen so many people suggest. The most yardage I can get in on a weekday is 3,000 and that is what I am doing four days a week. Then on the weekends I have reached 4 miles (two hours) per day so far. But here is the problem; I am worn out. I am tired. My arms are tired and aching. It doesn't feel like an injury, it feels like over use and exhaustion. But I am supposed to be able to swim 15-16 miles a week and to build that to 24 miles in my last week. I don't think that I can keep up the six days a week for 21 more weeks. I need advice. I think that I would benefit from some "strength training" but I don't know how to find it or how to work it in. I can't afford to pay for swimming, and pay for my club, and pay for a workout club and trainer... but I can't afford to get hurt either. Who do you ask these questions to? I wish I had a "coach" who was involved in marathon swimming, but I don't even know if they exist. I guess I will put my questions out onto the Channel chat forum, but they are intimidating to say the least. I thought that if I just kept swimming I would get stronger but it feels like I and getting run down. This doesn't feel right. I hope I can figure this out. I want to feel like superman when i leave for Spain not just someone who has put in the miles and can muscle through. I did that for Tahoe and I am hoping for a more satisfying Gibraltar swim. I want to finish feeling strong and able to go further, not depleted and desperate to get on the boat.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Week 22 (cont.)
It's Sunday morning and I have promised to go to the club to register rowers for their Krispy Kreme Regata. I have to slow down to 30 miles an hour across the Bay Bridge to get there because of the dense fog. I don't know if they row in the fog, but I doubt it. But I am wrong, this is the South End club so of course they row in the fog. I sign in about 15 pairs and singles in wooden and plastic shells and boats. Then I go off to Sports Basement to buy an array of sports endurance concoctions. Remember I promised to start working on the feeding issue. Well after reading many threads from the Channel Swimmers on line group, I know to look for a mix of carbohydrates and protein. I like the idea of caffeine too and I found three brands that have all three ingredients. So this morning I plan to try Accelerade 4:1/drink and gel, both hot and cold. I go back to the club, the rowers are done and happy, wolfing down a fabulous breakfast with more bacon than donuts. I don't join them because I have "work" to do. I can't find the little floatie thing that swimmers tie to the dock to hold their drinks and gels so that they can practice feeding in the water while doing laps around the Aquatic Park Cove (it is really a float to hold beer for pool parties, but we swimmers are nothing if not inventive). I walk across the sand to the Dolphin Club and ask to borrow their "beer caddy". Lucky me, Suzie Dods is just about to go in for a dip. We are friends and well suited to each other in both speed and temperament. Her only flaw as I see it is that she doesn't like to leave the cove without a boat escort. Hers is not an unusual penchant, it's just that I look for every and any excuse to go outside the wall of the cove. I swim in the bay for the waves. I don't usually do laps, but I don't often swim with a buddy and I wouldn't pass up the opportunity. Suzie has successfully swum the English Channel, and is training to swim the Catalina Channel this summer so she is a wealth of information and encouragement. We talked at the end of each lap (four laps to a mile) or rather I asked a question at the end of each lap. I asked about sun screen (put it on naked because your suit will ride up and you will get burned), grease (it's to reduce chaffing in salt water not to keep you warmer, and use a glove to put it on our you will undoubtedly put a greasy finger print in the middle of your goggles) and training swims (she swam a ten hour swim a few weeks before her channel crossing). So after we swam two miles together she headed off for the sauna and the Dolphin Club party. Suzie belongs to both the South End and the Dolphin Club and the really weird thing is that she isn't the only one. Lots of people belong to both. I don't understand it, but I like it. It says that both clubs have a lot to offer if people feel that there is value in belonging to both. So after Suzie left I did seven more laps hoping to make my swim over two hours. So for the last, eighth lap I swam to the opening of the cove and then did a triangle to the flag and back to the beach. By now the flood had turned to an ebb and the fog had returned. After I left the opening and began to head for the flag I got a bit freaked out with the fog and the cold, and when I reached the flag and turned left toward the club I was met by quite the ebb tide. Luckily I had just received some fabulous advice from Lynne Cox (one of the most famous marathon swimmers, the author of Swimming to Antarctica, and all around nice person who is willing to give advice the likes of newbie me) to finish your long swims with a burst of intensity. To swim the last 1/2 mile or mile harder and faster than the whole workout. This is because when you are crossing the English Channel many people don't succeed because the tide turns about a mile off the French coast and many swimmers have given their all and can't cross that last mile. So when I was surprised by the ebb I took it as a good opportunity to work extra hard and besides it was the only way to get home and I was ready for lunch. All in all I swam for 2 hours and 10 minutes which was great. I was very happy to reach the sauna, but I wasn't played out. I am ready to increase my time in the cold water and luckily the water will probably be getting warmer.
For the record, and so I'll remember; the Accelerade gels were great, the drinks were ok, the orange was better than the lemon/lime and I might try diluting them with more water to make them more palatable. But all told a good start. I have something I can choke down that has the benefit of carbs and protein. I am on my way.
For the record, and so I'll remember; the Accelerade gels were great, the drinks were ok, the orange was better than the lemon/lime and I might try diluting them with more water to make them more palatable. But all told a good start. I have something I can choke down that has the benefit of carbs and protein. I am on my way.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Week 22
WEEK 22 - Monday 2.8.10
I know I waxed on rhapsodically about last week being a rest week, but I am still stunned by the benefits. I swam an easy 1.5 hours in 53 degree water on Saturday and felt like I could have stayed much longer. I have never had a “plan” before and I like it.
This morning’s pool workout was hard. A friend said, if you have trouble washing your hair after the workout, you had a good one. Well this morning I could have used handicapped bars to keep my upright. We did some speed work, my least favorite thing. My lane mate remarked, “I don’t do speed”. I understand what she means. I feel like trying to swim faster just means more splashing and tons more effort for a second or twos reduction in time. Not worth it in my book, but I do what the coach says – always (it makes life easier). Why pay for coaching if you aren’t going to benefit from it?
Wednesday 2.10.10
This blogging thing has taught me something; it’s good to keep records and notes about your workouts. You learn what is working and what isn’t. This week every time I sat down to write I realized that I want to start out with, “I’m tired”. Not only is this boring to hear about, but it must mean something is wrong with what I am doing. Am I swimming too much? Am I swimming too hard? Am I not eating or sleeping properly? I need to look at my training log and see what’s up, and to check in with myself to see if I am getting sick or not getting enough rest. I never would have thought about these issues before, so I am happy to be learning new things about my body and my abilities.
The problem is that there are always so many variables in life that I never took the time to figure out what was affecting what.
My masters program has a new coach two days a week. He has increased the intensity and doesn’t like kicking which means that his workouts include about 20% more swimming than before. I never would have figured this out; I would have just wondered why I was so tired after his workouts. But in the showers other swimmers were discussing the differences too. Their conjecture is that this new coach writes workouts for a 3 x week swimmers who don’t work full time (late morning workouts at the country club). Most of the masters that I swim with swim six days a week at 6:00 am and then go off to work. His workouts are hard but his normal clientele take the next day off. I am so intent on increasing my mileage over the next six months but I need to balance this with building strength so that I don’t get hurt. Because I only have an hour available in the pool every morning, I can’t increase my weekday yardage much past 3,000 yards. This leads to working too hard and swimming too long on the weekends. I think I might need to add another rest day and use it to do yoga and get some stretching in. But I don’t want to give up my long times in the bay on the weekends. Maybe two 2 hour swims on the weekend are too much. I will have to listen to my body and make adjustments. As I have been reminded, it is a training plan, a guide, and not set in stone.
I have made it to bed every night before 10:00 pm and that is the best I can hope for. But I could make improvements in my nutrition. I vow to keep a food record for a week and then talk to a sports nutritionist for some recommendations. This is the very last thing that I want to do, but it is probably the most important “fix” I could make to my training. It’s time I grew up and faced the boogeyman in my personal closet.
On a much more positive note, I sent a deposit to Rafael of the ASOCIACIÓN CRUCE A NADO DEL ESTRECHO DE GIBRALTAR (Gibraltar Straits Swimming Association) which thrills me because now there is no turning back. This swim will happen; I am bound for Spain this July!
Now for the bad news; my knee has been bothering me for over two weeks and I finally went to the doctor. I was sure that he would tell me that I just need to rest and it would get better, but no, he said, “I think you have a locked knee, a something fold, and we need an MRI”.
Wow, what a shock. I know that I can’t straighten it, and I am still limping after two and a half weeks, but I figured with a bit more stretching and no running that it would bounce back. This must have something to do with being almost 50 years old. A small wrench skiing becomes something that only surgery can fix. Well I will hope for the best. I can still swim with only mild pain. I don’t ever want to have knee surgery (again).
As luck would have it, I have to miss my morning swim tomorrow (so I will get some unplanned rest). My oldest girl, Katharine is at the Olympic Peninsula Institute in Northern Washington on a week long science trip of snow camping and field research so I have to drive my younger daughter Coco to school tomorrow. My neighbor has done the morning run and I the afternoon pick up but tomorrow she needs me to do both. Then I begin physical therapy for my knee (while I await the MRI appointment). And then Friday is the start of a four day weekend (yeah!). And even though I love my masters group, I can’t quite make myself get up at 5:30 am on a day that I don’t have work. So I will get to rest Thursday and Friday and then I will be ready for a long swim in the Bay on Saturday and Sunday. I have made arrangements to meet with an experienced open water swimmer one day this weekend for some stroke analysis. And I plan to ask him about my training plan and how to modify it so I don’t get injured. And this weekend I promise to start the whole feeding experimentation process. I want to say the whole stupid feeding thing, but I am trying to remain positive especially about the parts of channel swimming that I don’t enjoy like the food.
I know I waxed on rhapsodically about last week being a rest week, but I am still stunned by the benefits. I swam an easy 1.5 hours in 53 degree water on Saturday and felt like I could have stayed much longer. I have never had a “plan” before and I like it.
This morning’s pool workout was hard. A friend said, if you have trouble washing your hair after the workout, you had a good one. Well this morning I could have used handicapped bars to keep my upright. We did some speed work, my least favorite thing. My lane mate remarked, “I don’t do speed”. I understand what she means. I feel like trying to swim faster just means more splashing and tons more effort for a second or twos reduction in time. Not worth it in my book, but I do what the coach says – always (it makes life easier). Why pay for coaching if you aren’t going to benefit from it?
Wednesday 2.10.10
This blogging thing has taught me something; it’s good to keep records and notes about your workouts. You learn what is working and what isn’t. This week every time I sat down to write I realized that I want to start out with, “I’m tired”. Not only is this boring to hear about, but it must mean something is wrong with what I am doing. Am I swimming too much? Am I swimming too hard? Am I not eating or sleeping properly? I need to look at my training log and see what’s up, and to check in with myself to see if I am getting sick or not getting enough rest. I never would have thought about these issues before, so I am happy to be learning new things about my body and my abilities.
The problem is that there are always so many variables in life that I never took the time to figure out what was affecting what.
My masters program has a new coach two days a week. He has increased the intensity and doesn’t like kicking which means that his workouts include about 20% more swimming than before. I never would have figured this out; I would have just wondered why I was so tired after his workouts. But in the showers other swimmers were discussing the differences too. Their conjecture is that this new coach writes workouts for a 3 x week swimmers who don’t work full time (late morning workouts at the country club). Most of the masters that I swim with swim six days a week at 6:00 am and then go off to work. His workouts are hard but his normal clientele take the next day off. I am so intent on increasing my mileage over the next six months but I need to balance this with building strength so that I don’t get hurt. Because I only have an hour available in the pool every morning, I can’t increase my weekday yardage much past 3,000 yards. This leads to working too hard and swimming too long on the weekends. I think I might need to add another rest day and use it to do yoga and get some stretching in. But I don’t want to give up my long times in the bay on the weekends. Maybe two 2 hour swims on the weekend are too much. I will have to listen to my body and make adjustments. As I have been reminded, it is a training plan, a guide, and not set in stone.
I have made it to bed every night before 10:00 pm and that is the best I can hope for. But I could make improvements in my nutrition. I vow to keep a food record for a week and then talk to a sports nutritionist for some recommendations. This is the very last thing that I want to do, but it is probably the most important “fix” I could make to my training. It’s time I grew up and faced the boogeyman in my personal closet.
On a much more positive note, I sent a deposit to Rafael of the ASOCIACIÓN CRUCE A NADO DEL ESTRECHO DE GIBRALTAR (Gibraltar Straits Swimming Association) which thrills me because now there is no turning back. This swim will happen; I am bound for Spain this July!
Now for the bad news; my knee has been bothering me for over two weeks and I finally went to the doctor. I was sure that he would tell me that I just need to rest and it would get better, but no, he said, “I think you have a locked knee, a something fold, and we need an MRI”.
Wow, what a shock. I know that I can’t straighten it, and I am still limping after two and a half weeks, but I figured with a bit more stretching and no running that it would bounce back. This must have something to do with being almost 50 years old. A small wrench skiing becomes something that only surgery can fix. Well I will hope for the best. I can still swim with only mild pain. I don’t ever want to have knee surgery (again).
As luck would have it, I have to miss my morning swim tomorrow (so I will get some unplanned rest). My oldest girl, Katharine is at the Olympic Peninsula Institute in Northern Washington on a week long science trip of snow camping and field research so I have to drive my younger daughter Coco to school tomorrow. My neighbor has done the morning run and I the afternoon pick up but tomorrow she needs me to do both. Then I begin physical therapy for my knee (while I await the MRI appointment). And then Friday is the start of a four day weekend (yeah!). And even though I love my masters group, I can’t quite make myself get up at 5:30 am on a day that I don’t have work. So I will get to rest Thursday and Friday and then I will be ready for a long swim in the Bay on Saturday and Sunday. I have made arrangements to meet with an experienced open water swimmer one day this weekend for some stroke analysis. And I plan to ask him about my training plan and how to modify it so I don’t get injured. And this weekend I promise to start the whole feeding experimentation process. I want to say the whole stupid feeding thing, but I am trying to remain positive especially about the parts of channel swimming that I don’t enjoy like the food.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
WEEK 23 (so I miss counted, shoot me)
Ok I’ve already messed up my training. I thought last week was #25, but it wasn’t and now I am in week 23 and am supposed to be having a rest week schedule. Man, am I glad to learn that I should be tired and I can have a day of rest this weekend!
Oh and ONLY 23 WEEKS TO GO! I am so excited!
Monday 2.1.10
I was surfing through my emails and I came upon someone’s signoff, “Dream, Prepare, Succeed”. This strikes me as a fabulous mantra. Although today I could confuse “dream” with sleep because I am tired from this weekends swims. The Bay was cold, and I am worn out. I learned that I need to spend less time “fighting” the current and more time just swimming and putting in the miles. The flood this weekend was very strong and I worked hard to try and get through it, maybe too hard. There is a fine balance between working out, building your base and tearing yourself down.
I was lucky that the new Swimmer magazine came out last week. There was a good article on stretching, with photos. It turns out that I do every single wrong stretch listed. Now I am employing the “right” stretches and I can tell that they are helping already.
This morning I woke up sore and tired and a bit down trodden since it is Monday and just the beginning of my week. I did the stretches (very simple and quick) and by the time I dove into the water I was my old happy self. Today’s workout was hard and fast, not exactly in tune with my training schedule where Mondays are active rest days, but then it turned out that the masters workout was only 2500 yards. So I guess counts.
Today while I swam backstroke I was captivated by the beauty of the water cascading off my hand and arm as it left the water by my side and reached to over my head to reenter the water. Every stroke was interesting and different. I guess swimming really is my love.
Ever since I sent my blog to my friends and family I have received so many wonderful responses and cheers. This blog will help take me through the tough days and I appreciate everyone’s support more than I can say.
Marathon swimming is essentially a selfish endeavor, but it takes many people pulling for you mentally to get you through.
Tuesday 2.2.10
I hate to sound like such a Pollyanna, but, “isn’t life grand”? There is a new coach in town on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s Steve Haufler is taking the helm. It is so nice to have his energy and enthusiasm never mind his immense technical skills. Today’s practice was hard, stimulation and some how rejuvenating as well. He is a big proponent of intervals and he designs the workout with tight intervals and active pull set rest in-between. I loved it. I got in my full 3,000 yards and wasn’t even late to work. My arms are feeling tired during the day and I am over all tired as well. I hope this means that I am building my base and getting stronger and not just over doing things. I wonder how you know.
I have been thinking about food a lot lately. This is not my favorite subject. I have terrible eating habits and I am so tired of cooking dinner that I would happily go without for about a month. That said, I believe that the food I choose as my fuel is going to become more and more important the harder I train and it needs looking into.
In my normal life, I exercise so that I can eat without thought. I am not successful at this however and am about 50 pounds over weight. One of the reasons I am so suited to open water cold swimming is that extra weight (I had to find some sport where it was a plus). I know that swimming is not the best weight loss sport, but it is fine for weight management and I am sort of happy where I am. I trained for a marathon (running) two years ago and was surprised to find out that I didn’t lose any weight with all of that work either. I guess I gained some muscle and I was hungrier so I made up for the increase in calories expended. I don’t plan these events to lose weight, but I wouldn’t be adverse to it happening either. So maybe it’s time to seek the help of a professional. I look for advice in my stroke technique, why not in what I ingest. If food is fuel, I need good practical fuel instead of junk food and candy (my normal diet).
When I trained last year to swim across Lake Tahoe (10 miles 58-62 degree water) I hadn’t done any experiments with food or diet and went solely on the advice of my pilots. Thank god they were there. They watched my swim, counted my strokes, and decided what I needed. I didn’t have to think about anything but swimming. This will not be true in Gibraltar. I will not have a crew of support pilots, I will be my own coach/trainer/feeder and I had better know myself and have my options figured out before I go. I keep thinking about this, but I don’t do anything about it. Last Sunday I drank some orange juice after 45 minutes of swimming. Not exactly a feeding or following a schedule. The people who do marathon swims have this fuel thing down to a science with feeds every twenty minutes and special mixtures of potions and pills. And I had better start giving the subject its do. In training to run the marathon there was a slogan that I always appreciated, “Respect the distance”. The same is true for marathon swimming and I need to get on track with respecting how complicated and important feeding is. I’ll get back to you with a plan.
I just figured out that this is supposed to be a “rest” week, and I am glad to hear it.
I think that the only thing that will really change for me during a rest week is that I will have only one swim on the weekend, and I may take one more day off during the week but I don’t know for sure yet. I can reduce the number of yards in the pool, but I usually just do what the coach says and that’s generally 3,000 yards every day. I will see how it goes, now that I know.
Oh and ONLY 23 WEEKS TO GO! I am so excited!
Monday 2.1.10
I was surfing through my emails and I came upon someone’s signoff, “Dream, Prepare, Succeed”. This strikes me as a fabulous mantra. Although today I could confuse “dream” with sleep because I am tired from this weekends swims. The Bay was cold, and I am worn out. I learned that I need to spend less time “fighting” the current and more time just swimming and putting in the miles. The flood this weekend was very strong and I worked hard to try and get through it, maybe too hard. There is a fine balance between working out, building your base and tearing yourself down.
I was lucky that the new Swimmer magazine came out last week. There was a good article on stretching, with photos. It turns out that I do every single wrong stretch listed. Now I am employing the “right” stretches and I can tell that they are helping already.
This morning I woke up sore and tired and a bit down trodden since it is Monday and just the beginning of my week. I did the stretches (very simple and quick) and by the time I dove into the water I was my old happy self. Today’s workout was hard and fast, not exactly in tune with my training schedule where Mondays are active rest days, but then it turned out that the masters workout was only 2500 yards. So I guess counts.
Today while I swam backstroke I was captivated by the beauty of the water cascading off my hand and arm as it left the water by my side and reached to over my head to reenter the water. Every stroke was interesting and different. I guess swimming really is my love.
Ever since I sent my blog to my friends and family I have received so many wonderful responses and cheers. This blog will help take me through the tough days and I appreciate everyone’s support more than I can say.
Marathon swimming is essentially a selfish endeavor, but it takes many people pulling for you mentally to get you through.
Tuesday 2.2.10
I hate to sound like such a Pollyanna, but, “isn’t life grand”? There is a new coach in town on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s Steve Haufler is taking the helm. It is so nice to have his energy and enthusiasm never mind his immense technical skills. Today’s practice was hard, stimulation and some how rejuvenating as well. He is a big proponent of intervals and he designs the workout with tight intervals and active pull set rest in-between. I loved it. I got in my full 3,000 yards and wasn’t even late to work. My arms are feeling tired during the day and I am over all tired as well. I hope this means that I am building my base and getting stronger and not just over doing things. I wonder how you know.
I have been thinking about food a lot lately. This is not my favorite subject. I have terrible eating habits and I am so tired of cooking dinner that I would happily go without for about a month. That said, I believe that the food I choose as my fuel is going to become more and more important the harder I train and it needs looking into.
In my normal life, I exercise so that I can eat without thought. I am not successful at this however and am about 50 pounds over weight. One of the reasons I am so suited to open water cold swimming is that extra weight (I had to find some sport where it was a plus). I know that swimming is not the best weight loss sport, but it is fine for weight management and I am sort of happy where I am. I trained for a marathon (running) two years ago and was surprised to find out that I didn’t lose any weight with all of that work either. I guess I gained some muscle and I was hungrier so I made up for the increase in calories expended. I don’t plan these events to lose weight, but I wouldn’t be adverse to it happening either. So maybe it’s time to seek the help of a professional. I look for advice in my stroke technique, why not in what I ingest. If food is fuel, I need good practical fuel instead of junk food and candy (my normal diet).
When I trained last year to swim across Lake Tahoe (10 miles 58-62 degree water) I hadn’t done any experiments with food or diet and went solely on the advice of my pilots. Thank god they were there. They watched my swim, counted my strokes, and decided what I needed. I didn’t have to think about anything but swimming. This will not be true in Gibraltar. I will not have a crew of support pilots, I will be my own coach/trainer/feeder and I had better know myself and have my options figured out before I go. I keep thinking about this, but I don’t do anything about it. Last Sunday I drank some orange juice after 45 minutes of swimming. Not exactly a feeding or following a schedule. The people who do marathon swims have this fuel thing down to a science with feeds every twenty minutes and special mixtures of potions and pills. And I had better start giving the subject its do. In training to run the marathon there was a slogan that I always appreciated, “Respect the distance”. The same is true for marathon swimming and I need to get on track with respecting how complicated and important feeding is. I’ll get back to you with a plan.
I just figured out that this is supposed to be a “rest” week, and I am glad to hear it.
I think that the only thing that will really change for me during a rest week is that I will have only one swim on the weekend, and I may take one more day off during the week but I don’t know for sure yet. I can reduce the number of yards in the pool, but I usually just do what the coach says and that’s generally 3,000 yards every day. I will see how it goes, now that I know.
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The Gibraltar Straits
