Apparently I’m a Spectator Sport at the Pool

• 0 • Motivation, Swim, Triathlon

After my swim lesson today, a gentleman getting into the pool stopped me to say that he “thinks I’m really making progress!” He said he’s even told a couple adults he knows about my swim instructor because she’s so good with kids and grown ups.

I had a nice conversation with him (he used to do biathlons, swimming and running, and wishes me the best of luck on my tri this summer) and then headed to the locker room. In the locker room one of the regulars at the water aerobics class said “Oh, and how are your swim lessons going?!”

And that’s when I realized.

My swim lessons are a spectator sport.

It makes sense… I meet with her for 45 minutes, the same time each week. The aerobics class lets out during that time, and they all trudge past the lane where I’m flailing across the pool. Any regulars who come Wednesday mornings have probably seen me at least a couple times over the course of the last few months; I’ve been taking lessons since February!

So there I am, focused on my instructor and the water for 45 minutes each week, oblivious to the fact that there are other regulars casually observing my progress. (Or, some weeks, lack thereof.)

It really makes me laugh.

 

Part of me feels like I should be embarrassed that people are watching, but mostly I find it funny to think about what I must look like learning to swim as an adult.

I can’t really be embarrassed, because I’m proud of myself. I get in the water with a smile every week and do my best. I come back and practice multiple times in between lessons. And I’m making progress.

Having two people speak to me with encouragement this morning makes me feel like I’ve got a little community rooting for me. And it’s not so hard to believe, because I love watching beginners make progress. I root for people all the time. I get so excited about beginning runners.

Do you ever drive by a runner struggling up a hill and silently cheer for them?

Remember that.

Remember that when you’re visibly struggling somewhere, there are probably strangers silently cheering for you. You know I would be.

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How to Push Just a Little Further

• 0 • 13.1 Training, Motivation, My Running, Running, Swim

keepgoing

The hardest part when I did Couch to 5k in 2012 was getting through the first 20 minute stretch of running without stopping. I had to attempt it multiple times, and finally made it through when Greg ran next to me with the jogging stroller. The thought of quitting in front of him and both my children was enough to finally overcome the hurdle.

The funny part about my previous attempts was that I remember not giving up at minute 17 or 18 which would indicate that I couldn’t quite make it yet. Nope. I was giving up at minute 10 or 12, despite having done 15 minutes of running successfully. I was quitting at minute 10 or 12 because although I could have kept going in that moment I was convinced I couldn’t finish the whole distance. The thought of having to continue for that long made me panic, and I stopped. My mind was quitting, not my body.

The same thing has been happening to me with swimming.

I’m having trouble making progress; I can barely finish my 50 yard repeats. My swim instructor thinks based on the number of repeats I can do in a session and how my form looks towards the end (not tired) that I could make it much further if I could get through it mentally.

It’s amazing how similar it is to running, where the feeling of being unable to catch my breath was the hardest part in the beginning.

So I’m revisiting strategies I used to use for running when I tried to increase the distance there. These strategies have gotten me from 60 seconds of running to over 2 hours of running, so clearly they work for me.

Time to take them for a swim.

Strategies for Pushing Through Your Desire to Stop

Take it One Moment at a Time. Don’t tell yourself you need to make it X distance before you can stop. Ask yourself if you can keep going NOW. Just this moment. Just one more stroke, one more, one more.

Recover Without Stopping. Slow it down rather than stopping. See how slowly you can go without stopping and watch how it helps your heart rate and breathing. For running this is especially true if you’ve just run up a hill; you may not even need to slow down, just be patient and realize you don’t need to stop, your breathing will calm down a minute or so after you clear the hill.

Count / Use a Mantra: When I’m doing 400 meter repeats on the track, I’m usually thinking “one two one two one two one two” over and over again to distract from anything else. In the pool, I’ve started to think one, two, three AND one, two, three AND. It helps me keep from thinking anything else, and also helps me breathe in sync with my stroke on the AND.

Be Social: Being with someone distracts you from what you’re doing and provides accountability. I try harder and take fewer breaks during my swim lessons because I don’t want to waste my time with an instructor. I swam a lot of continuous back-stroke in the pool with Greg on Mother’s Day because I didn’t want him to think I take a break every 25 yards.

Add Repeats: If you’re hitting a block with the length of a repeat, shorten it but do more repeats. Do what you’re comfortable with until it’s boring. Boring isn’t scary. Boring is boring. Boring helps fight the panic. Add to your total distance slowly, and realize that’ll help your individual segments of activity lengthen also.

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Time to get out there and go after it like my cat with a pillow.

 

 

Breathing in the Water

• 2 • Swim, Triathlon

On my way to a swim lesson and feeling panicky. We’ve been working on adding laps where I’m breathing in the water and not taking recovery, and it’s not always that fun. Feeling like I can’t breathe even though I AM breathing? Not fun.

So I’m reading this article shared with me by the swim coach for Tri for a Cure Team Strong: http://www.active.com/swimming/articles/breathing-basics-getting-comfortable-870012

And I’m reminding myself that at one point I felt like I’d never catch my breath while running, either… and now I can run for two hours without stopping and hold a conversation for most of it.

So this is going to get better. And I am getting air. And I can stop even if my instructor is telling me to keep going. Which doesn’t mean I should, but knowing I can may be enough to make me feel comfortable enough not to.

On to the pool.

 

Mother’s Day swim, bike and run!

• 5 • Bike, Swim, Triathlon

I had a perfect Mother’s Day. It was so perfect that at the end of the day I actually started crying when I was thanking Greg at dinner.

I remember my first Mother’s Day waking up exhausted to a hungry baby at 5 a.m. and then being over-scheduled and traveling… it wasn’t the perfectly indulgent day I’d dreamed my first Mother’s Day would be.

Yesterday was.

I slept in, Greg and the boys made gingerbread waffles which we had with coffee.

It started raining, squashing our plans to play outside as a family and making me afraid an afternoon bike ride I had planned with my neighbor would get cancelled.

SWIM

So Greg and I went to the pool together so I could get some type of workout in even if biking didn’t happen. We dropped the kids off in the play space, and shared a lane! It was his first time seeing me do a full length of crawl stroke.

I loved watching him swim a few lengths now that I can appreciate how good his form is.

And it was REALLY fun when we had a head on collision a few laps into our swim. I mean it, it was actually hilarious. Both of us were being a little more casual with the lane divide since we knew the person we were swimming with, and I was backstroking (which I never do when I lane share because I can’t see where I am well enough to feel comfortable I won’t hit someone) when BAM, suddenly my head was underwater with an elbow on top of it. We disentangled, we were both fine, and I learned to keep a much better eye on the buoys next to me.

I loved running into him because I collided, and survived. Now I’ll carry that memory with me on race day to ease the tension when I’m suddenly in the ocean surrounded by other swimmers.

After swimming we had a great lunch, and then the day cleared up and I was able to go for my bike ride with my neighbor!

BIKE

An experienced cyclist, she offered to go for a ride with me since I’m new to outdoor cycling and was really nervous about riding my new bike for the first time on the busy roads down here. She took me out, showed me some scenic, quieter roads, scouted ahead before turns and called back when I should prepare to unclip, pointed out obstacles in the road, checked behind us for traffic, and made it easy for me to focus just on pedaling and gear shifting and getting comfortable on the bike.

With her to navigate and call out traffic, I was able to relax and enjoy the entire ride. We went slow (which is great because I was in the wrong gear most of the time) and I never fell over – came home from a 17 mile ride without a scratch! Such a gift.  I can’t begin to describe how it feels to coast down a long hill past budding trees and green grass on a sunny afternoon in May.

I got home from the ride, and realized that because I swam in the morning and biked in the afternoon, if I just ran 3 miles I would have completed my race distance for the triathlon in July. Sure, it was backstroke at the pool and there were hours in between the swim and bike… but wouldn’t it be neat to see if my muscles could manage it all in one day, and to see what my run would feel like after my legs had done all that kicking and biking?

RUN

I only had to mention the idea to Greg and he was instantly throwing on his running stuff and putting the kids in the jogging stroller. “I’ll run next to you! Let’s do it!”

I never would have gone without him, I had spent too much time away from the family already. But he made it something we could do together, and he pushed the kids next to me for a scenic 3 miles through nearby neighborhoods and past the local pond.

And I did it. Without stopping. 3 miles at the end of a 17 mile bike ride on a day that started out with a 40 minute swim.

Whatever happens on race day, I’ll carry these memories with me. Lane sharing with Greg in the pool. Eunice calling back over her shoulder to tell me I was doing great and there was a right turn ahead. The boys laughing underneath their blanket on the stroller ride by the pond, water glistening in the late afternoon sun.

I started the day with tentative plans for a bike ride, and ended up completing my race distance over the course of the day with no pressure… just a spontaneous sense of adventure.

It was fun.

Swim – Tackling the Breathing

• 0 • Swim, Triathlon

Is your body saying no… or your brain? I had a moment getting into the pool where my mind was singing me a little song about how ridiculous this was because I ran 9 miles yesterday and I should not be expected to do more than a few laps of freestyle and then some nice easy backstroke.

But I figured out it was my mind talking to me, not my body. My body was fine. My body was like, ooh, freestyle! pull the water, pull the water….gentle kicks, flop flop flop… It was my mind that was freaking out.

My mind was panicked because it knew I was planning to swim as many laps of freestyle as possible today. And when I swim freestyle, I feel like I can’t breathe. I start out ok, and gradually become more and more oxygen depleted as I cross the pool, until I feel as though I’m drowning by the time I’m 3/4 of the way there.

Mental? Physical? Technique? Probably a combination of all three.

But if I want to swim this race, I’ve got to swim through it. So I’m going to have to freestyle over and over again until I get the hang of it.

I’m doing it one lap at a time right now, because I know I can make it one lap. I get overly panicked trying to do 50 meters or 75 of freestyle without resting, so today I did more 25s. Over. And Over.

Today’s swim: 14 repeats of (one length freestyle, one length backstroke recovery, 20 second rest). That’s 14 lengths of freestyle – over halfway there! I just need to start transitioning those recovery laps from backstroke into freestyle and delete the need for recovery time in between. It reminds me of Couch to 5k, where I worked on my walk/run increments until they finally became continuous running.

New goal: I’m never leaving the pool without having completed at least 24 pool lengths of swimming. That’s down and then back a minimum of 12 times, and it’s the length of my race in July. My instructor had me do 15 continuous lengths of backstroke during our last lesson to work on adding distance, and it made me realize I can do more than I think. Backstroke is a nice way for me to add some distance because I can breathe the entire time, which is my mental struggle with freestyle, but it still works my legs and arms which will translate some to freestyle.

Next step will be another lesson Wednesday to keep working on technique, and then it’s back to adding distance, reducing recovery, and breathing… breathing… breathing.

I can do this; I will do this.

Just keep swimming… just keep swimming…

PS – I also got awesome new goggled designed to be sturdy enough for open water swimming… they don’t leak. It’s fantastic.