Swim Meet

Today we had a masters swim meet at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. I was nervous and excited. I like going to swim meets, I feel no pressure other than what I put on myself and I get to chat with a bunch of people that I only see at swim meets. Today I was scheduled to swim both the 500 and the 1000. I had not done this in a meet before. In fact, I swam the 200 a year ago and thought I was going to die because it was "so far."

Well it turned out to be a fun meet and I am pleased with my results. For the first time swimming the 500 and the 1000, I went in unsure that I could do it all with flip turns (I did), and whether I could maintain a pace all the way through the 1000 (I did) and beat the goal times that I had (I did). So a very successful meet in that regard.

Maybe it was the Swedish fish that one of my coworkers suggested I eat before the swim.

High School Running Track

So the new high school that is a mile from my house has a walking track that runs on the upper level around their gym. It is advertised at 8 laps per mile so I thought I would give it a try rather than do the treadmill thing.

Now either I am suddenly able to run 6 minute miles easily, or it is actually a lot shorter than that.

Trinity mentioned that her gym teacher said it is either 11 or 12 laps per mile which makes WAY more sense.

Hamstring

I have gone several days without even knowing my hamstring exists. No pain at all. Then suddenly I wake up this morning and the pain is back. Ugh! I did work it pretty hard with a strength routine last night that I added some hamstring strengthening exercises to.

I think we are moving in the right direction with it, but man this is frustrating.

Outside Run

Well with my new shorter stride, my watch thinks I go a lot faster and further than I really do, so I needed to get outside for a run to recalibrate my watch. Today was the day. I headed downtown to the lakewalk which is generally pretty well cleared of snow and such.

It wasn't nearly as nice as it was in San Diego but it was above freezing which for January in Duluth is a nice treat. The path was pretty good, but there were several large puddles of snow/ice/water that I had to run around. I managed to do 45 minutes of run/walk which was about 3.3 miles. The leg felt pretty good, and my watch seems to have recalibrated to my new pace.

Gait Test

So when I was last in to see the doctor about my hamstring, he offered to have one of his physical therapists do a gait analysis to see what my run form was like and how I might want to change it to prevent injury. So before Christmas I called and made an appointment for today.

I saw Robin the physical therapist. We first went over my history, then she did a basic exam looking at flexibility, range of motion, how I stand and how I walk. Then we went upstairs to hop on a treadmill. First we did some dynamic stretching exercises to help loosen up. She taught me some new things there. Then it was time for the treadmill.

I got on and walked for a little bit to further loosen up, then I sped up the treadmill to a running pace. Robin looked at me from all angles and then we stopped the belt. She told me that my stride was too long. She wanted me to have a much shorter stride and to lean forward when I run. The shorter stride will definitely help prevent the hamstring stretching.

So back on the belt I went to practice that shorter stride. OMG that felt soooo weird. I felt like I was taking baby steps. She left me with some paperwork, and some running routines if I wanted to follow them.

So I will be giving this a try over the next few run/walks I do.

TI Swim Camp Day 2

This is the practice pool we used for our class. We were in the building to the right for our dry land exercises and to watch the videos. It was a bit chilly in the morning, but still way nicer than back home in Duluth!

It was crazy, although I was tired Saturday night after the first day of camp, I had trouble sleeping just due to not being able to turn my brain off with all the things we had just learned. Sunday morning we started early at 730am. We spent some time going over our videos, critiquing ourselves and each other. We of course get very critical, but the change from Saturday morning was pretty drastic. Then we got back in the pool and we all looked TERRIBLE. So we went back through the progression of drills. One length, one swim thought, one drill. Then going back a different one. Focusing only on one thing helped a bunch. After about 20 minutes of that, we were back to where we were at the end of the day on Saturday and everyone felt better. 

A bunch more drills and practice. This time pairing up with someone else in the class to watch our technique and give us pointers. Another quick video session then back in the classroom for a while. A bit more dry land, some discussion and video analysis, and then back in the pool for another solid 2 hours. Lots of full stroke work, again focusing on single things with each length. Then 3 lengths at the end with the instructor videoing and talking over it to give us pointers. 

So while I had a good swim stroke, I had some significant fundamental issues. The biggest of which was my hand entry. I was reaching really far forward before entering the water. The video shows my elbow entering well before my hand. I also tend to push my hand towards the centerline rather than staying out wide. Those two things were causing my hips to drop and increasing my drag. By the end of the weekend I was doing that much better and I could really feel it. However I will need to practice it significantly because it is not natural yet.

So how do I know I got better? Two things come to mind.

First, in my masters swim class, we have done drills where we try to swim a length of the pool taking 3 breaths, then 2 breaths, then 1, then none. I have always struggled with this. I end up doing it in 1 breath, but I power through it and my heart is racing when I am done.  On Sunday morning, I was regularly swimming a 25 yard length of the pool without taking a breath and it was EASY. Almost like I could do that all day.

The second is my stroke count. I am always a 17 strokes per length person. That hasn't changed in the last year or so that I have actually counted it. Yesterday I was doing length after length after length at 13. Easy. We did a tempo drill and I got it to 12 strokes! I was shocked.

So I am anxious to get back in the pool at home and put some of this stuff into practice.

Not all work

A couple of years ago, we took a family vacation to San Diego for spring break. We did the zoo, and museums and the USS Midway, but one of our favorite spots was not a tourist attraction, but rather an ice cream store.

Moo Time Creamery is located on Coronado, and we drove there more than once on our San Diego trip for dessert after dinner. I couldn't possibly pass up having some dessert there in the evenings after dinner.

TI Swim Camp

So yesterday I took a ferry from my hotel to Coronado Island where I will be attending a 2 day Total Immersion Swim Camp. I walked from the ferry landing on Coronado and walked to my quaint but very cheap hotel room. It had a bed, fridge and a microwave, didn't really need anything else.

Today I showed up for Day 1 of the class. Dave was our instructor and he is actually from Minneapolis. The class was held at a swimming complex and it was really nice. There was one big pool (50m) and one smaller 25y pool. There was a big youth water polo tournament going on in the big pool. I saw a few college kids too. Apparently they do a lot of winter trips from cold states out here for some work.

There were 8 of us in the class which is pretty small. 7 of us were adult onset swimmers, and one was an 11 year old girl who just wanted to get better for her swim team. I was the only adult who swam "competitively", and only a couple of others had done a tri or wanted to.

We started out with a video of our swims before any lessons happened. The instructor used a couple of go-pro cameras, one above water and one below. Just hand held, nothing fancy. Then we did some balance work in the water, and began going through the progressions. After a solid 2 hours in the pool and another hour in the classroom we broke for lunch. 

After lunch it was time for a look at our videos. It was actually pretty interesting to watch the videos of ourselves and of other people. The little girl and I had the best looking strokes starting out, but we had a LONG way to go too.

We then did about an hour of dry land work, just working on form. Another solid 2 hours in the water in the afternoon working through a progression of steps leading to a full stroke, then by the end of the day, a full stroke with breathing. Then we did another video session and called it a day. 

One Last Run in San Diego

I did a repeat of my run on Wednesday today. Today there was a slight bit of fog which made for a nice glow over the bay.

San Diego Swim!

My hotel has a 25y lap pool. I had looked it up before I left so I knew I could at least get a swim in. This is the second business trip in a row where I am lucky to have this option. This one had two unique features though. First is that it was outside. I have not swam laps in an outdoor pool. The second is that it doesn't have any lane lines.

So at about 830am this morning I was able to get down to the pool and get some laps in. I followed some drains on the bottom of the pool to kinda go straight. Not in it for speed today with no flip turns. But it was a beautiful day, a little cool but a fun swim.

San Diego Run

Yesterday I made my way down to the hotel fitness area to do a strength workout and it was PACKED! I managed to find a little space and a few dumbbells and got a short strength workout in. I am going to need these workouts because the breakfast buffet here at the hotel is outstanding! Especially the home made banana bread. OMG!

My hotel is right on the water here in downtown San Diego, and there is a beautiful running path. So I was up early this morning (hello time zone change) and went out for a run/walk. 30s/1:30w was my ratio today and I took the walk at a leisurly pace. It was so calm and peaceful. I ran down to the USS Midway aircraft carrier and back.

The weather is WAY better for running here in San Diego than it is right now in Duluth thats for sure. I could get used to this.

Double Workout Day

I am heading out on a business trip to San Diego so I had to get a swim and a bike workout in before I left. So a 6am swim at the Y of 3100 yards and a TON of pull sets. My arms are tired.

Then I came home, ate, and hopped on the bike for an interval session. Two sets of 8x30s hard, 60s recovery. Do people actually run after biking like this? Seriously, my legs are complete jelly right now. I struggled to get up the stairs to the shower after that.

I will definitely sleep good tonight.

Holidays

So since getting dismissed from PT, I have been working on my running. I have been following the Galloway method of run/walk. I am starting very slow with 30 seconds of running and 60 seconds of walking after a 1/2 mile walking warm up. I am only going about 1.5-2 miles at a time on the treadmill. I went back to the treadmill for one day as my hamstring is still pretty sore. This is going to take a while to fully heal I think.

I continue to do bike workouts on the trainer. In fact last week I was doing an interval workout which is pretty normal. 3 sets of higher power intervals with some warm up and cool down time. However I wasn't paying attention and the coach added a 4th interval this time so I was a bit surprised when that high resistance kicked in for the 4th interval.

No official swim classes over the holiday, but I managed to get a couple of swims in, including today New Years Day! We were not really doing anything and the Y was open, so I headed down there and got a good 3100 yard swim in along with a core workout before I left.

Of course the holidays are filled with much good (and bad) food and I made sure to relax some, enjoy the off time with my family and enjoy the traditional Christmas prime rib. Mmmmmm