Hi all,
I'm all over the streamline thing, hence one thread for two questions (or maybe that actually undercuts streamlined thread, but whatevah!). ;)
1. Suffering from "slowswimmeritis," I still have the goal of increasing swim distance every other weekend (alternating weekends are for increasing running distance, as I'm training for a half marathon in March, but that's for the running forum). Yesterday, I had a goal of 4200 yards, and so I arrived at the pool early b/4 masters' practice to get in some of my yards, with a plan to stay afterward to complete the remainder (it's a one hour practice, and the day I manage 4200 yards in an hour, I'll be dancing in the streets if I'm not too tired!). I was well on my way to achieving this goal. With the swim practice and the pre-swim, I had amassed 3300 yards, and I knew it would be no problem to add the rest, still feeling pretty good. But :mad: guess which time/day the local h.s. swim team had to use the pool for their workout--RIGHT after our masters' practice!! So goodbye goal!
However, my seething self needed some kind of victory. First thought was to go to my local h.s. pool (not the same h.s. as the swim team's) and start the whole thing from scratch, so I could get the whole bunch of yards in a single swim. But the coach wisely advised against that. He suggested instead, if I must double up, to just complete the difference btw what I did and what I wanted to do. Did that--900--and added 300 more for good measure. (Kept this easy, threw in some drills.)
But I'm curious: what would you have done in my situation? And have I (at least indirectly) achieved my goal? I figure getting the yards into a single day had to be close enough for the time being, and today I have a two hour workout where I may have another chance...but given that at the end of the day I found myself w/ a cold and my knee twinging, I'll have to go lighter than I'd hoped. So hard to balance all this as a newcomer to swimming!
2. This is something I need to get used to, since my butterfly isn't strong enough to scare away other swimmers. ;) I notice that if others are in my lane, I tend to lose my focus on technique and instead get preoccupied with staying out of the way of the other swimmer(s). Also (related), I tense up when there are others in the lane. Of course, I'm mindful that the reality of pools is lane sharing, so rather than shooting other swimmers who enter the lane, I want to get to a place where I can keep my focus/concentration/form (such as it is... needs work for sure). Do others run into this problem and how do you deal w/ it?
Should mention that it sometimes depends on the swimmer: there's a guy who does a quiet little breaststroke in one of the open swim periods, and I never find it a problem to swim in his lane even doing my freestyle because we seem to have a rhythm for staying out of each other's way and respecting each other's pace. Yet someone else doing the same thing would make me nutz! And generally, I'm very accommodating if someone wants to join my lane, although there's the guy who dives into the pool making a huge splash and taking up a good part of the lane... or the guy who half walks/half swims... or ... well you know... and when I see these folks coming, I have to admit, I speed up a lot until they choose other lanes. ;) But even with reasonable ppl, I just have a hard time getting focused. Advice appreciated!
(S)he-man,
Thanks for the suggestions!
One clarification: my half marathon (in March) is of the running, not the swimming variety. Since I've run some marathons, half marathons and ten-milers before, I don't anticipate any serious issues w/ that. One advantage running has: I can run anywhere and no h.s. team can disrupt the workout. (Even a track taken over by a meet doesn't prevent me from switching gears--doing a hill workout or some such. But so much harder w/ pool availability... still I persist!)
However, I am planning and training for what is for me a pretty ambitious swim: a 5.25 mile open water swim in August. It's a bay swim so some of the problems that come w/ swimming in the ocean won't be such a huge factor--waves aren't very large unless there's a storm, in which case, they'd likely cancel. The water is generally on the shallow side, and in fact many parts of the course (based on a depth chart I looked at) are standing depth, although I doubt I'll try to run the standing depth parts! ;) Depending on what happens in that swim, I'll either say to myself, "stick to running, girl!" or "wow! this was incredibly cool and I want to do more!" or a combination of both lol!
Turns out my 2-hour practice today was cancelled due to... you guessed it! high school swim meet! It's a university pool but they're hosting area Catholic h.s.'s--knew I should have checked the website b/4 leaving. Oddly, however, I was more relaxed about it today, even a little relieved b/c I was feeling mildly under the weather due to a cold/sore throat trying to move in. I wondered even whether trying a workout would be such a great idea and whether a rest day might be in order. The decision was taken out of my hands for today.
(S)he-man,
Thanks for the suggestions!
One clarification: my half marathon (in March) is of the running, not the swimming variety. Since I've run some marathons, half marathons and ten-milers before, I don't anticipate any serious issues w/ that. One advantage running has: I can run anywhere and no h.s. team can disrupt the workout. (Even a track taken over by a meet doesn't prevent me from switching gears--doing a hill workout or some such. But so much harder w/ pool availability... still I persist!)
However, I am planning and training for what is for me a pretty ambitious swim: a 5.25 mile open water swim in August. It's a bay swim so some of the problems that come w/ swimming in the ocean won't be such a huge factor--waves aren't very large unless there's a storm, in which case, they'd likely cancel. The water is generally on the shallow side, and in fact many parts of the course (based on a depth chart I looked at) are standing depth, although I doubt I'll try to run the standing depth parts! ;) Depending on what happens in that swim, I'll either say to myself, "stick to running, girl!" or "wow! this was incredibly cool and I want to do more!" or a combination of both lol!
Turns out my 2-hour practice today was cancelled due to... you guessed it! high school swim meet! It's a university pool but they're hosting area Catholic h.s.'s--knew I should have checked the website b/4 leaving. Oddly, however, I was more relaxed about it today, even a little relieved b/c I was feeling mildly under the weather due to a cold/sore throat trying to move in. I wondered even whether trying a workout would be such a great idea and whether a rest day might be in order. The decision was taken out of my hands for today.
