Congrats (S)he-Man!

I'm gonna hijack this thread as it is somewhat related. As I was chatting with (S)he-man about this endeavor, it struck me as something I'd love to do as well. I really love long distance swims but I have a very annoying problem, my dang right arm falls dead asleep at exactly 1500 meters of continuous swimming. I can keep swimming but it's not so much fun. Sets are fine, just continuous swimming. I have no idea what causes this. I suspect it is a stroke defect and i breathe exclusively to the right. Any ideas out there? If I can whoop this problem I could easily do a 10K or maybe even something retarded like a 25K.

Leslie, I have it on good authority from one of the 25K swimmers that you were a breaststroker as a kid!? Supposedly you won some kind of 200 breaststroke event at a rather large meet?! This is from someone who swam with you as a youth. You've been outed! But yes, I agree. Leonard was so generous with his time and explanations to me about how to pull this all off. Ack. PB loves telling everyone that. It's an urban myth. My evilstroke is, and always was, a train wreck. 100s of crunches, eh? I'm just glad you're not in my age group! Geek: That's very odd. When I breathe exclusively to the right, it's my left shoulder that gets sore. Nerve thing? Do you have a chiro?

Many thanks. If I took 1 minutes rests every 1500 it would be much better as that is all that is required for sensation to return to my lower arm and hand. My coach doesn't see anything wrong, beats me. Thanks for asking. Maybe I just need to be hooked up to the rack and have everything pulled out a bit. I do have a chiro but haven't been to him since he cured my knee issues and that was before I went on a 10 month distance bender and this issue became more annoying.

Maybe I just need to be hooked up to the rack and have everything pulled out a bit I know a few people who would be happy to help at any time... Nice jos (S)he......not get back to the (real) sprint world!!

1500 = dead arm? meters or yards? (scy or lcm) i ask because if this is more likely to occur during scy, it might have something to do with your walls (streamline cutting circulation). SC, LC, OW - doesn't matter. It is useful in OW races as I know exactly when I've hit the 1500m point. It's like clockwork.

Um, not that fast, riiiiiiiiight. My comment was intended a VERY tough-in-cheek. That was a fantastic swim. Maintaining that pace for over SIX HOURS pretty much meets my definition of incredible. Really, thank you Paul. I know what you were saying. You are too kind. :bighug: I hadn't actually calculated what that kind of pace was at all. I had to laugh to myself once I saw those numbers, b/c somehow, I thought they'd be a bit faster! :D Something to work on for next time? Hey, I'm still a sprinter! What are you guys talking about!? I just happen to enter distance events too. Criminy, I had better start swimming more 50s! Leslie, I have it on good authority from one of the 25K swimmers that you were a breaststroker as a kid!? Supposedly you won some kind of 200 breaststroke event at a rather large meet?! This is from someone who swam with you as a youth. You've been outed! But yes, I agree. Leonard was so generous with his time and explanations to me about how to pull this all off. Anna Lea, these are unofficial, but I was told the air temp got up to 89 degrees and the water was around 82 to 84. There was some cloud coverage and cold pockets in the lake and that saved a lot of us swimmers. Thank goodness I'm from the south and used to that kind of crazy heat. I heard that this heat wave started only a few days before the race. FlyQueen, thank you and did you choose a recovery drink yet? The only issue w/ my hammer products were that I still felt woozy and slightly overheated after the swim for a couple of hours. BUT, they seemed to work really well during the swim - I had energy and no cramping and in pretty tough conditions! Thank you David and Syd. David, I did not have lat burn. I've been told I'm to work more on swimming with my lats (it's very stupid not to use them). But other parts of my arms DID hurt! We must not swim with our biceps as those were fine and dandy. Legs were cool b/c I did NOT kick. Core fine. Arms including tris - bad! ARG! Tracy, thank you very much. Will I see you at the Pentathlon in September? Ande, thank you. Only a couple of people wore the B70. The number #2 finisher had one on but he had some rough chafing going on. I opted for a FSII - comfort over buoyancy. I think I made the right choice as my core was fine for the entire swim. One tiny chafe mark. I was pretty cool temp-wise in a silver one. I heard that once your core goes, you are toast! Hence, the great thing about the B70. But, our coach makes us do hundreds of crunches, so no worries. BTW, I don't think my coaches Landon and Scot read this, but I have to give them major THANK YOUs. They are really tough and they know what they are doing. I think they are the first coaches I've had in which I do everything they tell me to do! We've established I'm a pain. And they are both younger than me to boot! :lmao:

Way to go Kristina. You put me to shame...you did about a week of my normal practices in a little over 6 hours? I'm feeling pretty lame:-) What's the verdict on the sleepy/dead arms? I'm gonna see my chiropractor tonight...:cane: Geek, I'm going to ask my chiropractor what she thinks as I see her today. She did cure me of my headaches and ocular migraines, so you never know what may be possible. I wouldn't have been able to do that distance with those issues and they were solved. Sounds like a pinched nerve or something. . . Another thing to keep in mind during these long swims is that I stopped every 15 minutes for most of the 25K to hydrate and fuel. This was excessive, but so were the weather conditions. I was not exactly efficient during my stops. So I really got breaks every 15 minutes or so. It really was like 15 minutes swim, 1 minute rest (treading water). Do you think your arm would fall asleep with frequent stops? Even on the 10K, I stopped every 2500 meters to hydrate. I'll get back with you. That's got to be frustrating. I'm guessing your coach has looked at your technique. . .

whoa way to go I think ande (S)he-Man was the top female finisher at the 25K championship. Congrats! "The winning time was 5:39.09 by Richard Kramer, 42, of Illinois Masters. The first female to complete the race was Kristina Ulveling, 35, of Georgia Masters, who swam the 25K in 6:25.25" www.usms.org/features.php

I'll join in the congratulations. When I tell non swimming people I did a 1,000 meter o.w. race in a lake, they are usually thinking I am crazy, how can I swim that far, or how am I able. They have no idea of what far is...25,000 meters is far, and at that pace pretty far. My thoughts on arms numbness: I get numb on both arms when swimming 400 or 800 at meets, or when swimming the 1,000 o.w. races. I get numb when swimming at practice continually for over 400 meters. I get numb when swimming fast and when swimming not so fast. As a person who in the past made many nerve blocks in the brachial plexus from different approaches to induce anesthesia I can sorta figure out what happens. It is not a question of lack of blood causing paresthesia as when you sit for too long at the commode (is that a usable word?) and get numb in your knees or lower legs. It is more of a "twisting" or "elongating" of the plexus causing a transient numbness. Why the fact that even a small pause will diminish the numbness or even avoid it totally is beyond my medical comprehension. I do believe that more practice or a technique improvement might make my case better, but in the case of Geek, an accomplished swimmer and athlete I do not know what happens. My two cents, or maybe my two centavos....billy fanstone

I'm gonna hijack this thread as it is somewhat related. As I was chatting with (S)he-man about this endeavor, it struck me as something I'd love to do as well. I really love long distance swims but I have a very annoying problem, my dang right arm falls dead asleep at exactly 1500 meters of continuous swimming. I can keep swimming but it's not so much fun. Sets are fine, just continuous swimming. I have no idea what causes this. I suspect it is a stroke defect and i breathe exclusively to the right. Any ideas out there? If I can whoop this problem I could easily do a 10K or maybe even something retarded like a 25K. Geek, I'm going to ask my chiropractor what she thinks as I see her today. She did cure me of my headaches and ocular migraines, so you never know what may be possible. I wouldn't have been able to do that distance with those issues and they were solved. Sounds like a pinched nerve or something. . . Another thing to keep in mind during these long swims is that I stopped every 15 minutes for most of the 25K to hydrate and fuel. This was excessive, but so were the weather conditions. I was not exactly efficient during my stops. So I really got breaks every 15 minutes or so. It really was like 15 minutes swim, 1 minute rest (treading water). Do you think your arm would fall asleep with frequent stops? Even on the 10K, I stopped every 2500 meters to hydrate. I'll get back with you. That's got to be frustrating. I'm guessing your coach has looked at your technique. . .