A Swimming Pyramid and Learn to Count

As soon as I hit the water at the pool, I lose all ability to count. How far do I swim? No idea. How many laps do I usually do? Not a clue. I've have certainly tried to count. Usually, around 4 lengths I lose count. This obviously is not helpful.

I think this has to do with the fact that swimming has become a meditation for me. There is something about the feel of the water, the methodical stroke, the controlled breathing, the buoyancy, and the repeated swimming path. And it also might have to do with the dim lights and the jazz music that they play evenings at Evans Pool in Seattle. The combination of all these definitely allow me to zone out or think about all that is going on in my life (except counting.)

Sometimes by best thinking comes during swimming and therefore I like to refer to the pool as the THINK TANK.

Dan has asked me several times how far I swam in my workout and usually all I can come up with is "at least 4 lengths." Tonight, prior to my swim he suggested writing down a workout to take with me that I would follow. This way, I would only have to keep track of segments, not the entire workout. Here is what he suggested:

400 yrds Warm-up (16 laps*)
2 x 200
2 x 150
2 x 100
2 x 50
4 x 25
...then repeat back up the list.
Cooldown
* based on a 25 yard pool

This workout is considered a pyramid because you are working all the way down and then back up the list. I wrote the above workout on a piece of paper and put it in a zip lock bag. I was then able to keep this on the pool side as reference. Wow, this definitely helped. I think only at one point I lost track and may have done an extra 2 laps on one of the segments.

The above workout equals 2500 yards is about 1.42 miles. I was only able to complete 2300 yards with the last 200 segment as my cooldown. I just ran out of time! This was the first swimming workout that I actually followed and it definitely helped keep me focused. Plus, I really liked that about half way I was able to add some speed with the 25 yard lengths. I think I will continue to organize some workouts prior to going. And then I can report how far I have been swimming.

1 mile = 1760 yards (approx 70 laps)

Triathlon Swim Distances
Sprint: 750 meters (820 yards)
Olympic: 1.5 km (1640 yards)
Half Ironman: 1.93 km (2110 yards)
Ironman: 3.86 km (4221 yards)

Efficient Swimming Open Turns

Oh seasoned swimmers and your fancy flip turns, how smoothly and effortless you change directions in the pool. Maybe I have turn-envy. With each approach on every lap I think how nice it would be to have such a quick change. Well, its not going to happen...at least not while I am practicing with 4 other swimmers quickly approaching my tail. In my previous attempts at flip turns I think I flipped and pushed myself straight into pool bottom, only then to get water in my nose and then lose sight of the direction I should be swimming.

But I think flip turns aren't natural, PLUS when is that useful in a triathlon. Yup, never.

So, happily avoiding the flip, I have started to look into increasing my speed and efficiency of an open turns. This is a lot easy to practice and could potentially be just as quick. Plus, I have 100% success rate of now banging my head on the bottom of the pool. The following videos are pretty thorough...ok, really thorough. There is still opportunity for style points with this one.

Water Week: Rules of the Pool

I am sure I could probably count the number of times I have gone to the pool to swim laps on two hands. Because I did not grow up going to pool or ever join the swim team, I feel like I never learned the rules of the pool. The first day I started swim training I took a peek at the posted pool rules: No Running, No Diving yadda yadda yadda, but nothing about lap etiquette or other rules that conditioned swimmers know.

Now that I can at least put my swim cap on correctly, I figured I would research some pool etiquette so at least I can learn to play nicely.

Here are some overall basics I gathered from research from the US Master Swimming, open water swimmer and blogger Donal Buckley, and endurance athlete Art Hutchinson.

Check lane speeds: Lanes may be marked slow, medium or fast. Spend time observing swimmers already in the lane and choose according to your pace.

Joining a lane: Always choose an open lane if possible. When entering a lane, it is your responsibility to inform all other swimmers that you are joining that lane either by dangling legs in the water or standing to the side. At this time desired swim pattern can be determined.

Swimming pattern:

Split: Two swimmers in a lane may agree to split the lane meaning each swimmer gets on side of the lane and stays on that side. Both swimmers must explicitly agree to this!

Circle: Three or more swimmers must circle swim meaning always staying to the right of the lane. In this format, swimmers should never stop in the middle of a length.

Resting: If you are going to stop, move to the far side (ideally far right when facing the lane) of the lane to allow sufficient room for continuing swimmers to turn.

Speed & Passing: Slower swimmers need to yield to the faster swimmers in the lane. Push off almost immediately after a fast swimmer has passed, but keep back enough distance to let them turn safely. Move to side of lane to allow faster swimmers to pass.

When you want to pass a slower swimmer, tap the feet of the swimmer. Pass on the left. Faster swimmers should give slower swimmers a large head start.

My favorite rule from the US Master's is to keep your fingernails trimmed, but by all means, PLEASE don't clip them at the pool. Yuk. Not sure if anyone would do that. But don't.