Swimming!!
I was really swimming tonight. As in regularly paced strokes, with breathing and rolling and all that jazz! I was kind of getting the hang of it last time, but I was ready for it tonight. After my 5 miles on the treadmill last night, I didn't have plans for any other exercise tonight. Just swimming.
I stuck to the breathing every two strokes routine. I'll have to stretch that as time goes on, but for now it's working for me. Breathing on my right side is pretty comfortable with that ratio. I swam 4 lengths (100 yards) like that without stopping, and wasn't too winded. Breathing on the left side is a little more challenging. I'm able to do it, but I find that my face doesn't get "in the clear" as much. It's harder for me to balance on that side. So I went back to some of the earlier drills, working on rolling to that side, and breathing while in the "sweet spot". The other side's still easier, but the drills were helping.
Combined with all the drills, and a few lengths of pretend breaststroke, I put in 40 laps (1000 yeards). (BTW, there seems to be some controversy about this, but I'm going to use laps and lengths interchangably.) After all that swimming, the pool was closing in 5 minutes, and I decided to do some all out swimming to see how fast I could do it. I planned for a 100 yard time trial, but the first pushoff didn't go well, so I turned it into two 50 yard time trials. Well, I must say, it all came together pretty well. I was able to get in 4 strokes between each breath (on my right), and I could feel myself really moving. The second 50 yards I did in 50 seconds. The last time I tried this it took me 65 seconds. I really felt great. It was certainly a good way to end the night.
So how boring was that for all the non-swimmers? Is it more interesting to hear how I was worried about getting my pager out there. I brought my pager and my cell phone out in a ziplock bag, and asked the lifeguard if she wouldn't mind watching it. Rose, the Thursday night lifeguard, was very nice about it. Of course, my brother called while I was swimming, and I could see her holding up the bag and trying to figure out which swimmer I was. Next time I'm turning the phone off. I really only need it to answer the pager. Right now I don't expect the pager to go off that often, but as my practice gets busier it will become more of an issue.
Not much new at work yet. I spent many hours today trying to get computer access. When I finally got it working, I emailed the supervisor to tell him that Keith, who had helped me in the end, was very good. He apparently already knew that, because he emailed me back to say he was the best. With "best" underlined. I'm saving Keith's number!
I did a little minor "surgery" while sitting in the office. I got this medal when I graduated University and it has been sitting in a box for over 10 years. Since I'm framing everything else, I brought this back to the framing store to see what he could do with this. Although he was nice about it, the shopkeeper didn't want to do anything with the medal, since it was round. He can only do straight edges professionally, and didn't want to do a bad job. He did give me a piece of matting (or is it mat?) so that I could try it myself. So with a trial attempt first, lots of measuring, and three scalpels later, I managed to trace out a circle in the matting where the medal could fit. That way I could put it in the frame without it sliding around. Take a look at the finished product in it's (50% off $6.99) frame. I think it looks pretty damn good.
Here's a few more snow pictures for all you folks in warmer climates. I really hope we're done with the snow. It may look nice (first picture), but it's a pain (second picture). I'm running the Coogan's Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks 5K on the streets of Washington Heights this Sunday. I'd really prefer not to be sliding around all that slushy stuff.
One more week from then until the Colon Cancer Challenge. You can see in the sidebar just under my picture, my fundraising is starting to look respectable. I hope my running performance will be just as respectable!
I stuck to the breathing every two strokes routine. I'll have to stretch that as time goes on, but for now it's working for me. Breathing on my right side is pretty comfortable with that ratio. I swam 4 lengths (100 yards) like that without stopping, and wasn't too winded. Breathing on the left side is a little more challenging. I'm able to do it, but I find that my face doesn't get "in the clear" as much. It's harder for me to balance on that side. So I went back to some of the earlier drills, working on rolling to that side, and breathing while in the "sweet spot". The other side's still easier, but the drills were helping.
Combined with all the drills, and a few lengths of pretend breaststroke, I put in 40 laps (1000 yeards). (BTW, there seems to be some controversy about this, but I'm going to use laps and lengths interchangably.) After all that swimming, the pool was closing in 5 minutes, and I decided to do some all out swimming to see how fast I could do it. I planned for a 100 yard time trial, but the first pushoff didn't go well, so I turned it into two 50 yard time trials. Well, I must say, it all came together pretty well. I was able to get in 4 strokes between each breath (on my right), and I could feel myself really moving. The second 50 yards I did in 50 seconds. The last time I tried this it took me 65 seconds. I really felt great. It was certainly a good way to end the night.
So how boring was that for all the non-swimmers? Is it more interesting to hear how I was worried about getting my pager out there. I brought my pager and my cell phone out in a ziplock bag, and asked the lifeguard if she wouldn't mind watching it. Rose, the Thursday night lifeguard, was very nice about it. Of course, my brother called while I was swimming, and I could see her holding up the bag and trying to figure out which swimmer I was. Next time I'm turning the phone off. I really only need it to answer the pager. Right now I don't expect the pager to go off that often, but as my practice gets busier it will become more of an issue.
Not much new at work yet. I spent many hours today trying to get computer access. When I finally got it working, I emailed the supervisor to tell him that Keith, who had helped me in the end, was very good. He apparently already knew that, because he emailed me back to say he was the best. With "best" underlined. I'm saving Keith's number!
I did a little minor "surgery" while sitting in the office. I got this medal when I graduated University and it has been sitting in a box for over 10 years. Since I'm framing everything else, I brought this back to the framing store to see what he could do with this. Although he was nice about it, the shopkeeper didn't want to do anything with the medal, since it was round. He can only do straight edges professionally, and didn't want to do a bad job. He did give me a piece of matting (or is it mat?) so that I could try it myself. So with a trial attempt first, lots of measuring, and three scalpels later, I managed to trace out a circle in the matting where the medal could fit. That way I could put it in the frame without it sliding around. Take a look at the finished product in it's (50% off $6.99) frame. I think it looks pretty damn good.
Here's a few more snow pictures for all you folks in warmer climates. I really hope we're done with the snow. It may look nice (first picture), but it's a pain (second picture). I'm running the Coogan's Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks 5K on the streets of Washington Heights this Sunday. I'd really prefer not to be sliding around all that slushy stuff.
One more week from then until the Colon Cancer Challenge. You can see in the sidebar just under my picture, my fundraising is starting to look respectable. I hope my running performance will be just as respectable!
posted by Danny on Thursday, March 02, 2006
3 Comments:
wow. your swimming is REALLY coming along. see? that wasn't so hard, was it? :)
No controversy - the terminology is precise! A length is the distance from one end of something to the other. A lap is around the course back to your starting point.
WAY TO GO on your swimming! That's some major progress! Keep practicing the bilateral breathing! I've been working on it about 6 months and it does get easier, though I still don't have exactly symmetrical movements and it's still a little more difficult to breathe correctly on one side.
I have no swimming advice other than to say "don't drown".
The medal turned out great!! I have all my certificate, diplomas and other ed/prof awards shoved in a filing cabinet. BUT my running trophies, bib numbers and running swag are all proudly displayed throughout our house. PRIORITIES!!
Good luck with the race tomorrow!! You're starting to have a very full race calendar again!
I'm done with snow and ready for spring now! Our flowers are starting to bloom and we're starting to have some baby leaves on our trees.
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