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November 30, 2007
More Swimming Chatter
As I was running this morning (in the freezing cold I might mention - geez - why is it so cold already?!?!) I was thinking about swimming. Swim meets to be precise.
Just before I left to go running I read an email my coach had sent in response to my masters/swim meet question. Yes, masters was just fine, although he explained which swims he would like me to do myself and which to do with the masters team. This is just perfect because I really only wanted to swim masters once/week anyway. (they only meet 3x/week and some of that is "stroke" stuff which I won't be getting into just yet...)
And then he went on to say that "yes" I should "sign up for the swim meet for sure!" Yikes - what have I gotten myself into? It seemed like a fun idea yesterday but maybe not so much now. Coach did mention that at masters meets you usually don't have to do a dive entry. This is good to know. But what about flip turns? Yeah - still don't know how to do those. Will I get laughed at? (and I want one of you real swimmers to tell me the truth - do people go to swim meets and NOT know how to do flip turns?)
And then there is the issue of seed time. You have to list a seed time for lane/heat placement. Now I've run the numbers several times and I think about the best I could hope for is breaking 23 minutes. I have no concept of whether this will place me 2nd to last or last. Again, will I get laughed at? Will I be in a heat with 80 year old women and still get lapped?
But then, as I continued my run (yep, still cold), I started to get a little mad at myself. Because you know what? Who cares if they laugh at me? And I was disappointed in myself for letting that consideration even come into play.
The fact is, I want to be a better swimmer. No, I'm never going to be an ITU pro that swims their 1500 meters in 17-18 minutes open water. But dang it if I won't stay with the lead pack just ONCE at one of my races! I think I will eventually end up in long course triathlon where swimming doesn't matter as much (as least that's what I think) but for now I have some Olympic distance goals that hinge on me being able to put together a COMPLETE race - swimming included!!! And we all know - good swimming is a necessity in shorter races!!
So flip turns or not, dive entry or not, lots of laughing or not, I'm signing up for that swim meet! Because I know I have to challenge myself or I won't get any better. I've been running for years and cycling came a little more naturally. Now it's time to get the swimming up to par.
Did I mention that the swim meet isn't until February? Yep - you've got to listen to this swimming chatter for another 3 months... ;)
Thanks for all the encouragement everyone and have a great weekend!
Posted by beth at November 30, 2007 5:37 PM
Comments
If I recall correctly we went through this same thing ("I might be last, or laughed at") prior to your first triathlon and you won the dang thing. . .
Posted by: Dawn at November 30, 2007 8:19 PM
Beth,
Just like everything else...there is a full gammet (sp?) of swimmers...and some that DO dive off the blocks and others that do not. Same w/ flip turns. You will NOT embarass yourself. You are a good swimmer (say that to yourself 1,000x). My advice: Learn how to dive off the blocks before the meet - Feb is a long time off and the blocks are NOT a big deal. And, if everyone lines up (breaking 23 min in the 1650 is GOOD...so most of those swimmers will dive off the blocks) and goes off the blocks you may feel a bit weird (which is OK!) if you started in the water. So, learn how to do the blocks - NO biggie. Then, you can worry about flip turns which aren't as big of a deal for your 1st meet (but they make you MUCH faster). :) I will listen to your swim posts!
Posted by: Jennifer Harrison at November 30, 2007 8:26 PM
Well, I'm not much more than a good doggie paddler, so I don't have much to contribute to this entry.
I want to say, though, that I think it's great for you to dive in (Heh, lookit that pun!) and really work on what you call your weak sport.
And, who really cares what anyone thinks!
PS. Your Black Friday entry from a few days ago was hilarious!
Posted by: Meghan at November 30, 2007 9:34 PM
Based on the masters swim meets I've been to in New England (as a spectator), you're going to be just fine. At P's meets, the heats were based on time rather than age, so everyone had good competition, even if there was a huge age range within each heat. And even though I would be terrified to compete in a swim meet (I am SIGNIFICANTLY slower than you are), I'm pretty sure even I would have been ahead of some of the people at P's meets.
Posted by: Alison at November 30, 2007 10:16 PM
Goin FISH-in...
As much as one can believe that Triathlon is a sport of relative weaknesses, and maybe historically it was to some extent, the bottom line is that it is a sport of reciprocating strengths sealed by the most extensive aerobic base training in terms of duration.
The last proof of this was from my untrained-for marathon in Florence (as i wrote to Meghan) which I ran in 3:27:45 without injury, relatively effortlessly at age 44 (in six weeks.)
A small success which I wholly connect to my commuting by bicycle (as i said no specific training) adding up to about 5-6 hours per week extra aerobic and strength training.
If only I had time to go to the pool, I think I could have done even better.
An interesting experiment, would be if n.1 athletes, say Gebre for running, Thorpe for swimming, and Bettini for cycling, agreed to become triathletes and confront themselves with learning the other two disciplines, not just to make it - knowing they will compensate with their strongest skill in race conditions - but to become the best they can just like they did/do with their running.
My belief, as the spontaneous experiment in Florence proves (i.e. that dual training benefits BOTH disciplines) is that it is precisely because when i bike i try to do it the best way, just like when i run, just like when i swim (even though i don't have much time for the pool right now, it is a mentality thing) that I can get better and improve singly and cumulatively.
So BEST SWIMMING means learning how to dive, doing flipturns, and more swim races, which will benefit the other two sports AS WELL AS, obviously, your swimming...
It may seem hard at first because you feel like an adult. But the truth is that all athletes are really big kids and as such they can afford to look foolish and enjoy themselves as they learn something new.
And just like all kids, show the occasional sign of maturity when it comes to daily, existential routines...
Go Beth, GO.
PS. ideally there ought to be a tetrathlon component for improvements based on range of motion and mobility, say like Gymnastics, a specific weakness of mine which i have decided to work on much like you have decided to take water "by the horns", so to speak...
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at December 1, 2007 11:57 AM