An interesting development has taken place. I think I have a coach. Her name is Christine Arsenault. She herself has swam lake Ontario, and her 14yr old daughter Trinity is currently the youngest-person record holder for the lake. I kind of stumbled upon them as I was looking for additional masters programs in Niagara. The Brock one is great and I'm enjoying it, but that still leaves me 3 or 4 days of the week that I'm training on my own at the YMCA. Let me tell you, it is difficult to be motivated swimming against yourself....the YMCA is also grossly warm, and weirdly dark.
I met with Christine at her home 2 days ago and was inundated with SO much information. I will be starting to swim with the Tuesday morning masters group out of the Kiwanis centre that Christine coaches. She also has offered to create a training plan for me and help me navigate all the logistics of preparing for this kind of swim. AND she has an alternative to the $5000 that I am super keen on.
I'm going to swim at Ridley pool so she can look at my stroke. She seems really confident that I can do this. Like more confident than me and she had literally only known me for 20 minutes.
I totalled up my milage from January + February and I've swam 52 km over the last two months. Just to give some perspective: 52 km is the distance of the traditional route across lake Ontario. Trinity and Christine both swam it in under 24 hours. Again, another humbling moment for me as I am looking at 19.2km for Erie.
Ankle update: Lucy and Rebecca- my massage/chiropractic angels say my ankle will be fine. It's fine to keep swimming, and eventually I'll be able to run.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Sunday, February 22, 2015
FRIG!
I yard-saled hard on the last day of the ski-trip, bottom of a hill, my body wanted to go left, but my brain decided we should go right at the last second. I sat in the lodge the rest of the afternoon with my foot elevated and throbbing. I don't know what this means, but I'm going to pretend its fine for now otherwise I might cry. I have an appointment for massage/chiro next week so I should have answers then.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Training Journal #4
OH MY GOODNESS I FEEL AMAZING!
There is a reason I am not in a career that entrusts me with classified national security secrets. Or maybe those would be easier to keep to myself than things that involve me personally. My family was great. There were a few tears from mom and speculation over the likelihood of my death, but once we got past that I could sense some genuine excitement and lots of support. I need all the encouragement I can get at the moment because I am having some serious self-doubt about all of this. Its not so much a weakening of my resolve, its just a feeling of being overwhelmed by how much work I have ahead of me.
Miguel and my masters coach have mentioned the importance of cross training. Cross training basically just means exercising in ways other than the primary method in which you are training. The goal is to strengthen the same muscles in different ways. Good cross training for swimming I am told is running, rowing, and free weights. I have been enjoying the classes and the indoor track at the YMCA. Running is still such a struggle for me. In my 4th year I did a personal running experiment where I tried to run everyday (but more like 5x a week) for 11 weeks. I started at 10 min/day the first week and worked my way up another minute every week. I was running on a treadmill at about 5.8 miles/hour. Weeks 1-5 went well, but as soon as I was running for 15 minutes or longer things got tough, both mentally and physically. On week 9 I ended the experiment after almost vomiting. I kept running, but I backed myself off to 15 minutes again. This inability to run for any respectable length of time is something I find both hilarious and pathetic. I definitely prefer the indoor track to the treadmill. I may even prefer the track to road-running. I can do 15 minutes without dying at this point, so we'll see how my endurance in that arena improves.
I'm headed off to Quebec for a week-long ski trip next week, so I lose another week of training. I suppose skiing is exercise. Sort of.
There is a reason I am not in a career that entrusts me with classified national security secrets. Or maybe those would be easier to keep to myself than things that involve me personally. My family was great. There were a few tears from mom and speculation over the likelihood of my death, but once we got past that I could sense some genuine excitement and lots of support. I need all the encouragement I can get at the moment because I am having some serious self-doubt about all of this. Its not so much a weakening of my resolve, its just a feeling of being overwhelmed by how much work I have ahead of me.
Miguel and my masters coach have mentioned the importance of cross training. Cross training basically just means exercising in ways other than the primary method in which you are training. The goal is to strengthen the same muscles in different ways. Good cross training for swimming I am told is running, rowing, and free weights. I have been enjoying the classes and the indoor track at the YMCA. Running is still such a struggle for me. In my 4th year I did a personal running experiment where I tried to run everyday (but more like 5x a week) for 11 weeks. I started at 10 min/day the first week and worked my way up another minute every week. I was running on a treadmill at about 5.8 miles/hour. Weeks 1-5 went well, but as soon as I was running for 15 minutes or longer things got tough, both mentally and physically. On week 9 I ended the experiment after almost vomiting. I kept running, but I backed myself off to 15 minutes again. This inability to run for any respectable length of time is something I find both hilarious and pathetic. I definitely prefer the indoor track to the treadmill. I may even prefer the track to road-running. I can do 15 minutes without dying at this point, so we'll see how my endurance in that arena improves.
I'm headed off to Quebec for a week-long ski trip next week, so I lose another week of training. I suppose skiing is exercise. Sort of.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Training Journal #3
Cold. Water. Training. Sucks.
I've treated myself to exactly 2 luke-warm showers in the last 2 weeks. On average I think I spend about 4 minutes in the shower now. And by in the shower, I mean huddled in the corner trying to give myself a pep-talk to endure the 14-17 degree stream of water. 17 is manageable for a few minutes, 14 is really unpleasant. Somewhere between 30 secs and a minute at 14 degrees I start to get a raging headache. I don't get headaches, so I'm being a baby about them.
While in Arizona I jumped into a 59 F degree pool (15 C) three times, and had Laurel time me for 3 minutes. With my head out of the water I survived, but they were really long minutes. I don't know how I'll ever manage 11 degrees.
I did some pretty good hiking in Arizona, so although I didn't bank any swimming km, I'm hoping I was still making some group of muscles stronger.
I decided I'm going to tell my family this week. I wrote it in my calendar so that it has to happen. I'm going away on a ski trip that I sort of wasn't expecting to be going on anymore, and I don't want to wait until I get back from that. I have never felt so anxious about anything. I need to be able to sleep, I need to be able to concentrate on other things in my life, and I think the sooner I have the important people in on my secret the sooner I can get back to the emotionally-stable place my mind calls home.
I've treated myself to exactly 2 luke-warm showers in the last 2 weeks. On average I think I spend about 4 minutes in the shower now. And by in the shower, I mean huddled in the corner trying to give myself a pep-talk to endure the 14-17 degree stream of water. 17 is manageable for a few minutes, 14 is really unpleasant. Somewhere between 30 secs and a minute at 14 degrees I start to get a raging headache. I don't get headaches, so I'm being a baby about them.
While in Arizona I jumped into a 59 F degree pool (15 C) three times, and had Laurel time me for 3 minutes. With my head out of the water I survived, but they were really long minutes. I don't know how I'll ever manage 11 degrees.
I did some pretty good hiking in Arizona, so although I didn't bank any swimming km, I'm hoping I was still making some group of muscles stronger.
I decided I'm going to tell my family this week. I wrote it in my calendar so that it has to happen. I'm going away on a ski trip that I sort of wasn't expecting to be going on anymore, and I don't want to wait until I get back from that. I have never felt so anxious about anything. I need to be able to sleep, I need to be able to concentrate on other things in my life, and I think the sooner I have the important people in on my secret the sooner I can get back to the emotionally-stable place my mind calls home.
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