First meet in 6.5 years!

I had my first meet yesterday, the first time I've swum competitively in 6.5 years.  Going into it, I was rather handicapped by my work schedule--over the last month, I've only managed to get in about 5-6 practices, the majority of which came in this past week.  On a good note, my work schedule should be smooth over the next month or so, so I should be able to get a lot more practices in.

Anyways, it felt fantastic to be back at a swim meet!  That is, as a swimmer and not a coach (I coached a summer league team in Charleston for two years from 2008-2009).  Going into the meet, I was the most nervous I can remember ever being for a swim meet.

Here were my worries going into the meet:

• I haven't done a start off a block since 2005 (all strokes)
• I've had nagging issues with my left shoulder being much weaker than my right shoulder while swimming butterfly in practice
• We haven't done true sprints in practice, so I haven't swum race speed in quite a while
• My total lack of preparation for the meet--getting in a handful of practices the week before the meet is NOT sufficient
• My kick is not what it used to be--kick and turns were always my strongest parts in swimming
• Would I even still have the competitive instinct?
• My endurance has gone way down, due to the lack of practices issue

The meet, at the George Mason University pool, was a sprint meet, with the longest events being the 200 free and 200 IM.  I entered in the 100 IM, 100 back, 50 fly, 50 back, 50 free, and all four 25s (not a sanctioned race, just a fun thing they do at this meet).  I knew my endurance wasn't very good, so I stayed away from the other 100s and the 200s.  Here's how the events went (not necessarily in the order I swam them):

• 100 IM: Terrible start.  Good reaction time, but weird blocks and I went waaaaaay too deep.  Having only gotten in two block starts during warmup probably didn't help too much.  The fly felt great, back was so-so, I died on breast, and free was terrible.  The pool has a TON of lines on the bottom of the pool, so that totally screwed up my sense of pool position when swimming fly and free.  Overall, it wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be.
• 50 fly: Went too deep off the start, but besides that it felt very good.  My time was off from what I was hoping, but the race itself felt fantastic
• 100 back: Absolutely terrible--very slick pad on the wall, so I back flopped...and went really deep.  Messed up my stroke count on the 50-75 turn and on the finish, so I glided a bit longer than I should have on both.  Legs totally died at the 75.  Coming off the wall felt really good, though (with the exception of the aforementioned long turn).  However, my time was really bad.  I  mean, REALLY bad.  All things considered, that was a big surprise given how the race felt.
• 50 back: Another terrible start.  By this point in the meet I was starting to wear down and wasn't spinning my arms fast enough.  Slow race, although my turn felt good.
• 50 free:  Besides the start, I thought this was a pretty good race.  Besides the 50 fly, this was my strongest race.
• 25 fly: Finally got the start right (although it was a tad deeper than I'd have liked) and had a good race.
• 25 back: Another poor start, although I didn't do the back flop.  Glided a bit too long into the wall.
• 25 breast: Actually felt really good, and had a good start.
• 25 free: A little deep on the start but not too bad overall.

What I got out of the meet:

• What the hell happened to my backstroke?!  I used to be a backstroker first and foremost (and a butterflier second).  Even accounting for how much slower all my times were than they used to be, my backstroke times were WAY off the mark.  That's going to need to be my biggest area of focus over the next month or so before the next meet.
• Apparently shoulder problems in practice do not equate to shoulder problems at a meet, at least in regards to fly!  While my body rhythm wasn't 100% in sync (I'd occasionally have a stroke/kick that were a bit off), fly overall felt VERY good.  It is reminiscent of the year and a half I swam in highschool, when practically overnight I became a butterflier--prior to that I had been terrible at it, but one day at practice it just clicked and I started training for fly then.  Maybe I will become primarily a butterflier now?  Obviously I only swam a 50 of it, but I didn't have the endurance drain that I did while swimming backstroke.
• I have got to work on my starts.  Of the practices I've been to, we've never used the blocks, so I'll have to see if I can get some practice in on them.
• I need to practice, practice, practice, and for good measure, practice some more.  With my easier work schedule for the next month or so, I'm going to try and get in at least seven practices a week.
• Racing with longer hair than I used to have, not to mention facial hair, is odd.  Not sure if I like it.  I'll at least get more frequent haircuts, but the facial hair might disappear at the monthly meets.
• 59 is not too old to be a pretty darn good swimmer.  There was a guy there who would have beat me in every event he swam when I was back in my prime.  Oldest guy at the meet was 86, I think, and he was able to swim all four strokes with pretty good technique.
• It is a small, small world.  I got there pretty early to the meet before many people had gotten there (the bleachers were pretty empty).  A guy came in and sat down next to me about 15 minutes later and after we swam warmup, asked me about my Citadel tattoo.  Turns out he's the older brother of a fellow 2009 grad from The Citadel, a guy who was in Tango Company, across the battalion from my company, Oscar Company.  What are the chances of that ?

Overall, I am ecstatic to be back in the world of competitive swimming!  Ever since I started coaching in 2008, I've really missed it and am quite happy to be back where I belong.  Really looking forward to getting back in the swing of things, losing weight, and dropping time!

Motivational/Philosophical quotes on pain

As I try to juggle an increasingly hectic work schedule and my workout/swimming plans, one thing is pretty constant.  That is pain.

Not just the physical pain that comes with using muscles in the pool that have seen very little use in the last six years, or the pain of being out of shape and struggling to get back into shape.  But also pain of the mind, from wrestling with the figurative problem child at work, from putting in long hours with little in the way of tangible results.  The physical pain is quite refreshing, the mental pain not so much.

Several of the folks who read this blog know that I'm a HUGE fan of Jim Butcher and his novels, the main series of which is the Dresden Files.  Here are four excellent philosophical and ridiculously motivating quotes from the series regarding pain, which help me put my pain in perspective.

Quote 1:

"Pain used as a weapon is one thing. Personal pain, the kind that comes from just living our lives, is something else. Pain isn’t a lot of fun, at least not for most folks, but it is utterly unique to life. Pain-physical, emotional, and otherwise-is the shadow cast by everything you want out of life, the alternative to the result you were hoping for, and the inevitable creator of strength. From the pain of our failures we learn to be better, stronger, greater than what we were before. Pain is there to tell us when we’ve done something badly-it’s a teacher, a guide, one that is always there to both warn us of our limitations and challenge us to overcome them. For something no one likes, pain does us a whole hell of a lot of good."

Quote 2:

"...We still hadn't learned, though, that growing up is all about getting hurt. And then getting over it. You hurt. You recover. You move on. Odds are pretty good you're just going to get hurt again. But each time, you learn something.
Each time, you come out of it a little stronger, and at some point you realize that there are more flavors of pain than coffee. There's the little empty pain of leaving something behind - graduating, taking the next step forward, walking out of something familiar and safe into the unknown. There's the big, whirling pain of life upending all of your plans and expectations. There's the sharp little pains of failure, and the more obscure aches of successes that didn't give you what you thought they would. There are the vicious, stabbing pains of hopes being torn up. The sweet little pains of finding others, giving them your love, and taking joy in their life they grow and learn. There's the steady pain of empathy that you shrug off so you can stand beside a wounded friend and help them bear their burdens.
And if you're very, very lucky, there are a very few blazing hot little pains you feel when you realized that you are standing in a moment of utter perfection, an instant of triumph, or happiness, or mirth which at the same time cannot possibly last - and yet will remain with you for life.
Everyone is down on pain, because they forget something important about it: Pain is for the living. Only the dead don't feel it.
Pain is a part of life. Sometimes it's a big part, and sometimes it isn't, but either way, it's a part of the big puzzle, the deep music, the great game. Pain does two things: It teaches you, tells you that you're alive. Then it passes away and leaves you changed. It leaves you wiser, sometimes. Sometimes it leaves you stronger. Either way, pain leaves its mark, and everything important that will ever happen to you in life is going to involve it in one degree or another." 

Quote 3:

"Everyone is down on pain, because they forget something important about it: Pain is for the living. Only the dead don't feel it."


Quote 4:

"Pain is a byproduct of life. That’s the truth. Life sometimes sucks. That’s true for everyone. But if you don’t face the pain and the suck, you don’t ever get the other things either. Laughter. Joy. Love. Pain passes, but those things are worth fighting for. Worth dying for."     

Work, weather, and the attempted attainment of records...

So, the past two weeks have not been very accomodative of my workout plans.

Work has been a beast, and I'm putting in some serious overtime.  Due to my early mornings and/or late nights at work, I made it to two practices last week.  This week has been more of the same, with evening storms in the mix, too, preventing me from being able to practice even when I was able to get off work in time!  Grr!

This week I'm looking at two practices - I did Monday evening and will get tomorrow morning's practice.  I'm drawing a blank on how much yardage I did on Monday, but last Saturday's practice was a 3700.  I expect tomorrow's practice to be similar in length.

I'm feeling a lot better in the water.  My left shoulder is still weak (again, I have no idea why it's weaker than my right), but it isn't hurting as much when I swim--still don't do more than a 25 of fly when doing IM sets, so I'll just do fly drill for the rest of the fly portion.  Hopefully over the next couple weeks I'll be able to swim all the fly without doing any one arm drills.  My kick is slowly coming back, and last Saturday's hour and a half practice left me tired without being sore or painful.  I hope tomorrow's practice is similar in how I cope with it.

Tomorrow's practice is the last of long course season (although all of the pools we practice at are 25Y/M, the season is technically long course).  Short course starts on Monday, and with it, we switch to indoor pools.  Hopefully that will help take care of the weather issue that has been keeping me out of the pool this week!  This project at work is supposed to wind down next week (that being said, the completion date has been pushed back three times already, so I'm not exactly holding my breath), so I'm really hoping that the work side of things will start to let me swim more practices, too!

The first meet is October 15th, and it's a sprint meet.  I'm planning on attending it if I don't have to work that weekend.  The first full meet is the weekend of October 30th, and I'll definitely be attending it.

Doing some research, provided I can get back to near what my old speeds were, I have a chance of setting 8 team records for the 18-24 age group.  It has historically been a very small group for the team, and I think I'm the first person in that age group in several years, at least of those who will compete.  The records that are up for grabs are:

• 50 back (current record is a 29.31)
• 100 back (I get this one by default, since no one has swum it)
• 200 back (ditto)
• 50 fly (current record is a 24.81--this would be the hardest for me, since I think that was a bit faster than the fastest 50 fly I ever swam)
• 100 fly (current record is a 57.69--this is a bit slower than my old time, so it is "theoretically" in reach)
• 200 fly (by default)
• 200 IM (current record is a 2:06.18--in the general vicinity of my old time, if memory serves me)
• 400 IM (current record is a 4:44.78--almost 10 seconds slower than my old time, so that puts this one within reach)

There are a lot of factors that will need to come into play for me to get any of those records but the ones I get by default.  I gotta get my shoulders up to speed--as it stands right now, any record that includes swimming fly is out of the question until my shoulders can stand it.  I've gotta pick my speed up--I'm nowhere near those speeds right now, but given time between now and April, it is a possibility.  In regards to the 400 IM, I don't even know if I want to swim a distance that long anymore!  It was a pain in the butt back in the day, and now I won't have a coach forcing me to swim it...or the 500...or the 1000.

My long term goal in terms of competition/records/Nationals cuts is to get back up to speed in back and fly.  Those are the two strokes I had the most success at back in the day, so I hope that they are still my strengths now.  I'm a lot stronger, physically speaking, than I was back then, so hopefully I can put that extra strength and muscle to use in the water.

Act like a tree! Act like a cow! Act like a tree, tree, cow, cow, cow!

Two weeks ago, I took the plunge and finally convinced myself to join a swimteam.  I joined Alexandria Masters Swimming and had my first practice, a total of 2500 yards.  Two words: Glorious!  OW!

Having been out of the water for so long, I've lost so much swimming specific muscle tone.  I've still got most of the technique, but my swimming strength and endurance is completely shot.  My left deltoid is apparently nonexistent, and after swimming freestyle for more than about a 400, it is painful trying to bring my arm out of the water on the recovery part of the stroke.  Strangely, no such problems with my right deltoid, besides an overall lack of endurance.  My kick is also pretty much useless now, too.  That's the part that has hit me the most--the kick used to be my strongest point in swimming.  Kick and turns, that's what I relied on. 

After that practice, I was in pain.  My legs were on fire, my upper back and shoulders were ridiculously sore and tight, and I hobbled around like I was 90 years old.  On the plus side, according to my scale, I had lost almost 2 pounds the next morning.

Had my second practice this morning, two weeks after the first (work got in the way, otherwise this would have happened last week).  It was about a 3000 (I lost count about halfway through the practice, but a 3000 sounds about right).  Same issues as before with my shoulders and legs, although this time I added massive calf cramping on both legs.  So not cool.  I'll weigh in tomorrow to see how I did.

Provided work cooperates, I'm going to try and start swimming four or five weekday morning practices (6:00-7:00) and two or three evening practices (8:00-9:00 or 7:30-8:30 for short course), as well as the Saturday morning practice (8:00-9:30).

My end goal is twofold.

1. Get down to my 180 pound target weight
2. Get back in competitive swimming shape and make some short course National Championship cuts for the meet in the spring

Weight matters

Over the past few years, I've tried to get back into shape.  Up through junior year at The Citadel, I was in quite good physical shape, although probably not great swimming shape.  After that summer, though, I started to gain some weight, so tried to develop new forms of exercise.  I tried running, and then hurt my left ankle, which stopped me from running more than the semesterly PT test at school.  The pool at school was out of the picture, given my class schedule, the crappy pool hours, and the horrific shape its piping and overall level of maintenance was in.

After I graduated in August 2009, I got a full time job and started taking evening classes for my MBA.  The ridiculously high level of stress that produced, and the lack of time to exercise, led me to start packing on the pounds.  Towards the end of the MBA program in fall 2010, I started running and working out during my lunch breaks at work.  That helped out a lot through this past spring, when work started ramping up.

Since stopping swimming in summer 2005, I've put on a substantial amount of weight, the majority of which has been muscle, at least until relatively recently. I weighed about 145 when I stopped swimming and was a complete beanpole.  Freshman year at The Citadel saw my weight go down as low as 135 in the fall semester, then I started packing muscle on and finished the year back at 145.  Sophomore year I started to pack on a lot of muscle and hit 165.  Junior year, more muscle and some padding, and hit between 170-175.  Senior year I stayed around 175.  The first year after graduation, when I wasn't exercising my weight went up to about 185.  The next six months, when I was running and working out, I dropped a belt size and kept my weight constant, so I presume it was muscle mass that I added.  Comparing pictures of me back in highschool and me now, I have substantially bulked up, with my chest and shoulders being a lot wider and thicker than they were back then, same with my thighs and arms.  The area between my thighs and my ribcage, though, has bulked up in a *cough, cough* less pleasing way.

Since April/May of this year, though, work, a move from Charleston to Alexandria, and a lack of a convenient workout facility like I had in Charleston at work have mostly prevented me from working out like I'd like to.  Many days, I don't get home from work until 7:00 or later, and I'm too exhausted from work by that point to workout afterwards.  So, that leads me to where I am now.  Provided my scale is working properly (with this scale, that's an iffy proposition), as of yesterday, I weighed 198.2. 

Over the last month, I've been trying to come up with an achievable workout regimen that I could implement about now.

...To be continued...

A bit of background...

Introduction: I'm Tim (duh).  24 years old.  Male.  Swam year round from when I was 6 or so until I was 18, for a total of about 13.5 years.  This is a blog to document my reentry into the wonderful world of swimming and getting into shape again.
 
During my swimming career, I swam for a variety of swim teams (I think I've got them all listed):

• Nashville Aquatic Club (NAC - Nashville)
• Houston Elite Aquatic Team (HEAT - Houston)
• Pelican Athletic Club (PAC - Mandeville, LA)
• Williamson County Aquatic Team (Water Cats - Nashville metro area)
• Caritas Swim Team (Caritas - Louisville)
• Tritons Swimming (Was originally Caritas - Louisville)

Up until I was 14 or 15, I was never really all that serious about swimming.  Around the 15/16 mark, I began to get serious and started dropping some real time in the pool.  I began to specialize in backstroke at that point, then around when I turned 17, I picked up butterfly out of the blue, too.  Really have no clue where fly came from--before then, I sucked at it in practice and meets, then all the sudden it was a lot easier to swim in practice, then at the next meet, I dropped 10 seconds in the 100 fly, and was a butterflyer after that.  Rather bizarre, now that I think about it.

Once I graduated high school and went off to college at The Citadel, I more or less stopped swimming.  I tried to swim a few times a week as a freshman, but the constraints of being a freshman at that school quickly killed that attempt.  In addition, after having lived and breathed pool water and chlorine for so long, I was getting to the point where I didn't want to have anything to do with a pool.

...Until the summer after my junior year.  I got offered an assistant swim coach job at a summer league team on one of the islands in the Charleston area.  I took it and had an absolute blast.  It drove me to get back in the water that summer, and I started swimming a short practice or two (about 45 minutes each) most weekdays, as my schedule permitted.  Once the school year began again, though, that stopped, and I remained out of the water for the next three years, until late this summer.

...To be continued...