I finally dragged myself reluctantly to the water for a 2000 y swim on Monday. Despite my long entry on swimming, for the first 500 y I couldn't remember anything I wrote about, so I kept thinking of Mr. Smooth.
Then I remembered the sinking exercise, so after my warm-up I did that. I'm sure the lifeguards judged me, but I had just swam 500 y successfully so I don't think they thought I was drowning. My conclusion: Yep, I really hate just chilling underwater. That whole "feeling peaceful" thing doesn't really happen to me and there was just no way I was getting my butt to stay on the floor of the pool. Needless to say, upon remembering this exercise I remembered the whole exhalation thing. Part of my workout consisted of a 4x300 so for that I worked specifically on the strong exhale thing and you know what? I felt pretty good because it relaxed me and gave me something else to focus on so I'll probably keep trying it. It makes being underwater so LOUD! haha
That being said, a few days later I told Brad about my exhaling and he was told precisely the opposite by some seasoned swimmers- that air in your lungs makes you more buoyant, it may make it easier to focus and.. oh, you know, the pros don't. AWESOME. Brad exhales into the water all at the last minute, ultimately creating that pocket of space next to him, making it easier to inhale and not gasp in water. I'm trying to find more writing on what he's talking about, but it seems that may be the more "elite" way of doing things and all this online literature is geared towards beginners. Brad did find a post from Olympian Gary Hall, Sr. on Slowtwitch about this whole topic. Here is what he said: "No matter what breathing pattern you use, keeping air in your lungs as long as possible is extremely important. The added buoyancy of the air in the lungs lifts the body in the water and reduces drag. Therefore one needs to burst exhale just before taking the next breath. In other words, don't trickle your breath out under water (except on backstroke off the wall to keep water from going up your nose). With a 2:3 pattern, so long as one is not using a super high stroke rate (mine is in the 60's...but I use a strong kick), there is time to take a good breath and exhale before taking a successive breath. No one gets a 'full' breath when swimming, nor exhales completely. There just isn't enough time for that. But getting a fresh load of oxygen in and CO2 out more often than 20 to 30 times per minute is physiologically desirable.....with the corollary that you do not slow your stroke rate too much nor drag your upper arm underneath you under water in the process. The former reduces inertia and the latter increases drag."
The contention kind of confuses me, but hey... I'll just keep trying different stuff until I'm faster, right? Right. Here is the whole thread in which people sort of hash out this issue.
In terms of the other topics: body roll is something I always think about, and generally fail at, but just keep swimming... right? I'll probably think about these core things tomorrow. I have to take things one step at a time.
Speaking of core, I have two goals for this summer: educating myself on healthy sports nutrition and incorporating strength training. So far I have lifted twice this week, and generally I'm aiming for 3x a week to start out.
I have also been working with our teams nutritionist Linda Samuels to better my diet. I'm already a pretty healthy eater, but now I'm learning the ins and outs of athletics and food. I'm also reading Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook which is surprisingly fascinating. Today I've learned all about fruits/vegetables as well as the truth about vitamins and minerals. It's a good book if you're into this sort of this thing - think about it.
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