swimming for fun

Having restricted my swimming for the last month due to generalised repetitive strains in both arms, shoulders and lower back – all of which are getting ongoing attention – I’m slowly getting back into it. This has both a benefit and a dilemma. The benefit has been to take me away from a training schedule that’d be having me swim regular two hour plus swims in 10 to 12 degrees water! But seriously; it’s meant I’ve thought a lot about why I desire to swim so much and achieve what only another 1200 odd other humans have done. Initially I pondered whether my back was ‘out’ because of the subliminal stress of a channel swim (and a few other things). But I don’t think it is. I’ve been swimming for nearly five years now and have been lucky to have had only one small break due to injury in this time. I’m coming up for fifty too and so I should stop thinking I’ll recover the next day and begin to listen to and respect my mind and body; but without inhibiting myself from what I can achieve. The pause in my training is good. I only have to do one long swim this year – 10k off Brighton beach in July. The rest is optional.

And the dilemma is that I’m off to a swim camp in just under 4 weeks where I’d have been swimming at least 5 to 10K every day; and on some a lot more. I’m going, but I think that I need to remind myself that I’m not in the Channel til 2014 and in the meantime I can learn a lot by understanding my limits; knowing when to push them and observing and sharing with friends and, hopefully, new friends that I’ll meet in the seas and loughs in Cork. And putting in some good time as a supporter; as I’m a support swimmer for at least one Channel swimmer this year.

Another benefit has been to swim slower, focus on my stroke, get out sooner, play handball, chat to people various much more and remember that swimming is also fun. Thanks in particular to wild woman for reminding me of this.

Swim Canary Wharf

After a recommendation by Stephanie Voss (and vicariously, Neil Morton) I booked a session with Ray Gibbs, of Swim Canary Wharf. So, some practicalities – off peak it’s £69 for an hour of instruction, feedback and practice. It’s a few minutes walk from Canary Wharf station on the Jubilee Line. It’s a bespoke training venue, with another company offering physical therapy by Chris, a masseur that people who go to Tooting will know. And who I know because he modelled my highly commended hat at the CWSC in 2011.

You are asked about your swimming experience before getting in an endless pool and swimming for a while to let Ray analyse your stroke. He states that he won’t bamboozle you with lots of feedback, but will instead focus on one or two major issues and then work on these. He’s very clear in his exposition of concepts and ideas and both talks and demonstrates what he wants you to adapt. This is backed up with video of yourself, which is played back immediately on a screen above the water, to show the ‘flaws’ and he uses comparison footage of an elite distance swimmer.

During the session he got me to do a few drills, which worked on my profile in the water, my breathing and the rotation of my arms. Once I’d got it, my passage through the water was smoother. And at each juncture he’d explain what he’d observed, give affirmative and constructive feedback and then build on this for the next exercise.

The endless pool is not just a space saving device. It makes filming easier, but it also exacerbates ‘flaws’ in your swimming; and highlights them for analysis. All in all, money well spent and both myself and Mrs Ape have booked further sessions.

improving

reach

all angles covered

explaining a drill

 

 

swim clinic

No swim today, but browsing around I found this- Swim Camp. Kari re-taught me how to swim. She is a very good teacher. And it’s less than other swim holidays of similar duration. Added bonuses – it’s in France and you can get there by train.

cold acclimatisation*

don't let your pants freeze

I’m not swimming today, so thought I’d share what I’ve been gleaning from sources various about cold water acclimatisation. In a nutshell then -

1. as your skin gets cold it forms an insulative layer to protect your core. And reduces heat loss, as heat moves more quickly between different temperatures. In other words, the closer your skin temperature to the water temperature, the less heat you lose from your core.

2. the core stays warmer than the outside…for some time. According to what I’ve read a rectal thermometer will confirm this, but I have not experimented.

3. fat helps to insulate.

4. brown fat may or may not expand from its vestigial remains and generate some heat.

5. you lose heat from the outside of your body slightly differently. Extremities, like fingers, have less fat and lose heat quicker. Putting hats on reduces heat loss through your head, but does not account for the major part of your heat retention – despite the mythology that most heat is lost through the head. See here for a taster.

5. swimming regularly in cold water changes your ability to generate heat and maintain heat. In scientific terms you adapt your thermogenesis response.

6. you improve your body’s ability to only need to shiver at a lower temperature.

7. in freezing water you’ll stay alive for up to 30 minutes, but will probably drown before ten minutes is up, as you lose control of your limbs.

8. women seem to get out of cold water sooner than men…because they are smarter (generally).

For the science I looked at various on-line journals including International Journal of Sports Medicine (1987 Oct8(5):325-6), European Journal of Physiology, Experimental Physiology (2000, 85.3:321-326), Dr Jolie Bookspan (scuba-doc.com/coldjolie.htm), The Lancet (1999, Vol354, Issue9191, p1733) and an excellent series of articles about cold water acclimatisation and habituation on Lone Swimmer. Which also references other scientific sources.

A comment on an earlier post also suggested that you extract more water from your blood, hence the oft observed need for cold water swimmers to pee more. But I’ve yet to find the science on this.

*disclaimer…I am not a scientist, so am open to correction, as I may have misinterpreted what I have read.