The Fifth Limb

Date: Friday, May 9, 2008

Workout: Swim - 60 minutes - Zone 1

Location: UBC Aquatic Centre

Heart Rate Range/Zone: N/A

Average HR: N/A

R.P.E. :8-10

Average Speed/Pace: N/A

Pre-Workout Hydration: 500ml of water 30 minutes before session

Pre-Workout Nutrition: dinner

Post-Workout Hydration: 500ml Coke from McD’s

Post-Workout Nutrition: ummmm….see below.

Activity:

• 60 minutes of learning Total Immersion drills with Peter Scott

Positive improvements/habits: Peter’s a fantastic teacher. Within two 25M lengths he had broken down my stroke to the basics and essentially told me that I’m making the classic mistakes that most people who haven’t swum in quite a while make - head and shoulder positioning that causes my hips to sink, and the resulting problems with breathing and recovery. After a hour in the water with him, I left feeling confident that my stroke will be corrected and I’ll be faster and more importantly, have more energy, after the swim in Shawnigan on the 25th.

Valuable lessons: I hydrated quite a bit, but didn’t freak out and become overly aggressive about it. Also, I ate dinner as soon as I got home, so by the time I hit the pool it had been in my system for two hours and I was ready to reap the rewards of the energy. Also, I’ve once again been taught that the most important thing with a technical sport like swimming is slow steady consistent effort - quality over quantity at all times. It’s down to the point where my next session will be spent not even swimming lengths, just doing head positioning drills, skating drills through the water (see an example here), and re-learning how to breath. It seems as though a lot of my issues come from my head…although I’ve known that for years…no comments from my family please…Peter refers to the head as the Fifth Limb, and it makes sense. Just as the other limbs have to elongate, relax, and work in synchronicity in order to propel and glide through the water, the positioning of my head has to be relaxed and in line with my spine in order to provide the buoyancy necessary to enable correct breathing. Raising my head by even an inch from a neutral position causes immediate and noticeable problems…like, ’sinking like a rock’ problems…raising my head also causes tension in the shoulders, preventing that long lean slippery profile that’s needed for effective conservation of energy and stroke efficiency.

Strains and Pains to Note: Legs are constantly sore…what else is new. However, Peter’s comments about relaxing my shoulders and becoming more conscious about it definitely helped me to leave the pool with far less strain and tension in my shoulders.

Why I’m A Champion: It takes a lot for me to ask for assistance. I knew a couple of weeks ago that I was struggling with my stroke, and took the necessary steps to find a coach who can work quickly with me to correct the technical issues surrounding my swimming.

Today’s Menu:

• Breakfast: 3 slices of Canadian Bacon, full dose of vitamins with 1 cup of iced tea, 1 medium bagel with 2 tbsp of cream cheese, 1 cup of pears in juice, 1 mug of coffee with 2% milk and four raw sugar cubes

• Lunch: 3 Werthers candies, 1 6″ tuna sub from Subway with all of the veggies, lite mayo and pepper, 1L of water

• Mid-day snack: a small slice of ice cream cake at work

• Dinner: 3 all-beef hot dogs with light mozzarella cheese, mustard and ketchup, 1 extra weiner for protein, 500ml of water
• Dinner part deux (post-workout): a Big Mac meal from McD’s with large fries and a large Coke, large Rolo McFlurry