Great Chesapeake Bay Swim, part 3: What I Would Change

This is part 3 of my Great Chesapeake Bay Swim round up – the final part.  The bit where I go through what I would change.  In Part 1 you got the narrative (written to try to capture the emotions and feelings on the day).  Part 2 was a full list of what worked for me – the long and the short of it is “Know Thyself”.  And now, what I would do differently, for the next time.  Because, as I said, this swim is oddly seductive.  And although I have said that it is one of the hardest things I have ever done, I can see myself doing it again (and again, and again…)

This Swim Is A Race

Next time, I will race the swim.  This time, I just wanted to complete the swim.  I took it gently and easily.  Don’t be mistaken – the swim itself was not gentle or easy, but my *mindset* was. 

I walked into the water well after the start and when pretty much every swimmer was 50 meters on their way to the bay.  I did it my way – to get the full experience but without pressure.

I want to be in the fray of these swimmers next time, not just spectating their start…
(Note: thanks John Frenaye and Eye on Annapolis for letting me use this photo)

Don’t get me wrong – my swim was exactly how I wanted it.  I savoured every moment and really remember each bit.  I saw things, I experienced life. 

To quote Ferris Buehler:  “Life moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around every once in a while, you could miss it.”

But…  I came so close to regretting this approach.  I didn’t push things, so was about 20 minutes slower than I had hoped.  I bobbed in the middle of the Bay to check out the awesomeness of the bridge.  I hung onto snack boats one and two for just a bit longer than I needed to, just enjoying things.  I stood up when I rounded the rockpile to Hemingways, to just savour the moment.  And the combo of all of these things could have seen me pulled out of the water as the coastguard was in the process of cancelling the swim as I was finishing.

I am so lucky.

Next time I will race the swim – not sightsee.  I will see if I can set and hit a time goal.  And I will make sure that I do not have any potential lingering regrets when I finish.

More Training

I think I did the bare minimum for training for the swim.  I only swam 31,000 meters in May – and only 66,000 meters from January until May.  Before the swim I only did 4 long swims of a 5k length.  I am very lucky that I am comfortable swimming, because I just don’t think this volume of training is enough for a swim like the Bay Swim…

I also think that loading the swim training into the latter half of April and May was just not smart.

This swim needs not only three sessions a week in concentrated swimming (including one very regular long distance swim) but this swim also needs strength work.  I hate strength and weights sessions.  But with more of them, I would be stronger, and therefore faster.

To put it into perspective, I think I needed to be doing 10k a week, minimum, from January.  This was highlighted to me by John Hirsch at Strong Like Bull.  At the end of February.  But I was so focused on getting ready for the MS150 and biking that I neglected the pool – until after mid-April…

I am not sure how this volume of training, all swim focused, works with my overall approach triathlon training.  To be honest, I am not sure it does. 

I admit it:  I have really struggled to get the training balance right for the things I am doing this year.  Fitting in three sports, not just one.  Taking into consideration my work schedule.  Rebuilding things following my two months of lung issues (end of January to end of March).  And managing the fatigue I feel from my nerve disease. 

I guess the experiences I am having with going longer in three sports will only help me to make adjustments and improvements to my overall training going forward. I think I could do more, to give myself a better shot at being competitive.  But I need to seriously sit down and figure out how this works into my life.

Communicate Better with my Coach

And following on from above…  Another confession – I don’t think I’m the easiest person to coach.  I often don’t send back my training logs and feedback.  I hate reproducing stuff – I log on Dailymile, but the data on the swims, what I did, how I felt – that is what my coach needs and because I’ve already logged half of it elsewhere I often don’t get him the fully picture…

Happiest when I communicate well with Coach T, as witnessed by the smiles…

I know I need to improve this. 

I also need to more actively look at my training schedule and discuss things with my coach.  I did this toward the end of training, the last two weeks.  This worked well.  I also did this around April, moving my schedule to three swims a week.  I also spotted a huge error by early May – that I was being coached to 4 km instead of 4 miles – by challenging my schedule and engaging in more dialogue with my coach.  Thank goodness I did.

I am a challenge, I have a lot of issues to deal with – making my training plans not so straightforward.  But I think with better communication I would get better results.  Communication is a two way street when working with a coach – and that is the lesson I must take from this.

Work on Shoulder Stability

At the beginning of May I was having a lot of shoulder pain from increasing my swim volumes almost overnight in mid-April.  I had a normally scheduled physiotherapy session, and wound up changing the focus of this session to look at my shoulders.

It was eye opening.  I have so much mobility in my shoulders that my shoulder blades just don’t seem to know where to go, which in turn means that I am not engaging the strongest muscles when I swim.  A lot of this is caused by differences in my elbows (again, hypermobility related, and one elbow has been fixed but the other has not).  A lot of this is about just simple strength.  I’m pretty sure that through physiotherapy I can learn how to use my arms better, and that physiotherapy will then change my stroke and help me to become a stronger and faster swimmer.

Not a picture of perfect shoulder health, aka where not to put your shoulder blades…

But I didn’t make this discovery until May.  Because I didn’t ramp my volumes until the end of April. Which was way too late to do anything for the swim, other than survival.  And preservation of shoulder health.

I will continue to work on my shoulder stability and muscle egagement and function.  Then in the off-season (the autumn winter) I want to revisit my swim stroke and work on ways to improve this, in line with my physiotherapy.  To have a better race next year.

Figure Out a Better Finish Line Pose

I call this shot “Joey”.  Because just like the Friends episode, I can almost see the speech bubble “How you doin’?” coming from my mouth.

There has got to be a better money shot than this…