Swimmy observations

[andygates]

1: Being first in the pool is almost as good as breaking virgin snow. It's delicously naughty to mess up that mirror-smooth water. Especially with my thrashing-galvanism style front crawl which, incidentally, is coming along. Managed two clean lengths among the warm-up, testing and breathing accidents. Cough, glark.

After my 7am swim (I know, who am I and what have I done with Andy?) I fired up the telly for some Commonwealth Games swimmy inspiration to accompany the mandatory weekend-morning fancy coffee. This leads to observations 2 and 3, viz:

2: Competitive female swimmers are incredibly, eye-grabbingly, stupendously hot.

3: Disability swimming classes are both impressive and gloriously weird. Blind swimmers wear blackout masks to make sure they're properly blind, making them look like squeaky-clean versions of Stark from Farscape. The idea of Stark competing in a pool is so bizarre that I can't shift it and it will go to my grave...

Comments

[xeeny.livejournal.com]

Good to see the training's coming along well. I've been doing some work down in Chedder pool with a tri club that Paul and Elaine belong to. There's a *lot* of technique in swimming. A good tip, I have found, is not to breath in water. Simple, but harder than it sounds.

Anyway, will be stopping this as driving to Cheddar and back every week is well, bad. Going to start with a Bristol tri club after the Zurich marathon. My last long run today: somewhere over 22 miles (uggh). Not 26.5 however, and the idea of running any further makes me scared. Hopefully I will be spurred on by the enthusiasm of the crowd...

[xeeny.livejournal.com]

BTW - with regard to ankles: if it hurts, take it easy. You might miss one race, but you'll miss many more if you run and fuck yourself up properly.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm working on the don't-breathe-the-wet-stuff bit. More splishy time soon. Not entirely convinced about joining a tri club, but there is an Exeter one and I know one of the guys who runs it so you never know...

The crowd is an amazing spur. Even the little crowd the GWR gets helped haul my carcass along. And the extra four-and-a-bit miles is what, barely 15% further ;)

What worries me is running in soggy shorts..!

[skean.livejournal.com]

Get some speedo's. No, seriously. The kind of "fitted boxer short" kind. Their great for under wetsuits, and Xeeny has run in them for his aquathalon.

The alternative is to get a tri suit of couse, but they are a bit more pricey.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

I'm intrigued now as to what you think I'm swimming in? Speedos of the close-fitting short variety it is, and they'd be okay (an arseblade but bearable) for the bike, but I'm just way unsure about my horrible hairy belly over the top of 'em.

Do they run tri's in the dark?

[skean.livejournal.com]

Well, I'd assumed some variant on board shorts to be honest. The only person I know that wears speedo's as a fashion statement is sciolist, and I'm not sure what sort of statement it is.

I reckon a tri suit it is then. It has the padding for the bike section built in apparently. And will assuage your concerns about asthetics.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Hate board shorts. Don't like flappy things around my legs in the water, makes me think I've got my leg tangled in kelp and I'm trappedandgoingtobeeatenbyasturgeonARGH! Tri shorts it is. Maybe bib tri shorts with a lard girdle ;)

Good news: just put three miles on my ankles. It was my gait. Been running too far forward, on the balls of my feet. Heels barely touching the ground - gimpy dinosaur walk. Bringing my weight back takes a lot of the argh off of it. Game on!

[skean.livejournal.com]

Lovely icon. When did you go blond?

And this gait thing - your were heelstriking, but now you're not? I thought heelstriking was good for long distance running (from apocryphal info). Mind you, I go with the "whats comfortable for you" school of though. I waddle like a duck but its comfy :-)

[andygates.livejournal.com]

I've had conflicting info so I thought I'd try Pirie-style forefoot striking. Ouch :)

[sciolist.livejournal.com]

I utterly agree wrt. female swimmers. Very good shoulders.