Posted by alexandra_k on August 15, 2018, at 6:01:56
So... I've started swimming. I used to swim. My Dad was a bit of a swimmer. I have many memories in my childhood of beach vacations and my Dad grabbing my wrist and showing me how to float / jump over waves. Bodysurfing... Distant memory... Don't know that I was ever particularly good at it... But he used to be able to ride some of the smaller waves in... Yeah. Days spend like that, in my childhood.
And lakes... I remember my Mother had a pretty good (floaty, effortless seeming) breaststroke. She was fairly long and lean build, which helped, I bet. But I used to do some kind of imitation of that.
And my Dad was into photography, at some point. Lots of pictures... Pictures of me doing infant / baby swim stuff at some point. We don't believe in glue ear, here, so, you know, throw them around with infant swim reflex intact and they'll grow up swimming!!! (or not).
Anyway...
I was into gymming before. Weightlifting. Olympic weightlifting with an Eleiko Women's Olympic Weightlifting 15kg Women's Barbell Weightlifting... But of course $1,500 Barbell's are hard to come by in these parts... And the things tend to be hijacked by men who aren't capable of bench pressing 20kg...
Sigh...
Anyhoo...
Swimming...
The pool here (the diving pool, the 2x25m pool that converts into the 50m pool come summertime I suppose pool)... Has an associated gym. And it's a nice atmosphere, actually. Family friendly - as I haven't encountered since Australia. There is something about family friendly that is good for sports.
There is something family friendly that is good about Weightlifting environments, more in particular.
And then swimmers (with their lanky limbs) are not natural Weightlifters (anymore than basketballers or highjumpers are). And precisely because of that... Fixating on appropriate form and only handling the weights you can handle... Is excellent training for them.
And so... I've been focusing on the pool. And my breaststroking (my natural stroke) has been progressing rather a lot. I appear sort of competent. I have a fairly good glide... And am learning to glide... And take less strokes. Only surface because of regulations... It's faster gliding under the water... But every movement is regulated. Limited dolphin kicking and limited arm motion before the requirement to surface... Symmetry presribed (limited sideways motion or any kind of a-symmetry)...
And I'm trying (though failing, somewhat) to progress into Dolphin. Dolphin and butterfly is faster, apparently. There is an evolutionary story. Or a developmental story. Or something. So learning how to get a faster movement through dolphin and learning how to sustain that dolphin movement.
I'll invest in some short fins, soon... To help me feel how my feet would be moving if I was adapted for swimming rather than bipedalism. Have been trying to work on my foot flexibility to work that...
So much of an increase in effort for a tiny tiny (so very tiny) increase in speed... Which doesn't feel like anything since you are stuck looking at the line on the bottom of the pool, if all goes well.
There is something suckerish about that. How if you are doing it right you don't even get to see any landmarks at all that you are flying by... Just that infinite blue line at the bottom of the pool...
I guess you count your strokes. How many. And the time it takes to get you there.
Anyway...
Today I watched a couple squads train. Because I was just finishing as they were starting. The... I think they were lower level Secondary School / High School. They looked around 13-14 in their school uniforms before they got into the pool. And then some kids... Maybe 7-11. Hard to tell ages.
And they swam. And they swam. And they swam and they swam and they freaking swam. And swam and swam. Lengths and lengths and lengths and lengths and f*ck*ng lengths of it.
And I felt so lazy. I swim, like 25m. And rest. A good 39 seconds. And think about how hard it is to breathe in the pool. Not while swimming (but also while swimming). But while sitting. While submerged to tetraplegic levels it is really hard to breathe in the pool. I guess it is something about pressure. Usually the pressure outside the lung is higher because of gravity? But inside the pool... Submerged to tetraplegic levels the pressure outside the lung / ribcage is less..
So... It is harder to suck air in.
I always feel breathless in the pool. resting, like that.
How does resting like that compare to altitude training? I know it's not oxygen deprivation like altitude training. The atomosphere isn't thinner... But there is some kind of effect on the lungs... Not from holding your breath underwater or being forced to regulate your breath because of strokes and breathing opportunity... But just being in the water...
Google is not my friend when it comes to that.
Google... Youtube... Stupidity permeates...
Physics... Gravity vs pressure still confuses me, honestly. Which is unfortunate because of Orthopedics in space and Australia getting a space program and all... And also being good at swimming...
Sigh.
I'll think about it while the 7 year olds swim... F*ck*ng miles and miles and miles and miles and miles with their short little strokes, and all.
Damn.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1100338
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20180212/msgs/1100338.html