My First* Masters Swim

Posted by Katie

Today Matt and I went to a Masters Swim Class (are you supposed to call it a “class” or is it a session? or a workout? Apologizes for not knowing the terminology… #newbie).

Technically this is not my first “Masters” so let me start with a description of the prior three. The first one I did was with Sandi at her gym. The coach split us into a fast and slow group (somehow Sandi and I got into the fast group) and I remember doing 100’s with five of us circle swimming. The problem with doing 100’s in a circle with fast people is well… you better move it or you end up in someone’s way. I think we ended up in this group mostly because we looked like we knew what we were doing… swim suits, cap from a sprint tri*, etc.

*Note: wearing a race cap can accidentally give others the impression that you know how to swim when in fact your greatest strength is the frog stroke (ie the breast stroke without going under water… lol)

The most hilarious part of this experience was after the workout. I remember Sandi and I asking the coach if he had any tips for stroke form etc. and his response was:

“Not really… just you know… get back into swim shape”

As if we were good at swimming once and had somehow gotten lazy or fallen off the bandwagon. Little did he know I was actually at that time in the best swim shape of my life thus far (ie I had started swimming a few months prior and had just done a sprint tri sort of successfully). Of course had we given the coach more information about our backgrounds he could of tailored his advice better, but we got a huge kick out of it…

Fast forward to this year, Matt and I tried a local Masters swim twice but were disappointed to find that it was basically a lap swim. No one talked to each other, there was a board with a workout (if you asked the lifeguard for it) but everyone did their own thing and no coaching to speak of.

So today we decided to try a different location that seemed to have a more serious coached Master’s program (ie their brochure looked pretty serious… sold!). The coach was really nice and welcoming, she took in a little of our swimming history, seeded us in lanes, and explained today’s workouts (intermediate ~2800 or advanced ~3500-4000). I got the ultimate distinction of the “bucket lane” ie lane #1 with a ladder that is huge and no one ever wants (coach’s words) and Matt ended up with some super fast guys in the advanced area which might have been a mistake (his words). For me the bucket lane was actually quite enjoyable, easy viewing of the clock and plenty of space!

So far at the beginning of this 70.3 training cycle my swims have been right around 1,000 so a workout of 2,800 was almost a 300% increase but of course I wanted to prove that I could hang with the big kids… so to speak.

My swim workouts lately:

Warmup: 300

5x100 Freestyle

Warmdown: 200

Total workout: 900

Wednesday Master’s Swim Workout:

Warmup: 400

200 free time trail

100 EZ free

2x200 Free time+20

100 EZ Free

3x200 Free time+20

100 EZ Free

2x200 Free time+20

100 EZ Free

200 free time trail (try to beat 1^st 200 time)

50 EZ Free

6x50 Drills (6 dolphin kicks, 2 fly strokes, repeat)

8x25 sprint Fly

Warmdown: 200

Total workout: 3250?! (I cut a few corners, so my actual workout was 2900)

The coach had a couple helpful pointers about my stroke and the freestyle portion actually went okay. I could definitely feel myself getting tired and slower but I survived it. Then…the drills. Dolphin kicks were kind of okay, but the fly strokes were a mess. I was actually really hoping that the guy in the lane next to me would start doing fly first so I could observe and try to copy. Unfortunately he must have skipped that stuff (maybe a fellow triathlete?) so I had to make it up on my own. Then it was time for the 8x25 “sprint” fly. Full disclosure, I have no idea how to do the butterfly stroke… but I think it looks super cool when other people do it. Of course, just as I was about to try the coach walked over to my lane so the pressure was on. I think if I had attempted this at the beginning of the workout it might have gone a little better, but here at the end with a 300% increase of a day it was pretty ugly. My biggest problem was keeping my head up (to try to get air/not drown) and thus making it super hard to fling my arms forward because they were still half underwater. I could barely make it halfway down the length so “sprinting” was replaced with “surviving”. The coach had some kind pointers for this too and was nice enough not to tell me I looked like a drowning whale (which is how it felt).

Overall it was a success but WOW… I have never swam that far or been this tired after a swim. Immediately after I treated myself with a giant smoothie (sorry no picture... it was consumed too fast!).