Best money I've spent in a swimming context

You can buy stuff that makes you better at something. In terms of swimming, it could be a £500 wetsuit that might have zonal bouyancy which will make you float better in different places. It might be a snazzy new pair of goggles that are designed for (and by) someone like Michael Phelps, so will be optimised to make you swim faster. It might be a new hat, a tow bag, or some such thing. All of which will have an effect on your swimming.

In the past few months I've managed to get a bit more efficient - and subsequently- a bit faster. I've spent some money on it as well- but it isn't like I've thrown money at it. So- what have I changed and where have the benefits come from?

What have I changed?

Wetsuit

First up, if you read a previous blog about my Alpkit Lotic wetsuit, you'll know I kind of destroyed it. It started off fairly ok, I had to keep repairing it with Black Witch and then it basically just started self destructing. I bought a new wetsuit made by Huub. (yes, I know Huub make wetsuits for Alpkit, but figured that going for the next rung up the tree might be a good idea). Wow. You can spend a lot of money on a wetsuit. No- £500 did NOT get dropped on a suit. Not even £200. I found their 2nds/refurb and demo models page and bought an Axiom for a reduced price. It's lovely, but I've only used it a few times- is that the thing that has made me a bit better? Maybe slightly- but I don't think that is the thing.

Somewhat amusingly, this is the ONLY photo I can find of my wetsuit in my gallery!

Goggles

I wear glasses and contacts. Up until about november I was just wearing a pair of fairly standard goggles without contacts. There are all kinds of horror stories about wearing contact lenses in goggles, getting water in there and then lots of nasty things happen to your eyes. No idea how much of these stories are accurate and how much is rumour, but I quite like being able to see (after a fashion), so just stuck with not being able to see all that much in standard goggles.

In December I got fed up of not being able to see anything, so bought a pair of prescription goggles from Zoggs. They were a lot less expensive than I feared- like about £30- (so inexpensive I considered getting a pair as a pair of glasses to wander around in... no, Im kidding), and they somewhat revolutionised my pool swimming. I could see what I was doing and where I was going! Outside, there was no feeling of being in an enclosed sensory deprivation chamber. There was less to panic about, and the whole experience was a lot more pleasurable.

Excellent. Did it make my swimming better? Probably not better, but they did make it more enjoyable.

Hat

I resisted wearing a silicone hat for a while. No bones about it- it was a vanity thing. I didn't want to be the idiot walking/swimming around in a bright yellow silicone hat. What a ponce!

(yellow was the option as I had been given a yellow one).

Some time in December, maybe about the same time as I got the goggles I bit the bullet- having got tired of having water blocking up my ears. (don't even go there with earplugs). The hat keeps water out of my ears and stops all kinds of horrible discomforts. Not news to a lot of people, but news to me.

Did it make me a better swimmer? No. But again, it makes the whole thing a bit more enjoyable.

Lessons

Now we come to the crux. Initially I had heard about Total Immersion technique and went off to have a few sessions with this. I know that it works for quite a few people, but after a number of lessons, it felt like I was just trying to massively alter my stroke so that it looked nice above the water- but there was nothing useful being gained in terms of actual propulsion. This isn't the case for everyone, granted, but it was my experience- so I looked for another path.

That path was an initial 121 lesson, followed by another one 4 months later. I had 2 lessons with Dave Quartermain from Uswim last year- as I wrote about in this blog. The first one was a complete revelation- as was the fact I was going to have to join a pool and swim 3 times a week to get better. Not something I wanted to do, but something that had to be done. After a couple of months I went back for a further hour of tuition to iron out some bad habits that I might have got into in the intervening period, and then continued to swim 3 times a week in a pool for the next 2 and a half months- basically until Lockdown. The plan was to cancel my pool membership at that point anyway, so that was fine.

Has this helped?

I think it would be fair to say that the 2 hours of input from Dave has revolutionised my swimming. Just recently we've been out swimming in the local watering hole and I am keeping up with people who previously had been effortlessly leaving me in their wake. My stroke is easier, more fluid, more relaxed. I have time to look around, to sight, to enjoy myself in the water, whereas previously it was a blur of desperately expended energy trying to keep up with them.

The more I "slow down", the better my position in the water becomes, the more efficient my stroke gets and the faster I go. It's ridiculous.

Best money spent on swimming?

2 lessons with Dave Quartermain and 3 months of swimming in a pool 3x a week- without a shadow of a doubt.

When is race kit not enough?

I know I've banged on about being on the hill with enough kit a few times recently, this may be the last time I mention it for a while.
Bear with me- it is a slightly different take on the last couple, though the punchline is much the same.

Bimbling off the hill in the rain the other day I was thinking about what kit I had with me (glad I packed the eVent top, not the pertex one), and the responses I get from people when they head out onto the hill on their own. The answer is invariably "It's ok, I've got race kit with me".

All well and good, but let's examine what that means for a moment:-
"Full race kit" pertains to what is required in an AL (A Long) race in the Fellrunning world. It should have- at a minimum, full body, taped waterproof covering (ie. waterproof top and bottoms), a hat, gloves, compass, map of the route and, in some cases, emergency food. (in the occasional race, an emergency blanket/bag is required, but this is vanishingly rare- and generally for the much longer and adventurous routes).

Don't worry- I've got race kit with me... Does that include a torch? Coz we're going to need one...

This is fine as far as it goes, and I can totally see the point of all of that for racing. When you are in a race, generally speaking you are on the same approximate route as a good number of other people- between 30 and, oh, let's say 300. A decent number of people know, pretty much, exactly what your intended route is, and there may well be a number of marshals on the route ticking you off as you go through a checkpoint.

The main thing is that if you turn an ankle, go down heavily, crack your head open, get hypothermia or do something else gnarly to yourself, the chances are there is going to be someone else along in a minute, doing the same race, who (hopefully*) won't abandon you to your fate, will also have full race kit, and can help you- and if that isn't enough, soon enough there will be another, and another etc. So as long as you don't tell them that you have enough help, you'll soon have a right party of people, theoretically with full race kit- if not more to help you in your situation.

(*of course they won't we're fellrunners... we don't do that)

The minimum amount of kit is great in this situation because you probably aren't going to be on your own for too long, and with any luck, there will be a bunch of you in the same place at nearly the same time.

If you've read my previous blog about the amount of time it takes for mountain rescue to get to you, you might see where this is going.

Heading into the hills on your own with full race kit might seem like it is a good idea, because, hey, that's what you use in an AL race, so it must be good, right?

Let's examine this one for a moment:-
On your own the situation is very different. Full race kit may well not be enough to help you be safe in the hills should something go wrong - (even in "summer"). You can't guarantee that someone else is going to be along in just a minute, no-one else is really on the same kind of route you are, others might not know what course you are taking and there are no marshals to check you off and no other competitors to come past you to get you a helping hand. This does NOT mean you are being unsafe in this situation, it simply means that you need to pay attention, be aware of the dangers, and be intelligent about your kit choices. 

The lightest running jacket and trousers, a tiny hat and a pair of gloves is not really sufficient to keep you warm and alive (not happy... that doesn't even come into the equation)- so if you're out there on your own, or with a friend, think about supplementing your "race kit" with some further stuff. It doesn't need to be heavy or deleterous to your "style"- but it might help save you, a friend, or some random person you happen across on the hill's life.

Get out there and enjoy yourselves. Be responsible.

Montane Prism Mitts- a re-iteration

I get cold hands. (And cold feet- but that is more a cycling issue- of which I shall bore you about another time)- and so I wear gloves and mitts an awful lot. In the past few years I've probably spent more money on various hand coverings than I would care to admit, but one set of mitts has come out on top of all the others in terms of warmth to weight ratio.

Montane Prism Mitts

I come back to these time and again. They are by far the most used handcovering in current circulation in the running drawer- and tend to get packed in a bag no matter what the season or weather. It's always nice to have something to warm your hands up with, and at the crazy light weight and virtual forget-about pack size- these are amazing.

No. They are not waterproof, and yes, if they get drenched, they do tend to get a bit chilly, so if there is a chance of rain a set of Tuffbags get deployed as well. As a set, these 2 mitts have seen me through most races, runs and challenges in the past 3 years.

Minor issues that need to be noted....
I have had 2 pairs of the Prism mitts so far. The first ones continued to be brilliant for about 2 years. At that point, it was noticeable that my hands were colder during winter runs- the insulation seemed less insulative and there came a point where it was almost like I wasn't wearing mitts at all- my hands were so cold! Something was definitely up... so I borrowed Lynnes pair for a run and WOW! my hands were toasty again.
Dead insulation in the originals? Not entirely sure- I do still have them though, so I will be doing a bit of a post-mortem on them.

Yup- its a bit fragile on the palm- and these are nearing the end of their life.

The second pair have been going for a good couple of years- maybe even 3 years now. The insulation is indeed dying a bit, but more obviously, I've slipped on a couple of rocks and trashed the palm on both of them.
Lightweight does indeed mean things are not exactly durable, I'm down with that. So I stuck on some tenacious tape to see how they went... not great. The tape has come off (I was being fairly stingy, I have to admit), and the wind whistles through the holes in the mitts.

I think it is about time to do some de-stitching and see if I can make a single pair of useful franken-mitts out of the remains of the 2 pairs I have kicking around.... though come winter, I suspect I will be putting my money down for another pair of Prism Mitts.

Swimming makes you fat?

Nah - surely not?
Ok, that was a bit of a reactionary title going on there. Swimming does not necessarily make you fat, it's exercise and it burns calories, however, my experience of it recently has meant that I lost muscle and gained, well... fat - noticeable in how I look and how my clothes fit.
How can this be?
Partially through my own lack of self control- let me explain.

If you follow this blog, or know anything about me, you know I'm mainly a runner. I'll happily go out for more than an hour without really thinking much of it, and batter up and down some hills around the Peak district, and tend to do that most weeks. As it is, I use a fair amount of energy, and try to make sure I put it back in, mainly in the form of significant amounts of food.

Since November I had been trying to improve my freestyle (Crawl) stroke and have been visiting the local pool at least 3 times a week. Each time I go, I practice technique, I swim a good number of lengths, normally more than 1km, sometimes up to 2km, and generally speaking I swim for a total of 20-40 mins, not including rest time. The effect of this has been that I have been absolutely knackered! I get back in from swimming and eat. I eat more during the day, and I'm so tired that I can barely make it out for a run.

It isn't like my legs are tired, but systemically- I was knackered.
The idea of overtraining of course rears its ugly head- but in order to get better at swimming I need to get in there and practice technique. It isn't about masses of miles, and I'm certainly not doing masses of miles... but it was the consistent training that over the winter months that really wore me down. I ate more and I ran less.
Even though I swam three times a week- it was only for 3x 40 mins. This is nothing in comparison to the amount of running I normally do, especially when you consider how many calories one expends swimming in comparison to running- but I was feeling so tired that I was probably eating much the same amount of food.

What helped (funnily enough) was that the coronavirus kicked off, so swimming in a pool is kind of off the cards right now. As a result, I have more energy. I run a whole lot more and, whaddaya know... my body shape is changing back to how it was prior to doing a load of swimming. My belt now does up on the "correct" hole, my t-shirts fit better, and I look different.

I'm hopeful that the last 5 months in the pool will help me be more efficient in my outdoor swimming endevours, I can hardly think that it has damaged my ability to swim. But crikey, it taught me that starting a new sport in earnest really makes you think about energy expenditure and energy choices.