Feeling Sore

This past week, I barely got to the gym, owing to work and another mitigating circumstance (a good circumstance, but mitigating none the less).

Tuesday, I worked out with Brian. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get to play with him on Thursday. I swam on Friday, though my swim didn't go quite according to plan. I had intended to leave work at noon and swim about 2,000 yards, but I ended up leaving work a little after 2 and swimming only about 1500 yards, as I didn't want to be late for picking up my friend from the airport.

Maybe it was just that I didn't workout as much this week, or maybe it's owing to the swim workout I did, I felt sore for the first time after swimming. Or, maybe I can attribute the soreness to a late night on Friday without much sleep. Either way, Saturday afternoon I started feeling a bit sore.

Aside from Advil, are there any things I can do to ease muscle soreness after tough workouts? I know one of my friends in college swore by eating lots of high-protein meals after hard workouts, but I don't know if that's got any scientific merit. I think soaking in the whirlpool at the gym after hard workouts and gentle stretching will help, but is there anything else I can do?

I guess some research is in order. Despite having a little residual soreness this morning, I decided to go swimming again this morning, knocking out about 2,100 yards. Today's workout:
50 free with paddles
rest enough to start my watch
450 free with paddles
rest 1 minute
300 free with paddles
100 kick
100 pull free with paddles and buoy
rest 1 minute
300 backstroke
100 kick
100 pull free with paddles and buoy
rest 1 minute
300 free with paddles
100 kick
100 pull free with paddles and buoy
rest 1 minute
100 breast

My backstroke and breaststroke are quite weak, but I was quite happy that I was able to do 300 back and 100 breast. I'm thinking of finding a swim lesson for adults that know the jist of the strokes, but really want to improve their skills. I don't think I'm a good enough swimmer for Master's swimming yet (once I get to a continuous mile consistently, I'll think about it), but I'd like to improve my strokes and ensure that what I'm doing won't hurt my shoulders.

I guess that was a lot of randomness for a Sunday, but hey, what can you do.

Back to the Pool

Surprisingly, I woke up on Saturday feeling pretty darn good. I had a bit of trouble falling asleep Friday night. One reason was that I had too much coffee in the late afternoon and evening. I don't usually drink more than a cup a day, but after swimming on Friday, I was pretty tired, and wanted to be awake to hang out with my friends. Thus, I had a diet Coke and 2 cups of coffee over the course of the afternoon and evening. The other reason that it was hard to fall asleep is because my shoulders were feeling tired and sore. It was an unusual feeling, and neither "tired" nor "sore" is the right way to describe it, but it's the best that comes to mind. I eventually got everything to calm down and I went to sleep, waking up Saturday feeling great.

Instead of going to the gym yesterday, I ended up putting my bike on the trainer and pedaling in front of the TV for an hour and change. I'm not sure why, but I didn't feel like going to the gym, but I wanted to workout, so it was a nice alternative. Also, I hadn't touched my bike in awhile, so even though putting it on the trainer isn't the same as really riding (especially since I barely used my right hand on the bars), it felt nice to use it, show it a little love.

Inspired by my good workout on Friday and my goal for the week to get into the pool twice this week, I went swimming this morning. I had planned to do Friday's workout again, that is "workout 2" from The Fit Swimmer (150 yards swim free, 75 yards kick, 75 yards pull, 150 yards swim free). As with Friday, I ended up doing something different. Today's workout was:
300 swim free
75 kick
75 pull with buoy and hand paddles
Rest 1 minute, then repeat above, then rest 1 minute.
300 swim free with hand paddles
75 kick
75 pull with buoy and hand paddles
Rest 1 minute, then repeat above, then rest 1 minute.
50 kick
50 pull with buoy and hand paddles
repeat above twice more
Total distance: 2,100 yards (1 mile + 300 yards)

I was getting tired by the end, but not feeling "dead" so I figured I should probably stop before overdoing it. As with Friday's workout, my toes started cramping, but nowhere near as much as they did on Friday, and my fingers didn't cramp up at all.

Things I learned:

• Getting into the water before 8 a.m. on a Sunday is a good thing. The pool started filling up as I was ending my workout, but for most of my swim, it was only myself and 1 other person in the entire pool.

• I need to be fairly well-hydrated before I start swimming. I have good intentions of drinking water in my rest periods, but I barely touched my water bottle. I had to keep myself from chugging my water after I finished.

• Eating a banana on swim days (before the swim) is probably a good idea. I had a banana with breakfast before I went to the gym, and I think that helped keep me from cramping up towards the end of my swim. I suppose I could see if there are any of the water varieties that have potassium, too...

Now to figure out what to do with the rest of my day...

What Was I Thinking?

So, it's been over a year since I last swam on a "regular" basis. The last time I swam was about a month and a half ago, and before that was probably 5 months previous. So I decided, after watching Wendy's triathlon over the weekend, that I should get my butt in gear and swim more.

So I did. I have a book called "The Fit Swimmer: 120 Workouts and Training Tips." The first 12 (or 13?) workouts are setup such that you're supposed to do 1 workout 3 times per week, and they build you up to a mile of continuous swimming. The first workout is to do 9 50's, for example. The first 3 workouts, if I remember correctly (the book is at work right now) are all 450 yard swims.

I started on workout 2, which is supposed to be:
150 free
75 kick
75 pull with buoy
150 free, progressive
(no rest, only stop long enough to switch equipment)

What did I do?
150 free
75 kick
75 pull with buoy and paddles
150 free
(no rest, only stopped long enough to switch equipment)
Repeated the above 2 times, with no more than a minute between 450 sets.
Then swam 300. Then kicked 75. Then pulled 75 (with buoy and paddles). The kicked 50, pulled 50, kicked 50, pulled 50.

Total distance: 2,000 yards (1 mile + 200 yards)
One thing I did notice was that it felt better to swim with the paddles than without. As I found out, the pressure of my stroke on my right hand is enough to make it hurt. The paddles, while adding resistance (thus making me stronger!), diffused the pressure a bit. In today's swim, I borrowed Wendy's paddles, TYR Mentor paddles (she has the red ones). I'll be going to the swimming store tomorrow to pick up a pair for myself.

I'm glad I swam today, and glad I was able to do a pretty good workout, but for some reason, I think I'm going to regret this in the morning...