Blue Bike to the Airport and Swim Lesson #3

Last week I went to Maryland/Washington DC to meet my new niece, who of course is adorable.  I spent 3 days visiting, feeding and entertaining. I also read an entire book and cooked on the last day (because she's only 8 weeks old, and sleeps a lot). Because I only went for 3 days, I bought the cheapest seat on jetblue, which only allows you to bring a personal item that goes under the seat. Terrific way to travel! No worries about luggage. Also, since I just had one bag, I realized that I could blue bike to the airport, which just sounded like such a fun adventure. So, that's what I did.

To get to the airport, I left at 7 am on Sunday. The roads were pretty quiet, without much traffic, and it wasn't too hot out. I took a route through Everett, Chelsea, and East Boston, and left the bike at the airport subway stop, where I caught a shuttle to the airport. It's not the prettiest ride, but there were bike lanes for most of it, and it never felt unsafe. The only downer was that the bike that I got had a loose seat, and it kept slipping down so I was riding all bunched up. Fortunately I was able to switch if for a new bike in East Boston. On the way home, it was later in the day and hotter, plus more traffic, and I didn't want to take that same route. So, instead, I took the bus to a water taxi to the aquarium, and then a blue bike home from there. It was a much nicer ride, though a few sketchy spots in the city. All and all, a good adventure and way to stay away from the tunnel traffic.

Thursday was my third swim lesson, and it was another good one. We worked on some swim drills for endurance, including doing sprints,  and then we learned the basics of flip turns. We did a few drills - first we swam 4 50-meters x 3, with a 10 second rest between each one. Then we did 6 25-meter swims, trying to sprint. Then, we did 4 25-meter swims only taking half our usual breaths. Finally, we did 12 25-meter swims trying to sprint for the first 6 strokes on the first 6, and 4 strokes on the second 6. We took 10 second rests between each lap. After, we were all tired, and started to learn flip turns. I did that when I took private lessons long ago at the Y, but this time I was much more successful. He had us swim to the wall, take 2 strokes after the T at the bottom of the pool and then do a somersault and try to push off the wall. I only swallowed water once, and a few times I got in the general vicinity of doing a turn, though one time I wound up in the next lane by accident. Plenty of work to do on that, but not impossible.

I checked the registration for the second half of summer, and I was able to get a spot in the stroke refinement class, which is a level below the one I'm in now! I was super excited about it, because I want to keep taking lessons. It's a little funny to be going down a level, but whatever, I have a lot to learn so I think it will be helpful.

MIT Swim Lesson #2

Today we talked about breathing and arm movement. It was really good!

First, breathing. It's fine to breathe on just one side, bilateral breathing isn't necessary. Which is good, because I seem to have given up on it. However, breathing on just one side doesn't mean that you don't rotate your body in both directions! You still have to rotate. In terms of taking a breath, as one arm is back and the other is forward, your body rotates and you turn your neck, and take in water. I think that's pretty much what I do, though I'm pretty sure I slack on the rotation on the non-breathing side. You don't have to take a big, gasping breath, nor do you have to completely empty your lungs breathing out. It's just breathing, like you usually do when exercising, but some of it is under water.

There are four important positions of the arm that give you speed when swimming. First, when your arm goes into the water you don't just plop it there. It dives into the water, like a bird going after a fish. But a bird that goes in at an angle, not straight down. When you are shooting your arm into the water, you move forward. Then, after you have reached as far as possible, you bend your hand and make it into a paddle. Keeping your elbow up you pull it back. Some S shape stuff happens in the pull. At the end of the stroke, you flick your hand up to get that last bit of a pull. It's not really a flick, but that's kind of what it seemed like. Then, in the recovery you lead with your elbow so that you are ready to shoot your arm in again. 

That's a lot of things to practice. I really liked having the teacher talk through exactly what you are supposed to do - I don't think I've had that talk for a long time. Pieces came together and I connected dots and all that good stuff. 

One thing that I realized is that I've been so focused on my right arm not going down, but actually the arm is an extension of my body, so if I focus on getting my body in the right position, the arm will follow. I'm sad that the woman who has been teaching is going on vacation. She's really good. There is this guy who's "coteaching" though he doesn't actually get to say much, but he will teach the last two classes. He seems nice. Hopefully he will teach us some drills.

At the end of class we did sprints racing each other back and forth. In my group of four, I was always last, but not by too much. After class I swam 50 meters again, and it took me a minute and nine seconds, which is 7 seconds faster than last week. But that was after doing a bunch of sprints. 

After swimming I went to Shakespeare in the Park with the Merfolk. We had a nice picnic and this year was MacBeth - it was really good!

MIT Swim Lessons

I had my first of four swim lessons at MIT today, and it was so good! Way better than the expensive private swim lessons that I took. The instructor just talked about front crawl, and she walked us through the form as if we knew nothing. Which, in my case, wasn't that far from the truth.

First, you want to be as long as possible to go through the water. So you want your arms in front of you, or at least one arm in front of you at all times. Second, you want to be compact, so your arms are basically coming together at the top, so they are more compact. Next, we worked on kicking, which was really hard. We pushed off the wall and practiced using a kickboard and just moving by kicking (turns out that I was using a kickboard all wrong! You grab it at the top, not the bottom. Who knew?). It was really slow going and hard. It make me realize that I need to practice kicking more to build up my kick muscles. The thing about kicking, of course, is that you aren't really propelling yourself through kicking, you are just keeping your body flat on the water. So, you want to do small kicks from the hips, with your knees straight and your feet pointed and then flexing.

Next, we worked on body position, and keeping your body straight and on top of the water instead of with your feet going down. There are four things to focus on to keep you flat on top of the water:

#1 - Kicking, which we already discussed and know is hard

#2 - Looking straight down to the bottom of the pool or lake. A little easier in a pool where you can see the markings on the bottom, but I do know which way is down, and can try to look there.

#3 - Engage your core - it always comes back to the core, doesn't it?

#4 - Push your shoulders and chest down a little so your feet come up a bit. I found this to be the hardest and most abstract while swimming.

Anyhow, it's all about swimming efficiently, and being flat on the water helps you to do that. I'm going to try to practice two times this week. I also ordered swim fins, because she said that they help your kicking form. Also, they are fun and help you swim faster.

Speaking of swimming faster, they have a clock running at the pool, so I was able to time myself. The pool is 50 meters long and it took me a minute and 16 seconds. I only have 4 lessons, but might try to take another session. We will see if I can get that time down.

I broke down and bought ear buds, but only because they were 30% off for prime day. Looking forward to wearing them for lifting!

Weight lifting

A couple weeks ago, after dancing and a day of parkour, I noticed that my right knee was really clicky and difficult to bend. It was also pretty sore. I went to the urgent care, and the doctor there said that it's probably my meniscus and I should rest it and not do anything that hurts. Which is more or less what I've done - no jumping, no pivoting, swimming and biking. It's feeling a lot better, but still is like "hey, I'm not fine." Which is to say, I didn't go hiking for July 4 weekend, but I did go to the fireworks on the Charles, and they were amazing! 

Anyhow, I've been thinking for a while that I should get back into weight lifting, because it's so good for you. I listened to this podcast recently, and a 74 year old woman said that she does 1000 burpees 2x a week - she doesn't do the push up, but still it takes almost 3 hours. If she can do that, I can go to the Y and lift 2x a week!

So, that's what I've been trying to do. I started this week - I warmed up with stationary biking/the elliptical for 20 minutes and then used the machines. Today it was so hot, I was sweating like a pig, but I still managed 20 minutes on the elliptical, then I did all the leg machines. I'm going to have to find an app that gives workouts and isn't $200 a month. Or, look at my old crossfit gym and do a couple of their workouts.

I promised myself airbuds if I can keep doing this for a timeframe - maybe 2x a week until the end of the summer?