Taking a break from throwing Molotov cocktails through windows to do an off topic post about swimming.

 

Jaston Williams, Actor/Dramatist

I have to say right here and now that I should have added strength training to my exercise regimen decades ago. In just the past two months of doing targeted strength training I've seen my swim technique and speed in the water improve by leaps and bounds. Having good muscle strength and core strength goes a long way toward keeping my strokes stable though the entire range of motion. That stability lends more propulsion which creates more speed. The only unwanted side effect is when we train hard in the pool and then lift weights, which causes some muscle soreness the next day. I love the gym I chose. It's super clean, relatively quiet and filled with a mix of people including a big percentage of people over 60. And they are, almost to a person, there to be healthy. Successful people like to be around other successful people. Fit people enjoy hanging out with other fit people.

Today we did some fun sets after a long warm up. We're getting back into more distance swimming with sets of 400s, 300s and 200s interspersed with 50 yard swims of all four strokes. One of the things my favorite coach mentioned to me as a way to improve is to work on my kicking. Improving range of motion and muscle strength allows for more forward propulsion from one's kick and a better kick is instrumental in building great speed in sprints. I practice better form in my kick by "streamlining" on my side and working my kick laterally instead of the usual practice of just grabbing a kick board and changing my body position to compensate for the buoyancy of the kick board. Not using a kick board requires more focus on body position and also breathing.

My favorite competitive lane mate loves to go hard and also likes to shorten rest intervals wherever he can. Typical triathlete mindset. If some yards are good then more yards are better... At the end of each workout, when everyone else is getting out and heading to the locker rooms he usually announces that it's time to do "shooters." In swim parlance this means doing a repeating set of two lengths. The length down is all underwater. No breaths. No above water strokes. And it's tougher than it sounds to go the full length of a 25 meter pool underwater after an hour of speedy and sometimes anaerobic sets. At the end of the underwater length you use the easy swim back to the starting point to recover. Doing five or six of these successfully on a one minute interval is challenging. It might seem easy to hold one's breath for 20-25 seconds at a time but I challenge you do find out how rough it can be. Climb a set of stairs and then, immediately hold your breath and time the duration you can go without taking a breath. Repeat the whole process four times. What was your best effort on holding your breath?

It's easy enough to do repeated underwater lengths if you do them before the workout when you are relaxed and the pre-swim coffee is just kicking in. But that's kind of cheating. At least the way my lane mate sees it. 

A good, post swim breakfast? How about three fried, organic, free range eggs with a sprinkling of sharp, white cheddar cheese on top and a half a cup of fresh blueberries on the side? And a slice of seeded, sprouted whole wheat toast as the foundation. Works for me. 

A blog note. No straight lines in architecture photos! That ship has flown. 

Clarification: I am in no way against a monochrome only camera. In fact, if Leica Store Miami ever gets in more Q2M cameras I intend to snag one. My recent satire was more about the futility of having to do things the hard way. If you didn't like it you don't need to read it. In fact, I'll start labeling satires the way we do "OT" for swimming to save any delicate sensibilities. But don't tell me not to write about the existence of strange ideas about photography on the web. Some balloons just scream to be popped. Like the recently proffered idea that there is a wealth of displeasure on the web with the existence black and white imaging as art., I've never seen it and I scroll around a lot. Or that B&W has always been the province of Art Photography (over color) until just recently. Discounting decades of front and center color work in galleries and museums. An idea or opinion,  presented with a voice of authority, doesn't make it a fact.