America Peals

I am delighted to have a dear friend of mine guest blog for two days on open water swimming and competition.

JJ and I met on the Boston Comedy circuit many years ago which in and of itself ties us together inextricably as bretheren. JJ is a bit of a renaissance man. He went to Amherst where he studied Theatre and followed that with a Master’s. He writes, performs and swims competitively.

JJ performs: “I drive a Mini Cooper. Scouts Honor! I bought it in this city for the parallel parking. I can just pull up, lock up, pick it up, and put it in it’s space. If it’s a particularly bad neighborhood, I can pick it up and take it with me.”

Oh. Did I mention that JJ is larger than your average bear? He is 7 feet tall and a woman has never felt safer than with JJ walking with you in NYC. He casts shadows. He has bounced at clubs, he rides a bike.

As I am looking for new athletic challenges during this year, I have thinking of the holy trifecta, the triathalon. However, while I can swim, I have no form, no endurance nor any deep understanding of swimming.

So, take it away, JJ!

OPEN WATERS

BY JJ LESLIE

Swimming, and racing as a swimmer, begins with your own body awareness. Knowing as much as you can about your body and how it reacts under racing stress, and, specifically, where your body is in the water at all times. If you have been training in other sports, or other exercise programs, and have conditioned your body to a particular diet, don’t feel the need to change everything up a week before your a swimming race. Sports Nutritionists have been doing a number of studies on pre- and post-race diets for swimmers. In the 1980’s, it was all about carb loading the night before a big race, and then carb loading on the back half to fuel recovery. By 1996, the entire process had reverted to protein. By the rise of Michael Phelps, all recommendations were off. They found that swimmers, pre- and post- race had diets that are as individual and unique as their swimming technique.  Start with a diet you are comfortable with, and add two key factors: Safety and Oxygen Debt.

Open Water Swimming has a level of risk involved that putting in laps in the pool does not for the average swimmer. The field of swimmers is larger. The conditions are more variable, and the availability of a pool wall, pool bottom, or lane line are nearly non existent, if not more delayed in availability. An Open Water Swimmer is then a self contained entity once he/she hits the water if they are racing in the shorter 1-3 mile swims

Most races have volunteer lifeguards in boats and surfboards to assist any racers in emergencies and to keep people on course, but they don’t offer a lot of comfort beyond a tap on the shoulder if you wander off the race course. Therefore, safety is something that has to be considered, and diet is a big part of that. The biggest thing for the average swimmer to do pre race is to hydrate. I would suggest begin intentionally attempting to keep your hydration levels as high as possible approximately 3 days before the race. This can be added to or subtracted from depending on the type of athlete, and/or diet program you are on. Water is fine, but I also highly suggest incorporating a sports drink like Gatorade, or a fruit juice that is not diuretic. You’ll need that extra sugar. Also, if you are an average human, you might be asked out for a drink the evening before, and will accept for the fun of it. If you did your homework several days in advance, having a beer or twelve won’t waste you for the race.

Because the of stress that swimming puts on your total body, it is going to ask for a lot of fuel fast. The length of most of the races is short enough, though, where your body won’t have time to really dig into those deep rooted fat stores for energy. You are riding the entire race on what’s immediately available to your body. And you’ll want as much immediate fuel as possible. Adding water, and sugar give you that supply of two main elements needed for your body to have something to burn continuously. To be safe, give yourself the extra.

It should be added that a number of races involve salt water, which any viewer of Survivorman will tell you dehydrates the body very quickly. Your be submerged in a soup of it. You’ll probably swallow a gallon of salt water in the first five minutes of the swim. Grab the Gatorade before, and you should be in good shape. .