If you read my last post about Minimalist Training, it may not surprise you to hear that I’m the least fit that I’ve been in my entire life! After all, I’ve only been swimming, on average, one day a week this last year — and much less as of late. Beyond swimming, I have done intermittent yoga, and hauling kids on hips or shoulders around town — if you count that as exercise. So my go forward plan to prepare for my 2020 swim season is to improve my fitness, as well as cold acclimatization (more on that next week). On the fitness front, I have three goals: 1. do some type of focused exercise or stretching five times per week, 2. swim 2-3 times a week (as I recommend to my clients), 3. improve my posture.
If I can complete a 25 mile swim with swimming just one day a week, why the heck do I want to be more fit, you ask? This is part experiment, part necessity. Let’s be honest, I’m 45. That’s right, FORTY-FIVE… with a 3 year old and a 5 year old (super late to the parenting game, right?). And you know what they say about bottling up kid energy… these boys are not getting any less active. I want to be able to keep up with them! So that’s one goal, but I’m also curious how it will benefit my swimming to improve fitness without necessarily increasing the amount that I swim.
Why don’t I just swim more, you ask? I’m not planning to swim more than 1-3 times a week, because I want to swim with intention. I’m concerned that if I swim more I’ll start to, just go through the motions. Furthermore, I don’t want to get burned out. As it stands, I’m excited when I have the opportunity to swim, I don’t want that to change.
Finally, I’ve been working with a local Physical Therapist who is a former Stanford and US National Team Swimmer. I sought her out for stroke feedback after my big swims this year, not because I’m having shoulder pain, but because after a big 13 or 14 hour swim I’m not sore in the places that I would expect to be — the big muscle groups (pecks, lats). And from that feedback, the bottom line is: my posture sucks. Posture is the foundation of efficient swimming, as I teach in my Efficient Swimming Basics course, and while my posture in the water is marginal — I don’t substantially drag my hips — I could have a flatter boat that slices through the water faster with each rotation. So this is goal number 3.
2020 will be the year of improved fitness: TRX, Yoga, physical therapy exercises, and plenty of stretching. With 1-3 swims each week focused on form (until January when I start building distance). Notice that I didn’t say that I’ll lose X pounds and get more lean. My goal is to do something, anything, 5 times per week. If I’m successful, I will inevitably be more fit. Follow my journey! What about you? Have you started thinking about your goals for 2020? Tell me all about it below!