Category: Event Prep

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Deliberate Practice

I recently finished reading, Grit, by Angela Duckworth. I listened to her TED talk ages ago but it wasn’t until I was at the Portland airport on the way home from my length of Lake Memphremagog swim that I saw her book at a kiosk. Arrogantly, I thought, “I just swam 25 miles, I know all about Grit!”

But I was curious what was under that bold red and white cover; what could be discussed inside all of those pages? At a lull in my reading queue, I picked it up – or more accurately, downloaded it from Audible.

A scientist by degree and a data analyst for the last 20 years, Ms. Duckworth captivated me with her scientific method to gather data. Her courage to discover and pursue preeminent experts in their respective fields to discuss her hypotheses was awe inspiring. She sprinkled anecdotes from swimmers throughout the book. And having never considered myself a particularly talented person, I loved her take home message that Grit is more important than talent. But, according to the Grit scale, I am not gritty.

While Ms. Duckworth doesn’t discuss parenting itself, I feel as though I’ve learned the most about grit from being a parent. Showing up everyday for my kids and trying to be my best self even when my kids push buttons that I didn’t know I had, has by far been my grittiest endeavor to date – and I can’t just apply for a new position, quit or walk away. As I commonly joke with people who ask why I like to swim marathons; marathon swimming is a veritable vacation from parenting! All I have to do is plan for and execute a swim with a crew that is there to support and encourage me along the way – I wish I could say the same for day to day parenting.

“Grit is more about stamina than intensity,” Ms. Duckworth says. While on the surface, this sounds like marathon swimming to a T, the kind of Grit discussed in the book is that which leads to excellence. Being so passionate about something that you stick it out through the good times and the bad – while I can make this claim about swimming for a 14 hour period, in life, I have room for improvement. Fortunately, Grit can grow.

Ms. Duckworth has given me plenty of things to think about: My larger life goals. What I want my business to do for people. How I can encourage my kids to be gritty. But for the purposes of this post, I’d like to reflect on deliberate practice – this is the type of practice that sets the gritty apart. In all of my coaching, and my own practice, I like to stress a form focus, or technique focused training. In other words, practice deliberately – don’t just go through the motions. Make sure that your time in the water counts.

Even if you are not striving for excellence, improvement is inevitable with deliberate practice. If you need help to swim more efficiently, I offer a self paced virtual course that covers the nuts and bolts of Efficient Swimming. If you’re ready to leave the concrete box and go wild, jump in our virtual Quickstart for Wild Swimming group coaching course to summon the courage to brave the unknown. If you’re ready to push your limits, join our Quickstart for Marathon Swimming virtual group coaching course to surround yourself with like minded limit pushers.

This is a great time of year to take a break from counting yards and instead focus on how often you are practicing deliberately. If you’re not ready for coaching, send me some footage of you swimming – above and/or below the water – and I’ll analyze it for free. If you’re looking to improve, it’s one of the best gifts that you can give to yourself (or a loved one!). Seeing yourself swim can do wonders, and with just a few seconds of footage I can give you a few things to work on in your deliberate practice.

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Fitness Focus

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.

Training camp Day 1, Crystal Lake

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.

My son Roen and I before training camp day 6 at Lake Memphremagog.

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!

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Minimalist Training

Here is my high level training plan by month for the 25 mile In Search of Memphre:

In short, my goal was to peak at swimming 11 miles over 4 days per week, which is less than fifty percent of the marathon swimming rule of thumb–you can swim in a day what you train in a week. However, for me this was still very aspirational! In reality, I ended up training just one day and 6 miles a week. You read that right, I trained for a 25 mile swim by swimming one day a week. Some rare weeks I would squeeze in a focus session where I work on form, but once summer was in full swing, with kid care, swim lessons, guided lake swims, immersion clinics, etc., the only time that I was able to cut out for myself for training was 3 hours on Mondays. My training partner and I started out doing long swims in a pool and then jumped in the lake once it was warm enough to swim the whole time. At my peak, in June, just weeks before swimming the length of Lake Tahoe, we were up to 6 miles of swimming each Monday.

This is not ideal, but I share my story for three reasons. First, to stress the importance of swimming efficiently. Second, to stress the importance of swimming consciously. And finally, if you’re a busy parent, student, professional, or _____ you can do it too–and you should, because you deserve it!

The most important part of my training plan is my focus on form. I have worked hard to ensure that my form is efficient and painless. I dedicate one day a week to a long swim, and when I’m able to squeeze in a second or third swim in a training week, it’s always form focused. On every distance day the thing I think about most while swimming is maintaining good form: posture, pull, rotation, glide. If you want to start swimming more efficiently, try this!

Gorgeous flat morning feed at Lake Tahoe

In addition to form focus and distance days, the key to a minimalist training plan is building in long training swims. These are the much needed brain teasers and confidence boosters to see where you’re at in preparation for a long swim. In the case of 2019, I swam an 8 miler in late May. At the end of June, I ponied up for almost 17 miles around one of our local lakes. Then in July I swam the 21 mile length of Lake Tahoe. After which I can honestly say that I didn’t swim much until we went to Vermont for NEK Swim Week. This was training camp, 47 miles in a week, and set me up quite well to swim the 25 mile length of Lake Memphremagog a month later. In between training camp and my return to Vermont for The Search, I think I swam once. Want to set yourself up well for a long swim in 2020? Join our inaugural marathon swim training camp April 22-26!

On to my second point: swim consciously. I don’t believe in swimming just for the sake of swimming. Ensure that you have good form (send me some footage for free video analysis!) so that you don’t get hurt and so that you can swim for many, many, years to come. For me, when I increase my speed, my form degrades. I do occasionally try to push myself, but not at the expense of good form. This last year I had a lot of reality checks that I didn’t account for when I initially built my plan; how much I wanted to be available for my kids and my clients. But when I showed up to swim, I was present, and I think that goes a long way.

Busy children

I have no idea why I thought life was busy before kids. I remember thinking that life was busy with one baby and a full time job. Then I had a baby and a toddler and a side business teaching swim lessons. Now with a 3 year old and a 5 year old, I’ve finally realized that no matter what I’m doing, I will always feel like life is busy! The fact is I don’t always have time to train as much as I’d like. But I don’t want to stop doing the ultra marathon swims that fill my cup. So I set up a training plan that is a best case scenario. Then I put my best foot forward in trying to stick to that plan. I give myself grace when something comes up and I can’t meet my plan. And then, on event day, I go for it. You can too!

My point is simply this; YOU can have the fulfillment of completing marathon swims with just 4-6 hours of swimming per week and a few long training swims! If you want to be supported in a group coaching environment with like minded swimmers, we’ll work together to personalize your training plan with a form focus customized for you. Finally, we’ll discuss how to overcome the inevitable mental hurdles that can get in the way. I hope to see you in our next Quickstart for Marathon Swimming group coaching course!

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Have you planned your events for next year?

The other day my training partner and I were reminiscing about a time when we signed up for open water swims the week before the event or even day of, and now we find ourselves planning swims 8-10 months in advance! If you’re looking to try a marathon swim in 2019, consider that for safety reasons longer swims are capped and sometimes sell out well in advance. For channel crossings, there are a limited number of certified pilots, and they book up quickly. It seems that more and more people are looking to test their personal limits with open water swimming (and  a shout out to the triathlete’s out there pushing their limits in THREE disciplines)!

I have an outline of swims planned for 2019. The biggest swims are already paid for and on the books. Now I’m planning filler and training swims to round out my schedule. And I want to budget time to swim with YOU too! If you’re local, let’s go play in one of our lakes! If you’re not, let’s meet up somewhere! With a husband and two kids who have schedules of their own, putting a stake in the ground for my absence well in advance is critical – so tell me, where can I find you in 2019?

If you’re looking to challenge yourself in the coming year, here are a few of my favorite swims that are already accepting applications for 2019:

SCAR opened on November 1st – 4 days, 4 lakes, almost 40 miles of swimming in the desert in April. I tried Apache and completed Roosevelt in 2014, great swims, great community, great opportunity to challenge yourself.  

END-WET registration is open. This is the longest swim in North America. Mid June, 36 miles down the Red River in North Dakota. It’s also the most affordable ultra marathon swim out there! 

Lake Willoughby, Vermont – was chosen as the US Masters Swimming 5 mile National Championship. This swim in August is a great excuse to visit the Northeast Kingdom and the championship is a bonus if you’re competitive like that. This lake has a special place in my heart as it was the first time that I pushed for a distance greater than a mile, it was my first point to point swim (where I realized I could swim TO PLACES), and later became my first lake to double cross as I further pushed my personal limits and besides that, it’s just plain gorgeous. 

If you want to put in more swim miles while you visit the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, consider staying for all of Swim the Kingdom Week to check out a different lake each day. 

Pacific Open Water Swim Company is currently taking applications for Tahoe and supports a plethora of open water swims in the Bay Area. It’s inspiring following them on Instagram! Can’t wait to meet these guys in July!

Here are a few of my favorites that will be opening registration soon:

Portland Bridge Swim registration opens on January 1st. The swim is the first weekend in July. Swim under 12 bridges over 11 miles down the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. It’s fun swimming through downtown and seeing the city sites from the water. 

Mercer Island Marathon Swim, on Lake Washington, outside of Seattle. I had the distinct pleasure of doing this event in 2018 and just loved it. Registration is planned to open in early January for an end of May date for 2019. 

On February 1st Swim the Suck registration opens, this one fills up fast. My husband and I took our first trip to Tennessee last October for this swim and I certainly hope it won’t be our last, I loved it! This is an awesome event complete with beer, taco bar, and custom pottery mug on completion.

If none of these tickle your fancy, check out the LongSwims Database to see all of the marathon swim events (10K or longer) out there! 

How is your 2019 planning going? What are you signed up for? What are your favorite marathon swims or limit pushing events?