A Day in the Life: Laura Smith, Day 3

DENVILLE, New Jersey, February 22. IN the third edition of her "A Day in the Life" series on SwimmingWorldMagazine.com, New Jersey Masters swimmer Laura Smith writes about the difficulty of being a self-coached Masters swimmer as well as a much better day of training than on Monday.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007, Day 3
Well, everyone will be pleased to know that today's "A Day in the Life" entry will at least reference some swimming! I was able to get into the pool this morning, swimming by myself for about 2,000 yards. But before I recap the workout, to answer some of the e-mails I've received from several old swimming friends that read yesterday's column, dinner was excellent and I had the crab cakes.

My day started at 5 a.m., and it was a challenge getting up today after a long day yesterday. I didn't get back home from the City until 10:30 p.m. last night. Honestly, if I wasn't in a "taper", I would have opted to pull out my "Masters swimming practice wimp out card" and sleep until 6:30 a.m. Add this "card" to one of the many incredible benefits of being a Masters swimmer. Your USMS registrar sends you one when you get your annual USMS registration card in the mail (just kidding!). But, I rallied and got into the water at 5:30 a.m. The workout was again short and rather unimaginative, as I was still worried about my shoulder and I had to be out of the water by 6:15 a.m.

Warm up:
200 swim free / 200 kick with fins / 200 IM drill, rest :10 between each 200
4 x 50 breast kick/drill, no board with hands at side, emphasizing a long pullout off the wall.:10 rest between each 50.
4 x 50, 25 sculling drill, 25 build freestyle
4 x 50 free, descend 1 to 4 on :45 (descended down to a :31)

Main Set: 2 times through:
25 / 50 / 75 / 100 / 75 / 50 / 25
Round 1 was all free, Round 2 was stroke w/ fins. I honestly cannot remember the interval.
The 50s and 100 were "with hard effort" and the remaining distances were focus on perfect technique but still try to swim strong.
200 cool down

The exciting part about today's workout was that for the first time since last Friday, my shoulder didn't hurt during the workout. I didn't do any fly (I am not racing any fly in the meet on Sunday), but I didn't baby the shoulder either. The entire arm felt less like a wet noodle, and I felt some strength back during all phases of the stroke. There were moments, especially in the 100s "with effort" that I felt some moments of sheer greatness (well, now, that's a bit of an exaggeration) and felt a little more confident than I have in days.

The rest of my day was fun after the workout. I went back into New York City on the train for a 10 a.m. appointment, and then had the afternoon off and I walked through midtown NYC to do some shopping. It was a gorgeous day after many cold windy ones recently, and I had a fun afternoon walking around the city. I am a little tired, as I walked a ton (and quality shopping is very hard work!) but it was totally worth it.

My workout alone prompted me to think about how much I would love a coach right now. I looked around on USMS website to find statistics about how many Masters swimmers swim on organized, formally coached teams but I couldn't find anything. My gut tells me it's not a huge percentage of the members. Masters coaches are unique, for an adult swimmer's motivational factors are often profoundly different than an age group swimmer. What works in coaching an age group swimmer doesn't always work for adults, especially when there are swimmers in the workout group that are non-competitors or triathletes. I have coached Masters before, and it's incredibly rewarding and frustrating all at the same time.

I consider myself "self-coached" right now. Sometimes I am a little easy on myself, I'll admit it. The biggest problem with being self-coached is that you sometimes avoid all types of training you hate, so rather than do awful anaerobic sets, I'll do sets I like (and that are easy). Clearly, there are some holes in my training. Luckily, two of my morning workout buddies are sprinters, so they force me into doing short sets when I don't want to.

I haven't been formally coached since 2000. My last coach was one of the best Masters coaches around, Ed Nessel (I miss you, Ed!). I have been very fortunate in my career to have had very few, but amazingly awesome, coaches. I will fully admit that I am not the easiest swimmer to coach, as I tend to think too much and all of that thinking tends to get in the way of great performances. I find that I need a coach the most during a taper, as I never feel good, I lose all confidence because I don't feel good, and I start doubting myself. But as my favorite, greatest coach for all eternity told me repeatedly for four years, "You don't need to feel good to swim fast."

I swam at Gettysburg College from 1988-92 under the incredibly patient, tolerant, knowledgeable, motivational, and amusing Mike Rawleigh. I honestly couldn't have made it through college, much less swimming for four years and becoming a Division III All-American, without his influence in my life during those four years (Thank you, Mike…).

So for all of you out there that haven't thanked your coach recently, go thank your coach. We don't always like our coaches, we might not always agree with them, and we can think evil things about them during long hard sets, but when you're without one, you miss them.

Keep swimming,
Laura

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