The Swim Genius knows many an expert swimmer. Please allow me to introduce Sydne, she is the proprietor of SwimCrest - https://swimcrest.com/. She offers youth lessons, triathlon, and open water coaching to individuals in the Amherst, MA area. Please see Swimcrest.com to experience world-class coaching, and book a lesson to experience the Swimcrest facility that consists of an architecturally award-winning pool! The Swim Genius asked Sydne if she would be willing to share the article below, and she responded with a great big yes. She's the best! This article is a personal favorite, it does a great job of describing the bond, and individual responsibilities of each member of the team. By Sydne Didier; As open water season approaches and as I prepare for my next big swims, my lovely husband and I have put together a list of basic instructions for acting as kayak support for an open water swim. Please feel free to comment, add suggestions, disagree, and to share with whoever might benefit. I know I’ve said it before, but this long distance swimming thing is TRULY a team endeavor. Swimmers like me could NOT do it without the incredible assistance and support we receive from those amazing kayakers and support crews who help make this happen. Kayak Support for Open Water Swimming Remember that this is a set of guidelines that are specific to one swimmer in particular (Moi!), and that the needs and requirements for each swimmer and kayaker will vary. Communication is key. Know your swimmer, and swimmer, know and thank and love your kayaker! This list is specific to kayak support only, for distance swimming, and does not include instructions for documentation of a marathon swim or a power boat supported swim. TO BRING FOR KAYAKER: Hat Sunglasses Waterproof watch and stopwatch – something that can alert you to when the feed time comes up and something to measure stroke count (stroke/minute) Sun shirt – be careful about the sun. If there is no wind, you might suffer from too much heat as you won’t be moving fast enough to kick up a breeze. Windbreaker Tylenol or Ibuprofen because your back might start stiffening up Easy to eat snacks – protein bars, sandwich, nuts A whistle in case of emergency or to alert boaters or the swimmer GPS device to track swimmer’s course Bottle for going to the bathroom in (Yup. Sorry about that!) Plastic/Waterproof bag for your personal items. (Phone, keys, towel) Waterproof camera Bring a change of clothes and store them in a water-proof bag. You’ll feel gross when you’re done More water! Possible additions: Glow sticks and waterproof flashlights if your swimmer will be swimming in the dark TO BRING FOR SWIMMER: (Most, if not all, of this will be supplied by swimmer) Cooler for drinks/feedings & bungee cords, if necessary, to hold cooler to kayak Carabiner and rope to attach to feeding bottles, or, if preferred, a feeding stick for delivery Extra PDF (Personal Floatation Device) Extra goggles and caps Ibuprofen Sunblock Aquaphor/Vaseline or whatever your swimmer uses to prevent chafe Care bag/kit waterproof for swimmer which may include shoes to wear post-swim, warm clothing, glasses, and whatever else the swimmer needs to have with them at the end of their swim Gummy Bears! Or your swimmer’s preferred in-water treat Safety and Caring for your swimmer Know the Emergency Action Plan for the swim, and understand what happens if there is lightning, if the swim must be called for safety reasons, and understand how you and your swimmer will communicate and act in case of emergency. Know the guidelines for race communication and how race/swim directors will make decisions and/or communicate those to you. Stay on the preferred breathing side of the swimmer – know what side that is! Stay level with the swimmer’s head so she doesn’t have to lean up or back to see you. Feed times should be approximately every 30 minutes or unless the swimmer tells you otherwise beforehand. She might push her feed if she feels she can overtake a competitor. That’s fine but only if you have agreed beforehand that she can only push the feed for a certain amount of time – no more than 10 minutes, for example. You don’t want her to bonk immediately after a big push. Know what your swimmer uses for feeds, and the composition of what is in their bottles. This is important in case you need to mix a feed for them. (Generally, you should not have to do this. But it’s best to be prepared just in case!) Some swimmers may opt to vary their feeds each time, while others prefer consistency. Know what your swimmer prefers. Know and understand the feeding delivery system for your swimmer. Will you throw them a bottle? Use a feeding stick? When and how will hot feeds occur, if necessary? Count the stroke rate per minute once between every feed. This will give you information to share with the swimmer when there is a break for feeding. You are the boss when it comes to the swimmer’s safety. If she ignores feeds, starts to slur her words, has an erratic stroke rate that is getting more erratic over time, she might need to get pulled. Know and understand the signs and symptoms of hypothermia. Does your swimmer have medical conditions and/or allergies you need to be aware of? If so, have a plan for how to handle any medical issue that may arise. (For example, I have Raynaud’s Syndrome, which can cause intense discomfort and may cause my hands to look stiff or awkward.) Watch if the form breaks down – be aware of arm placement, midline, and kick. Talk about the best way to signal the swimmer. Her goggles might be fogged up meaning she can’t see you very well and her ears could be filled with water. You might be tempted to paddle up or back or even around the swimmer because it can be boring. Don’t. Be aware of who is around you – if you think the swimmer is able to overtake another competitor in the same age/sex group, be sure to offer that as an option during a feed, particularly after the halfway mark. If there’s a competitor about to overtake your swimmer, be sure to see if the faster swimmer is or isn’t in the same age/sex group. Your swimmer is going to be upset if she gets passed by someone in her age/sex group but won’t care if the person isn’t in her age/sex group. If you can, take some video of the swimmer at different points of the event. This is helpful for the swimmer to see her stroke after the event. Only advisable if the water is calm and you don’t have competitors nearby. Your swimmer may go through all of the Stages of Grief during the swim. Be patient with, ahem, some occasional moodiness. Think about ways to keep their spirits up during those harder moments. A well-placed smile or silly face can go a long way! Navigation Before the swim, familiarize yourself with the course map, and pay close attention during the pre-swim meeting. Go over the course with your swimmer before the start of the swim. At the start of the swim, there will be a lot of kayakers desperately trying to locate their swimmer. You likely won’t be able to find your swimmer for a little while. Don’t freak out. Stay cool, stay on the side, and just look up and down for her number. Your swimmer won’t really need you for the first ten minutes anyway and the field will spread out pretty quickly. If you can, wear something on your head that is easy for your swimmer to see (maybe a handkerchief around your hat?) You are the boss in terms of staying on course. If the swimmer starts to change direction or thinks she knows better, let her know how wrong she is. You have a clearer perspective on the route and the swimmer should defer to you. Your swimmer’s view of the water is limited so do not assume she can see potential obstacles. The wind has a tendency to move the kayak more than the swimmer. Take that into account when you are navigating. Don’t let another swimmer draft behind your boat or behind your swimmer. If that happens, you need to tell the competitor’s kayaker to control their swimmer. There are usually a bunch of novice kayakers in the group who don’t know how to be safe around swimmers. Be sure you are aware of this possibility and have a way to either control the novice or to get in between the dangerous kayaker and your swimmer. Miscellaneous Be sure you look around and enjoy where you are. You likely would never have found yourself in a kayak in this particular body of water. Appreciate the opportunity. Don’t bring music. Stay aware of your surroundings. I never wear shoes when I’m in a kayak. Bring a pair in the boat, though, as you might need to make an emergency exit on shore and you’ll want something on your feet if you need to walk. Know that your swimmer is filled with gratitude for all you are doing, and that this sport would not be possible without your generosity of spirit. Marathon swimming is a TEAM sport, and while the swimmer tends to get the glory and those big bucks (ha!), this is about the TEAM. Your swimmer thanks you. Truly. Sydne Didier The Swim Genius would like to add, there is nothing quite as comforting as looking up, and see your favorite person sitting in a kayak. BTW, when swimming, any person in a kayak has a 99% chance of being your favorite person. We love you! We appreciate you! We need you!
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The Swim Genius has noticed a common theme in the athletic community, there is a lot of buzz around the word "Taper". Just to be clear, I’m not speaking about a "Tapir", as defined by Wikipedia; “Tapir is a large, herbivorous mammal, similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, and Southeastern Asia.” Taper is a little different, ok really different. As defined by The Swim Genius: "Taper is the process of reducing the training load on your body, in preparation for an upcoming event."
The Swim Genius has received a lot of questions lately from students, and fellow swimmers. There has been an immense amount of chatter about who is tapering for what, and how long that timeframe should be? The Swim Genius can only speak from coaching and personal experience, but if you are audacious enough to sign up for an event that will take up near a day to complete, you should probably taper for two full weeks. This two weeks will be hell, and people around you may start to distance themselves. Why? You are an addict; dopamine, adrenaline, testosterone, and progesterone are your best friends, and without opening up those channels, you’ll feel the itch. After about four days of not working out, you begin to operate on a hormone imbalance. Symptoms of withdrawal include: crabbiness, bitchiness, short temper, loss of filter, and completely unnecessary emotional outbursts without provocation, in summary, you may become a hot mess of a human being. The Swim Genius would go so far as to say, you’ll become cantankerous. Your dopamine channel, assists with such things as emotional stability, and pain management. While sedentary, you may feel the need to take medication that are otherwise not needed, such as NSAIDs. You’ll probably feel like crap, and others will notice! Note – Feel free to forward this article to explain your erratic behavior. After all it’s better than screaming at them, and crying in a dark corner for no apparent reason. Taper will pay off when the event comes around, two hours in, you will feel great, because you get your fix. Eight hours in you’ll not feel that great, but still be moving, and twelve hours or more later, as you complete your task, the glory rises up, and makes those two weeks’ worthwhile. Fight the addiction, take in some extra calories, refine your nutrition, get body work done, you’ll need the rest, and stored energy. Training tip: Practice the compiled distance within the scope of a full week multiple times prior to the event. Stack the distance with back to back workouts, within 24 hours, so that you are still resting, but pushing your overall maximum. Within one month of the event, schedule a “test out” workout, this can be breaking through your current training ceiling in a single effort, or over two days completing the combined distance, or timeframe necessary to complete the event. After your “test out” you should begin the taper process. You may not be that audacious, or in other words, “bat shit crazy” like “those people”, but still qualify for mainstream crazy. For instance you are going to compete in an event that pushes over your top practiced distance, or hits that mark. A taper period of a week, to two weeks will do the trick. It’s about healing the micro tears in your muscle, allowing the fascia to loosen, and unbind. Giving your body that time to be at its peak, so that all of the training can pay off. Get some body work done, not right before your race, but three days ahead of time is good. There is a sweet spot in there, because even the body work requires recovery. Give yourself the gift of time to heal up, loosen up, and most importantly get your mind right! New distance, always comes with new pain, be mentally prepared, so the stroke demons don’t rise up, and begin asking questions that knock you off track. If you are competing in an event that lines up with normal distances you currently train at; give your body a day, or two, or five. Increase your calorie load on those days to get a bit more energy. Recharge your battery, detoxify with good food, good sleep, and occasional massage. Now, for those that over train leading up to your event. Lesson coming, take notes! Stop! Now! You’ll be lucky to finish, especially if considering one of those events that take up the bulk of the day to complete. For a lesser event, you’ll probably finish, right about where you’ve been training, but you won’t exceed your expectations, and you may have an external win, but an internal failure. What does that mean? An external win is when everyone tells you that you are an inspiration, amazing, and you receive great praise for your accomplishment. This may be accompanied by an internal failure; an internal failure is when you finished well, but bonked in the last couple of miles, and gave up the podium, an age division finish, or just got schooled by someone who generally doesn’t come in as fast. Guess, what, they tapered, and you didn’t! This is a sign of overtraining. You should not be training in close proximity to your event, rest is mandatory. To keep the BS meter in check, The Swim Genius sucks at this because The Swim Genius falls into the bat shit crazy crowd. An addict in every sense of the word! The Swim Genius feels like crap after the dopamine crash, and then starts to take pills to offset the lack of training. Through torment, personal and viewed, the training timeframe is the years and months leading to opportunity. Taper is a two week insurance policy to ensure that all of that training will be available when opportunity arises, because going in tired only marginalizes your ability. Greatness is when that insurance pays dividends, and you forge that opportunity into a medal that hangs on your neck! It’s that important! Don’t mess it up! Now pull of your tear soaked britches, and start resting, you over trainer! Yep, talking to you! The Swim Genius Are you a glucose fueled athlete? Do you use gel packs, but don’t like them? The Swim Genius dislikes them too! The Swim Genius has a sensitive tummy, and needs to keep that bodacious figure in check, for after swim photo opportunities. That dextrose hits the stomach, churns and bubbles, and then The Swim Genius is fighting gas, and stomach cramps. That’s fine if you are upright on a bike, or running, it’ll pass soon enough, but laid out in freestyle, not so much. The Swim Genius had similar situations happen with all of the carb powders, the corn derivatives bubble.
So what is The Swim Genius to do? The Swim Genius reports to the lab for some late night concocting, and eureka, a solution is found, using all of the simple household items you may already have! Here is was came out of the lab: the base “gel” formula, gelatin, in the form of collagen, and for the vegan crowd, you can use pectin. The benefit of gelatin is it’s a protein formulation, that helps you to repair, and recover. Think about it, your joints, ligaments, tendons, fascia, ears, nose, skin are all reliant on collagen for repair, and elasticity. Yeah, you should have it in your diet, (unless vegan) so why not? Can’t think of a reason, unless vegan. Ok, so what’s next, corn derivatives, starch, wax, and dextrose? Nope, been done, and they suck. Bubble guts so bad, the Bee Gee’s are singing back-up, and The Swim Genius is barely Staying Alive. Not groovy at all, not even a little bit. Let’s go with a good old fashion apple. Apple sauce, which will break down a bit slower as it’s bound in fiber, and apple juice for the quick jolt of energy. Does it upset The Swim Genius sensitive stomach, nope, ok, good to go! Lab results: If you read a package of good old fashion gelatin it’ll say; “Add 4 packets to 3 cups heated to boiling juice – 1 cup cold, stir until dissolved – refrigerate”. This will give you a large supply of chewable consistency gels, and yield 4 cups. Please be aware, as they warm, they lose this consistency, and turn into a true gel, so packaging is a consideration. The Swim Genius found that 4 cups is far too much to use in a training environment and the consistency is not ideal, so The Swim Genius cut the liquid down, increased the gelatin, and this worked well. The Swim Genius recipe 1 - Cup Apple juice 1 - Cup Cinnamon apple sauce. “Cinnamon is a natural anti-inflammatory – easy bonus” 6 - Packages for Knox Gelatin / Pectin (Double for harder gels) 2 - Tablespoons of Chia seed – because endurance athletes love them. This is The Swim Genius base… Heat juice and sauce until boiling, microwave works, add in gelatin, stir until dissolved, add in additional items as desired, refrigerate. Yields 2 cups – approximately 20 1x1 chewable cubes when cut. Suggested add in’s -BCAA’s -Creatine -Flax seed -Sesame seed -Gas X – yep, The Swim Genius has done it – it works, cut the caplets and mix in, or tuck a caplet into the gel after it’s set. -Carb powder, not for me but to each their own. The beauty of this, it it’s literally create your own solution, that will suit your independent needs, and you no longer need to be reliant on gels that cause stomach irritation. The Swim Genius‘s favorite part is gelatin is a natural protein base, and it’s commonly the only protein that The Swim Genius take’s in on distance swims. The Swim Genius found that the recovery cycles for everything 10K+ has been much shorter than they once were, and the distance is more comfortable. Of course, The Swim Genius looks fab in the after swim photo, you will too! |
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