Triumphs at SwimFit Masters at the Lynch/van Otterloo YMCA!

Written by Lynch/van Otterloo Guest Blogger and SwimFit Masters Coach Jen Brehob

We have daily small triumphs at SwimFit Masters at the Lynch/van Otterloo YMCA, some with new techniques understood before gaining accompanying feel for the water, some from circle-swimming 100 yards in a lane of 2 to 5 swimmers of similar speed, timed on a stopwatch by the coach, on a swimmers’ own watch, or using the pace clocks at either end of the 25-yard, 8-lane pool.  

Take last Wednesday’s practice, for instance:
Abby and her husband are expecting their second child soon, so she has a more stretchy but beautiful wine dark suit on as she climbs into the shallow end, the first of the group to start the advanced workout of 4350 yards.  She will swim about 2000 of those before she goes home to telecommute since it’s a snow day.  She uses the ladder to climb out, which only became necessary this week!.  She tells coach before she leaves that yesterday she got her dry land workout taking the train into town and walking 20 minutes to work bundled up and warm along the way.  She had her off day workout complete before she sat down at her desk!

Sal, father of 2, spoke to some other triathletes on the pool deck, looked the workout over, asked coach some questions about the swim dialect on the page and started the warm up set involving 250 yards Freestyle and mini IMs (individual medleys). He realized from the answer that his daughter who had her Advanced Youth III class yesterday was diagramming the mini IM (12.5 yards each of Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Free within 2 lengths so you can warm up all your muscle groups as well as the transitions between all 4 strokes before the main set) in conjunction with dinner conversation at home!

Drew is a very fit father of 3 whose usual lane buddies stayed home because of the weather and work, so he asks some questions and gets some pointers about his backstroke from the coach and a fellow swimmer, does some very good breaststroke kick drills and is improving his technique starting and finishing each length before the main set..

Colin and Sean make their way through the warm up set of Mini IMs, drills, kicking and plain swimming to get their heart rates up.  After 1500 yards they are more than ready for the “meat of the main set,” which today is 10 x 100 yards of FR (front crawl/freestyle) breathing bilaterally every 5 strokes for 50, then every 7 on the second 50.

The coach is using 2 stopwatches for 2 lanes, writing the times for each swimmer’s 100s on the white board at the end of the lanes for review after the set.  Some swimmers ask to be timed for part of the workout, some days it seems important and it goes with the workout, some days it doesn’t  matter as much.  The only occasions for timing everyone are when we need to determine lane assignments for the best flow during the group practice.  We keep a record of each swimmers’ times per event to recognize small victories and we’re working on a web-based storage and retrieval system only for swimmers who want to be timed.

Colin and Sean are both swapping 1:11s and 1:05s and Drew is getting 1:38s and 1:35s throughout the set, but on the last one, the 10th 100 with 10 seconds rest, Colin, father of 2 who travels for his own business and who came back to the pool about 2 months ago after mountain biking season gets a 1:06, Sean, father of one who takes the Parent/Child class at the same time as Abby and her first son, has been swimming in the pool and in the ocean faithfully for more than a few years, and he goes 1:01 and Drew makes it in under 1:30!

On a recent Wednesday everyone in SwimFit Masters had individual wins whether fitness, and well-being, adjustment of stroke technique, dropping time or some extra calories, and that happens most times we have practice.  Workout times are MWF 5:30-7:00am, TTh 9:30-11am, Sat. 7-8:30am.  You may take 2 practices for free before you sign up to pay when you drop in or with a monthly bank or credit card draft. Contact Lynch/van Otterloo YMCA Aquatic Director Susan Guertin at guertins@northshoreymca.org or 781.990-7009, check program times at www.teamunify.com/neyns or ask the coach on deck if you have any questions.  Let’s go to the pool!