Here I sit at my brothers pool with a plastic cup of pinot
grigio, my dad vacuuming the pool (and cranking up the tunes…”ohhhh Mexico, it
sounds so sweet with the sun sinking low”) and my mom taking care of the flowers
and pointing out how loud the music is. It’s official, I have an awesome
family, I’m a water child and thank God it’s FINALLY summer. I had some
interesting adventures over this last week and figure I should probably share at
least one of them in detail and a brief overview of a few others. It was my
first week of scheduled workouts with VERITAS Endurance Coaching. I’m happy
those grueling workouts are finally back. They have been deeply missed. Lots of firsts for the year this week. There’s
something special about first times regardless of it’s a first for the year or
a first for the life. First outdoor pool swim, first L4 brick, first piano
playing under the Purple People Bridge in the midst of a run, first snatching
and letting go of lightening bugs, first water feature run through, first time
lifeguarding in 10 years and first time open water lifeguarding during a
triathlon open water swim EVER. That last adventure opened my eyes for sure.
Saturday was the Warrior Dash, which means fun times getting
muddy and running and doing obstacles with friends. Afterwards we drove to Deer
Creek State Park, set up tent and I did my scheduled 2.5 hour run bike run workout
in the park once we got there. Considering
everyone else was continuing to drink beer it was just a tad difficult but
worth it. We had a great dinner overlooking the lake with some awesome people.
Sunday was my scheduled off day, so I figured that I would be a spectator
with Ms. Maria from Indiana and cheer the other athletes on. Well, she ended up guarding the swim finish
and I ended up on a paddle board lifeguarding the deep end during the entire
open water swim. Ms. Maria and I decided to volunteer and boy am I glad we did!
It was fun and I learned a lot.
As I was paddling out to the deep end buoys, I thought about
my old lifeguard days at the Clippard YMCA and Miami U. Lifeguarding in general
is awesome…and today reminded me of those “good old days” when career goals
were based off of BayWatch. Swimsuits, wet hair, sunscreen, and sunshine all day long. There is something special about sitting still in the sun in a big natural pool of water making sure people are safe. Productivity and relaxation all mixed in one. But let me point out that my heart was pumping more
today as a lifeguard than my entire five year high school/college career as a lifeguard at the YMCA pool. Multiple people sprawled onto my paddle board, shouting “can I hold on!”
The majority of people doing this just wanted a quick break to catch their
breath. Other situations:
Man runs into my yellow paddle board…hard…yells THANKS…nose
bleeds and keeps going. Me…”You’re welcome.” My real thoughts: “Sir, excuse me the
buoys don’t move…and neither do the paddle boards. If your ‘skilled enough’ to
pursue a triathlon than be aware there will be human obstacles in the water
other than the dozens of people kicking and slapping your face. It’s part of
the activity. Deal with it. BTW…the more pissed off ya’ll get in open water
swimming...the more anxious you get the worse you’ll perform.” I had to decide who I would share my mental
strategies with and who not to share the strategies with (aka those that get
pissed off by people who give ‘suggestions’.) I’ll just be honest and say I’m
shocked by the amount of people who do triathlons and fight through the swim
the way they do. I will say I was shocked…concerned…proud…and inspired. All at
the same time.
So, back to the activity analysis.
Tools: wetsuit, goggles, swim cap, tri shorts/shirt
Context: lotsa water, deep water, shallow water, wavy water,
calm water, above freezing, no crazy weather, sunshine ideal, other people
Performance skills: BREATHING, confidence, determination, planning,
organization,attention, memory, time mgmt, topical navigation, sharing, reaching, pulling,
pushing, spatial orientation, visual closure and discrimination, kicking, proprioception/body awareness, strength,
fine and gross motor range of motion, rhythm, coordination, vision, hearing.
Performance patterns: Practicing what is learned on a
regular basis, getting adequate sleep and nutrition to perform at the necessary
level (aka not getting “loopy in the deep end”).
Human factors: cardiovascular, neuromuscular, CNS, basically
everything there is
I don’t know the ‘baseline’ and those who participate in the
event today, but I saw a wide range of physical and mental abilities. I saw
people mentally ‘freaking out’ and physically ‘wearing out’. I couldn’t help
but advocate to them how much the two were related out there in the open water.
A select few ended up front crawling right to the finish and skipping the
course. One women wore a snorkel contraption I’ve never seen and moved feet per
minute with her eyes closed. My instincts made me inquire to her if she was ok
and she insisted she was. Another man flopped onto my paddle board and screamed
at me to upzip his wetsuit. Of course I obeyed and couldn’t help but ask him if
he wanted me to take him to shore. Of course he didn’t. What was I thinking!?! Another
man who was huffing and puffing as he was doggy paddling thought I was crazy
for asking him if he was ok. I agree. Finally, the very last person. He stopped
on my board about every 20 yards. My initial thought was WTF would you do an
Olympic tri if you can’t swim w/o rest…then I snapped out of that judgmental
thought process. I paddled next to him the entire second lap, let him rest on
my board whenever he wanted, strongly encouraged him to swim the right
direction and told him to only look at the next buoy. It was a heck of a trip.
He was not giving up for the life of him. When he swam around that last buoy towards the finish he
was proud. He made it. He was proud. I was inspired. I learned how difficult
the task of open water swimming can actually be for someone who hasn’t been
swimming their whole life. I learned how much goes into the work of an athlete
who comes out of the water first and last. I learned a lot today. HFP, I’ll lifeguard
anytime you need meJ
I think the best advise would be to SLOW the mind DOWN, move the body fast and loose, look where
you are going and ENJOY it. The rest will then fall into place. Once again, mindfulness.
Don’t get lost in your head.
