4 Sites for Swim News, Training and Tips

For me, the internet can be a rabbit hole.  I start out reading an article, or doing a search, and 3 hours later I might be spending $100 to buy something I don't need, reliving the 2012 Olympics, or developing a deep passion for a topic I did not know existed the previous day.  The internet is so great and so horrible at the same time.

I think the web is an amazing resource for swim training.  And since my last post about online swim training tools turned out to be quite popular (by the standards of my little blog), I figured I'd share some more resources I've discovered.

Active.com Swimming
Folks may be familiar with Active.com as the online community where you can find out about and get tips on swimming, biking and triathlon events.  But, I've been pleasantly surprised by the quality of their Swimming section of the site.  It has some nice articles on workouts, technique, and in particular open water swimming.  I recently enjoyed their list of 7 Swims to Do Before You Die!  Yes please to Waikiki Rough Water and Big Shoulders!

Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a Canadian swimmer and writer who focuses a lot on motivation, goal setting and self improvement.  He has a book he's created (which I'll admit I haven't read), but I actually think that's a bit secondary to the bits of motivational wisdom and ideas he explores in his blog and weekly e-newsletter.  Two recent blog posts I enjoyed: 7 Ways to be More Optimistic at the Pool and How Much Does Michael Phelps Hate to Lose? which is just a set of photos of Phelps' awesome facial expressions after losses.




As a thanks for supporting the Kickstarter campaign for Touch the Wall, the documentary about Missy Franklin, I was granted one month of free access to GoSwim.  While I haven't yet decided if I'll sign up for a subscription (it's $9.99/month or $99.99/year) it is a great source of quality videos on technique featuring both "real people" and some extraordinarily, elite swimmers.  Their trailer video features like 20 Olympians demonstrating strokes and drills.  Really useful if you're a visual learner, and want your swim technique videos in a consistent and easily searchable format.

How do describe SwimSwam?  Eighty percent swimming news, twenty percent swimming adjacent news.  What do I mean? It does great coverage of everything going on in the swimming world-international, national, college, open water, Masters, high school and includes coverage relating to training and health.  And then covers the fun of the sport, and how it shows up in pop culture.  What do I mean?  Well, there is Gary Hall Jr. and David Cromwell's occasional column where they basically just make fun of eachother, lots of great videos (one of the most popular is entitled Nathan Adrian Responds to Suit Split--and it does feature photos). And they are great about promoting swimming however it shows up in pop culture.  Whether it's their excitement over the swimming section of the latest Kia Soul Hamster commercial or the latest that Ryan Lochte might actually getting his wish and appearing on Dancing with the Stars.


Have other recommendations for websites on swim news, training and tips?  Email me or tweet me with the hashtag #swimsites.

From the Team Goldfish Gear Bag: Poolmate Watch

Team Goldfish Note: When I recommend something from the gear bag, it's not because someone's asking or paying me to promote it. I'm sharing some tools and gear that I've found to be good quality and useful for swim training!  Please remember it's just one woman's opinion.

For anyone who's ever trained for a big event, or been working on getting better at a sport, you know it's important use data!  In the case of swimming, that means being able to track yardage and times.   When I talk about my swimming, and the distances I practice, folks often ask how do you keep track of all your laps and times? 

That's where the Poolmate Watch from Swimovate comes in!  About five months into swimming consistently, my parents gave me the Poolmate as a holiday gift.  The instructions were easy to follow to set it up--pool length, your weight, which hand you wear it on.  And I immediately loved how it let me track laps and times.  And the great advantage of the Poolmate over other tools is that it tracks your lengths automatically--no clicking of counters--because it senses your push off from the wall. You just need to click the button at the beginning and the end of the set.  It also stores a history of your workouts so you can go back in time and take a look.  While the watch is great for tracking distance in freestyle and back sets, I've found it a bit iffy with my breaststroke sets, and it doesn't track distance in open water, though I do still use it for timing open water swims. 

It also has a cool story.  It was invented by a married couple who had gotten into triathlon and couldn't find a pool watch.  There's a nice little video telling their story on the site!

I have the basic model, but there is also a Pro model which includes the ability to download all your data to the computer. If this post has piqued your interest, the folks at Swimovate are offering 10% any order from their website using the coupon code social10!

Supporter Snaps #7: Team Goldfish Members Swim in their Caps!

I'm asking all the members of Team Goldfish to snap photos of themselves sporting their "official" team swim caps or stickers so my team will be with me on race day, September 22. 

As past editions of Supporters Snaps attest, the members of Team Goldfish are a creative and fun bunch, and this week's edition is no exception!

Today's edition of Supporters Snaps features some of the members of Team Goldfish actually wearing their caps to swim!  The top photos feature my friend Jenny (another member of Team Goldfish West-since she's in the Bay Area) who reports that she's been using her cap for her swim training for a sprint triathlon and it seems to make her go especially fast.  The bottom photos feature Team Goldfish member Nicolle sporting her cap for a fun day of swimming with friends. Esther Williams would be proud of how she sports it with aplomb!

What will Team Goldfish members think up next? The photos have really been rolling in, so come back to the blog soon and see!

Diana Nyad Inspires Me to Set 2 Personal Bests!

“@diananyad: "People always ask me What's the hardest part? By far, without a doubt, it's the moment before embarking.” via @OtherShoreMovie
— Alison Gold (@AKGold11) August 31, 2013

Yesterday I watched Diana Nyad complete an extraordinary challenge.  In her fifth attempt, she swam the 110 miles of the Florida Straits from Cuba to Key West in ~52 hours of non-stop swimming. It was the longest open water swim ever done without a shark cage. On Twitter and her blog she received congratulations messages from Olympic gold medal winning swimmers and famous actors, "regular" people and the President of the United States.

She was greeted by 100s of people at the beach at Key West and many television cameras.  Despite her exhaustion and sunburn and chafed skin and lips she said, "I have three messages. One is, we should never, ever give up. Two is, you never are too old to chase your dreams. And three is, it looks like a solitary sport but it's a team."

Diana Nyad Florida Straits Swim Tracker.

About an hour later, I headed to the pool for the first time in more than a week.  Buzzing from having watched the live footage of Nyad's accomplishment, and anxious to see what the time out of the pool and on the hiking trails would do to my swimming, I decided to log some yardage.

My Labor Day workout:

Warm up:
200 free
100 drill (alternating 25 fingertip drill/25 catch up)
200 free

Main Set:
2x1650

Warm Down:
100 free
50 breast
50 back
100 free

I was pretty shocked when I checked my Poolmate watch for my time on my first 200.  I felt like my body was rotating well and I was really "feeling the water."  But, 3:34 was an 8 second drop on my previous personal best and I wasn't trying to go fast.  Then I managed a 3:35 on the second warm up 200. 

I was hoping that I could also log a new personal best in the 1650 free, also known as the swimmer's mile.  My previous best was 32:01 from back in May.  And because I have been working on distance per stroke and technique, I've logged a lot of slower swims in the last couple of months.  But, I also know that in the last couple of weeks, the tweaks to my stroke had started to click, and the strength training and open water practice were helping me move more water.

Even with a week out of the water, I was fast and feeling good.  Similar to what I experienced when I logged my new personal best in the 1000, both my 1650s were better than my previous personal best!  The second was 31:50, which was a respectable 12 second drop from my previous record.  Especially since I had already swum another mile set just 2 minutes before that one.  But the first set was a doozie:

  It was a 1 minute and 50 second drop!  I was so excited I had to let Diana Nyad know:

.@diananyad was my inspriration in the pool today & I dropped 1:50 on my swimmer's mile! #xtremedream #teamgoldfish pic.twitter.com/c0V9cc42jE
— Alison Gold (@AKGold11) September 2, 2013

And despite the fact I mispelled inspiration, her team retweeted it! A great way to head into the final three weeks of training before the big swim!

Monday Morning Video: Swim Across America Baltimore 2012

Only three weeks until the Swim Across America Baltimore Open Water Swim.  So it seems fitting to draw some inspiration from last year's event!  Check out the beautiful course, the energized swimmers, and how the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center uses the funds raised through the event. I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't mention that there's still time to donate through my fundraising page.



Swim Across America Baltimore 2012 from Coyle Studios on Vimeo.

Team Goldfish September Training Schedule

It's hard to believe that there are only three weeks until the Swim Across America Baltimore Open Water Swim. I'm excited, and of course, a bit nervous to take on my biggest swim to date--3 miles! 

When I get nervous, part of what I like to do is plan.  So, now that I'm back from a great week of vacation--which included the Park to Park Swim in Seattle, and 4 great days of hiking on the Olympic Peninsula (I think that counts as cross-training), I mapped out my training schedule for the next 21 days.  It's a lot, but I think it's doable, and the prep will get me where I want to be on race day!

I won a medal redux!

Back in July, I wrote about my great experience swimming at the Chris Green Lake Swim in Charlottesville, VA.  I also shared my excitement in having placed third in my age group and snagging my first ever open water medal!  A couple of weeks ago, they posted photos from the medal ceremony, and I wanted to share the one of me!