35-Foot Swan Dive into 12-inches of Water

I once dove off a 3-meter board and scraped my stomach on the 10-foot bottom when I was pulling out to go to the surface. It stung for a while. Know one really cares when I tell this story. Snff snff. Maybe this guy would listen.

Should You Sprint or Swim for Distance?

For as long as I've been a lap swimmer, I've always had a bad taste in my mouth for wall hangers - people who take up a valuable pool lane lying against the wall, usually chatting, when they could either get out or use the lane as it was intended. I am one to get in, swim and get out. I'm not much for chit chat. Now, today I read, that maybe I ought to join in. What's that about?!!!

I found this article about running on abcnew.go.com. Upon reading it, I wondered how it could not but also apply to swimming. In a nutshell, it quotes a university study that says that "30-second all-out sprints improved their (runners) cardiovascular fitness and muscle endurance as much as those who did 40 to 60 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise."

So does this mean, that I could just do a few sprints and get in the same value that I get in my 50-60 minute daily workout? I don't want to think that, but it appears to have some academic validity. I'm too addicted to the long laps thing to give that up. I guess I could do both. Looks like I'll be joining in with the wall-hangers for at least a few minutes now.

Can the Weather Impact Your Swimming?

"It's going to rain. I can feel it in my bones." That oft repeated phrase, usually attributed to old people is coming home to roost for me. As I've aged (I'm a middle-40's guy), I'm noting more and more that when the weather changes, I can feel my joints and bones aching. This is particularly true when a front is coming through and the weather goes from hot to cool, or the other way around - even on the nicest of days. These fronts bring pressure changes with them. How does this have anything to do with swimming? I don't know (yet), but today I took steps to find out.

I installed a gadget on my home page that tracks the barometric pressure in my geographic area. I'll be tracking that pressure over time and seeing how it impacts my efforting. I expect I'll find something. Check back on this blog over the next six months. I should have a beginning base line to report.

PS As a side note, I'd like to apologize for my lack of recent posts. No 'scuses. I just hope to do better going forward. Thanks for reading!

How Deep is the Deepest Lake?

One of the coolest things about swimming is that you can swim in the deepest water and if you have any skill at all there is absolutely no difference than if you were swimming in water that is just over your nose.

I absolutely flipped when I saw what the deepest was. So do you have a guess before I tell you?

1000 feet - Wrong. 2000 feet - Wrong. 3000 feet - Wrong. 4000 feet - Wrong. 5000 feet - OK, you're getting warmer. Try 5369 feet deep!

Here's a link to a cool article that describes that lake and four other of the deepest lakes in the world.

What you bet that if that lake were in the USA there would be a "No Diving" sign?!