Puts the boredom of an indoor trainer in perspective

[fiamme red]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/magazine/marathon-swimmer-diana-nyad.html

Today Diana Nyad is swimming for four hours. She does this four days a week in the 50-meter pool at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, in Pasadena, Calif. Her stroke is rhythmic, high in the water. It’s hard to judge how old she is by looking at her. Her back is well muscled. Her legs are girlish — shapely and short. Her skin is as weathered as a crocodile handbag. Her arms are covered with jellyfish scars. When Nyad swims in a pool, she counts in her head, ticking off laps, first in English, then in German, then in Spanish, then in French. (Nyad is fluent in all but German.) The goal is to focus her mind on repetitive thought, as a yogi does with a mantra. But when Nyad swims in the ocean for a long time — 8 or 10 or 12 or even 24 hours — she doesn’t just count, she sings. She’ll do “It Ain’t Me, Babe” 10 times, interspersed with the quatralingual counting, then sing “Paperback Writer,” 10 times, followed by quatralingual counting again. Nyad keeps in her head a playlist of 65 songs. Some are for daytime swimming; others for nighttime. Nyad knows each one intimately, how many seconds each takes, how many strokes. “When I complete 2,000 ‘It Ain’t Me, Babe’s, Bob Dylan version, I know I’ve gone 4 hours and 45 minutes exactly,” Nyad says. “I never lose track.”

[tiretrax]

You'll never heard me complain. The tv or music is on, so i'm distracted. Swimming is a chore no matter how far one does it.

[laupsi]

Truely Amazing, what courage and determination!

[wc1934]

2,000 ‘It Ain’t Me, Babe’s - that alone is impressive.

[slowandsteady]

2,000 ‘It Ain’t Me, Babe’s - that alone is impressive.

Ummm, insanity some might call it!

[nm87710]

impressive.

[benitosan1972]

I'll never understand how anyone living in California between say SF to San Diego can run, swim, climb, row, or cycle indoors. We have so much great nature here, and the weather is mild year-round. Yes, I know some people have families, jobs, schedules that don't allow enough time, but you can ALWAYS make time to enjoy the great outdoors.

*Just look at Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver... their weather is 10x crappier than CA's, but people there spend way more time in nature vs in stuffy, bacteria-filled, expensive gyms... or maybe people prefer to workout next to Adonis & Electra, is that why? ;)

[Louis]

I'm certain that she's 100000 x the athlete that I am, and probably a great person to talk to, but on a purely superficial level the sun and water look like they've taken a heck of a toll.

[efleigh]

when i think of girly legs, i dont think of short and muscular...

[Bob Loblaw]

Wow. She's tough.

BL

[Fixed]

swimming is a tough sport lots of hours everyday
when i swam we would do 15000 yards some days
cheers

[benb]

I don't really get to swim much these days but have done long open water swims. (used to be a lifeguard/swim instructor years ago) New England is a pretty crappy place for this but if I was to move some place like Hawaii or Southern California I might end up spending a whole lot of time in the water and not be much of a bicyclist between surfing/swimming/snorkeling. I very often look out across a body of water that is 3-5 miles across and wish I could realistically train to try swimming that.

I find it pretty hard to get bored.. swim technique is about 1000x more complex then bicycling and there is so much going as you tire out, it is never boring. Even the history of swimming is amazing. It requires no equipment and yet it took thousands of years for people even to get to where we are today, for the vast majority of people across time falling into the water was a near death sentence. Someone swimming 100 miles in open water is an astounding feat compared to anything that has been done on land. Bicycles took forever to invent but I'm finding it hard to believe anyone's technique today is all that much better then say Major Taylor's was. Better drugs & training regimens but bicycle technique was figured out in the blink of an eye compared to swimming.

I can have fun indoors but it is tough to find good pools that are clean, are not crowded, convenient to home/office, etc.. and are not overrun with "aqua aerobics" and tons of kids. In that aspect bicycling is a lot more convenient even if equipment costs and inconveniences are 1000x more for cycling then swimming.

Didn't know about these effects like swollen lips, chafing, etc.. yuck.

[fiamme red]

I thought it was very interesting that when she had given up on her Cuba-Florida swim, she was also finished with swimming entirely. She wouldn't swim at all if she weren't trying to achieve her goal.

“I think I’m going to my grave without swimming from Cuba to Florida,” she told CNN.

Back home, at the end of September, Nyad threw away all her swimming gear. But she did this on Monday; her garbage is collected on Fridays. Thursday she fished from the cans her suits, caps and goggles. The will to swim from Cuba to Florida had returned.

[old_fat_and_slow]

Doing solo swimming workout IS incredibly boring. However, there is the potential for some nice scenery in the lanes next to you, or even your own lane, which for me, makes it waaaaaaayyyyyy better than riding on a trainer. Nothing is worse, to me, than riding on a trainer, 'cept maybe running on a treadmill.

YMMV

[Seramount]

Swimming is a chore no matter how far one does it.

I hear this frequently, but it's hard to imagine someone not enjoying a good swim.

I'm currently quite bummed from being in no-swim mode...I live for my time at the pool...30-meter lanes, the water is a constant 70F and NOT chlorinated.

it's a spectacularly nice place to get a great workout in the blistering heat of a TX summer. I love getting in the sweet spot of my stroke, things become almost effortless.

swimming 100 miles in the ocean is an incredible feat...hope she accomplishes her goal.