SELF | SPORT

For The Love Of Sport — A Day in The Life Of A Swimmer

An insight into a typical day of a competitive swimmer

Every Swimmer knows the chain of events below, but this article is for the benefit of non-swimmers — an insight into the life of a College Swimmer.

The Race — Part 1

“Swimmers, step up.” — Meet official

Immediately followed by two short blasts of the whistle.

You step up on your starting block, set your feet, swinging your arms to get the blood flowing as your heart rate begins to increase in anticipation.

“Take your mark” — Meet official

Deep breath — You bend down to grip the front of your block with your fingers, tensing your muscles and curling your toes.

“BEEP!” — Starting Buzzer Sounds

HUH … You explode into motion, propelling off the blocks, launching your body into the air, pivoting at the hips to align for a clean entry into the water.

You hit the water … a powerful underwater dolphin-kick drives you 10 to 15 metres down the pool before surfacing and powering into your first stroke.

Your mind is focused — This is the moment you’ve been training for all year, for 11 months. All that hard work have led up to this race. You know you’re ready as you turn in the lead after the first length … THE RACE!

Training

“BEEP, BEEP … BEEP, BEEP … BEEP, BEEP!”

You awake from a slumber, groaning as you silence your alarm — WHACK — wishing that it was Sunday morning while contemplating quitting the sport, again, but something inside drives you. Something in the pit of your stomach. A burning desire fuelled by Achievement Orientation in your DNA.

Your arms, legs and chest ache having swum 20,000 metres the day before. But you slowly drag yourself out of bed despite the pain.

You throw on your sweats and trainers, it’s freezing outside so you layer up. You grab a quick breakfast and head out the front door, trudging in the snow towards the pool.

“I want to go back to bed,” is your dominant thought.

A pair of headlights blind you in the morning darkness as you stumble through the freezing snow filled street.

When you arrive at the pool, no one talks, everyone is too tired.

You change in silence, on autopilot. The silence continues as you plod from the locker room towards the Pool .

You feel the cold tiles under your feet while walking down the pool deck with Goggles and Cap in one hand, Paddles and Board in the other.

You sit at the poolside, sipping your water bottle as you wait for the coach.

“MORNING EVERYONE!” … a loud voice booms … as your overly enthusiastic coach prepares to announce the warmup.

More groans murmur from your teammates as you make your way closer to the pool edge.

“Okay, 1,000 metre warm-up” … the coach shouts!

Whoooooup (deep breath) … Dive … Zip (little splash) … SHOCK (Cold Water) … Whaaa (Air) … before kicking your legs vigorously, a ‘6-beat kick’ driving into a sprint for the first 50 metres.

“I hate this,” you think to yourself.

“Why I’m a swimmer?” you ask.

6:00 a.m.

After finishing your warm up you look at the board in horror as the coach finishes writing the morning’s workout.

• 1,000m warm up
• 10×400m Free building 1–3, 4–6, 7–9 … last one Butterfly on @5:30 mins.
• 12×75m — 1st and 3rd length (25m) 100% FAST Butterfly on 1:30 mins.
• 6×200m Dolphin-kick on your back with Zoomers on 2:45 mins.
• 12x50m Drill, single arm (Butter)Fly on 1:15
• 400m cool down

Total: 8,100m

You finish a great workout and step out of the pool feeling Amazing — “I love this sport!”

8:00 a.m.

Exhausted, but on a high, you drag yourself from the water and head to the locker room for a shower before class.

Everyone is more energised and talkative as as you wash the chlorine off of your body.

“Why even bother showering before class lads, we’re back here at 4pm — in eight hours.”

“Who wants to go for breakfast?” the Captain asks.

“I’m in” you respond.

No Swimmer ever turns down an invitation for food. You soon scoff enough pancakes, eggs, bacon, hash browns and coffee to feed a family before class.

9:15 a.m.

The lecture starts, by 9:30am the hall is warm and you feel sleepy, you find yourself fighting to keep your eyes open and your attention on the board.

Your head nods and you close your eyes for a second, as you get more comfortable in your wooden seat at each passing second.

Suddenly, you’re awoken people shuffling, ready to leave. “That’s it for today class, pick up next week’s assignment on your way out.”

“… need a coffee…?” you signal to your team mate.

2:00 p.m.

You finish class for the day and head back to your room, your bed is calling for you, but you need to catch up on Homework. You sit at the desk in your room to start, but you can’t focus on the words.

You think “ah, I’ll just sit on the bed”, as you move your duvet to make room.

“Oh yeah, that’s so much better” as you convince yourself that it was a smart move.

Once again your try to get into College work, but you’re drowsy and can’t keep your eyes open any longer.

“BEEP, BEEP … BEEP, BEEP … BEEP, BEEP!”

Suddenly that noise sounds again, you wake.

“It’s 3:30!” … you spring into action … “I can’t be late for practice.”

4:00 p.m.

Back on the pool for the afternoon session. The look on your teammates’ faces is telling, some just heard a murmur about the upcoming workout … it isn’t reassuring.

“What is it?” you ask.

“Nightmare set … 5 x 1,500m” he says.

“Argghhhh…” as you exhale, heading to the locker room to change, AGAIN.

Once again you grab your equipment and wait on the deck as your coach writes the afternoon’s practice on the board…5 x 1,500m, the rest is a blur.

“Chad, take abs!” shouts the assistant coach. “Grab a mat everyone.”

After 25-minutes doing crunches, planks and pushups you’re looking forward to hitting the water to cool off as you drip in sweat.

2 hours later another 9,000m is done, that’s 17,100m for the day.

6:30 p.m.

After training you dash to the dining hall before 7:30pm close. You make it just after 7pm, famished … the canteen staff groans when 20+ swimmers scramble to grab a food-tray.

Your tray overflows with protein and carbs — exactly what you need to recover. As you tuck into a pile of chicken, meat and mountains of pasta. Conversation is soon replaced by the sound of cutlery — clink, clank, slurp, chomp!

This is your favorite time of the day.

After the “team dinner” you head over to the library to squeeze as much homework in as you can before you can’t keep your eyes open anymore. Coach always says, you’re a Student-Athlete, so grades come first, so you can’t fall behind. If you do you risk being ineligible to compete — the only reason I left Ireland to live in Ohio was to Swim at an elite level.

10:00 p.m.

After you eat and spend a couple of hours studying or socialising you decide it’s time to relax … your bed is your best friend. You stretch out thinking “I’m up at 5am again tomorrow morning.”

The Race — Part 2

… Your lungs are burning as you come off your last wall and take a breath. Your body is exhausted and it would be so easy to give up now. But you’ve been training too hard all year to let up now.

You focus, you put your head down and sprint with all you have left to the wall.

You hit the touchpad, stopping the clock, and look up at your time.

1st — 48.99

— Best time!

RECORD!

— “YES!” — you hit the water with your fist — SPLASH — you’re exhilarated.

“I did it!”

That’s why you swim.

That’s why you wake up at 5am every morning to train, twice a day, 5 or 6 days a week.

That’s why you sacrifice your weekends, staying home when your non-Swimmer friends are going out on a Friday night, or any other night.

You swim because you crave the Challenge, the feeling of Accomplishment, the Buzz that follows a hard workout or an incredible race when you reach your goal.

99.9% of Swimmers don’t make any money — You swim for love of the sport.