Poolside-Chat-parents-of-competitive-swimmers

[Glittertwins]

Hopefully this will work as we’re at 999 on the other!

Immediately after the 1500 swim, chocolate milk, then a lunch type meal with protein eg sandwich thins with chicken and salad, plenty of fluids.

Then maybe some smoothie, banana etc after 2nd warm up.

He will need carbs & protein for recovery after the 1500 and then some more easily digestible carbs before the 800.

Can he have a quick sleep in back of car before 2nd warm up if there's time?

Fantastic thank you.

Thank you that's really helpful. I might be able to tempt him for a chill in the car I dont think he would sleep though.

Apologies for the recipe over multiple messages as it appears I pressed return on the iPad which sent it rather than allowing me to do paragraphs 😬
Mars milk drinks are also good high carb but not sure if the coaches will like him having that.

No problem thank you for sending it, its really helpful. Hmm yes not sure if they will allow that, although DS is annoying in that he is the only swimmer I know who doesn't like pasta or chocolate milk. I could maybe get away with strawberry milk.

Ds loves the mars and Malteser milkshakes too.

Orange juice is also good carbs wise.

Anything protein and carbs - but slow release carbs is good.

They shouldn't eat a main meal within 3 hours of swimming the race (warm up not included) - especially long distance so it's also about the timing.

Ds usually has a Pepperami and/or flapjack between warmup and racing.

Equally though if you can fit in enough time for something substantial it may work. Dd1 had one of her best sessions ever after a roast dinner. It would probably have been 3 hours before any actual racing and there was no pudding. PB in every race including 1 she hasn’t matched since.

Out of interest what do you feed them before early morning galas? It’s so hard when warm up is 8.30.

I'm normally busy making packed lunch for open meets, so I'll just tend to throw some porridge on the hob/in the microwave.

If we're cutting things fine, timewise, DD would have one of these protein drinks:

fuel10k.com/collections/breakfast-drinks

Good luck with Counties, everybody.

We've been known to do sausage and bacon sandwiches!

Porridge with banana
Toast with peanut butter and smoothie

I find for gala days it's really about ensuring they have a steady supply.

You have to think about:

1. pre-warm up
2. post warm up

And if there are say 3 sessions in a day - that's 3 warm ups!!!

Ds will have a bowl of weetabix minis if he's racing just one race. But being a para swimmer that's quite normal as he only has 7 events in his programme and he only does 4 of them.

Then he will warm up and then have a snack. He will then eat well afterwards if he's racing again in the afternoon - have a post warmup snack and then post race snack - again something protein based.

Bacon sandwiches and rolls are also very good - even better if you add a fried egg.

That generally only works when it's a 10am race after a 8.30 warm up and you can eat at 7 and still get their for 8 for pre pool! (That's more an example of timings rather than actual specific timings to can move forward and back to suit.)

Yeah I might try bacon rolls for the counties. It isn’t that early as the long distance races are first thing. The salt is also good as it will encourage drinking.

Weetabix minis last about 10 minutes in this house 🤣

Porridge they’d refuse to eat and tell me they weren’t hungry. We sometimes do pea nut butter on toast but the younger one wouldn’t eat that first thing.

Our pool also has a cafe with hot food, so the kids have a tendency to eat chips after their morning events. I can never work out if that’s good or not, better than the donuts I reckon.

They haven’t actually announced the exact timings yet, even though it’s this weekend!

DS is a creature of habit. A bowl of cheerios and a strawberry protein shake for breakfast before every gala regardless of timings.

Teatea you might find that your Counties are up on Meet Mobile (though every meet we've been to since September has been shown in the wrong time zone (cue parents panicking that they'll still be swimming at midnight).

Oh for a pool offering bacon sarnies!

oh it's me again 👋I didnt think anything achieved outside of the qualifying window counted, so what does if the times get into top 18 for nationals and keep him there refer to?
Sorry If I've mis-understood

I meant that if any time in these events put him into the top 18 in GB for LC events after the beginning of March, usually about the 10th March and he doesn't get knocked out of the top 18 by another swimmer then we'd be quite happy

ah sorry, you meant later in the year. Gotcha 😊
I believe the window will be announced any day now, so will keep an eye out

Last year it was the second weekend in March. There are meets with licenses billed as national qualifiers on the 11/12th March

We only have regionals and one other L1 meet in the (likely) window anyway and that wont change. I just want to manage his (and my) expectations as to when the window closes and emails are out etc

Last year March 11- May 8th (last day of any regional champs) in a long course pool at required licence level. Good luck!!

Meet mobile is the Bain of my life

I've lost count of the number of times we've emailed clubs the timings for meets we are running and we get upteem emails back

"Parents are worried because it says warm up is ..... and you sent ...."

I have to sit on my hands not to reply "and as a club you know it's always wrong so tell them to read what we sent and go by that" 🤣🤣

I've come to the conclusion people just like to point out meet mobile is wrong - when we all know it will be!

Yes my understanding isn't so much when it opens but that it closes much earlier than you'd think!

Takes a long time to process all the entries in the first wave and then go to the next lot of swimmers to fill those places for British. Shame they don't backfill fully for English as there were fewer than 20 swimmers per event / age last year.