- Does this mean that NormaTec boots, compression socks,
compression sleeves, are complete hogwash?
They get better, they get easier.
I still did stuff.
Morning trainiacs, can't touch you 'cause my hands are wet.
Yesterday, interesting thing I was listening to a podcast,
and a high-performance running coach kinda snickered
at the thought of compression.
Specifically he snickered at how much
triathletes use compression.
And he said that, find it, find it,
that NormaTec boots that cost thousands of dollars,
aren't even as compressive as just standing
in the shallow end of a pool.
So I had to say to myself, total BS,
there's no way that that's possible.
But I wanted to do a little bit of research myself,
and what I found was the calculation for how much pressure
just standing in a pool has.
And P equals HPG, and then P equals 2.3 times 1,000,
times 9.8, which then equals,
22,540N over M2.
Clearly, basically the gist of a bunch of research
that I did last night says that yeah,
just standing in a pool adds a lot of compression
to your lower legs in a very good way.
And it makes sense, because if you think about say,
sitting in a hot tub, or just doing a little bit
of water walking after a really hard workout.
You always think like oh I'm so refreshed,
and the next day you're typically not that sore.
And if you think about it, if you drop something in a pool,
as you go down to get it,
your ears start going through a fair bit of pain,
and why that is is because the pressure on the inside
of your eardrum is air, less pressure,
pressure on the outside is water, high pressure.
So it's pushing on the inside of the ear drum,
causing that pain.
The force and the weight of the water it increases
as it goes down, and then it's lighter as it goes up,
because there's more pressure and more weight,
and more water as you go down.
Which is exactly what you want from compression.
You want more compression at your feet,
and then less compression as you go up your legs,
to increase the amount of circulation in your body.
Now does this mean that NormaTec boots, compression socks,
compression sleeves are complete hogwash?
No, absolutely not, it's actually quite the opposite.
They do offer serious value.
Does it mean that standing in a pool is better for you?
Maybe, here's the thing, how often are you gonna be able
to just stand and walk around in a pool for an hour?
It's pretty tough to do.
With NormaTec boots, you can sit on the couch, chill out,
watch your favorite Triathlon Taren,
respond to emails, get stuff done.
Or you can put on compression socks and just go about
your day, even though you don't look so studly.
Secondly, what this means for us triathletes,
is what I preach over and over and over,
is that you really have to work on the blowing out phase
of the total breath.
And why that is is because as we're in the water
there's a lot of pressure going (mimicking inhaling)
sucking in our lungs,
and making it hard to breathe in and out.
And if we focus more on the breathing out portion,
it creates a vacuum in our lungs so that when we do
end up opening our mouth up to catch that breath,
it'll be filled up with air very easily.
And then you're not fighting the pressure of the water
and creating a lot of anxiety,
working harder than you need to.
And that's why the entire first chunk,
I think the first six videos, maybe eight videos,
in the swimming section of all of our coaching programs
for beginners is all about getting comfortable in the water
and learning how to breathe out.
If you learn how to do that, and learn how not to fight
the water all of your swimming prayers will be answered.
So how's that for a science-y morning?
I can be smart some days.
Well that was a fun little recovery swim with coach Pat.
He might have been a hair more intense with it than I was.
(upbeat techno music)
Other day something about him just didn't sit quite right.
I still did stuff, I did four times 25,
on 30 seconds, really hard.
He might've done 30 but whatever, still did things.
I can swim.
Well trainiacs this is,
this here is about the halfway point
of the long marathon swim that we're doing,
that is now 19 days away.
And I'll be straight up with ya, I'm starting to get afraid.
I'm having hard time sleeping at night.
I can literally work out the anxiety in a buzzy feeling
in my stomach as I think about it.
As I ride past the Red River here every single day,
I look at just the spans of like
10 or five percent
of what we have to swim in that single day,
and look at how far it is.
I see the wind picking up on certain days,
and worry about waves.
I'm getting afraid and this is exactly what happened
before the last marathon swim four years ago.
And actually that morning of the marathon swim
I was so afraid that at the boat launch we were at,
there's a bar off to the side and I went in to go pee,
I actually went into the bathroom in the bar,
and I had tears in my goggles.
But like just about anything in life,
once we got going I was dealing with the waves,
I was dealing with the day,
I was dealing with the nutrition.
I knew that I had put in the work,
as much work and preparation as I could.
And then it was just a matter of going through the process.
And sure it hurt like hell, like there were awful moments.
Really bad moments.
But that's the case with life.
You go through bad days, you go through bad moments,
you go through bad times, they get better, they get easier.
You recover, you stop being sore.
And if you turn off all that mental chatter,
with something like this, you got bragging rights,
and an experience that lasts a lifetime.
So am I scared, yes.
Am I looking forward to it, meh still not sure about that.
Am I gonna be able to do it on the day, absolutely.
I've put in the work and I've just gotta trust that.
And there just might be some lightly slept nights,
in between now and then.
Oh this here, by the way, is the Esplanade Riel,
in Winnipeg, and fun fact about this,
there's a restaurant on the bridge,
and there's a million dollar toilet.
Because to get all the (mimicking flatulence) from
the bridge to somewhere safe it had to go
all the way across the bridge.
Would you look at this guy?
There are two boats going across the river.
Maybe I should just boat the river in a few weeks.
Something to think about.
Alright, see you trainiacs.