Tag: swimming

fitness · swimming

Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage

Diane Harper1 Comment

Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage is a group I would like to join. Sadly, the group works in Cape Cod, so I can’t actually join, but how awesome is their mission statement from their website?

In 2017, Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage, OLAUG, was formed. We have been cleaning up ponds on Cape Cod from Falmouth to Chatham ever since. Gathering small teams of swimmers, ages 65 to 85, we sweep along the shallows, diving down to pick up beer cans, golf balls, fishing lures, waterlogged dog toys, hats, jackets, shoes, and occasionally a tire, cell phone or box of spent fireworks.

Whatever we heave up from the bottom, we hand to the Garbage Collector who paddles a canoe or kayak. Our affection and respect for the fish, turtles, and plants that live in the ponds are what motivates us. Well, that and cookies.

Five women stand in thigh deep water holding a toilet they have pulled out of the water. They all have huge smiles and are obviously very pleased with their “catch”. Photo is from the OLAUG Facebook page.

I heard a couple of the members interviewed a few weeks ago and was impressed with the level of fitness required.

Swimmers, without fins, need to be:

  • able to swim ½ mile freestyle in 30 minutes or less
  • able to swim a mile
  • comfortable spending 1.5 hours in the water, with a lot of treading water
  • comfortable and proficient swimming with mask and snorkel
  • comfortable diving down 6-9 feet to retrieve trash.

Kayakers need to be able to:

  • maneuver easily without knocking into swimmers
  • keep your kayak steady while receiving sometimes heavy trash on one side from a swimmer
  • keep your kayak steady in windy conditions
  • keep track of swimmers and tell them if they are getting too far away
  • paddle while a tired or injured swimmer hangs onto the bow
  • right themself or get safely to shore should they capsize.

There are tryouts to ensure everyone can meet the standard.

I sometimes pick up underwater trash when I’m swimming, and I follow various organizations who clean up ocean plastics, or rescue animals snared in fishing gear or other materials, so I have an extra appreciation for the work these women are doing.

The organization is small but starting to grow in new locations. If someone were to open a chapter in the Ottawa area, I would love to join.

A line of women, most wearing red shirts, stands on a sandy beach in front of a collection of trash that probably came from the water in the background.
fitness

Delightfully Bad

Diane Harper1 Comment

I love the elderly swimmers at my pool. I’m not sure of their ages, but I would guess most are 70-90 years old

They are there every day. They have terrible swim strokes (inefficient, barely moving their arms or legs, or both). Some don’t swim at all. They do aquafit movements and stretches. A few like to do pull-ups using the starting blocks.

But the social aspect is the most important thing. They know all the others, hop around a bit in the shallow water while chatting, or tease and sometimes goof around splashing each other like pre-teens.

I treat every swim like a training swim, trying to get more streamlined, pull and kick stronger, aiming to be as efficient as a shark. But I have learned to love the people who have a grand time every day, while swimming as efficiently as a clownfish or batfish.

Clownfish can swim, but settle into their little plot of anemone and early move more than a few feet from there, so they aren’t particularly efficient swimmers.

According to the Bristol Aquariun, “Batfish aren’t winning any races against their fellow fish anytime soon. In fact, these unusual bottom-dwellers can barely swim at all. Instead, they scamper across the seafloor on their pectoral, pelvic and anal fins, rather like a frog or crustacean.”

Top: Clownfish image from American Oceans. Bottom is a Batfish from a Manitowoc Lincoln Park Zoo post.

Thankfully, my swimmers don’t need to adapt to their surroundings. We have learned to adapt to their needs with things like steps or a ramp into the water, and equipment like flotation belts and aquafit weights available for them to use.

What other equipment and modifications can we make to public facilities to encourage older people to keep active? I would love to hear your ideas.

eating · fitness · food · habits · intuitive eating · nutrition · swimming

Noticing What I Eat

Diane Harper

Now that I’m back at the pool regularly, I’m feeling like my body isn’t fitting well into my swimsuit. Normally this doesn’t bother me, but I have a new swimsuit, and new suits are always very tight.

Coincidentally, I have been following a nutritionist who writes about the nutritional contents of many different foods and encourages people to eat at least 5 servings of vegetables and 2 of fruits each day. She doesn’t worry about exact measurements for servings – eyeballing, filling half your plate with vegetables, measuring by using your hand or fist are all valid. Eating a variety of things will probably be just fine for overall nutrition. No foods are off-limits. I find her nonjudgmental approach refreshing.

An example of a plate half filled with veggies. This one is from The Institute for Family Health.

So, as part of my fall routine, I’m trying to be more mindful of what I eat. I am writing very basic notes in a paper journal. I don’t track amounts or types of food. If I had an egg salad sandwich with lettuce and tomato, and ate a peach afterwards, that’s literally all I write down.

I have considered adding a note at the end of the day about whether I felt satisfied, or whether I needed to adjust my meals going forward, but so far I haven’t bothered. I’m just focusing on noticing when I feel satiated and when I feel hungry, and whether I am drinking enough water.

It’s not quite as simple as the principles of intuitive eating that Tracy wrote about many years ago, but it is definitely inspired by that approach.

After 6 days, I have noticed that I don’t normally eat much fruit; having a piece of fruit with two meals a day feels like a lot.

I have also noticed that I don’t always eat as many vegetables as I thought I did. I eat a lot of vegetables most days, so that’s an area for further exploration. Are the servings I estimate too big? Am I underestimating the vegetables I hide in sandwiches, omelettes etc?

Have I noticed any other things? Honestly, no. And I may never notice any. My aim is to see if focusing on the positive aspects of food will help me to make some tweaks to my already fairly healthy eating habits.

If, over the next six months, my bathing suit starts to fit a little more comfortably, that would be nice. But that might have nothing to do with how I eat. It could happen because I’m getting more exercise, or getting more consistent about engaging my core, or because my bathing suit stretches out with wear, as they always do.

An old picture of me playing in the water while wearing a comfortable old swimsuit. Clearly, I am not concerned about how I look as long as I’m having fun.
fitness · swimming

Recapturing My Sense of Being a Swimmer

Diane Harper

Both the indoor pools where I work were closed for maintenance over the summer holidays, and I decided to leave the shifts at outdoor pools to students saving for tuition. I knew I had lots of other options for swimming. Did I take advantage of all of them? No, I did not.

I got to one lane swim at a nearby indoor pool. I swam in the Ottawa River and in Gatineau Park once each. I did manage to get to the Pond and to a small private lake. I never went to the NCC River House, which is lovely. I missed my chance to swim in Dow’s Lake in the first summer it has been open to swimmers in decades. In sum, although I swam some, it was nowhere near enough to feel like my usual water baby self.

This past weekend I went to the cottage with my friend Melanie. The trip was too short and we ended up almost not going for a swim because we had so many other things we wanted to do. In the end, we squeezed in one short swim in rather chilly water and it felt great.

Diane in a white swim cap and multi-coloured goggles, and Melanie in a blue towel over a blue swim shirt, are standing in front of a lake. Both are wearing huge smiles.

As I swam, I noticed that all the little improvements I had been working on have actually helped my stroke. I felt like I might be going just a tiny bit faster. Good thing too! I had my first lifeguarding shift on Tuesday morning and skills testing last tonight.

Over the summer, I had wondered about whether I wanted to continue lifeguarding. It is physically demanding, and I wasn’t sure I could keep it up with my heart murmur. But as I saw familiar faces in the pool, and watched the joyous singing during aquafit, I felt a renewed determination to keep on swimming. The water is where I belong, and I love helping other people enjoy it too.

The next time I doubt myself, I need to follow the instruction on the sign Melanie bought me for the cottage and

A wooden sign with the words “Go Jump in the Lake” in various shades of blue paint.
clothing · fitness · swimming

My Best Summer Clothing Investment

Diane Harper

There have been lots of clothing posts at FIFI: nap dresses, swim dresses, bikinis, sports bras, cycling jerseys, beach pyjamas, angry white pyjamas for Akido, among others.

This is my not-very-stylish but oh-so-practical contribution for this summer: the towel fabric changing robe.

Diane in a striped robe, with trees and her beloved pond in the background.

It has a kangaroo pocket and hood, neither of which I use. I don’t actually use the slits that allow me to reach inside, remove my swimsuit and put on clothes either.

I do wear it a lot though. I throw it on over top of my suit and ride my bike to the pond while wearing it. Often, I hop on my bike afterwards and ride to the community garden to water my plants. It has been a miserably hot and dry summer, so leaving my wet suit on helps me stay cool. I haven’t yet continued on to the grocery store before going home, but I have been tempted.

I have clearly reached the age where I no longer care even a little bit about looking ridiculous if I can be comfortable.

athletes · swimming

Swimmer Dreams

Diane Harper1 Comment

I think about lots of things when I’m swimming. I think especially about comments on or by great swimmers and how I can incorporate that into my own swims.

Me in the centre, sharing a moment with swimming greats Summer McIntosh and Katie Ledecky – totally not a faked image at all 😁. Original photo is from Swimmingworldmagazine.com, from February 25, 2025.

It started a few years ago when someone told me to watch a video of Katie Ledecky breathing in freestyle. She barely got her mouth out of the water.

The last few weeks have been great for ideas from the experts.

First it was former Olympian Brent Hayden, who graciously provided a detailed answer on body rotation when I asked him a question about one of his posts that I didn’t understand. Seriously cool! And helpful advice that I am incorporating into both my distance swims and sprint practices.

Then it was a commentator at the Worlds in Singapore pointing out Summer McIntosh’s heels coming slightly out of the water when she kicked, showing her excellent horizontal position in the water. My swim coach has been trying to get me to do that for ages. I teach kids to do it in swim classes. But do I do it myself? Let’s just say I have been trying, and I’m more consistent when I entertain myself by pretending I’m swimming like Summer.

Early on Saturday morning it was Katie Ledecky after her amazing 800M swim in 8:05 (I’m happy when I do 400 in under 10 minutes). In a post-swim interview, she said she has really been working on her kick and it is paying off. Me too Katie, me too. Also me – time to review those YouTube videos on how to achieve an efficient two-beat kick like hers.

After watching the swimming on Saturday, I went to the lake for a little swim with friends. They are both faster than me so I was pleased that I was able to stay close. I worked hard, but at the end I ran out of steam and finished third. Did I laughingly compare myself to Summer McIntosh as I got out of the water? Yes, yes I did.

The lake where I dream of swimming like an Olympian.
fitness · swimming

Drowning Prevention Week

Diane Harper

The Lifesaving Society’s National Drowning Prevention Week is July 20-26, 202.

It has been a bad year for drownings and water rescues in my part of Ontario: ten drownings so far, and I have lost count of the rescues that were sufficiently dramatic to make the news.

According to The Lifesaving Society, older adults are at highest risk of drowning, and that is the only group where numbers are increasing. Men and boys make up nearly 80% of the drowning victims. Indigenous peoples are at much higher risk, and drowning rates in the territories are about eight times higher than in the provinces.

What can we do? Lifesaving organizations have divided responsibilities to focus on different priorities: The Red Cross runs learn-to-swim programs on northern and Indigenous communities, while the Lifesaving Society teaches in the provinces.

Individually, we can wear lifejackets. Always when on a boat or SUP, and if you are not comfortable in the water. This one deserves its own paragraph!

We can support friends and family to ensure they take lessons (whether as cheerleaders, helping them navigate city programs to find suitable lessons, or assisting low-income people financially).

Recently, I bought a swim float for a friend who was feeling uncomfortable in open water but had resisted buying one. She now uses it every day, and her confidence (and endurance) is improving.

I also volunteered as a swim angel, swimming along with a participant at Bring on the Bay, a huge open water event in Ottawa. I have done it three times now and I love it!

Top: my friends and I at swim angel training, with our swim floats. Bottom: me with the three people I have been an angel for (Penny, Sarah and Irene)

World Drowning Prevention Day takes place on July 25. In honour of this global event, I’ll be wearing blue, using #DrowningPrevention on social media, and tagging the Lifesaving Society on social media.

Stay safe, everyone!

beach body · fitness

Belated Happy Bikini Day!

Diane Harper

It was July 5, but I missed it.

I didn’t miss my the photo of my friend Michaela rocking her bikini on July 6, though.

Michaela in various poses and bikinis.

Nat has written about her bikini body H here and I have written about the challenges of finding good suits for different bodies H here and H here and showing off my own power suit H here

The Sandra Boynton cartoon that prompted this post
fitness · motivation · swimming

Finding Motivation When Your Triggers are Gone

Diane Harper

My main pool closed a month ago, and will stay closed until January. My other pool closed at the end of June. It will be closed until the fall, at least. That means no lifeguarding, no teaching swimming and no mandatory training where I need to ensure I meet the fitness standard. My swim club is also on hiatus for the summer.

What’s an externally -motivated girl to do?

Rest was a good start. I “allowed” myself several weeks of not swimming. By allowed, what I really mean is I didn’t bother looking up lane swim times at nearby pools. I felt guilty about not going but just couldn’t get myself organized. Hence the air quotes around “allowed”.

Then I started getting messages about people I knew going for swims. I decided that I would see each of them as an invitation and join if at all possible. So far this week, that has meant one pool swim, one swim in Gatineau Park, and one at the nearby lake. I’m already far ahead of where I was in June, distance-wise.

I’ll be a swim angel again this year for the annuals Bring On the Bay swim, so there will be more swimming this week to ensure I’m ready to support my swimmer on Saturday.

Going forward, I’m keen to try out some new swimming venues around town. I know I’m more likely to do so if I go with friends. For the next little while, my challenge will be to make some of those plans and follow through, even if others don’t have the time or interest to join me.

But also, if I don’t feel up to swimming, won’t. As much as I am motivated by peer pressure (in a good way), swimming when I’m overtired is not fun.

Wish me luck finding the right balance and checking out some new places to swim!

Three swimmers with bright floats in the small lake near my house in Ottawa.,
clothing · fitness · swimming

Advantages and Disadvantages of Two-Piece Swimsuits

Diane Harper2 Comments

Following up on my post about swim shorts, I wore my new suit to work. I haven’t tried swimming in it. Already, I have discovered some good and bad things about my two-piece bathing suit.

The disadvantages are well-known but some to the advantages are new to me. My goal is to learn to ignore the disadvantages (aka get over my own body image hangups), and learn to embrace the advantages. I may need to buy more suits to help with my continuing quest for excellent swim gear.

Advantages:

  1. It is possible to buy tops and bottoms in the size you need. This is probably self-evident to most people, but I only figured it out when my most recent suit arrived and I realized I might have gotten away with a bottom that is one size smaller;
  2. I can mix and match suits, at least in theory. My matchy matchy brain is still trying to wrap my brain around that one, but I admire people like my daughter, who does it all the time.;
  3. When I’m lifeguarding, I don’t need to strip out of my lifeguard pinny and take off a one-piece to go to the bathroom;
  4. If I forget my underwear, I can wear the top as a sports bra. Going commando to go home is usually just fine, but I hate going out in public without some sort of breast support.

Disadvantages:

  1. That “sports bra” is wet. I often do errands on the way home so my shirt ends up wet. If I go straight home, then I have to take off a wet sports bra. Wet sports bra removal should be an Olympic sport;
  2. I have yet to find a bathing suit top that doesn’t give me uniboob. Every promising one I have looked at so far has an underwire and that’s a hard no for me. I don’t mind being squashed while in the water because it helps me be streamlined. But it’s hot and sweaty out of the water;
  3. If the top doesn’t give me underboob it’s because it has ruffles, ruching, bow tie, baggy matching bottoms, or some other thing that adds drag when I’m trying to swim.
  4. I’m still coming to terms with exposing my less-than-perfect belly.

I still dream of finding a great two-piece training suit that fits my slightly-larger-than average body but I’m beginning to think it’s a unicorn. In fact, it’s so rare I couldn’t find a good image of a unicorn wearing a bathing suit so you will need to settle for this unicorn on a bathing suit.

Image is a bathing suit decorated with The Unicorn in Captivity, one of the Unicorn Tapestries. The suit is for sale on Etsy.