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I jumped in the lake at dawn today, and it felt great

by Pam LeBlanc | Apr 23, 2020 | Blog

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For the past 35 years, I’ve jump-started three-quarters of my days by leaping into water.

Swimming jolts me awake. It feels like a full-body hug from Mother Nature, and gives me time, inside my head, to think, subconsciously solve problems and even frame articles I’m writing for newspapers and magazines. It’s a magic elixir for me, and therefore no coincidence that some of my favorite sports – scuba diving, water skiing, paddling – take place in the water.

The suspension of my morning workouts at Western Hills Athletic Club, where I’ve been knocking out a couple of miles four or five days a week for years, plus the closure of public swimming pools, has made me a tad cranky.

But after five weeks out of the water, I’ve logged four swims in the past week. Friends – and in two instances complete strangers – have reached out to offer access to their home pools. I’m beyond grateful.

This morning, it got even better.

A friend with access to a private dock invited me to join him for an hour-long dawn swim around a cove in Lake Austin.

Stretching my arms out and watching my hands plunge through a blue-green veil of water as the sun rose sent shivers of happiness through my body. We circled the entire cove – nearly a mile – as the sun progressively lit the shoreline with light. No boats, no people, no sound, just brisk water and dappled light.

I swam a little more, popping my head out to admire the rocky cliff on one side of the cove, and the Volkswagen-sized boulder at the tip of a point reaching out on the other. A fish splashed. I bumped into some submerged sticks, then rolled over on my back and floated, staring up at the sky.

Nothing out in this cove has changed much since the shelter-in-place order. And that felt reassuring.

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Can’t swim in a pool? Try refried beans instead

by Pam LeBlanc | Mar 25, 2020 | Blog

Longhorn Aquatics swim coach Whitney Hedgepeth uses canned goods to get in a “swim” practice at home.

If you can’t swim in a pool, grab a pair of canned goods and pretend you’re swimming while you lie on a bench instead.

That from former Olympic medalist Whitney Hedgepeth, who has devised some clever but tortuous dryland sessions for members of the U.S. Masters Swimming team she coaches. The Austin program, like many around the country, is suspended during the pandemic.

Hedgepeth emails a new workout to the approximately 160 Longhorn Aquatics swimmers every Sunday evening.

“I just want everybody to stay active,” she says. “(It’s good for the body and the mind.”

Hedgepeth, who has coached the program since 2005 and was named U.S. Masters Swimming Coach of the Year in 2013, does the workouts herself six days a week. She bikes, rows, does yoga or rests on the seventh. She describes the workouts as harder than she expected, and says they induced some muscle soreness. She’s incorporated both her husband and her dog into some of the sessions, to keep everybody moving.

I’m one of thousands of Austin swimmers who’ve been forced out of the water by the coronavirus, and I can’t wait to try the workout. I’ve been biking, running and walking around my neighborhood, but for me, nothing compares to the all-body workout and mental therapy of a good swim. Unfortunately, that’s not an option right now.

Hedgepeth, who won silver medals in the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke and a gold medal as part of a relay at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, used 15-ounce cans of refried beans, but any can will do. Prepare for a seriously muscle-quaking workout, she says – especially the flutter kicking while sitting on your hands. And keep your head down when you “swim,” to prevent back pain.

“Those cans got heavy,” Hedgepeth says.

Without further ado, here’s the workout:

Warm Up

1-1.5 mile run/walk

8 x 30 seconds on, 30 seconds rest

Freestyle with soup cans or any canned food

100 jump ropes or 50 jumping jacks

30-seconds to 1 minute wall sit

8 push ups

8 chair dips with arms

(Repeat above four exercises x 3)

8 x 30 seconds on, 30 seconds rest

Butterfly or breaststroke with soup cans

50 lunges (25 each leg)

30 seconds to 1 minute plank

8 shoulder taps on each side from pushup position

30 seconds to 1 minute flutter kick (on bench, with hands under butt)

(Above four exercises x 3)

1-1.5-mile run/walk (faster than first time)

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