Winter Skin and the Swimmer

Disclosure:  I am a SBR Sports Ambassador and receive product samples of TriSwim products.  All opinions are based on my personal experience with TriSwim products and I was not required to make this post or statements.

Earlier this week a Facebook friend commented on her wall that she was swimming more and noticed that her skin was getting dry and itchy.  I find that this is a common winter problem for the swimmer.
Chlorine is used to treat our pools and the effect that it has on the skin is that it removes the skin's natural oils causing dryness to occur.  It's really important to remove the chlorine from your skin following swims and I turn to TriSwim products for that purpose.  Lots of the feedback that she got on her post were on what types of lotions she should use but if you aren't neutralizing the chlorine the lotion can't do it's job!

TriSwim is a line up of products that includes shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and body lotion.  They all contain ingredients to neutralize the chlorine and also return moisture back to your skin or hair.  I have been using TriSwim for several years and some days it is my favorite part of my swims! The products have a light, citrus scent and feel wonderful.   The greatest thing about TriSwim is that it doesn't mask the chemical scent that you normally have after a swim in a chlorinated pool.  Instead, the formulas remove that scent entirely.

Winter is tough on your skin no matter what type of athlete you are but swimmers have to
think about chlorine in the mix too.  My routine use of TriSwim after all of my swims keeps my skin from getting dry and keeps me from smelling like the pool when I return to the office after lunch swims.  I'm not a big fan of lotions until after swimming...slippery pool buoys! After my swim I make sure to use lotion to return moisture to my skin and the TriSwim lotion is very light and non-greasy.

Don't let the winter air and the chlorine stop you from swimming.  Invest in a quality body wash and shampoo and keep your swim training in tip-top shape!

Here's the workout that we did on Monday to give you some swim inspiration to go with you new TriSwim products!

Warm Up - swim 400 - 850 (choice of stroke, kick, drills, etc.)
Set 1 - 500 yd ladder
25 - free on the :30
50 - free/back on the 1:00
75 - free, free, breast on the 1:20 - 1:30
100 - free on the 1:50
100 - free on the 1:50
75 - free, free, breast on the 1:20 - 1:30
50 - free/back on the 1:00
25 free on the :30

Set 2 - 8 x 75 on the 1:20

Set 3 - 6 x 50 on the 1:00

Cool down - 50
Total - about 1900 - 2300 depending on your warm up choice


You can find TriSwim at several online retailers and at SBR Sports web site.  Even better follow TriSwim on Facebook and Instagram to stay up-to-date on any specials that they are running.  

Friends make it warmer!

I'm lucky to again be volunteering with the Bentonville Half Marathon training program.  We meet every Saturday morning for our group long run while training for the race on March 28th.  It's a chance to run with 285 of my closest running friends!

This past Saturday was much like the week...cold...seriously cold!  There was plenty of Facebook taunting throughout the week as well as a little bit of education on how to properly layer for cold weather.  The group is a mixture of brand new runners and some that are more experienced plus all of the Rush Running volunteers.

The temps were brisk and yet it was a perfect morning.  Around mile one, I shucked off my gloves.  The sun was coming up by then and I always seem to have hot hands.  The way that our volunteer crew works is that we run with the group and as we hit turns or street intersections at least one volunteer stops until they are replaced by another.  Our goal is to try and encourage each and every one of the group members.  I got to cheer lots of people on for one turn and then 1/2 mile later got to also work the turn around point for our route.

It was so much fun to be the turn around...lots of people were pumped to see me and make the turn back to the start.  I finished up the route and then headed back out to help run in some of the others still out on the course.  Several other volunteers did the same thing and I have a feeling that our encouragement was appreciated.

I ended up with just over 6 miles with the training group.  I headed home and picked up my dog to get some extra miles.  My house is right off the route that the group had run so I was running on one of the same streets as just 30 minutes earlier.  However this time, without the group, the temps felt so much colder.  I don't know what it was but it really was a struggle.  I had to put my gloves back on and wipe away some cold tears.  Thankfully I got warmed back up and was able to get to about 9 miles total for the day.

It felt good to get my long run built back up and it was so much fun to hear members of the group be so proud of themselves for hitting their longest runs yet.  It is so much fun to give back to this group and in turn receive so much from each of them.

A Work in Progress

Something that impacted my blogging this Fall was the process of buying and selling my home.  I had wanted to live in another town closer to my office for quite some time and the time was finally right to make that move.  It took about two months to list and actually sell my house and once a contract was in place the time flew by.

I moved around Labor Day and dealt with moving the same weekend as racing three triathlons.  Yikes!!! Thankfully I have an amazing family and awesome sisters who helped me clean the house and unpack.  The next months were spent slowly making the house my home and finishing my training for my Grand Canyon Rim to Rim adventure.

When I returned from finishing Rim to Rim I quickly got absorbed in my job with a hectic schedule that left me little time for much else.  The problem with this was that since October I had been trying to find the time to meet with my contractor to discuss flooring options for my home workout room.  This was one of the rooms that I was most excited about with my new house...a room just for my gym stuff.  Even better bonus was that my sister's treadmill was moving into my house too.

The house came with horrible carpeting that I replaced on move in day.  I was undecided on the gym room so that was the only room still with the original carpeting.  Fast forward to a few weeks before Christmas and discussing my wish list with my sister.  I told her that my big wish was for someone to coordinate my contractor for me since it is so hard to get away from the office to meet him.  And she did just that...she arranged for him to meet me on a vacation day after New Year's and I was able to finally get quotes and start arranging to have the flooring replaced.

It won't be done for a few weeks but tonight I got my bike set up and did my first trainer workout in my gym room.  I'm still working on hanging the motivation wall.  I need a few more race photos to go with the motivation quotes and I especially need to get a Grand Canyon photo printed to go with a cool Rim to Rim sign my parents got me for Christmas.

Here's the before and hopefully by February I'll have an after photo!  This is a panoramic photo taken while riding the bike trainer.