Osaka: The First Few Days

Osaka: The first few Days


We are settling in nicely. Within the first 24 hours there have been 3 practices and naps have been discouraged. The result has been a quick adaptation, which is almost complete. As always there are the naysayers. One of the staff was talking with his wife at how tired he felt, she assured him it would be okay to take a nap. He crashed for 90 minutes and spent the night trying to fall asleep!

The first 3 sessions in the pool were low key, low volume and low heart rate. Donovan looked exceptional and yesterday there was a little tickle set looking for some speed and consistency. I had no great expectations, but his speed, consistency and stroke rate was there, a very good early sign.

Yesterday Craig McCord and I went with Amber Thomas (another totally blind swimmer) and Donovan to do some tourist activity. We settled on The National Science Museum as the brochure suggested a more tactile environment for our blind swimmers. After only the occasional wrong turn , using our best orienteering skills and pure luck we were upon the site. It seemed very quiet ! Closed Mondays! We did not feel so badly given here was a Japanese family who had suffered the same fate. ( Remember Chevy Chase in Vacation, this was our Wally World!)

After subjecting Amber and Donovan to the 7-story superstore of electronics at Umeda we stopped for Sushi. We marveled at the fresh dishes presented on a conveyor belt requiring us to retrieve whatever we wanted. The dishes were pilled high and we had no idea what the bill was to be, I estimated about $70.00. The waitress came to the table, scanned the dishes and printed the bill at the table, the cost was 50% of my estimate. We will be going back.

Last night , we got off on the 44th floor. I took Donovan to 4406 , he did not have a key as it was with his roommate. For some reason there is only 1 key per room a policy of the hotel that does not seem modifiable. He dutifully knocked on the door and called for Joe. There was bustling in the room and a disheveled Japanese businessman came to the door, all he could see was a man with a white cane, it was obvious to him what had happened, a few bows and apologies later we were on our way to the floor below!

The coaching staff has been out regularly, on runs or exploratory walks. They too have been looking for bargains at the Umeda store. On one of the floors there is a whole department on health aides such equipment as treadmills, foot massagers, belly vibrators and believe it or not home mechanical bulls , purported to improve core strength. At one point 4 staff were on these things at once, making quite a commotion. You can just hear Shane Esau in this picture! The next day when we returned with Amber and Donovan the machines were unplugged.








This morning we did Rusko’s; this is a standardized test to diagnose fatigue or stress with the swimmers. I have found it an invaluable tool but finding the required time in a busy schedule is often a challenge. The swimmer lies on the floor until the heart rate is stable, usually 3 minutes and then stands. Heart rates are then taken over the next 3 minutes; immediately after standing and then each minute thereafter. The data points are analyzed for resting heart rate values, the amount of rise when standing and the ability to stabilize a standing pulse. Shane Esau, our physiologist has a system utilizing heart rate monitors with unique frequencies to identify all the swimmers on the team. The data is captured in real time so 21 swimmers can be tested simultaneously. This is very efficient and a lot less time consuming. Donovan’s resting heart rate this AM was fine, 48/min, his response to posture was appropriate but he showed some variability the last minute. To be frank not what I expected, he just looks so good in the pool and subjectively feels fine. We elected to throw a challenge at him doing 10 repeat 100’s with every third at 400 pace. He passed with flying colors!

In these photos you can see the swimmers supine on the floor waiting for their pulse rates to stabilize. Below is a tracing of heart rate vs time, it is a normal tracing. Not all are normal and coaches are modifying workouts to take this data into account