Archive for June, 2009

Rob and I about to start lap 2

Yesterday I successfully did a quad crossing of Donner Lake. I am wondering if anyone else has done that. It was a great training swim for me. The gps read 11.04 miles, 5 hr 24 min. I think of that swim as the equivalent to half the length of Tahoe or the equal to the width of Tahoe.
I felt strong the entire swim. I started out with my swim partner, Rob, who did a double crossing. He was on a mission to move along as fast as he could. I stuck with him but was a little concerned about expending to much energy on the first two lengths. On the first lap we took a slightly longer course because we swam over to the south shore and had originally planned to hug the shore. Once we realized that there was only one boat on the lake we cut into the middle of the lake and swam straight down. First lap took us 1 hr 20 min. I had stopped to feed only once on the first lap. I should have stopped twice but Rob was moving quickly and wasn’t stopping to feed at all. We both took a quick feeding at the other end and started back. On the second lap I stopped to feed twice and we finished the lap at 1 hr 16 min. Way to negative split! I dropped Rob off, took in some nutrition and pushed off. For the first two laps the lake was so smooth, now the wind started to pick up. The wind was to my back so it wasn’t bad but I would be turning and swimming back into it for lap 4. A few times in my mind I started to think that 3 laps would be good but the car was at the other end. It was probably faster for me to swim back than to wait for Dan to kayak back and come back with the car. I swam the 3rd lap in 1 hr 22 min. I shoved off for the last lap and figured I would use it as a cool down. Really stretch it out and focus on using the larger muscles in my back. The wind was coming straight at us and Dan had to put on his dry jacket and gloves. I just imagined that I was a a large ship cutting through the water and it worked. The wind started to let up about 3/4 of the way back. I finished out lap 4 at 1 hr 26 min.
I am very happy with my performance yesterday. I do have some soreness in my deltoids but with a little more rest and some stretching today it should subside quickly. Thanks so much to Dan for his patience and support. Thank you and congratulations to Rob for his strong double crossing. He said next time he will go for a three!

On this Father’s day I would like to tell you what my Dad has done for me in regards to swimming. First and foremost I would like to thank my entire family for the sacrifices that were made in order to have me swim at the level that I did. Sacrifices that included hardly ever taking a family vacation except if it involved a swim meet, my Mother’s endless hours in the car, either driving to swim practice or waiting for me during, my brother who cooked dinner for us nightly because my Mother was in the car. For all of this I am forever grateful.

My Father’s role during my swimming career was that of “the organizer”. He made sure that I was entered into every swim meet that I needed to attend, in a timely fashion. He dictated all of the pertinent information to my Mother, who would type all of my consolidated entry forms to be submitted. This was very unusual. When it was time for a race, you would stand at the board where the meet director would post all of these entry forms for you to take to the timers at the beginning of the race. I always felt so lucky. My consolidated entry form was always easy to spot because it was the only one typed, not handwritten. This is one small advantage I had because of the help of my Dad. I thank him for this.

When I out grew the team that I was swimming on. My Dad researched another team that would better suit my swimming ambitions. The team that they chose for me was over an hour drive from where we lived. I remember the first day that my Mother was going to drive me to my new team to try it out. My Dad had left a map that he had made for us. Similar to what you would find on Google maps today. Except he had hand drawn it, highlighted the proper path, left us notes of points of interest along the way and had given us a second course we could take home to see which one we liked best. I thank him for this.

My Dad was my archivist during my time age group swimming. To this day I still have the countless books, logs, and scrapbooks that he made in order to organize all of the information. Can you believe that I have data for every single swim I did starting at age 4. The data contains my time, place, who I swam against, where it was… it is unbelievable. He never gave up on collecting this data. My scrapbooks are complete from the time I started swimming to my last race. I thank him for this.

Recently he sent me a book that he had made for me recounting my swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to the San Mateo Bridge. It contained photos chronicling the swim, my time, who was on my crew…once again exemplifying his amazing skill at keeping track of my swimming. Most of all it showed how proud he was of me. I thank him for this.

These are just a few examples of what my Dad has done for me and my swimming. So, on this Father’s day I am thankful to my Dad for all that he has done, shown me and taught me. I only wish I was as organized as him!

I have decided to postpone my Donner Lake x 4 swim until Tuesday.  The weather forecast for Sunday is calling for winds earlier in the day up to 25-30 mph. This training swim is so that I can get my arms going around for approximately 6 hours. I feel as though I have had enough wind training lately. I don’t want to have to struggle through the swim. I am looking for a smooth training session.

I will spend 2 or 3 hours in Tahoe instead today and tomorrow. I will rest on Monday and be ready for Tuesday. I am really looking forward to a bit of warmer weather that will be visiting us next week.

The new format for my blog is a work in progress. I will be  including a twitter link to my site so that during any big swim, anyone can follow me via twitter.  Ultimately I am setting up this site so that it will include my sponsors and links to photo galleries. I am having a great time figuring out how to put it all together. I hope you enjoy it.

Rob and I at Donner Lake swim 2008

This Sunday I will be doing a quadruple crossing of Donner Lake. Lake Tahoe doesn’t seem to be warming up as quickly as I had hoped. So, I will be doing my training in Donner. I am thinking that it will take me 6+ hours to do the 11+ mile swim. I will be accompanied for 2 of the lengths by my friend and one of my favorite swim partners Rob. I think this will be Rob’s longest swim to date.  Rob, my friend Jen and I have been meeting every Tuesday morning during the summer months at Donner Lake for the past 3 years. We met last Tuesday for our first swim of the year.  I always know that summer is just around the corner when we are standing at the lakes edge getting ready to dive in.

I feel physically and mentally prepared to accomplish this swim. I will be trying a new addition to my feeding regimen. On my last multi- hour swim I battled hunger. The type of hunger that only solid food could satisfy. At the advice of an accomplished marathon swimmer, Laura advised me that I might try liquid oatmeal to satisfy that hungry feeling. I have decided to take her advice and with the additional advice of my sports nutritionist, I will be adding a little fruit juice to the oatmeal. My plan is to take in this liquid concoction at about hour 3. I am hoping that this will get rid of the hunger pangs and give me a little extra boost in energy.

I am looking forward to this swim and since the weather is suppose to be really nice, I will be enjoying a beautiful day in the lake.  Our crew will be Dan in the kayak. It will be quite an accomplishment for him also to be out for the 6 or more hours. Great practice for my big swim in August.