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!

3 Responses to “Quad Crossing”