Archive for May, 2010

This past Saturday, May 15th,  I accomplished a training swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to the San Mateo Bridge, a distance of 23 miles. I swam it in 7 hours and 21 minutes, bettering my previous time by 36 minutes, and beating the woman’s record by 33 minutes.  The conditions were absolutely perfect. In the south bay the winds come down off the San Bruno mountains and stir up the water something fierce. On this swim everything lined up in my favor including the direction of the wind. When it did start to stir up, it was blowing in the exact direction I was swimming and I was being pushed along instead of having to fight it.

The entire swim felt easy. It was a very happy swim. I had my trademark smile plastered on my face the entire time. I even had enough gas left in the tank in the end to tease Roper. When I was about 2 miles from the San Mateo Bridge, I swam up to the mother ship and told Roper that I thought  I had enough and wanted to get back on board.  If you don’t know Bob Roper then let me tell you one of his nicknames.  He is fondly called Bob “you’re not getting back on the boat” Roper. The look on his face was priceless and I thought to myself later that I shouldn’t have given his ticker such a startle. I just had so much energy left at that stage that I thought it would be fun to mess with everyone.

There is not much to report  for this swim. It was easy start to finish. I had very little pain except a bit of bicep rub on my humerus. That was easily cured with a couple of advil. My feedings were perfect and for the first time ever I didn’t throw up.  I didn’t have any profound thoughts or revelations. My mind was like a blank slate the entire time, happily dumb, I call it. I knew exactly where I was on the swim. I divided it up into three parts, Golden Gate Bridge to Bay Bridge, Bay Bridge to Candlestick Park and Candlestick Park to San Mateo Bridge. I knew exactly how long each leg would take me and the rest of the swim was just about getting my arms going around for 7+ hours.

My crew was the highlight of the entire swim. I was so happy to be back on board Changes in Attitude. Dewey and Mark are the nicest guys and were equally excited to be out there as I was. Paul Springer and Chas Ferrari are new additions to my Farallones team. They both did an incredible job of navigating and feeding me and I feel so comfortable with them as my kayak support. I am really glad they will both be a part of my big day. When I saw Chas having an Anchor Steam on board with a few miles to go I thought to myself these guys are perfect team members. As for Bob, I would not be able to do any of this without him. He organizes and directs all of my training swims and even takes my teasing.  The whole day would never have happened if it wasn’t for these guys.  It was a true team effort.

I have a few more weeks of moderate training left.  We will be going back out to the sea buoy on the 25th for my final long swim. My goal for that swim will be to swim it all the way into Aquatic Park. After that I will slowly start tapering and completing my mental preparations for the Farallones.  I am closing in on accomplishing my goal and it feels good.

Here is a video that my Dad made…enjoy.

I finished out my week at 64,000 pool yards. I had hoped to go a full ten days but on day 4  I came down with a weird cough. It wasn’t a regular cough like being congested, it was a wheezing cough. I had never experienced this before so I did a little research and this is what I found out.

Are Indoor Pools Bad for Your Lungs?

After being out of the pool for two days my cough is completely gone. I think I will rest and recover so that I will be ready for my Golden Gate Bridge to San Mateo Bridge (23 mile) swim this Saturday. I am really excited and looking forward to being in the bay again.

After my workout today, I am now half way done with my 10 x 10,000 yard challenge.  As I stood at the end of the pool ready to start,  I thought that today was surely going to be the day that I was going to struggle.  Nope, not yet….it seemed really easy.  Rob brought the workout, actually he brought 3 workouts to choose.  I picked the one that was 7200 yards and with a little tweeking we quickly made it into a 10,000 yard workout.  The time just flew by thanks to Rob.  It seems like I am less crazy when someone else is doing the same thing.  Here is how we broke it down:

200 each of  swim, kick, swim, pull, swim

8×50  kick  1-4 build, 5-8 descend

8×200 pull

4×500  swim

4×400  pull

4×300  swim

4×200  kick

4×100  swim

10×100 swim

Notes: I love sets where each amount of yards is less than the last.  It makes it feel like they are getting easier instead of harder. After the completion of each 4 during the main set, I would give a big YAY! after.   I liked that Rob made me kick more, it felt nice to rest my arms.  All in all it felt great and after 3 hours in the water, I could have kept going for hours. This is exactly how I am supposed to be feeling in my training. I am right on track!

Okay, I thought today was going to be the day that I hit the wall but it wasn’t. Zed was nice enough to drive Birk to school so I decided to get it all done in the morning.  Here is how I did it:

6 x 1650 yrds + 100 yrd sprint (I did it off the blocks and I thought I was going to die)

Notes: Super happy to swim the first one with Rob.  Why does it seem so easy when he is pacing me?  In the middle of the whole main set I did a 1650 for time and dang if it wasn’t one of the faster 1650’s I have done lately…21 minutes 10 seconds. That must mean something.  Due to all of the chlorine, I feel like I am starting to form a hard shell around me.  My suit that was electric blue is now blue gray. Thank goodness for TriSwim shampoo, conditioner, body wash and lotion. They all remove chlorine and neutralize the smell.  My nose will run all day though.  I know the lifeguards think that I am crazy…so when I left today I said “I am out of here, I have had enough of you people”.  I took a portion of a lane for the full 3 hours today. Good to see all my friends.

I have given myself a training challenge for this last push before my Farallones swim. When I was an age group swimmer I think it was called “Hell Week”.  It was a one week period of time prior to beginning  a taper for a big meet.  Well, I have designated May as “Hell Month”, this is my last chance to put in as much training as possible.  Starting last Saturday, May 1st, I challenged myself to 10 days x 10,000 yrds.  When I calculate the total mileage per day it comes out to be 5.68 miles/day.  That doesn’t seem like a lot in the grand scheme of the type of swimming I do but it is a lot for a pool, a lot of flip turns and way too much chlorine.  It takes me about 2.5 hours to accomplish this yardage each day. The biggest challenge has nothing to do with swimming. It has to do with keeping up on my chores, still making it home in time to take Birkley to school and having enough energy at the end of the day.  I have completed day 3 now and it has been interesting how I have decided to break up the yardage. Here is how I have done it so far:

Day 1-

10 x 1000 yrds (as follows)

1000 swim, 1000 pull, 1000 kick, 1000 swim, 1000 pull, 1000 swim, 1000 pull, 1000 swim, 1000 pull, 1000 warm down

Notes: The time passed very quickly. The hard part is not stopping to talk to everyone at the pool.   It takes 15 minutes to do 1000 yrds at a leisurely pace, so I was taking in nutrition every 15 minutes.  No residual soreness. I felt at peace at the end and felt like I had just finally warmed up as I was warming down. That is a good sign!

Day 2 -

20 x 500 yrds (as follows)

500 swim, 500 swim, 500 pull, 500 pull, 500 kick…repeat 3 more times.

Notes: Boring, boring, boring but still completed what I set out to do. Really wanted to talk to everyone.  Mouth was swollen from the chlorine.  Very hungry after.  Took a stellar Sunday nap and only felt soreness in my right heal from pushing off the wall.  Feels easier than I thought is was going to be.

Day 3-

Ladder set up to 1000 (as follows)

100 swim, 200 swim, 300 swim, 400 pull, 500 swim (fast), 600 pull (broken into 3×200), 700 swim, 800 pull (broken into 4×200) 900 swim (broken into 3×300), 1000 swim (all out fast), 900 pull (broken into 3×300), 800 swim, 700 pull (broken into 300 pull hard, 50 easy x 2) 600 kick, 500 swim (fast), 400 pull (broken into 4×100), 300 swim, 200 swim easy, 100 swim easy

Notes: I really thought this was going to be the hardest day but it wasn’t….I had no soreness to start and felt like my shoulders were stronger than ever.  Easy to quiet my mind for long periods. This is going smoother that I thought. Still wanted to visit with everyone at the pool. I hope I am not making anybody mad because I won’t stop to talk. Forgive me if I ignored you…I am on a mission.

Tomorrow will be Day 4.  I will not have enough time to fit in the entire 10,000 yards during the morning because I have to get Birk to school. So, I will swim 5000 ish in the early morning and the rest at lunch time. I bet breaking it up will feel easier. Stay tuned to see if I can complete 7 more days.