One more try for a group swim

I didn't get anyone to agree to go on a long swim next Thursday. After looking at the calendar and realizing I have the Monday after that off for Labor Day, that will be a better day for a long swim. So I'm planning to do 10 miles that day. Details not worked out yet, but probably going to do it in Pineview.

Let me know if you're interested in going, even if for a portion of it.

Quick lap around the toilet - 28:59

It was tough getting up this morning due to getting bed at 1 am last night. Last night's concert left my ears ringing when I went to bed.

Hit snooze three times and that resulted in my being late to meet Josh at Bountiful Lake by about 5 minutes. We planned to only go one lap cause we both have events this weekend. I have Bear Lake Tri and he has a open water swim from Alcatraz to SF.

So we started out fast and tried to keep a fast pace. When I got back to the start my watch stopped at 28:59. Not bad. I wanted under 30 minutes, but closer to 25. It was hard to maintain a really fast pace more than 5 minutes. But it was faster than normal.

The thermometer read 72 degrees this morning. It felt colder than that. If Bear Lake is 65 then I'm going to freeze my butt off, but I'm no longer wearing a wetsuit!!!!!

As Josh and I were talking afterwards in the water before getting out a fish bit him on his waist and scared him a little. The fish were sure active. We got out just as the sun was coming up over the mountain. There were some big ones jumping clear out of the water going for mosquitoes.

Still no word from anyone wanting to swim with me @ pineview next Thursday. I may have to go solo on that. I should probably find a support crew though as Cathi will be busy with kid stuff that evening.

Group swim @ pineview

I'm thinking about doing a swim @ pineview on Thursday, September 3rd. I found a good place to get in that is close to the water, offers parking, and you don't have to pay $10 to get in! Here is a google placemark to the spot to meet. I was hoping to start swimming @ 5:30pm to allow for a good two hours of swimming before it gets dark.

Let me know if you're interested in joining. Hoping to go around 4 miles or so.

4 laps in the toilet

This morning woke up to the alarm after it had already sounded for around 25 minutes. I was late! I jumped up hurried in to my suit and raced to Bountiful Lake. I texted Josh to let him know I'd be a little late.

The thermometer this morning read 70 degrees f. We did 4 laps in 2:01:24 coming to 4.4 miles

As I was doing the fourth lap I was reviewing in my mind the events of Julieann Galloway's training that I read up on last night. I can't get over how she was able to swim in that super cold sea water in Ireland during the winter months. Granted she'd swim 10 - 14 minutes or so, but that's simply amazing.

In my mind during the fourth lap, I also kept seeing her "pinup picture" which she posted in picasa. I'm a good mormon boy and don't go looking for bikini pics (or worse) on the internet, but after going through her album of her swims that was the last one. Man she looks good and given her history of all the training she had to do, she deserves a picture looking hot. Good for her!

4.4 miles in 2:01:24

Next weekend I have the Bear Lake Classic so I'll probably just do one lap in a sprint and see if I can get under 25 minutes.

Another entertaining couple videos of a channel crossing

So I found out the guy who took video of Juliann Galloway's crossing was Nick Adams. Apparently he is a heroic legend of his own right. He crossed the channel for the 6th (that's right six!) time this summer. Here is the video of that (part 1 and 2). Quite a bit of chop he had to get through. Talk about a sickening last few minutes! Nick Adam's is an inspiration and an animal! I love how fast a few of his feeds were. Fantastic!

Swimming Bear Lake according to Channel Swimming Association standards

I was hoping that there might be something on record showing John Quackenbush's historical swim from Idaho to Utah through Bear Lake. But surprisingly found that it had already been done by a guy named Neal Phelps. Check out the article here, The picture that accompanies the article however shows him in a wetsuit and snorkel.

While it was quite a feat even with a wetsuit, it isn't as impressive without a wetsuit which John Quackenbush did this last week.

When I do this swim in 2011, it will be according to the channel swimming association's standard - just a speedo, a cap, some earplugs and goggles.

At the same time, I don't mean to belittle the feat in a wetsuit, but it just isn't the same.

3 x 1 mile sets

1800 yards free - 26:16
50 grandpa swimming
1800 yards free - 26:31
50 grandpa swimming
1800 yards free - 26:06
50 grandpa swimming

5500 yards total

Bilateral breathing of course. From now on that is assumed. I've kicked the breathe only one side thing completely.

Felt strong and the last 150 of each set would pick up the pace until the last 50 is a sprint with really long reaching full and powerful strokes.

Results of the 2009 Deer Creek Open Water Swim

Cathi, Jacob and I slept in the van at the campground. It rained off and on all night. In the morning it was just partly cloudy. The themometer read 69 in the water. Steve and Meg showed up and started the race with me. I entered the 10 mile swim. There were about 8 swimmers in that event and about 50 swimmers total. Quite a bit more than last year.

The first 2 miles was choppy mostly because of all the other swimmers around me. Then we passed the 5K turnaround buoy and it was much less crowded. I took a buzz bite and then waited for another half mile for quick drink of water.

The wind started to pick up and then it started to rain. Then I had some pretty good waves coming in to me. I could see the flag on the kayak was consistently showing the wind direction coming pretty strong from the east. Passed the 10K turnaround and was making good time. Watch read 1:27.

Kept on going and noticed Meg and Steve were going headlong right into the waves. They were a good two feet high. I was having fun with the waves. They'd crash into me, but I felt strong and pushed through them. I felt like it was me against nature and I was kicking her ass.


I past another buoy saying to just keep going. Then I turned another bend and headed towards the 10 mile turnaround. The waves were getting more and more vicious. Then I saw off in the distance a boat with police lights flashing. It got closer and they tried yelling something at me. I couldn't hear with my earplugs in, but Meg and Steve started heading towards the shore. They said that lightning was coming and the race was canceled. I saw one lightning strike the water off in the distance while I was heading to shore. Guess what? I'm still here. I didn't feel anything.

After that I didn't see any other lightning although it was raining pretty good. Some people in a boat came and took me and the other three 10 mile swimmers at the front. When I got back it was still pretty windy but the rain was just sprinkling. I got the jetski on the trailer and went over to the east dock two miles towards Heber to pick up Meg and Steve. They were freezing. Took them back to their car and they drove home. Went back to get the kayak. Then drove home. By the time we got to Park City it was sunny. How annoying!

I was fuming the whole way home. I was so mad. I was feeling so good at the 4.5 mile mark. I was going strong. I was confident that I could do it. In fact I was looking forward to going another twenty minutes to get to the turn around and then practically body surf the whole way back. I stopped my watch when they made us stop and it said 2:09:40. According to Steve who had the GPS it was at 4.45.

Click the picture below for a short video:

From Swimming

When we dropped off the jetski and got home it was sunny outside. So I went on a 50 mile bike ride.

Inspirational Hero!

I love this video! Julie swam the channel in 9:51? That's fantastic! I'd love to have a video guy and support crew this upbeat and entertaining.

Water Samples

After noticing recently the huge differences in various lakes and reservoirs, I decided to have a little fun and take a visual water sample from five different places I've swam: Pineview, Deer Creek, Lake of The Woods, Bountiful Lake, and Bear Lake. Like any sample it's just that a sample. It's also a visual sample, it doesn't cover taste or actual cleanliness of the water. Can you guess which one is which? Leave a comment with your selections.

A:

From Water Samples

B:

From Water Samples

C:

From Water Samples

D:

From Water Samples

E:

From Water Samples

C:

Here are the correct answers.

Two laps in the toilet

Met with Josh at 6am this morning at Bountiful Lake. After swimming for two minutes (it was still pretty dim outside), I breathed to the left looking south and saw a huge shooting star. It was cool. Nearing the end of the first lap I breathed to the side and saw Josh's Brother, Jake treading water. I said hello and noticed someone else too. Josh's Dad, Kelly also was in the water.

We completed our second lap and the time was 1:02:45. Not bad considering we stopped for about a minute to say hi to Josh's family.

Distance: @ 2 miles
Time: 1:02:45

Now for some real tapering and carb hoarding. I paid for the deposit on the jetski for this Saturday and Steve and Meg are onboard. 10 miles here I come!

Test swim @ pineview - 7 miles

I took PTO today originally to be a support for John on his Bear Lake Swim (which I've not had an update on by the way). But he decided to do his swim yesterday which prevented me from being a support. So I decided that rather than go to work I would do a test to see if doing 10 miles this Saturday would be a possibility. So I took Cathi and Austin with me to Pineview to do a 7 mile swim. If I did 7 miles and still felt good at the end and not dead tired, I would go for the 10 mile.

Here's the map of what I did:


The water is higher than what shows in the satellite image for this map.

I spent a total of about 4 minutes telling Cathi and Austin to get closer, or too far, or avoid getting rammed in the back of the head. Austin thought it was funny. So I spit water at him when he got too close, or would yell out "Ramming speed!" to give them a bit of fun. The water temp at the beginning was 76 degrees. I started my swim at 9:51 am. Good thing Cathi put some sunscreen on cause it was totally sunny.

From Swimming

I took about 4-5 breaks where I took water, a buzz bite, and/or a nutrigrain bar. The last 2 miles Cathi had me sprint for 3 minutes, then go normal speed for 7 minutes. That made the last two miles go by kind of quick. That was a good idea. My shoulders were a little sore along with my lower back, but nothing totally painful. I really think 10 miles is a good distance and very achievable. So the plan is to rent a jetski and give Steve and Meg a break at the halfway point.


When I got at the end I was short by about a tenth of a mile so I crossed back over to the other side of the beach area to get the full 7 miles in. I checked the temp on the way out and it was 78 degrees. I stopped the clock and it showed 3:42:21. A little slower than the 30 min/mile goal, but much of that was due to joking and correcting my support boat.

I'm looking forward to this Saturday and will only be swimming once more this week: 2 miles on Wednesday morning with Josh @ Bountiful. After that, I'll be carbing up like a madman.

Swimming in the evening at Deer Creek

Josh updated his FB status reminding me of a group swim at Deer Creek this evening. When I initially heard about this group swim I decided it was too far and cast it out of my head. But after helping our neighbor last night to help cut up a tree that had split due to last night's microburst storm, I had to skip this morning's swim to take a trailer load of tree limbs to the dump.

I was planning on swimming this evening on the way home. Then I thought, I might as well go down and do some open water swimming in Deer Creek where it isn't warm and get some open water exposure.

Although I was a little nervous since there is some pretty strong storm activity going on throughout the Wasatch Front. What happens when lightning hits water? I've not heard of fish getting electrocuted to death and schools of fish dying, so the chances of me needing to reasonably be concerned is minimal. Although this picture isn't very reassuring.

We started the swim at 6:30 and swam down to the end south of the boat ramp, and then back north on the east side. Got back up to the bend across from the boat ramp and worked our way back. I'm sure Josh will post on his own blog the route from his GPS which he brought along.

In a few places the wind was really picking up and the waves were getting pretty good. It was fun. When it gets crazy in the water with waves and wind, you can't panic, go with it. Then you defy what mother nature throws at you. Not by fighting it, but by going with it. I would just make my recovery higher and then focus on a good long reach. I kept my momentum always moving forward.

When we finished it was nearly dark: 8:55pm. We swam for 2:23 and according to Josh's GPS swam 4.39 miles. The thermometer I threw in when I first got there read 73 degrees. It was the perfect temperature. It could have been a little colder, and I would have been fine. The difference between 73 and 84 is huge so I imagine the difference between 73 and say 62 would be just as dramatic. I need some serious cold water swimming.

What a fun time! The water didn't have a bitter taste to it, like Bountiful Lake. Which I'm going to start referring to as "the toilet". However, swimming at Deer Creek cost me $10, while swimming in "the toilet" is free. So either way, your gonna pay for it.

Looking forward to next weekend to swim the 10K.

4 Mile Swim in Bountiful Lake

Met Josh at 6am and waited for a few minutes for another guy who never showed up. Did three laps with Josh and he was right with me. He's getting faster. Didn't have any breakfast and so I was running on empty. My muscles weren't getting fatigued, just low on energy.

During the third lap I thought to myself that I really ought to do one more, so I did that. Next week I'll do just two since Deer Creek is next Saturday and ought to taper a bit.

John Quackenbush's Bear Lake Swim is coming up this weekend. I have Monday off work to go help support him. I bet he's getting really excited. It's gonna be fun.

Stats:

4 laps = @ 4.4 miles
Time Elapsed = 2:10
Temperature = 77 degrees (Much better in the morning)

Finally back to normal

After last Saturday's Bair Gutsman race, I've as stiff and sore as a dog! Sunday and Monday were especially painful. This evening I swam at the Clearfield pool. The water was cloudy and warm! Almost as bad as the Bountiful Lake, except with a chlorine aftertaste instead of dirt. Decided to just go for long and easy strokes:

3600 - 2 x 1800 free on 30:00

Now to go to bed, only to get up at 5:15 to go swim again with Josh at Bountiful Lake. Looking forward to it!