1000 miles swam in open water

This morning I woke up with some shoulder pain just by lifting it.  This is new.  Not the typical ache at my ac joint.  Seems like it's my deltoid muscle itself and not the joint.  Who knows.  If it doesn't get better by tomorrow afternoon, I'll schedule an appointment with Dr. Gardiner like I should have done in the first place a few weeks ago.

So I hurried to hook up the trailer and got out to Pineview to paddle for Chad, Goody, and Sarah.  I stopped at Walmart

and picked up a nice headlamp and some glow sticks.   Met at the marina and got all ready to go.  We were in the water at 0440 and Sarah went at a slightly faster pace and had to stop a few times to let the boys catch up.

We got to the buoy line and I encouraged them to sprint the distance which is about 300 yards or so.  Then we made our way up the south side and then the sun started to show a little bit of light on the horizon.  When we got to the "Cigarette Buoys" as Goody calls them, I saw that Emily and Michelle's car was at the parking lot.  We were about 15 minutes past due so we had to hurry.

When we arrived they were on the beach preparing to get in.  Took a bit of coaxing, but we got them in.  Goody escorted Emily along the buoy line (1 mile), while Sarah and I escorted Michelle.  They did great.  They still are new to open water swimming and are a little apprehensive about it, but with more practice and confidence they'll do just fine.  They're strokes look good, it's just a matter of practice and persistence.

Looking forward to another session.  Chad's big Dam to Dam swim is this Friday.  He's planning to do one more big workout this week, and then taper down for a fully energized day in Idaho on the water.  Good luck Chad, you're gonna do awesome.

Oh, I hit a pretty big milestone this past weekend at the swim camp.  1000 miles swam in open water in my lifetime.  Doesn't sound like a lot, considering I also just hit over 5000 miles total (both pool and open water swimming).

Given the 10,000 hour rule for being a master in your field of choice, which actually Malcolm Gladwell, the inventor of the 10,000 hour rule, clarifies as not being completely relevant to sport.   Anyhow, given a 30 minute mile, I've only achieved 2,500 hours of swimming.  In order to get the 10,000 hours, I'll need to quadruple my total so far.  At the rate of swimming 500 miles/year till I'm 80, I'll finally achieve that distance of swimming the circumference of the earth at the equator. Woah!  I wonder how many miles someone like Phelps has swam in his lifetime.