Buzz Bite Testimonial

Swimming with SALT

This morning the pool was insanely crowded.  There were a ton of UofU capped swimmers in the lanes.  I figure it was the U swim team or something.  I swam with Gary in the far lane where it was just three in the lane.  Swam 1100 yards before going outside.

In the LCM pool swam 1,900 meters with SALT masters club.  Then swam with the 2nd masters group coached by Dominique.  Swam 2,100 meters with them, then did 1,500 more meters on my own afterwards:

Total: 7,000 yards in 2:00

My lower back is really giving me trouble.  It's not swimming related, its from an injury I got a while back playing soccer with Lucy. Going for another visit to Dr. Dudley today.

Prepping for LV10K

This morning I got in 1400 yards before swimming Kirsten's workout:

600 warmup: 300 swim, 200 kick, 100 pull
400 - 4 x 100's fly/free combination on 1:30
200 kick with fins dolphin kick on back
600 - 200 back, 8 x 25's kick on back on :55 , 8 x 50's swim on :50
400 - 200 breast, 8 x 25's breast on :40
800 - 16 x 50's free on :45
200 easy

Then went to the north side and swam 200 more easy

Total: 5,000 yards 

Need to do some organizational stuff (organize results of Cinco De Mayo, and other follow up stuff on GSLOW), so I cut the swim short so I could get to work at a decent time.  Will plan a longer swim tomorrow at Steiner.

For Mother's Day I cut off my chops.  We're planning to get some family pictures tomorrow and Cathi begged me to get those "goofy things" off.  Made me sad to get rid of them.  Now I'm forced to shave every single morning so I make sure that I don't swim with any kind of scratchies.
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12:00pm - Lifted with Alex.  Getting buff.  I'm starting to really like the burn when doing ab work.  I also bought some Vitargo powder that James Hardy suggested I try.  Also got some Creatine ATP powder.  I should be set for a while.


5:00pm - Met Chad at Bountiful Lake.  It was raining and the air temp was 54 degrees.  Chad said he heard thunder close by, so we waiting about 30 minutes for the storm to pass and then the sun came out.  We got changed and I put my watch in the water near the ramp.  60 degrees.  Not too bad.

As we waded in I realized that the the watch wasn't in long enough cause this was much cooler than 60 degrees.  Decided to just do one Josh Green Loop.  Slowly waded in and after a couple minutes of stalling with Chad I did heads up breast stroke for a minute, then went for it.  Once I got to the west side of the islands I took another temp with my watch: 54.6 degrees!  Swam fast along the

southern edge of the islands.  When I got back to the start I skulled along and got out.  Man that was cold!

Total for the day: 6,320 yards and 1.5 hours of lifting.

Clinic #1 for 2014

Last Saturday we held our club's GSL Cleanup, we had 9 adults and 4 youth help clean up for 2.5 hours at the marina, picking out weeds.  We got a lot done and had fun doing it.  Here are some pics:

A house centipede we found in the flower
garden we were weeding

Weeding the fire pit area

Looks so much better!

Our group minus Lucy who took the picture

Josh presents some information at the clinic.

Kids looking for bunnies while the swimmers
were going.

Brenda and Gustavo Flores taking their first swim in
the GSL.

Josh and I presented some information and then wend down to the dock for a short swim.  The wind was blowing well enough to generate some pretty good chop.  This clinic was supposed to be a beginner level clinic, so we decided to keep the swim to the inside of the marina walls.

Gustavo and Brenda Flores participated and this was their first swim in the GSL.  It was a first also for Louisa (sp?).  Sarah, Sue, Chad, and Josh all went out for a short swim with them. The water was still cool and came in at 60 degrees.


Here is the content of the clinic information

Hail to England

This morning's swim at Steiner was very misty.  It rained last night and the air was humid and cool, the pool

water was warmer than the air and steam was coming off the water even though the water temp was 80 degrees.  Much cooler than the typical pool in Utah.  It was awesome.  I felt like I was swimming in England again.

This song came to mind.

Swam 1000 yards inside before they opened the LCM pool.  Then did:

3 x 1000 free focus on good form and EVF.
1000 pull, cruise pace
2 x 1000 free good form
400 kick with fins, 50 back, 50 breast

6,500 M + 1,000 yards = 8,100 yards total in 2:20

Cold rough water swim in the GSL

This is not how bad it was today.  Probably half this bad.

Met up with Chad and Sam at the GSL Marina tonight.  It was raining and the air temp was in the 50s.  The wind was going fairly strong from the west.  I suggested that we swim to the marina opening and follow the Total time was 35:13 and distance on Chad's GPS was 1.3 miles
buoy line east towards Saltair and then turn around and swim back to Silversands beach.  They all agreed.

Fun, but not my favorite to swim in that crap.  The water was cool: 56 degrees and I was shaking pretty good on the way home.  Took a shower at my Mom's cause I was just too dang cold and I don't have heat in my piece of crap car.

Looking forward to tomorrow morning's swim at Steiner.

First day at Steiner's 50M pool!

This morning I woke up to the alarm just having come out of a pretty vivid dream.  I talked with Cathi about it, and then hurried off to Steiner.  They opened their outdoor LCM pool yesterday and I was eager to watch the sun rise during my swim.

I got there before the 6:30 outdoor pool opening, so I swam 1,650 SCY before.

I swam 6 x 1000's watching my 100 intervals and kept them under 1:45.

That was a good pace that I could hold all day.  I did pull the 5th 1000, but other than that swam with no equipment.

1,650 yards + 6000 Meters = 8,200 yards total in 2:15

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This evening I was supposed to meet Jim at Bountiful Lake, but it ended up just being me.  I was pressed for time so I only got in one lap.

Total: 1.05 miles open water in 30 minutes

Saturday Morning Cool down

This morning I swam with South Davis Masters and then met Sarah at Bountiful Lake for a morning open water swim at 9am:

Here's Lynette's workout:

12 x 150's odd free, even fly/back breast by 50
12 x 50's odd 12 kick then 3 strokes, even swim
150 - 6 x 25's skull, kick

3 sets of {
    25 fast/ 25 easy
    3 x 50's fast on 1:00,
    100 easy

200 - 8 x 25's sprint on 1:00
250 easy

3,600 yards in 1:20

Then did one full lap in Bountiful Lake.  Started to get cold, and also annoyed with the number of fisherman so I joined Sarah in her smaller laps around the two islands which is shorter than a perimeter swim, but also avoid fisherman completely.  Did two of those. 

GPS read 2.25 miles when I got out.  The water temp according to my watch ranged from 60 - 62 degrees.

Total 4.25 miles

Cinco De Mayo Postal

This morning I slept in.  Wow, my lifting has been taking a toll (in addition to yesterday's pushups between 100s).  I did 300 pushups yesterday and my lats and triceps are feeling it.  At this point I set a goal just to get under 6:00, but 5:45 would be the ideal target.

The Masters team did a nice warmup that Kris organized:

Warm-up: 100 Choice Swim
100 IM DRILL
100 Kick
100 Pull opt. (400)
Warm-up Set: All 50’s @.15-.20 Rest
1 x 50 Free EZ
1 x 50 Choice Build to 80%
1 x 50 Free EZ
2 x 50 Choice Build to 85%
1 x 50 Free EZ
3 x 50 Choice Build to 90%
1 x 50 Free EZ
4 x 50 Choice Build to 95% (700)

Then helped time and count for the previous two heats of swimmers.  Then it was my turn.  I went out slow and at 100 just tried to maintain a strong pace.  Felt good.

I ended up with a 5:44.89.  Nice!  I'll take that given, I'm hairy as a rat, didn't wear a cap, and sore as a dog.

Didn't warm down.  Total: 1,600 yards

After work I stopped by at Bountiful Lake where I met Sarah for a swim around the lake.  The water was fantastic.  No breeze, the sun was out and the water temp was perfect.  61 degrees at the coldest spots on the lake, and 66.8 at the highest.  I swam two full laps around the outside edge, staying far enough out that I wouldn't interfere with all the fishermen.  GPS read 2.10 miles when I was done.

Good times.  Daily total: 3.0 miles

A very simple soup

Stuff that is in regular sea water.

Saw this article about what exactly is in an average drop of seawater.

But in the Great Salt Lake, our soup isn't quite so diverse, although I've never actually looked at it under a microscope.  Most of the other stuff from the sea simply doesn't live in the Great Salt Lake and if it was somehow transported there, it wouldn't survive.  The only organisms that survive, and thrive in the Great Salt Lake are mainly:

Brine Shrimp - these little things
make some of my swims
entertaining.  I'll take swimming with
these over sharks any day.

• Brine Shrimp - I love these little guys.  They just swim around all day in little tiny circles, they don't bite, they don't get in my mouth, and they're kinda cute.  I attended a presentation about the Brine Shrimping industry a while back at one of the Great Salt Lake Tech Meetings.  It was fascinating how much revenue these things generate!
• The Brine Shrimp's food supply: Free Floating Microbes - Dunaliella.  In the spring the brine shrimp feed on this stuff and it really improves the water clarity.  Soon the bottom can be seen while swimming and the sunlight actually reaches the bottom, and provides energy for the bottom dwelling bacteria.
• Bottom Dwelling Cyanobacteria - which I asked Dave about and he called it carpet algae.  It typically stays on the bottom, but in the summer months detaches from the Bioherms(see below) and comes to the surface, and to the typical lake visitor the carpet algae that floats on the surface looks like cow pies.  Pretty disturbing to the new swimmer.  The brine flies love this stuff, they feed off it.  So in the summer when the carpet algae starts to surface and the brine fly population explodes, I'm outta there and heading up to Pineview on a regular basis.
• Bioherms: These things are cool to see when the water clears up.  It's like flying in a jet over the Sierra Nevada range.  In between the bioherms are patches of sand.  It's really cool.  The bioherms often have a soft carpet type feel to them.  The bioherms are the remnants of the cyanobacteria and is

  

  Brine Flies and carpet algae. Not a
  favorite thing for a GSL swimmer.

  Limestone, the lake's special reef which is the reason why we have a buoy line leading out from the marina.  There is a channel where the bioherms don't thrive and allows the boats to actually get out into the lake.  If the boats scrape along the bottom and hit a bioherm, that could be tragic for the boat.
• Brine Flies - These are the critters that thrive in the warm summer months.  For me they don't bother me in the water, but on the surface where it makes breathing difficult when you inhale a bunch of these things.  During the spring/fall/winter, the brine flies are dead, so that is my favorite time of year to swim in the GSL.
• Birds - the Great Salt Lake is a huge melting pot for many bird species.  Without the GSL many birds would be in huge trouble and could go extinct.

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Now as for this morning's swim: 

Got in the pool at 0530 and did: 

500 free easy

400 kick with fins

300 - 3 x 100's back/free/breast

200 IM

100 drill

25 breast

19 x 100's free - get out and do 10 pushups (4 @ 2:15, 4 @ 2:10, 4@2:05, 4@2:00, 3 no rest) with 20 pushups afterwards (200 pushups total)

75 breast

2 x (400 pull, 4 x 100's TT desc on 1:30, 8 x 50's kick/back/free/drill)

100 warmdown

6,000 yards total in 1:48