Ever since February 2010, when I got my first and only ear infection, I've always worn ear plugs when I swim. That painful experience made me realize that something as lame as an ear infection can potentially do more damage to my body that a random jelly encounter or shark attack, granted I'm not a regular ocean swimmer so that even reduces the chances.
I have tried a few different types of ear plugs, and the ear plugs I prefer are these. I just keep them in my goggle box so I don't lose them. They're pretty expensive, but worth it. I also use these plugs for when I've attended crazy loud concerts, or even at scout camp to avoid hearing the boys' late night conversations through the tent walls, or my fellow leader's snoring.
AllEarPlugs.com (a UK based retailer), recently sent me a "Save Your Hearing" press release. AllEarPlugs is all about hearing protection, not just related to swimming. If I was a UK resident I would consider buying from them, but the shipping costs don't make sense for me to be a customer, but I do support ear protection awareness. Check them out.
This morning's workout was all about IM. Kirsten provided this morning's workout. I swam with Seth in lane 6:
Today, August 24th is the date Capt Matthew Webb started his swim across the English Channel in 1875, which was successfully completed the day after.
It is suggested that this grand, legendary day be considered as the first World Marathon Swimming Day, being a date we as marathon swimmers hold in high regard.
Next year I will prepare in advance and organize a community swim in Utah to properly respect this day with fellow local open water swimmers. Until then, here is a short video of my English Channel swim. The first swim that made my imagination explode with excitement:
I think you are much better off spending your money on a good coach who can teach you how to correct and balance your stroke and help you with open water skills like sighting. That is an investment that will last much longer than a pair of goggles, and will also help you to get faster by getting to the root of the problem and not just putting a bandaid on it.
I met one of the founders of iolite and he's a nice guy so it's nothing personal against him, but the product instead of making the athlete a better swimmer, gives them yet another crutch which in some cases can propel him ahead of another swimmer of the same skill level without really overcoming the weakness of failing to swim straight.
Last night I was in the dog-house with Cathi and ended up sleeping in my car at Jordanelle. The plan was to swim with Chad this morning, but not so early, but since I made a bad move with my woman the swim was early. We got up early (0350) and started our swim at 0430. I swam 3 buoy laps (3 miles) and met up with Josh who swam one more lap with Chad and I. The water was glass the whole time.
I was cold getting in. The air temp was 55, but the water temp was 68. The water felt practically warm and the first three laps each buoy seemed to come really fast. I was surprised how "untired" I was. However half way into the third 1 mile lap my shoulders were feeling a little sore so I figured I'd stop at 4 miles.
I'm getting really excited for Chad's swim. Yesterday I put together this contest to generate a little support from the online community. It's always nice when people recognize an athletic achievement in the making. Observing the effort that Chad has put into his training has been inspirational and he deserves a little attention as a role model of dreaming big, putting in the hard work and making his dreams come true.
Total: 4 miles in 2:17:38 (a good 10 minutes of socializing with Chad and Josh)
This morning Cathi and I boarded a train in Skagway to go up White Pass to Bennett Lake, where many people went to for during the Alaska Gold Rush in 1849. I picked this excursion because it was the only place where I was confident that I could swim without boats, and without being told I couldn't swim there.
The ride on the train was fun. It was rainy and cold on the way up there. When we arrived they invited everyone in to the replica train station where they served lunch. The stop was only for one hour and I didn't want to risk getting in my swim up there which I had been dreaming about. I had my suit already on under my clothes. So while everyone else was getting lunch we walked around behind the train over to the shore where I quickly stripped off my clothes, blew up my SSD and put my GPS in there.
Here's the course I took:
As I was wading in at about waist level I stopped for a quick pee. Just then the conductor of the train yelled out from one of the train platforms, I couldn't hear, but Cathi who was right there on the shoreline yelled something back. I quickly started swimming hoping he didn't yell something like "Hey get out of there you can't be in there!" I heard her yell and point to the old disintegrating dock about 200 yards or so away telling him I was just swimming along shore and meeting here at that point, where I would swim back. I saw her on the shore following along and taking pictures.
I saw an old rusty flat shovel underwater (with the handle broken off). I wonder if that shovel was from the Gold Rush days. I do remember the guide on the train saying that if we saw anything on shoreline to leave it. Taking anything from the land that could be considered a antique from that timeline is illegal.
The water was 51 degrees according to my watch. I felt great! I returned and told Cathi I'd swim the other direction for another 200 yards or so and come back. The water went from crystal clear to a little cloudy so I turned back and then repeated that course to the old dock and back. My stopwatch read 21 minutes 10 seconds and GPS read .69 miles.
I felt fine getting out and getting my clothes on. But by the time I got back on the train (only about 10 minutes before the rest of the entire group of tourists, I was into some heavy shaking. The recovery was quite dramatic. My breathing was quick and shivering was moderate. By the time people started to board it was at a fairly concealable level.
Cathi asked the tour guide if she has seen anyone swimming there before during her seasons of taking people up there. She said, "I've seen people kayak, but today was the first time seeing anyone swim in the lake." I was pretty surprised. It's such a pretty place. It was definitely the highlight of my entire Alaskan Cruise. You can get more details of the trip here -> http://gridleyvacations.blogspot.com/2015/08/alaskan-cruise.html
Getting ready.
The view of our train, with the red train station in the background.
Cloudy day. Air temp was about as cold as the water. (51°F)
Turn around point at the old dock.
What an adventure!
Total: .69 miles in 21:10 in 51°F in breathtaking area in the remote area of Alaska. Can't get to this part of the lake except by White Pass Train.
Early on Wednesday morning Joelle and I took a road trip to Jamie Patrick's cabin in Truckee where Goody was already there waiting for us to accompany him on his big swim for 2015: A 21 mile length crossing of Lake Tahoe from Camp Richardson Beach to Hyatt Beach on the north:
We met with him and talked for only about 2 hours before Jamie arrived from San Francisco and we took off to go get the boat and start the swim.
We were able to get the boat put in about half way down on the eastern side and it took about an hour to get to the south end. Goody read his instructions to us which we already were very familiar with, and Jamie reviewed the very basic rules.
Only one suit, goggles, grease, camp. Don't tough the boat or anyone. Support swimmer up to one hour. Start on dry land, finish on dry land.
We arrived where Goody greased up and got in for his swim.
When we began there was a pretty crazy boat presence so we made sure to stay close to him and since the boat didn't have a swimmer flag onboard, we improvised and used my red jacket as a flag dangling from a pole which we held up.
It was fairly choppy and windy near the start, but going in the northerly direction. I got in for an hour after a couple hours of him already swimming. The water was so blue! I've swam in Tahoe before, but only about 100 yards from shore. Never in the deep like this. It was awesome! I'm so excited to do this swim myself next year.
The wind calmed down, and changed directions half way into the night to a nearly easterly direction. But nothing major. Goody appeared tired and his stroke was degrading. He requested a pace swimmer, so I got in for him even though it was dark and I could barely see him through my somewhat foggy goggles.
After an hour of night swimming with him, I got out and piloted for about a half hour while Jamie tried to get some sleep. It was a long night for everyone.
When the sun came up it seemed to cheer him up. He really liked the feeds when they were warmed up, so we did our best to heat up some water using body heat since we didn't have any warm water on board.
As we neared the finish we were concerned about his pace, it was abnormally slow for him, however he was still making progress, and didn't appear to be hypothermic, so on we went.
When we got within about 300 yard or so from shore I jumped in with the Go Pro, but it's a new goPro so I wasn't as familiar with the display and screwed up the recording, but Joelle did capture some video on my camera from the boat.
I was so proud of him for sticking with it and not giving up even though he felt like crap most of the swim. He broke down at the finish and said he would have touched the boat and given in to his temptation to give up had I not supported him in the water. Man, I'm glad I came. What a stud for making it from start to finish!
Getting ready to start
All greased up, and putting ear plugs in.
At Camp Richardson beach. We took great caution to watch him the first mile out where there was significant boat traffic.
Pace swimming with Goody about 2 hours into it.
Joelle pace swims for half an hour the next morning.
Notice that it calmed down pretty good near the end. Almost glasslike conditions.
Just beautiful
The crew with the man himself.
Here's the video highlights I put together for him:
Total yards that I swam (estimated): 1.5 miles for 2 hours
This morning I swam with SDM. I swam with a new swimmer, Josh, and with Anna Marie. Kirsten coached and gave this workout:
400 Swim
300 Pull
200 kick
12 x 50's IM order - 4 x (kick, drill, swim) on 1:00
6 x 150's free (3 @ 2:30, 3 @ 2:20)
4 x 50's on 1:00 25 kick/drill
4 x 150's pull on 2:00 (:08 rest)
Got out at this point and moved to the north end of the pool since out time was up and finished with:
4 x 50's @ 1:00 (25 fast, 25 easy)
200 cooldown
3,600 yards total I went first on all the sets. Tried to keep Anna Marie off my toes which was tough since except for the kicking sets, she swam the whole thing with paddles. Pulling should be just a portion of the workout, not the whole thing. It becomes a crutch, and has the potential for injury. Last swim before Tahoe. Best of luck Goody! You can follow his progress on his spotGPS page starting Wednesday night around 8pm.
Last night I took Oliver, Sam and Jonas up to Jordanelle for the SLOW club's Blue Moon swim at 10pm. I had Jonas patrol with the kayak as there were 13 swimmers and several that we new to swimming at night. It was a lot of fun. I used a blow up killer whale as a SSD and was extremely surprise at how little drag it was. Just like a Swimmer Buddy. Not even noticeable.
By the way I got some much needed replacement parts for my swimmer buddy sent to me in the mail so now I have that option available to me now.
We all swam the one mile course at Jordanelle and played a little before I got in the kayak and paddled the 1.8 miles back to camp.
In the morning I slept in till 8:30am. Oliver was squishing me in my sleeping bag. Not the best night's sleep, but restful. It felt really good to sleep until the sun warmed the tent.
Chad and I got everyone preped for a swim this morning north of the marina. We stayed along the shoreline with the two kayaks paddling alongside. About 1 mile into the swim I got a cramp in my left calf muscle very low, almost down into my achilles tendon. It was very painful and I couldn't get it to subside myself. I lifted my leg up on to the side of the kayak and tried to get Sam to massage it out, but he was making very little difference and it was still as tight as ever.
It got to the point where I was moaning in pain. Then Chad realized I was missing from his side and he swam back and massaged it out. It took at least a minute and it finally relaxed and I was able to resume.
We continued to swim around the shoreline, in and out of various coves till we hit 2 miles and then swam back. When we finished I was spent. Garmin GPS read 3.86 miles when we finished. Got lots of sun.
Last night I donated a pint of blood and was told to avoid any exercise for the rest of the night which meant my evening swim I was hoping to get in, was off. This morning I swam with SDM. This is the second swim for the week with them which I haven't done in a long time. Swam with Jeff and Kia again.
I was curious if the lack of blood would affect my performance. Not noticeably. Here's the workout:
Warmup:
400 free
8 x 50's odd scull/free by 25, even kick no board
4 x 100 IMs :15 rest
6 x 50's free neg split
Main set:
2 sets of:
400 pull (first one with snorkel)
4 x 50's back on :55
4 x 50's free on :55
4 x 50's IM order on :55
200 easy
3,700 yards total
Right shoulder a little stiff. Need to get in to the gym more regularly and do my PT strengthening exercises!
Kelly Gneiting is near the finish of his 20 mile swim in Navajo Lake in NM, but he's having trouble fighting the wind. The unorthodox use of sidestroke for a marathon swim makes for a really slow pace and prone to injuries with the lack of symmetry in the stroke. But it isn't about what stroke you use, it's about finishing while following the established set of Marathon Swimming rules.
His observer's latest FB post is a little concerning:
Kelly is really hurting and in great deal of pain and fatigue, taking a bit of a break now ... Low battery on phone, perhaps only one last update, coming soon
I really hope he finishes. It would be a shame to go so far and not make it.
Last night I camped out with Chad at Jordanelle. Woke up at 0330 and met Goody at the boat ramp at 0400.
Goody and I managed to stay together during the swim, but we lost Chad and couldn't really see him throughout the swim. We saw him at the boat ramp after we had already swam 3.09 miles together. Chad was wearing his swimmer buddy board and I was wearing the swim safer buoy. I am waiting for parts to be mailed so I can use my board again. It sure is easier to tow than the buoy.
Not a big fan of Jordanelle yet. Got another night swim planned for Friday and a good training swim for Saturday, both at Jordanelle.
Looking forward to Goody's Tahoe crossing next week! Joelle and I are driving out there together to crew for him. He's gonna rock it!
On Friday morning we went up to Tony Grove Lake, about a 15 mile drive from the cabin where we stayed.
Chad, Sarah and Lisa were there with their families and we all had a great time. We swam just one perimeter of the lake which came to about 3/4 mile. Water temp was 69°F. Beautiful cliffs and scenery. We didn't want to swim too much considering we had a big swim set for Saturday very early.
Saturday at midnight we left for Cisco Beach. I was the designated pilot for the first width and was tasked with showing Chandra how to drive for the second width. We started the swim at 2:20am.
I thought I did pretty good piloting them, but apparently the map of the course shows otherwise:
I got so sick about 2-3 hours into it. I was really bothered by the rocking of the boat in the slight breeze. I started to get a migraine too. I took three advils and Chandra took over after giving her a brief lesson on how to run the controls. She did awesome and as you can see near the end of the first length she was able to get them positioned right to the marina which took 4:01:24 according to Chad's garmin. We took a short break for the crew to use the bathroom and I quickly got greased up for my own crossing.
I felt so much better the last 30 minutes or so when Chandra was able to pilot while I slept. My headache was gone and I wasn't seasick anymore. I felt great! When we started I was a little chilled. The water temp was 69° and the breeze made it feel a little cooler. I showed everyone where to sight off, and let Chandra know where to point us all to.
You can see that she did a very good job getting us back in a fairly straight line. I took a look at Chad stroke on the way back and gave him a little feedback. He was having some pain in his right shoulder and took some ibuprofen and was then keeping up for a bit. He was hanging in there but was spent. Sarah and Lisa and I would swim in spurts swimming ahead and then waiting for Chad to catch up. Thing that sucks about only having one boat is that you all have to stay together. Apparently Lisa and Sarah had enough and about 1 mile from the finish took off and finished about 10 minutes ahead of Chad and I. There were some boats in the area and I didn't want to leave Chad by himself while Chandra tried to keep an eye on the now two separate groups.
We finally arrived at the finish at 8:41:57. All the families were there with the kids playing on the beach and we had some sandwiches while Chad took the kids out on the water in the boat for a fun ride, even though he was exhausted. The kids had a total blast.
Sarah was very pleased to have made the double crossing after last year's failed attempt. Richard Droesbeke from the Bear Lake State Park was there to greet us. I was surprised to see him there. Apparently the tragedy from earlier in the year had made a mark on him and all the Bear Lake first responders out there and he wanted to be sure we made it in safely. Felt grateful for the concern.
This was Lisa's second double width. She's planning a length swim on Labor Day in a few weeks. She'll do awesome.
[Correction]
This was my fourth width crossing and now I'm tied with Will Reeves as being "King of the Monster" for most width crossings. I need to get up there and get more width crossings. Not to be cocky, but they're easy if the weather is nice.
Joelle has 5 crossings and is "Queen of the Monster".
