IM day - 2500

 300 warmup 

1000 - 400 IM, 300 IM, 200 IM, 100IM rest 1:00 between each

Repeat 1000 set above, but kick on last 100 IM portion

200 free cooldown

2,500 yards

After this I immediately left for a meeting at DSD Kendall building where the new 50 M pool design was being discussed.  That should be pretty awesome if it gets approved by the board.  There are a lot of details to get through, but it was refreshing to hear that the priority is that this is a top-notch competition pool, and the attributes of the facility are to draw competitive swimming from all over and have this be the go-to for championship swimming.  

Embarrasing

 Today's workout was slightly longer than yesterday's and tougher.  It was quite clear today how slow I really am.  I was averaging 50 free in about :40 or more.  Terrible!  Embarrassingly slow.

400 warmup

3 x 50's backstroke

4 x 75's breast/free/breast

5 x 100's free descending (1:40, 1:30, 1:28, 1:25, 1:23)

6 x 150's pull freestyle paddles

400 IM easy + 100 IM easy

2,750 yards total

My upper back is also feeling it.  Today's workout was tough for me mentally.

First day back to the pool - Layton Surf N' Swim

 Today the bubble was finally reinstalled and I was in the water doing my first pool workout since January 1st, 2020 at SDRC with Sam!

It's been open water, or endless pool swimming for me since that time.  Woah!  Last week I got an annual pass to Layton and had to wait till today since they were putting the bubble up.  Here's the workout I created before going in:

200 free warmup

1000 - 4 x 25's on side on 1:00, 4 x 50's backstroke on 1:15, 4 x 75's free/breast/free on 1:30, 4 x 100's build on 2:00

Repeat last 1000 set but in reverse.

400 Cooldown

2,600 yards total

https://youtube.com/shorts/KcD0TSLYFrM?si=Z6JT8OKaUPzc78g3

Felt great.  Shoulders are gonna feel it for sure.  But I didn't push it and my heart rate never got super high. Just something to get back into it without feeling overwhelmed or too hard to come back and swim again tomorrow!  

I love that I'm no longer working for Salesforce!!!  I was so unhappy there for over a year. And now I can actually get a good nights sleep, get up and mozy on over to the pool and be in the water at around 7:30am and not have to fight for a lane.  The water temp was at 81 degrees which isn't terrible.  I wanted to swim at pineview many times the past few weeks, but Pineview has had a bad case of E Coli and toxic algae so I haven't swam since the last time I went there.  

I got a job as the Northridge High School Swim Coach, and tryouts are today.  That should be interesting to get back into coaching too.  I'm really excited.  I also got hired as an assistant to CCAT team.  I go in after this afternoon's tryouts to get setup. 

What a good day!

First open water swim in a couple years

So I have been playing lots of pickleball the past few years. I sold my pool a few months ago. I applied to be a high school swim coach and thought I should get in swimming shape myself. 

 I rode my motorcycle there and had my orange tow float, but didn’t have a drink and about 20 minutes into the swim got really thirsty. With this being my first swim I figured if I just swam a mile that would be a good first start. Ended up with 1.25 miles in 50 minutes.

I took 4 short breaststroke “breaks” of around 30!seconds and then resumed front crawl stroke. 

I bilateral breathed which felt natural. The water was 79 degrees according to my watch thermometer.

I’m gonna be a little sore so I’ll try another swim after I get back from visiting Austin in Houston next week. So next swim will be in a couple weeks. 

This short song explains exactly how I feel my life has gone in regards to swimming

 This summer I was out helping keep an eye on the swimmers at the Bear Lake Monster race.  I had a chance to talk with an old friend who asked about my swimming.  I explained that I have moved on to other things.  He had that familiar disappointed look on his face.  He said, something to the effect of, "But why!  I mean you've come so far and I tell friends about you.  The legend that swam the English Channel" blah blah blah.  Yeah, I've heard it before.  

In fact, when I quit coaching South Davis Masters a long time ago they made me a nice farewell gift and some of the comments I got were flippant and a little obnoxious.  It was like I was leaving the church or something.  Like I was turning my back on something sacred.  That I was committing some sort of unforgivable blasphemy.

You know what?  People change! People have passions that morph over time.  That's what happened to me, and will continue to happen to me.  One thing I know will never change, is that I will always change.  

I heard this song today and it put into words this same concept that I think people should embrace, rather than shun.  Give it a listen.  And think about it.

If you are still swimming, and having fun doing it, wonderful.  It's good to be persistent. But the last thing we should do is mindlessly and hypnotically say over in our minds like Dory from Nemo, "Just keep swimming".  That is unless you intentionally want to get into that trance-like state to serve a purpose.  But to do something that no longer has real meaning or value in your life is nonsensical. 

Some may say, "but our relationship is built upon this common interest".  True.  However, there are millions of other people out there that have other interests awaiting you to join them.  I've made friends from many different walks of life.  Had I not picked up those new interests those friendships would never have developed into fruit. 

To restrict oneself to a certain activity just to retain that circle of friends is short-sighted.  Are those friendships temporary?  Everything is temporary.  Enjoy the moment and life at the moment.  Don't resent change. New avenues open every day.  Embrace that.

You can certainly look back and cherish past moments, but it shouldn't be a letdown when you realize that those relationships have faded and blown away.  That shouldn't depreciate the experience you had at the time.

Keep doing what makes you happy and fulfills you.  

When you're on a boat, wear a lifejacket.

 If you are on a boat, you really should wear a life jacket regardless of your swimming ability.  It sets a good example for people who may not be good swimmers.  Besides, if for some crazy reason you end up drowning, it saves a bunch of people searching for your body.  

This past weekend, the young men in our ward had a campout, and there were 3 young men that wanted to swim across Ruth Lake in the Uintahs.  I didn't think that much about it, but the other leaders said no unless I swam along with them.  I wasn't wearing a swimsuit, just shorts.  I figured I would just go and swim in my shorts.  It's a good thing I did.  Two of the three boys started to hyperventilate about 1/2 way across the 100-yard length and I had to talk both of them into calming down and just floating on their back to catch their breath.  If I hadn't gone, it would have been big trouble.  Once across I told them to get out and walk around the shoreline instead of attempting to swim across.  

I had my rescue tube with me on the previous day's swim at Butterfly Lake. But today I didn't expect to swim, so I left it at camp.  If I would have had the tube it would have been a much safer experience.

The water temp I estimate was just under 70 degrees. 

Thinking back I should have had them go one at a time.  I had to juggle two struggling swimmers and thankfully it was such a short distance and I was able to talk them into calming down just enough to keep them out of a panic which I could see was starting to set in.  They were able to float on their back and keep swimming elementary backstroke as I reminded them to "Keep your head back, relax your neck, stomach up, and don't panic." 

I think the main issue was the elevation.  Ruth Lake sits at 10,300 feet which is very high, especially for boys that aren't great swimmers.  It was a pretty dumb idea actually, but thankfully it turned out without an incident.  

Finishing the MVP SLOW Database

 MVP - Minimal Viable Product, in other words, the bare minimum level of functionality.  

So I finally finished working out all the major issues with the Digital Experience of the SLOW Database.  Until now it wasn't an option to make it public because I didn't have enough knowledge on how to enable it for guest users.  

Removing the requirement to have users login to view swim data was the biggest hurdle, then the UI, and there is still one issue I don't like.  You have to click the "Related" tab when navigating the database, rather than just removing the Detail tab and having the Related tab the primary section below each Section.  Regardless, I put together a quick video on the home page to demonstrate how to navigate, which includes clicking on the Related tab.  

Here is the SLOW database, which includes all the records that we've been collecting over the year.  The central repository for all open water swim records in Utah:

https://slow.force.com/s/

Also, this last weekend I spent the entire Saturday scrubbing the pool as it was emptying. And once completely empty, refilled with fresh water.  This is the first time I've emptied it 100% since getting it two years ago.  It's as clean as day 1, and I've enjoyed swimming in it a little more now:

Review of the Zygo Underwater Audio system

 I saw an ad for Zygo on Facebook and was thinking originally that it was a scam claiming to stream music underwater.  I've tried using Bluetooth technology underwater and it doesn't work.  Not even cell coverage with full bars above water can penetrate 2 feet of water. But I found out that ZYGO is using FM wavelength and that it is able to broadcast just enough to go through a couple feet of water.

The package came yesterday and here's what it comes with:

• 1 Zygo headset
• 1 Zygo Bluetooth receiver/FM Transmitter
• 1 pair of earplugs
• 1 charging cable
• 1 hard shell stow bag which also acts as a dual charger for both headset and transmitter

The claim is that it will go up to 2 feet below the surface if the transmitter is on the pool deck.  In my case, I want the transmitter underwater in a waterproof container along with the tablet I have anchored at the bottom of the 3-foot depth endless pool.  That way I can watch a movie that is downloaded on the tablet, and hear the movie instead of just read subtitles.  

I've tried the swimMP3 before and was greatly unimpressed with the sound quality.  These really aren't much better.  The sound doesn't go in your ears using air obviously.  The little "speakers" rest on your cheekbones and use vibration to allow you to hear.  You'll never get the kind of audio quality that you would get from Bose headphones by any means!  But it's loud enough for you to hear.  And even when cranked up, when you take them off, the vibration doesn't go through the air like a speaker, so you don't need to worry about bugging any friends you might be swimming with.   But the audio quality is a lot like listening to an AM Radio when I was a kid.  Crackly and muffled, but it's better than nothing.  

Until someone can invent biotech that enables connecting audio directly to the brain, I don't think you'll be able to get much better, given the limitations of physics and the human body.

Anyway, my test of playing a movie and listening/watching it while I swim, was a success.  What movie did I watch?  On a Clear Day My favorite swimming movie of all time.  I noticed that the transmitter has a button on the side where you can press it and speak into the transmitter like a walkie talkie and that is actually very clear.  Much clearer than the audio from any music or movie that you might be playing.   So if you are a coach and want to give feedback to a swimmer that is wearing the headset, you can do so while they swim, and hopefully, if you speak clearly they can understand you.

Here's my video review:

Is it worth $300?  Well, that depends on how well it lasts, and time will tell. If I can get 400 days out of this, I will call it a good purchase.  I will track along with my yardage whether I used Zygo or not so I can track the number of workouts used with it. 

So far I'd give it an 8 out of 10.  I hesitate to give it a 10 because bone conduction technology is just so inferior to traditional high-quality headphones, which you can't use underwater.  It's definitely superior to the swimMP3 though.

5000 total pool miles

Today I passed the 5,000 logged pool miles (including endless pool) not counting open water miles. 

Got in a two hour, 8,000 yard endless pool swim today. Watched the entire movie of Jaws on my tablet which was weighed down at the bottom of the pool. Captions were on and it made the swim go by faster. Probably the only person to watch the whole movie Jaws while swimming. 😀

Song of the day:

https://youtu.be/4qsJLZSlGdY

 Girl, your love is like the ocean

It doesn't seem to end
Can we just keep floating
'Cause it's too far to swim
No rescue or a boat insight
You know it's alright
'Cause when I'm with you
I'll drown in it all night

Girl, your kisses so addictive
And it's always on my mind
Can't resist it for a minute
'Cause it gets me every time
And when you wake up with no make-up
That's true beauty in my eyes
No matter how I try
I lose it when you smile

You take me 5000 miles past heaven
And by the way
I gotta say I love the view
(I gotta say I love the view)
Your beauty is 5000 miles past heaven
Every time
Every time I look at you
(Every time I look at you)

Baby, don't you keep me waiting
Your touch is all I want
'Cause I don't have much patience
When it comes to making love
No need to complicate this
There's nothing more to say
'Cause when you're not here
I'm missing you all day

Girl, your kisses so addictive
And it's always on my mind
Can't resist it for a minute
'Cause it gets me every time
When you wake up with no make-up
That's true beauty in my eyes
No matter how I try
I lose it when you smile

You take me 5000 miles past heaven
And by the way
I gotta say I love the view
(I gotta say I love the view)
Your beauty is 5000 miles past heaven
Every time
Every time I look at you
(Every time I look at you)

Hey God only knows (knows)
How far I'll go (go)
I swear it's like falling from the sky
If looks could kill
Then I would surely die

You take me 5000 miles past heaven
And by the way
I gotta say I love the view
(I gotta say I love the view)
Your beauty is 5000 miles past heaven
Every time
Every time I look at you
(Every time I look at you)

Every time
Every time I look at you
Every time
Every time I look at you

Happy World Marathon Swimming Day!

 August 24th is World Marathon Swimming Day.  Why?  It is the date that Matthew Webb swam the English Channel on 24 Aug 1875.  

In celebration of the day I just bettered my PR for the most time swam in the endless pool for a single workout.  Swam over 12,000 yards in 3 hours.  It was a good workout.  5 sets of 36 minutes with a minute for a quick drink in between. Odd sets swimming intervals, then even sets pulling intervals.

The world wouldn't be the same for me without one where a swim such as this hasn't been turned into such a legacy event.