Dad your winning!

This morning I swam 3 laps in Bountiful Lake. While I was swimming I had to concentrate on not smiling and laughing as I keep hearing Isaac's encouragement "Dad, your winning!" from last weekend's Hebgen lake swim.  It's especially funny cause I was the only one swimming, so yes I was winning.

But another reason I find his encouragement meaningful is that even when I'm alone and swimming, Yes I am winning because I'm out in the open water and I'm doing it.  The relationship between the swimmer and the open water can be antagonistic at times when the waves are high and the water extremely cold.  But most of the time it isn't like that, it's more of a partnership.  When that happens, both swimmer AND nature wins.  I'm excited to help Austin organize an effort to make that partnership with each individual, that shows up to help cleanup. and nature grow.  It's a real thing.

Today's swim was slightly slower than normal.  (3 laps in 1:31) I've watched several TI videos and read up on their methodologies for swimming effortlessly.  I was focusing on some of those techniques and while I was a tiny bit more relaxed and smoother in the water, I was definitely slower.  Smoothing out my stroke (which isn't all that splashy anyway) isn't something that's going improve dramatically overnight.  But it's nice to focus on technique in OW especially since I'm not in a pool focusing on sets and speed.

Hebgen Lake Swim

Today on our way to West Yellowstone stopped at Hebgen Lake. It was really windy and I looked out at the lake and there wasn't a boat in sight. I thought about the channel and how cold the water might be and figured it would be a good training swim to go to the other side and back. I figured it would be a little less than a mile to the other side. It turned out to be a mile and a half round trip.

I was surprised when I put my legs in how warm it was.  It felt a little chilly at first but nothing to take my breath away.  I figure it was about 67 degrees.  The water was pretty clear, but had alot of small debris in it.  Leaves and small plants, etc...  It was really wavy.  I bilateral breathed most of the way, but not 100%  Once I went to take a breath and got a mouthful of water that actually went down the wrong pipe.  I've never had that happen before where I wasn't able to stop it before it went in the wrong way.  I stopped and coughed it up.  Nothing major.

When I got to the other side I got completely out of the water, checked my watch (25:47) and stuffed a small rock into my suit.  I turned around and waved my arms, but I couldn't see any of the family on the shore, it was too far away.  I could see the van though up by the highway.  I swam back.  Total trip took 50 minutes.  The waves were going with the wind which was fairly strong from the Southeast.  Here's some video Cathi took of the swim and what the kids did while their Dad was swimming.

The kids caught a couple of crawfish and Jacob caught a water snake.  They had a fun time playing at the beach while I was in the water.

While it was just a short little swim, it felt like a risky going into a new body of water I've never been in before, under slightly crazy conditions, and without a support boat.  I've often felt like I'm a submarine in that my body is just a hull to my soul and no amount of water and waves that pound into me are going to compromise the integrity of that sub.  I'm just focused on keeping the engine powering my arms and legs going.  Anyway it was a fun swim although I really wish I could have gone further, but the vacation is family time and 1 hour is better than nothing.

Meeting Dave Shearer - Harbormaster for GSL Marina

Josh and I went out to the GSL Marina at 7am and boated along the deep channel reef and measured out the distance to the end of the red/green buoys.  Came to 1.6 miles one way.  Josh noticed a spiderweb on one of the buoys.  It wasn't the biggest spider I've seen of this species, but still quite big compared to Jumping/Wolf Spiders which is all I see around the house.

We then met Dave Shearer at 8:30 at the marina office to discuss the race and the proposed route.  I was very encouraging.  He was very supportive and told us of the parks willingness to help us out with support boats, etc....  He did discourage using the deep channel buoys as there is a significant current that goes northeast from the southern tip of Antelope Island down to black rock.  He said depending on the runoff for the year it can be strong clear until the end of June.  He suggested a route that goes along the racing buoys where the current wouldn't be head on and inhibit the forward progress of the swimmers.   After discussing it with Josh, we're going to take that advise and count on the support of the State and the Yacht club and forget the convenience of the already existing channel buoys and avoid any head-on currents.

So I took a map of the racing buoy coordinates and will plan the routes using those.  The idea is to have a large support boat every mile to assist with liquid/feedings as well as provide safety coverage.  Each of those boats would be in radio comm with each other and with a HQ.  We got paperwork required for getting the event setup with the State Parks.  So we've got some homework to do.  Dave was extremely helpful and easy to work with.  I'm very excited about this event.  No organized event like this has occurred in the GSL since the 1930's.  It's time to revive it!

Swimming in purgatory

Swam at Surf N' Swim this morning.  It was chilly getting to the pool.  The air temp was probably in the low 60s. But then I jumped in the pool.  What the HECK!  It felt like a hot tub!  Yuk!

1000 yards easy (had to circle swim with three ladies who were doing 25s on 2:00, but after about 10 min. they left)
1000 - 2 x 500's kick with fins.
500 - 5 x 100 IMs (0,1 breath on fly) Get 1:30 on all.  Leave on 2:00
1000 - 10 x 100's free pull first 5 get 1:15, second 5 get 1:10 all on 1:30
100 - 50 one arm pull, 50 touch and pull

3600 yards total.

Felt good about the 100 pulls, those pulls were long and easy, didn't really push it, just focused on a long and strong pull and I was getting great times!

I'm not laughing

Got to the lake at 6:35am and did four laps.  I used my digital thermometer this time which was really cool.  It's nice cause it gives me an instant reading and the manufacturers claim that it is accurate to less than +-1 degree Fahrenheit.  The temp came in at 67.1  A little colder than I expected.  When I got in it felt great!  I was able to do the 4 laps in 1:50.  Pretty good time.

I was disturbed again by the amount of trash and dead fish.  Now there were two dead fish at the ramp.  Someone also put a fake severed hand at the ramp floating there amongst all the trash and dead fish.  What a sick joke.  I wasn't laughing.  I was more disturbed by the garbage and dead fish than I was to see a severed bloody hand there.

I took this video and will be posting it on the greatsaltlakeopenwater.com website in hopes that we can really get the word out of the "Bountiful Lake Project".  Austin is getting the ball rolling with the Eagle Board, but it hasn't officially hasn't been approved yet, but I expect it will.  I'm just eager to get the word out so that we can get the date on people's calendars to come out.

I'll be assisting Austin in getting sponsorship and support from the community.

Antelope Island to Black Rock

I'm planning on taking on a 72 year old record.  In 1937, Orson Spencer set the record of swimming from Antelope Island to Black Rock in 3:40:52.  For a course that is 8.2 miles that is roughly 26:57/mile.  That's fast.  But given the "float factor", I think it is within reach especially if there is no wind.  So I'm going to plan to do this course on Monday, September 6th (Labor Day).



I'm still working on getting permission from Chris Haramoto to get past the Garr Ranch gate which will let me get to the southern tip.  I'm also going to have to construct a small wheelset for the Kayak, so I can rest it on a small plank on large wheels so that I can transport it on land without having to carry it.  Small enough that I can just tote it on the kayak when I'm on water.  It's a good mile and a half walk from the end of the dirt road to the southern tip shoreline.  

Anniversary swim

I slept in quite a bit this morning.  Had a late night talking with my wife.  Today is our anniversary.  16 years of bliss!  So this morning I went to Surf N' Swim and did a quick two miles:

1000 yards straight long and slow strokes

1000 - 400 pull easy, 300 pull moderate, 200 pull fast, 100 pull sprint (:15-20 ri)

400 kick 

100 back

1000 - 10 x 100's descend 1-5 on 1:30

200 - 2 x 100's IM  On the fly, no breath for 25, and on free really sprint and do powerful long strokes!  Back and breast recovery.

3700 yards total

Really good workout.  Felt strong and had no strains on shoulder or back at all.  I applied for a lifeguard/swim instructor position at SDRC, but I'm not sure they're hiring at the moment, but they have my resume.  Hopefully I hear from them in the next few months at least.  During the summer its not that big of a deal cause I want to do lots of open water swimming, but during the winter I would like to get some free swimming there.

Black Rock thru GSL Marina Deep Reef Channel 5K swim

Met Josh at Black rock at 6:20am this morning and we walked to the beach right there and about 75 feet into the water where it was finally deep enough to swim.  I towed a watertight container with my GPS, small gatorade and some mouthwash.  After analyzing the GPS track data of where we actually started to swim and where we ended, it came to 5K in 1:28.  Here's the map:


It sure didn't seem like we were gone very long.  Probably because it was so fun!  The wind/waves were going pretty well to the Northeast so going out was easy, but coming back we were going right into the waves.  Could have gone much faster, but this was just a relaxing swim and not a tough workout.  My shoulder didn't have any issues at all, so I'm fully back to normal there.  Whew!

After we got back to our cars we went over to the Marina to meet with the marina harbormaster, Dave Shearer, but he wasn't there so we'll catch up with him later.  The Black Rock thru the reef channel to the end of the buoys would be a perfect course because there are two beaches with easy access:
1) The beach at Black Rock
2) The beach at the Marina
and then there is the outlook at the end of the marina.  It really is an ideal location!  The water is much clearer on the south end of the lake versus north of Antelope Island.  The tufa rock is about 3 feet from the surface for the first half mile or so at the beginning of the swim, but that's no big deal.  After that it gets about 6-10 feet deep.  The thing about this swim is that you wouldn't want a bunch of novice kayakers and canoers out there on race day.  If the wind picks up just a little like it did today, it would be very difficult for the boaters to control their vessels.

Oh did I not post this yet?  I already registered the domain:  greatsaltlakeopenwater.com and am in the very early planning stages for setting up a race just like Deer Creek (1 mile,  5K, 10K and 10 mile) events.  Hoping to schedule it for early-mid June.  I have alot of planning and coordinating to pull it off right.  The web site will have a skeleton in the next couple days.

Enough is Enough!

This morning on may way into the water at BL I stepped on something metal that felt like an anchor, but was a long metal rod of some kind.  I picked it up and threw it to the side outside the water.  I also noticed two or three styrofoam containers for worms used for fishing. They were stuck in the mud just under the surface of the water near the edge.

I started my swim, which was awesome by the way.  I did three laps in 1:24 (5K swim).  Nice and easy.  My shoulder was a little achy still at the start, but the pain subsided until it was barely noticeable at the end.  I felt great.  The water temp was perfect and the water didn't really seem all that dirty even though my mind the whole time during the swim was thinking about how to clean up Bountiful Lake.  I remember earlier this year when our family came out and picked up probably 300 pounds of garbage over the 30 foot section of shoreline.  I am willing to bet there is enough garbage to keep about a hundred people busy all day long collecting it.

Garbage and dead catfish at Bountiful Lake all within 3 feet of each other.

When I got out I noticed a dead fish, and three new pieces of garbage on the boat ramp that weren't there before.  I moved the garbage a little closer to the dead fish and took this picture.  There was a fisherman within 15 feet of the ramp just standing there  while there was literally dozens of large pieces of trash right there.  I picked up a handful of trash after taking this picture and dumped it in the big garbage can which was about 50 feet from the ramp.  It was just a drop in the bucket.  But it was a move in the right direction.
I'm amazed at the reckless attitude by outdoor recreationists who don't pick up after themselves (or even others). If everyone truly had a concern for their favorite activities outdoors they would not only pick up after themselves, but take the initiative to clean up after those who don't have that concern.

I've had enough of seeing sights like this and am really going to encourage Austin to tackle this issue for his Eagle Project.  I could help him with advertising this issue and educate him on the issue so he can take full ownership of the project.  I won't be doing this for him, but I definitely have a vested interest in this topic and think its something that he can learn more about and take a greater interest in himself.  The community needs to be more aware of this problem for the fish, for the environment and for the small minority of people who venture into these waters to swim.  I'd really hate to have my wife find me floating on my back, white and bloated on the ramp like this poor fish because of exposure to toxic garbage that is floating around in that lake.

3600 yards

I had a dentist appointment with Dr. Finlinson this morning.  His office is just down the road from Surf N Swim, so I swam in the pool this morning.

250 yards free easy
800 yards kick
1250 - 10 x 125's free on 2:00
100 back easy
500 yards kick
150 free easy

3050 yards total

My left shoulder is just a tad achy, but nothing major.  Took today's swim nice and easy.  Will swim BL tomorrow and Wednesday.  Tonight I go to the SL Red Cross building to get my Adult CPR recertification.  After that I'll put together a resume and apply at SDRC.