Cold water training

As my taper has begun, I'm focused more on cold water training at this point.  I drove up to the Cabin with Sam and I did one hour of swimming in the Logan River.  I found a nice pocket of water flow that was the same speed as my strong effort pace.  The water was slowly getting colder and by the time I got out it was 57.4°F.

I got a good nights rest and got up and did 30 minutes.  This time the air temp was significantly colder as well as the water temp.  The water temp when I got out was 52.0°F even.  I really had to stay with it mentally on this one.  I felt like getting out after 5 minutes, so instead of thinking about how cold it was, I kept my mind busy on other things, and the time went by much faster.  At 30 minutes I got out, took a quick warm shower and got on the road for work this morning.

I love swimming in the Logan River.  It's even clearer than Causey, and I can see every detail of the small rocks just inches from my reach below me.  I can see a fish every time.  There are specific rocks that I enjoy looking for and using as a guide to my pace.  Lots of fun.  Looking forward to getting back up there on Wednesday evening.

Starting the taper

This morning I slept in completely guilt free.  It was awesome.  Although getting up at 0500 is hardly sleeping in for many folks. I took my time getting ready and was in the NWRC pool at 0645 and did Andy's workout he had on the board:

400 free
200 - 4 x 50's drill
200 - 4 x 50's kick
400 - 4 x 100's free build

1500 - 3 x (200 pull on 2:45, 200 buoy only, 100 fast (< 1:10))
600 - 6 x 100's IM/free straight
300 kick with fins
100 easy

3,700 yards total in 1:00

Tonight I head up to the cabin for a Logan river cold water swim.  Then again tomorrow morning.  My yardage will suffer this week, but I'll get some good cold water exposure and a little bit of night swimming too, (well more like dusk swimming).

Tour of Lakes

Josh organized this event that I've been anticipating all week.

Jim, me, Nathan, Karl, Joelle, Josh, Gary, and Kaitlin at the
start of our adventure at Causey.  Goody joined us after Echo.

Causey Reservoir:  Located east of Pineview in Weber County.  This small reservoir was my favorite of the whole day.  The water was the clearest and we started off the day with some cliff jumping.  Josh, Joelle, and a new swimming friend, Kaitlin, swam to the very south end.  A round trip of 1.27 miles.  It's about 20 minutes past Pineview.  Well worth the trip! I'd love to plan a training swim up there swimming the entire perimeter.  A distance of 6.3 miles.  The fact that there are no motor boats allowed at all on the lake makes it ideal.  Swimming Scale: 9.5

Pineview Reservoir:  My regular training spot during the summer months.  It's great if you get there before the boats.  Even then, there is a large section where boats can only go at no-wake speeds.  Today we did the "Buoy Route" which is a .98 mile round trip, but I typically add some "frosting" to the route to get it rounded up properly to that 1 mile.   Swimming Scale: 8.5

First swim in East Canyon.
Pretty cool place.  

East Canyon Reservoir:  The clouds came in a little for this swim.  It started to sprinkle lightly at the end.  The water was not quite as clear as Pineview and the location of getting in/out was less than ideal. There wasn't much boat traffic where we were (in the northeast arm).  There was a fisherman who I overheard one of the other swimmers say was bad mouthing our decision to swim and messing up his chance of catching a whopper of a whale.  Thing is it started to rain and he took off anyway, while we continued to swim.
Total distance: 1.00 miles. Swimming Scale: 7.5

Checkout Josh's muddy feet in the back
ground.  I'm not a big fan of mud. 

Photo of Josh's feet after Echo
- photo by Josh Green

Echo Reservoir:  This was the dud of the trip.  The water was so low and had recessed about 200 yards further than when I was there a few weeks ago.  It was extremely muddy, and disgusting getting in and out.

Until that water level rises to where it should be, I won't be going there again.  Total distance 0.95 miles.  Swimming Scale: 3.0

Rockport Lake:  When we drove past the dam and saw all the boat traffic a few of us said in unison: "Holy crap!"  The water here is nice.  It's fairly clear, but the boat traffic was awful.  There were jetskis and boaters and they were relentless on that lake.  We stayed right along the shoreline, but they even were going along the shoreline and I wouldn't swim there.  It's just too crowded.  Total swim: 1.01 miles Swimming Scale: 5.0

Kaitlin with Jordanelle in the background.
She typically swims Bountiful Lake.
I may be doing some training with her
next year in prep for MIMS.  Bountiful
Lake is the place for building up your
immune system!

Jordanelle Reservoir:  This was a much bigger reservoir than I remember.  It seemed the biggest reservoir of the day.  This is Josh's typical training place.  He told of us his route and we did it. I felt extra juiced at this point and took it faster than normal.  Even though there were a ton of boats out there, there is a buoy line that stretches along the beach which was great for sighting and keeping boats at a slow speed when coming near us.  Enjoyed this swim!  It was probably my third favorite of the day, just after Causey and Deer Creek.  Total distance: 1.01 miles  Swimming Scale: 8.5

Deer Creek Reservoir: The water level was quite a bit lower than the past couple years.  But that didn't result in lower water quality.  It was quite clear and nice.  Joelle and I swam together on this one.  We were stroke for stroke down to the end of Walsburg Bay.  I kept going past the 15 minute turnaround, because

Deer Creek is always a HIT.

we were already doing very well on our planned stops. We were about two hours ahead of schedule so there wasn't any huge rush.  I wanted to get in just a bit more on this one.  So I turned around at 20 minutes.  Then on the way back, I put a little more effort into each stroke.  Pushed it coming back and at the finish logged 1.37 miles.  Swimming Scale: 9.0

Utah Lake:  I knew this one would be rough for me.  James Jonsson swam the length of this and the pics from his swim and from what I've read in the paper about this lake didn't leave a good impression.  Still, I try to be open minded about where a good swim can be done.  It was very choppy and the waves were pretty bad.  I don't mind them if I can see underwater, but the visibility here was as bad as Echo.  Except instead of it being brown it was chalky.  A little better than brown.  But after swimming half a mile out, Josh, Joelle and I regathered and Josh challenged me to do a surface dive.  I did so, and man was that creepy.  It went from chalky color, to instant blackness.  It was freaky.  The walk out to a swimmable depth was nearly as long as Echo, and it was nearly as muddy under the lake.  On the way back Goody was still swimming towards us.  Josh and Joelle continued back while I stayed with Goody.  It was so choppy and I wasn't very visible not wearing a cap nor having the orange SSD.  My Swimmer Buddy board isn't very visible without the noodle or flag.  So I stuck with him, also so that we can use the buddy system to be safe.  I would freak out just a little being out there in the middle of that lake all by myself.  There was a boat that was speeding past us and around us. I was glad I stuck with Goody.  We got to where we could stand up and it read .96, so we swam a little further till the GPS read 1.00 mile exactly.   I saw a floating catfish and took a picture.  I was going to get a picture holding it, but as I gripped it, the little fish kicked quickly out of my hands.  I assumed it was dead and it startled me a bit.  It was nice talking to Goody on this one.  We had a good chat.

Talking with one of my favorite people
in the whole world.

In fact, when I met Karl for the first time he said, "How's your brother doing?"  I thought, how does he know my brother?  I looked confused, he said, 'Goody?'  I said, "Oh, he's not my brother.  You wouldn't be the first person who thought that. I had someone say, 'I like your blog Goody.'  I had to tell them, that I wasn't him.  Some people take the liberty to call me "Gordy" (which I hate).  It sounds alot like Goody.  I wonder if anyone ever calls him "Goods" like "Gords" and that bugs him.  Hmm?

Anyway, after today, the idea of swimming the entire length of Utah Lake is OFF the table.  Doesn't sound fun at all to swim that far in water of that quality.  Sorry Nathan and Karl, I won't bad mouth it, but there are other options I'd rather pursue.  Swimming Scale: 3.5

The whole gang after swimming the Tour of Lakes!

The full tour according
to SpotGPS

After this we went to Chili's in American Fork and that was a lot of fun.  Karl's wife went ahead of us and got a table ready for us so we just walked on in and sat down.  It was nice.  I ate a full meal, but it barely made a dent in my appetite.  I was still hungry.  8.66 miles total for the day.  Not a bad day, and it was nice to sample as many places as we did today.  I had a great time and look forward to doing it again next year.  Perhaps skipping Echo and Utah Lake, and picking up a few others.

Some suggestions for next year, although I'm not sure they're legally swimmable or not:

• Lost Creek Reservoir
• Smith and Moorhouse Reservoir
• Little Dell Reservoir (Can't swim there)
• Mountain Dell Reservoir (Can't swim there)
• Silver Lake Flat Reservoir (after Deer Creek, instead of Utah Lake)

All the photos of this trip, can be found here.

And here is a video of the trip which I tried to put into a documentary short type thing.

Pressure against the clock

Water was flat and calm, but my mind sure wasn't.

This morning I got to Pineview at 0545 and did a short Goody Lap. During the time I was unable to let my
mind go. I was constantly feeling stressed about work, and home. I'm feeling pulled in so many different places and my attention is needed in so many ways. I try not to feel like I'm being negligent to my employer, or my family, but to be honest I am. I seriously can't wait till Catalina is over so I can get back to other priorities that have been neglected lately. This morning's swim was less than ideal.

Total: 1.98 miles in 1:05

In comparing my swim training month by month with last year, it's nearly similar. It's a good thing I keep this log or I wouldn't have any idea. It eases my mind that I'm ready for Catalina. I'm in better shape and have the confidence to know that given good conditions I should be able to pull it off, God willing.

 I'm excited about Josh's Birthday present. Some water speakers:

Blind, Deaf and Dumb

I've always wondered how straight I would swim if I were blind.  I had this idea a while ago and today was my first attempt.  This could be an online event that anyone can do and post their results to.  I created this facebook page to track this kind of thing.

Here's the event page with the rules.

Oh the bugs!

So this morning I went out with Angela in the GSL and did this.  I spray painted some old goggles a couple nights ago, and for kicks got a black permanent marker and drew some pupils on the white painted goggles.  I should have found a red permanent marker and drew some red lines on them to look like I had bloodshot eyes.

Anyway, I paddled out with her because the water was extremely warm.  I never did take a temp but it was well about 80 degrees.  The brine flies were crazy and they were crawling all over my pre-greased body.  It was very itchy and annoying.  I couldn't wait to get in.

Even though I knew it wouldn't be straight, I was still
surprised at my final location relative to where I thought I
was going.

Once we got about 1.25 miles out I jumped out of the boat.  Set the GPS coordinate, put on my goggles and Angela started the clock.  I was swimming back towards the marina.  Even with the goggles painted, I could very faintly tell when breathing to my left versus my right that the sun was on my left rising from the east.  So in a sense I wasn't completely 100% blind.  Legally blind for sure.  A much more effective test would be to do this event at night when there is no sunlight to influence any possible navigation.  Or at noon when the sun is directly above you in any direction.  At any rate, it was a good first test.  And it worked well.  I wasn't nervous about hitting anything as Angela was right there and I was in the
GSL!  No boats at all on the water.
I definitely wouldn't want to do this test in Pineview or any other place where there were boats or where the lake wasn't big enough to allow me to swim 30 minutes in any direction.

I like the way these look.  If only I could see out of them.

Here's my GPS coordinates:

Start:  N 40° 44.966 W 112° 13.757
End: N 40° 44.081 W 112° 13.683

So the total distance between that for 30 minutes was:  1.02 miles
Total distance swam: 1.17 miles

Not too shabby.  I was hoping for just under a mile and got over it.  I'm pleased with that.  I knew I wasn't going to be terrible.  But I'd like to try this again at night for a more accurate test of being 100% blind.

After the 30 minutes, I switched to normal goggles and swam the remaining amount to the boat ramp.  GPS read 1.98 miles total swimming.  There were two busloads of asian tourists who were gawking at us.  I filled my empty Gatorade bottle with tons of brine shrimp that were swimming around the surface in the marina for Angela to take home to show James and Morgan.  They were full grown, many brown and red ones.  Pretty little things. 

Special thanks to Angela for kayaking for me today! 

Getting stared down

This morning was a beautiful calm morning at Pineview.  Got in two really Goody Laps with frosting.

My shoulders held up exceptionally well.  No soreness and my mind was loose so the swim went by quickly without any pain physically or mentally.  In fact on the way to work after the swim I called the Dr. and cancelled my afternoon appointment to get a cortisone.  Apparently it isn't necessary as there wasn't any tightness or soreness at all this morning.

I'm getting really excited about Catalina!  Yesterday I realized I have 2 more Sundays here before we leave for California.  Lynn posted this video of Kim's swim.  It makes me excited for my swim!

Good thing these guys crossed the road in front of me
AFTER my swim and not before when it was still dark.
Wouldn't want another incident like last summer up at Pineview
where I hit a deer in the dark this time last year.

On the way to work after my swim, I was at the very top of Trappers Loop, and up ahead in the road was a Cow Moose and her calf.  The were standing right there in the middle of the road and were staring me down.  I didn't know how protective that mother was, so I kept my distance.  Didn't know if she would go nuts and ram my car.  I snapped a few pics.  This is the second mom/baby moose pair I've seen in less than a month.  Good to see they're thriving.

Total: 5.16 miles in 2:43

Results of the 2013 Bear Lake Monster Swim

As you know I didn't swim the event today, but helped Josh with directing it.

We set up a schedule and kept it fairly well, we were only a few minutes off of our scheduled plan, but that's not too bad.  I've organized a swim meet before where we were off schedule by 45 minutes and that can be REALLY embarrassing.  After checking everyone in, which went really smoothly, we had our safety meeting and then directed everyone to meet at Cisco beach for the start.

I made sure to check people again as they started to enter the water.  There were a few people who weren't there on time.  Josh made some phone calls and we were in danger of not hitting the schedule start, so we decided that the two remaining swimmers would still be able to swim, but just with a delayed start and we would just adjust their time at the finish to get a net time.

We took a photo at the start (which I need to get from Connie Hubbard) and then did a count down for the relay teams.  I thought it would be a good idea to give them a head start just to get their motor boats out of the way instead of having the entire group in a mad rush at the start with all those propellers it made me nervous.  So we did a countdown for the relay teams.  Then two minutes later they had their boats far enough out to not be in the near vicinity of the larger group of 19 solo swimmers.

Then about 10 minutes after the solo swimmers started our two late comers appeared and we got them started exactly 15 minutes after their fellow soloists started.  Everyone was accounted for and safely departed.

When I got to the other side at the finish Josh told me that one swimmer was pulled, but the rest were going strong.  I got my binoculars out and noticed that from under the big red arch that I couldn't even see the field of swimmers.  I was confused where they were so I walked down to the end of the marina wall on the north side and noticed that from the angle of the course that they had to swim north slightly.  Enough that the marina wall was blocking the view.  Oops #1:  The finish wasn't even visible from the course.  At least I told the swimmers and kayakers at the start to swim for the marina and that the arch would just be at the north end of the marina.  Unfortunately, they wouldn't actually see the arch until they were practically there.  Next year we will put the arch at the end of the marina wall so it can be seen from the start.

Josh and I spotted the first wave of fast swimmers as they were coming in.  Using the binoculars we could tell that the first swimmer was wearing a wetsuit.  We didn't have a clue who it was from that distance, but realized that our policy of having no awards for wetsuited swimmers was probably flawed.  Typically wetsuited swimmers at the GSL race don't stand a chance, because they don't really have that advantage with the buoyancy since everyone is already buoyant.  But here in Bear Lake, that wetsuit actually does make a big difference and the first place person was wearing one.  We realized it might ruffle some feathers with that policy even though we did make it clear in the registration that awards were for the non-wetsuit division male and female.  And then for relay's it didn't matter because wetsuit or not since it is a "for fun" division anyway.

Oops #2: Instead of appearing to be antagonistic towards wetsuited swimmers, just get an award for those divisions.   

Next year we'll have a first place award for male and female wetsuit and non wetsuit division, and then first place relay, so five awards.  Problem with this year is that we didn't expect to have a good turnout.  It really makes it hard to budget an event when people sign up last minute.  We end up being short on shirts, and don't have the money on hand to buy awards in advance.  Hopefully the fact that we only had two "Oops" that weren't huge issues, but still allowed the race to be pretty successful, that we will have a better turn out next year and that we can make some modifications to make it an even more enjoyable swim next year.

The biggest surprise:  Sue took first place for the female division.  In fact she kicked the butt of the time that Josh and I were able to do yesterday.  We did 3:17 and she got 3:10.  That was very impressive!  I didn't expect her to get such a great time.  Congratulations Sue!

Cleanup:   The biggest pain of the event is cleanup.  This year it appeared to include shuttling swimmers to the east side.  The website apparently says that we will shuttle swimmers, but the details of that Josh and I never discussed.  It ended up being Cathi making two trips over, which is quite a bit of driving while I stay behind and clean up, and also make sure we get every swimmer in.  It's a time consuming process and seriously takes ALL DAY.

Afterwards we drove back to the cabin to unwind and eat some dinner.  Cathi was kind enough to let me get in another 30 minutes in the Logan River.  That felt so good especially with feeling overheated there at Bear Lake.  The water temp was 59 degrees and felt wonderful.  I wish I could live there and get up everyday for a cold water endless swim.

Total: 30 minutes in 59 degrees (3/4 mile to be conservative)

Pre-race director swim

The Gridley Van - This is how we roll (minus Jacob who is
at scout camp)  Lucy didn't want me to tag her on facebook
so I could only capture her forehead on the second row.

Last night we left for the cabin up Logan Canyon to prepare for a morning swim with Josh on Friday morning.  Josh and are organizing the second year of the Bear Lake Monster Swim race on Saturday.  We both felt like we wanted to swim it, but couldn't do it on Saturday with the swimmers and still pull off a good event.  So we decided to swim it the day before.

Josh came up to the cabin with his family and spent the night and we left early this morning for a swim across Bear Lake.  We drove to Cisco Campground on the east side and parked there and Austin was our paddler.  Josh and I swim very close to the same pace and agreed that we share Austin as our paddler.  This worked out great.

Me, Austin and Josh about to start as we head west to
the other side.  The water felt great!

The water was 71 degrees when we got in at 8:35 am and moved slowly up to 74.8 when we finished.  The water was flat as glass the whole time except for the occasional speeding boat which caused a small wake for us to deal with.  But it was a Friday and was only occasional until we got closer to the marina on the west side and it became more frequent, but not too bad.  It was comforting to have Austin there just in case a boater got too close.

When we got half way to the other side I noticed a few columns of bubbles coming up from the bottom.  I kind of hand a split second freak out thinking that the famed Bear Lake Monster was real.  The water was crystal blue and was so pretty and mesmerizing.

Swimming stroke for stroke
with Josh.

We could see the marina walls from the other side from the campground, but once we got down to water level it was difficult to locate so we spotted off the group of white condos just up the hill from the marina.  As we got closer we spotted a yellow trampoline which I figured was just off the beach.  Except it was the wrong beach.  It was a beach that was about a half mile north of the beach operated by the State Park.  We stopped the clock at the point where we at knee level water at that beach, and then did a warm down swim through the sharp impaling water reeds along the beach.  Ouch!

Our time ended up being 3:17:21 on my watch.  That's a respectable time.  It beats my own PR for a width crossing by quite a bit.  My old PR was 3:43:12 set July of last year.  It really helps when you have a fellow swimmer to go with.  This is my first time swimming in Bear Lake where it felt like an event where time was a factor, rather than a long distance swim, or a training swim.  The last mile or so felt like a sprint.  I wanted to get a good time and that elusive west coast seemed to not get any closer!   My shoulder after the swim felt so tight!  I'm so glad to have setup an appointment to see Dr. Bell for a cortisone shot on Monday.

When we got back to the cabin, I was SO TIRED.  My left shoulder was shot and I felt like I hadn't slept for days.  I sent Cathi to Logan to get the food for the race, while I took a nap.  Man that felt great.  When she got back I thought another 30 minute swim in the Logan River would do wonders for my shoulder, so I did another cold water swim.  Felt great!

Looking forward to having the swimmers have a great swim tomorrow morning like Josh and I did!

Total: 7.0 miles in 3:17 (and warmdown time around 5 minutes) + 30 minutes in the Logan River water temp was 59 degrees Fahrenheit!

Logan River cold water swim

I brought my recent H2Open mag hoping I'd have time to read
it sometime this weekend, but Cathi was the only one with
some spare time.  

This evening we got to the cabin and the sun was nearly setting.  I didn't get a swim in this morning cause I had to get off at a decent time to depart for the Cabin, so tonight was the chance!

I waded into the river and it felt chilly, but terribly so.  I got in 30 minutes of quality cold water exposure.  My watch read 57 degrees when I got out.  It really felt good.  And I really enjoyed having Cathi and the kids watch.  I swim better when I have someone there to observe.

Total: 30 minutes (distance unknown, but I'll project about 3/4 mile to be sure)

Jonas took this picture on the other side of the bridge where
the creek comes into Logan River.  This really is a beautiful
piece of land.

Even the dogs want a piece of the swimming action.

I love my post cold water swim with a reheat
in the hot tub with my boys.  Oliver, Isaac,
Jonas and Me.

This morning was a real drag

You wouldn't think this creates much drag, but it certainly
does!  I would say at least 10% more effort just to maintain
the same speed.  Oh well, chalk it up to some resistance
training.

I met Joelle at Pineview at 0545 and we started on our swim.  Right before we started she asked me if my Swimmer Buddy board caused much drag.  I told her I could barely tell.  Then we started out swim.  I noticed that it was really causing more drag than normal.  I stopped real quick cause I was sure the cord was wrapped around the bottom of the fin, but it wasn't.  I was really confused why all of a sudden I get some considerable drag when pulling it.  Was her comment messing with my head?  Did the lack of a good nights

sleep affect me so dramatically physically?

I was really struggling to keep up with her.  We usually are stroke for stroke.  It's weird how close we are in pace, but today she was really pushing me!  My shoulders were burning and I was sprinting just to not get left behind.  I know I put on some weight at the family reunion, but not that much.

About 1.5 miles into the swim I stopped for a quick drink and noticed that my full gatorade bottle wasn't under the netting on the board and was dragging behind the board in the water the whole time.  Mystery solved!  I sure was relieved that I wasn't just imagining my weakness.  After that stop I made sure it was stowed properly and I was finally able to keep up with her and my shoulder strain went away.  Whew!

I love those mornings when the air is misty and smells so fresh!

After doing two laps I went out for just a bit more to get my 5 miles.  Water pretty cool getting in, but by the time I got out I'm betting it jumped several degrees.  Josh and I are making final preps for the Bear Lake Race this weekend and are planning to swim the course ourselves on Friday morning.  That's a bonus.  I feel kind of gypped missing out on local races because I'm directing them.  Looking forward to it being over too, cause the next weekend has a crazy fun event in store!

Total: 5 miles in 2:31