Left shoulder explained and failure to think before speaking

This morning Dr Richards did an ultrasound of my left shoulder. He found a small grouping of some calcified scar tissue. He described the process of this as some inflammation that didn't go away and developed into scar tissue that has eventually had calcium form around it. He said it was small, but could be the source of my "grind" feeling after a long swim. He said that a cortisone shot could make them dissolve but there might be a chance that it might not and if it got more painful over time, they can be removed surgically. That would in ol e a needle going in and sucking them out. So for now hoping that the cortisone dissolves them. It was cool to see the injection fill in the gap on the ultrasoun in realtime as he was injecting it.

So yesterday I put my foot in my mouth! I was in the shower and David Balling came in. I asked him if he was going to the summer games and he said he wasn't. He asked me if I was in his age group. David is fast and holds many Utah state age group records. I was surprised at that question cause he's over 50. I guess my subconscious was a little annoyed at being classified as a 50 year old. So I quickly answered "Heck no!". Then I realized how retarded that sounded so I tried to back pedal a little. "I mean if I was in your age group I'd get killed. I've noticed that the older groups times are sometimes even faster than the middle aged times". Ouch! I just thought to myself "Give it up you already did the damage just shut up! So I did. That probably makes my top ten list of embarrassing/stupid moments of my life.

Today's swim was 550 yards then got out and shaved my arms. Big swim on Tuesday.

Stressed out Birthday Swim

Today I slept in thinking I would swim either at lunch at Steiner, or at BL on the way home from work.  I took a couple of my kids to my Mom's house for the day since they're off school and wanted to see Grandma.

When I got to work, my computer went through a windows update install that was downloaded last night.  It went through the install and automatically rebooted.  Then it went back in attempting to reinstall the update, then reboot, then reinstall the update.  Endless Loop.  Tried several things.  Same thing.  Took it over to the hardware pros and they couldn't even fix it.  So my laptop is toast.  I spent the entire day answering email and FB posts over my ipod.  Probably the most boring and nonproductive day I've had in my 12+ years as a software developer.

I decided I wasn't about to spend the full day at work sitting on my thumbs so I left early.  Except I forgot to pick up my kids from my Mom's house, so I had to drive almost the whole way back and get them from my Mom in Woods Cross.  I was in a crappy mood to say the least.  What better to fix that than with an open water swim in the Great Salt Lake!!!!

Cathi, Max and I drove out to the marina where I hurried in and swam out to Egg Island and back.  I was about 400 yards from Egg Island when about 50 seagulls all of a sudden started circling around me.  More and more of them appeared and they were getting brave.  I decided that was probably close enough and turned around and headed back.  Which was fine since I had already hit my halfway point for time allotted on my swim.

I took a couple reading of the temp with my watch and it read 62-63° which felt about right.  Yesterday's swim was much clearer than today.  Today's swim had alot of the brown muck.  I am nicknaming it Brine shrimp crud.  I have no idea what it is, but it looks like diarrhea.   The salt water seems more concentrated in that crud.  And warmer too.

When I got out the GPS read 2.49 miles and it took 1:10.  Not too shabby.  I stopped once for a drink at the turn around point by egg island and then a couple times to see if I could visually locate Cathi and Max on the beach.  I could barely see them.  When I got back I was well into my relaxed state and the frustrations of the day had worn off so that is what counts!  It felt like I was in the water for only 20 minutes though.  I had totally smeared channel grease all over my trouble spots and didn't have any issues.  Then again I was only in the water for 2 and half miles so it's hard to run into much trouble for that distance.

I'm very excited for my 20 mile swim on Tuesday.  Since there is a 40% chance of precipitation on Monday, I'm moving the planned swim to Tuesday.  Currently there is a 0% on Tuesday.    Here's a little info on Egg Island:


I'm loving this guidebook.  Lots of cool info!  Such as those spiders I saw on Fremont?  Those are orb weaver spiders.  Here's a pic I took last year of a male and female sharing a web on an old trailer on Fremont Island:

GSL Swim with Mary Workman

Met Mary and her husband Brent at the Causeway entrance.  We drove together to the Marina.  She wore a wetsuit and we agreed to swim outside the marina and then discuss from there where to go.  The water felt much warmer than last Friday with Goody and Alicia.

I was impressed with her speed.  For every 5 minutes of swimming she was only behind about 40 seconds or so.    I had packed two gatorades in my SSD and we stopped a few times for drinks, and to allow her to adjust her wetsuit to take pressure of her neckline where she was getting a blister.  I told her that is why I avoid wetsuits.  They're bad enough in fresh water.  In the GSL, they're a killer for making blisters fast.  We turned around almost at the north western most point of the island.  The wind during our swim was coming from the south east so we had some very minor chop coming back.  One time during a breath, I accidentally got some water in my mouth that instantly made its way down into my stomach.  Nasty!  I gagged a couple of times, but it was already down there.  I didn't get sick, just yuk!  I could see lots of brine shrimp all around and I'm wondering if they have any nutritional value.  I probably swallowed a few.

At the entrance to the Marina I told her this is where I like to sprint so we sprinted from there back to the boat ramp.   Probably about a 300 yard swim. When I got out I immediately checked my GPS.  1.75 miles exactly.  Not bad for a day where I already did 5000 yards and consider it a tapering day.  There were only minor high clouds that had no juice.  The sun came out in fullness just as we were finishing the swim.

Had no issues with my shoulders at all this evening.  I have an appointment with the Doc on Friday to get a Cortizone shot in my left shoulder which I will NOT be cancelling.  It's very minor.  It only aches after a long time swimming.  Nothing very painful, but I still want it to be at the same level as my right so I'll ask him to do a minor dose.

1.75 miles + 5000 yards from this morning = 4.5 miles daily total

Leaving Hungry

Ever leave a buffet still quite hungry?  That's how I felt today when I left after my short workout.  Don't get me wrong, I love tapering.  But it's hard not to feel guilty only putting in 5000 yards, versus my normal.  I'm really looking forward to next week's big event.  I've been training for months for this thing, and feel ready for it.  The toughest part will be staying in the 60 degree water for the expected 10 hours.

Today's also another milestone.  This morning I hit 500 miles since the start of the year.  Halfway to my year end goal and it's only May.  Well ahead of schedule.

I was in the pool at 5:06am.  Here's today's workout:

2000 free
2000 pull
1000 - 2 x (100 kick, 100 back 100 one arm fly, 100 free, 100 breast)


5000 yards total


It's Oliver's Birthday today.  What a fun little kid!

Spencer Captures Swim - 4 Aug 1941

Salt Lake Tribune - August 4, 1941


Spencer Captures Swim


Victor Only Man to Finish Race - Waves, Wind Cut Down Starting Field by Jimmy Hodgson


Orson Spencer once more proved his right to the title of "Utah's foremost swimmer" Sunday when he conquered the treacherous waves of Great Salt lake to win the unique salt water marathon paddle for the sixth year.

It took Spencer five hours, seven minutes and 22 seconds to cover the 8.2 miles from Antelope island to Black Rock beach, one of the slowest times ever recorded in the swim, but that's what made the performance so brilliant.

"Boy, that feels good"...That's what Orson Spencer
had to say as he washed away the salt gathered on
his long trek through Great Salt Lake.  Spencer was
the only finisher.

Except for the first hour of the swim, during which time the weather was perfect, the paddlers were battling not only the briny and bitter water, but also a powerful wind which whipped up mountainous waves that covered the swimmers time after time and added to their peril.

Against such conditions records and times were out of the question, the problem was whether the swimmers could even stay in the water.

Six paddlers started the race, but the waves took a heavy toll and the mechanical-stroking Spenver was the only one who finished the long course.

Young Ned Winder dropped out first and then big Ed Watson became sick and had to be taken out.  Ken Lyman, last year's winner, was pushing Spencer for the lead, but when the waves reached their peak proportions he decided it was foolish to continue.

Perry Leavitt was taken from the water next when he became violently sick and then big Wayne Christensen of Ogden was forced out whe he got a mouthful of the strangling brine.  Christensen covered nearly six of the eight plus mile course.

Officials suggested that Spencer give it up with the waves making it extremely difficult to even keep him in check, but the persistent paddler continued to the finish line to receive the acclaim of a crowd of more than 500 fans.

Stops Frequently


During the last two miles, Spencer had to stop frequently to have the salt washed from his face with cool, fresh water, and he set a slow pace, but he reached his goal after the most trying conditions that have ever confronted the paddlers in the long swim.

It was the sixth victory for Spencer in the salt marathon.  He won the race from Antelope island to Saltair in 1930,1931 and 1932, setting a record of two hours and two minutes for the course.

He won the Antelope island to Black Rock swim in 1937 and 1938.  His time of three hours 40 minutes and 52 seconds is still the record for present course.  It was set in 1937.

After completing the grind Sunday, Spencer said that this year's swim was the toughest he had ever experienced.  "But I wanted to finish it for mother -- it's her birthday today and she's my coach and trainer.  I wanted to come in for her."

Justly Proud


Spencer's mother, Mrs. D. G. Spencer, was at the pier to meet her son, and she was justly proud.  It took plenty of stamina, courage and ability to swim eight miles in the boiling salty lake Sunday.

Orson received a beautiful trophy from James Latses of Black Rock beach for his victory, and all the contestants and officials were dined royally after the race as guests of Latses.

George Knepp was in charge of the boats following the swimmers, and the boatmen did a fine job in checking up and keeping in close contact with the struggling paddlers.

Officials were Dr. Munn Q Cannon, chairman of the A.A.U. swimming committee; Denny Ausherman, Don Reddish, Rex Sutherland, John Neff, Ward Armstrong and Dr. Ralph Cornwall.

Taper Day 1

Got up at 4 and was in the water at 5:01am:

2000 free
2000 pull
1000 kick with fins
1000 free

6000 yards total

Off to work early and if it's nice I'll stop at BL on the way home.

White Rock Bay visit

Oliver even helped.  Here he is scrubbing walls.

Today I got up early enough to do a long swim.  Cathi had already gone to run in the Ogden Marathon.  The kids were all asleep.  As I was about to leave I saw what a disaster the house was in.  Cathi was going to be gone all day, I was planning to be gone all day.  Leaving seven kids at home alone all day on a Saturday in a house that was ALREADY in a disaster state really bugged me.  Both Jacob and Austin last night both said they didn't want to paddle for me, unless I paid them $20.

So I decided I would do a shorter swim today and get the house done.  We removed all the furniture out of two bedrooms and spring cleaned.  We vacuumed the entire house, cleaned the kitchen, swept and mopped all the wood floor.  Pretty much a spotless house.  Then we mowed the whole yard, and then mowed the neighbors yard.  The ones that up and left their home and left it in foreclosure.  Nobody is there to take care of the yard, and I'd hate to see that yard go to pot all summer.  Anyhow, we worked our butts off.  All of us.  While Cathi was running the marathon.  (She ended up with a pretty good time too)

Oliver (3 yr old)doing a flip on the tramp with
his buddies after all the work is done!

We were done by 11am. Then we played outside.  It was a beautiful day!  The sun was shining.  I bought the kids 4 large meat lover pizzas and sodas.  They were in heaven!  They had the rest of the day to play and I ended up with a very clean house.  I was pleased.  But now what to do about my swim?  I thought, Cathi would love to go with me out to White Rock Bay and let me check it out.  So that's what we did.

We took Max with us and Cathi brought an umbrella to shield her snow white skin from the sun.  I too the GPS to take waypoints to figure out where I would be starting my 20 mile swim, and how far of a walk it would be from the parking lot, and from the water's edge.  Here are the points:

The water was cold.  There were millions of brine shrimp.  They were pretty big too.  A little less than a cm I would guess.  There was a slight current from the south west.  White rock looked bigger than I thought it would be from the map.  I was wondering if I ought to go between White Rock and the beach when I do it, but based on the map, I'll go west of it, since I have to go slightly west to get around the point further south.

Notice that the map shows the waters edge almost where I'll start.  That's how far the water has risen.  Doesn't seem like much, but the waters edge to where I'll start is about a little over a quarter mile of wading.  There were tons of bugs biting me when were were parked and in the vegetation, but once we got to the sandy beach, there were no bugs in sight.  It was way too hot for them out there I guess.  The did a number on my scalp.  I was itching for hours.  I'll have to remember to wear tons of bug spray for that first little bit of the walk to the waters edge.  Then from there get myself covered in head to toe in vas/lanolin mix.

Max wasn't wary of the water, he got in up to his chest and it was funny when I saw him drink some of the water.  He took one dip with his tongue and then shook he head side to side after realizing it wasn't fresh.  He kept going out in the water while Cathi laid on the beach under her umbrella and took a nap.

So I didn't actually swim today, just a little preview of the start of my qualifying swim.  I'm getting excited!  The start of my taper begins, and last minute preps.

2 mile GSL swim with Goody and Alicia

Met Goody and Alicia at the causeway entrance at 4:30pm.  When we creeped out way into the water it felt cold.  I took a temp and it read 59.  We started our swim heading out of the marina towards Fremont Island.  There were dark clouds to the north, but far enough away.  It was sunny to the west.  The wind was coming form the northwest with small waves.  Not a big deal.   We swam for about 10 minutes out of the marina and stopped to take a couple pics.  After swimming out about 1/2 mile, I could see very faintly the bottom of the lake with the sandy spots and then the black bioherms.

I would swim about five minutes and flip turn and swim towards Goody and Alicia.  I told Austin to stay with them.  This was Alicia's first swim in the GSL.  We went 50 minutes then headed back cause we started to see some serious black clouds that were up ahead and heading our way.

Here's the GPS data which is pretty much the same distance that Goody and Alicia did.

I went back and forth a few times, I'll estimate about a half mile.  So 2 1/2 miles.  Definitely not what I had planned for the evening, but what do you do?  You can't curse mother nature.  Even though she's been in a pretty pissy mood lately with all this rain we've had this week.  You see a opening in the clouds and she sends you another round to remind you she's the boss.

Definitely found some hot spots to lube up extra well next time,  The front of my neck where the beard starts.  The inside of my legs by my knees, my stomach on each side by my belly button, and my upper check bones under my eyes.  Just to be safe I'll just lube up my entire body.  When I see vid of Channel swimmers totally covered in grease, I just shake my head.

It also tells me my heading (which I don't care about), but
here it is telling me that sitting at my desk, the room temp is
80.8°.  I'm thinking it also sucks some heat from my arm, so
it isn't 100% accurate.

Yesterday my birthday present came in the mail.  I got this new watch that I did a search for.  I wanted a watch that would tell me the water temp when I swim.  Sometimes I'll be at BL and then I'll hit a real cold spot and say in my mind, I wonder what that dropped down to?  Now I can tell at the press of a button.  I had to calibrate it with my digital one just to get it as close as possible to the digital therm, which I'm assuming is the real deal.  During today's swim I took several readings throughout the swim with both the watch and with the digital therm, and the watch was usually off by no more than 0.3°F.  Not bad.  So I'm pleased with it so far.

When I got home I had to hurry and get showered, and then head off to a massage with Cathi.  She's running the Ogden Marathon tomorrow, and I'm

Goody and Alicia swimming into the oncoming rain clouds.

also planning to do a super long swim tomorrow.  It's the last day of my HELL WEEK.  The massage was awesome.  Typically when I roll my neck it sounds like I'm driving on gravel, but now it's smooth and silent.  Love it!

Nice job Alicia for going for so long in the 60° water for so long!  The mile event you're doing will be more enjoyable now that you have a some experience and know a little more about what to expect.

Thanks to Austin for coming out and being the support rower.  He was a good sport and didn't complain.  Goody also is entertaining to talk to, so that helps his mood and makes it less boring for him.  Typically I'm pretty tight lipped and just go.

Today's total was 10K yards from this morning with an estimated 2 1/2 miles on top of that this evening.  Short by about 5K yards, but I'm not upset.  I'd rather swim 3 miles in GSL than 6 miles in the pool any day.

Front Page

Yesterday the Syracuse Islander printed a nice little clip on my swim in a couple weeks, and mentioned the GSL race in June.  Hopefully that gets a few more registrations!

Pressures on.  No bullcrap. 

This morning's swim went well.  I like equipment days:

1500 free
500 free/IM alternate by 100
3000 pull
1000 - 10 x 100's odd free, even alternate between back/breast or one arm fly 
1000 kick with fins
2000 pull
1000 free easy

10,000 yards total

I have an appointment to get a massage tonight at 8pm.  I'll have to be in the water this afternoon at 4:30 in order to make sure I get my 10K for tonight.  Looking to get a daily total of 20,000 yards. 

Day One of Utah State High School Waterpolo Championships

South Davis Rec Center (SDRC) is hosting the High School State Championships for Waterpolo and today was day one.  They had a poster set up for over a week saying that the competition pool would be closed, but I know better.  When they say closed, they're talking the deep end and a few lanes in the shallow.  There are still three lanes that are available.  But they want to lead on that they're closed so that nobody gets ticked when they have to share a lane.  But I was surprised that I was able to have a lane all to myself tonight.

There was enough male testosterone in the pool and in the stands to kill a male elephant.  It was crazy.  It's been a while since I've been to a High School event like that where everyone is yelling, screaming, pounding on stuff.  Not sure if that's why tonight's swim was awesome, but I don't care.  I was a little worried that with the lack of energy this morning that tonight's swim wouldn't be good as yesterdays.  It was even better. I was holding longer strokes and they were stronger.  I went faster and didn't have any aches.  

1000 free

100 back

1000 free

100 back

1000 free

100 back

1000 free

6500 yards total

That makes today's grand total 18,000 yards (over 10 miles)

Only thing that sucks is that I am so busy when I get home that I don't get to bed until now (10:20) and have to get up in 5 1/2 hours.  Definitely not enough sleep!  But I'll have to just deal with it for two more days.  I can sleep on Sunday (hopefully).