Ride to, and swim in Lake Cleveland

 This morning I got up at 5:30am and rode from Albion City Park to Mt. Harrison with my Uncle, Rob Boyd.  I asked Rob to go with me about three years ago and he was in to mountain biking and road biking.  It was tough for him.  However this past year he got into triathlons and got himself a sweet road bike.  Needless to say he's in much better shape than I am.

Panorama view from the first overlook

View of Lake Cleveland from the road winding up to Mt.
Harrison

A couple times he went at his own pace and left me in his dust.  We made it to the top in less than 3 hours.  We took some pics and talked to the wildfire spotter who was manning the outlook.  This is the first time out of my 5th year of riding up there that anyone has been up there.  Also it's the first time that there hasn't been huge snow drifts on the road near the top.  The road was clear of snow the whole way to the top.

Panorama from Mt. Harrison Outlook.

On the way back we stopped at Lake Cleveland which is less than two miles from the top.  I did one lap.  The water was 67°F!  I was expecting it to be in the 50s.  It was very refreshing.  I was wishing I could stay for a lot more, but we had to get back to the reunion.  It took me 20 minutes to do one lap and it's a half mile around the perimeter.

Just as I got on my bike to head down the rest of the way I noticed my back tire had a flat.  Good thing I packed a spare tube and CO2 cartridge.  About 10 minutes later I was back on my way down the hill.  It's crazy going down.  Got up to 45 mph, and the road is pretty rough.  One spill, and I'm dead.  So I tried to maintain my speed at around 30mph max.  So fun!  Hoping to do it again next year.

Me and Rob at Lake Cleveland.

Total Distance: .50 miles in 20 minutes

Utah Lake Length route

This is the route James took last year:
http://www.mapmyfitness.com/routes/view/235775197

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Not sure if I saw this article already or not, but it was a good reminder of a great swim that seems comparable to EC, Catalina, Bear Lake, GSL Blackrock to Whiterock, etc....

I'm thinking this may be my next big thing after Catalina before the season is over. We'll have to see though.  Lots of variables between now and September, but a vision has opened to my eyes.  Hoping the dice roll in my favor.

Preparing for serious butt kicking, literally.

Tomorrow morning I will embark on a bike ride that is a serious butt kicker, at least for me.  It's only a 26 mile ride, but the first half is brutal.  I havn't been on my bike in well over a year, so this will probably cripple me for Sunday.  I took my uncle Rob on this ride a few years ago and he had a heavy old mountain bike and I ended up leaving him.  But the past year he's been training on the bike and also bought a road bike, so he texted me about going up this year.

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He may just school me this time.  I'm hoping to instead of going all the way to the top, stopping at Lake Cleveland which is about a mile from the top.  Instead of biking all the way to the lookout, there is Lake Cleveland which is about a mile from the top.  It's a small lake that is close to the peak.  I'm planning n a mile swim there (water temp should be in the low 50's.  There's still snow up there).  Then ride back to Albion, which going back is super easy, but dangerous with the downhill grades.  Gotta be careful to take those corners slower, or you could end up as minced meat.

This morning I swam at NWRC,  Got in the pool on time for a change.  Did the following:

300 swim
200 paddles
100 kick
1000 - 2 x (25,50,75,100,100,75,50,25,25,50,75,100,100,75,50,25) all Free :15 ri
300 - 4 x 75's kick with fins
1500 - 5 x (200 pull, 100 buoy and ankle strap only, 50 back no legs)
600 - 4 x (75,50,25) first two kick with fins, second two weighted 25s

4,000 yards total in 1:20

Have to leave early from work so today's workout was cut short.  This weeks swim total is not up to par, but the cross training is going well.  Expect to pick it up next week including a decent swim on the 4th.

Joelle's first Pineview swim

Joelle, myself and Goody out for a swim

This morning I met with Joelle Beard and Goody at windsurfer beach at Pineview Reservoir.  The weather was perfect and the water was flat as glass.  We got in and did two laps of to the dam buoys to no wake buoys and back.  I gotta come up with a name for that route.  It's 2.40 miles if you don't backtrack at all.  I'm going to start referring to this as the "Goody Lap" since Pineview was once his beloved home.

Goody came along and he did one lap.  He's doing awesome considering just a few months ago he was just getting out of the hospital.  I took a few pics this morning.  I also found a floating Styrofoam takeaway container which I stowed on my SwimmerBuddy for proper disposal.

Shoulders felt great and swam strong the whole time.  Love swimming out there in the mornings!  Next time is on Monday.

Total: 4.97 miles in 2:20 including time for "waiting up"

Dam buoy line

Love the sunrise shots!

Panorama from southern tip

Spousal support

Last night I stayed up later than I wanted helping Cathi put finishing touches on her article that she's writing.  She was asked to write an article of what its like suppo

Cathi's embrace is pure heaven, especially after the
long Bear Lake crossing.  

rting a swimmer from the perspective of a spouse.  She had come up with 4 pages of stuff, and I helped her whittle it down to just over 1 page.  She sure has a heart of gold!  I know that I wouldn't be where I am right now without her.  I feel so blessed.

This morning I went to NWRC and did my own thing.  I saw a workout on "Did You Swim Today" and followed it's pattern:

1000 free (naked)
100 back
200 IM
300 free
400 kick with fins
500 tempo trainer
600 finger paddles
700 freestyler paddles
800 agility paddles
900 large paddles
900 - 3 x 300's free desc
800 - 2 x 400's free strong
700 free
300 kick
200 IM
100 free

8,500 Yards total in 2:30

Swimming with Swim Smooth founder Paul Newsome

Adam, Goody, Josh, and Paul getting ready to start the swim.

Have you ever heard of Swim Smooth?  It's a great site and Paul Newsome is the creator and designer of the program.  He has worked out this program for helping swimmers better their efficiency in the water

I was most impressed when I heard that Paul won MIMS this last month.  It's one thing to be a coach, but its another to be a bad ass swimmer on top of it.  There are those who talk the talk, and there are those who walk the walk.  It's the walkers and not the talkers that I respect the most, and Paul is definitely a "walker" instead of just a "talker".

Josh told me Paul was planning on coming to Utah this last week, but his arrival was delayed a few days and he texted me that Paul was meeting at the GSL Marina at 3pm this afternoon, so I got off work early to meet out there.  Paul and his friend Adam were out there talking to Goody when I arrived.  It was pretty windy and it was coming from the west.   Goody gave me a neat gift:  His custom speedo that says "Catalina or bust".

After Paul and Adam applied some Lanolin, we all got in at the boat ramp.  I took a couple pics and followed them to the end of the marina.  We met up at the red buoy outside the marina and discussed the route we would take.  Paul opted for a mile swim down the deep reef channel to the third red buoy.

I swam alongside Paul to the third red buoy which was the turnaround point.  He swam within a foot away off to my right the whole time.  I'm not used to swimming side by side with someone that close especially when the chop is that rough.  It was a little unnerving, but we never collided.  It was fun cause we were stroke for stroke right there within a few inches of each other.  Come to find out, this is a technique that he encourages and apparently he was practicing it on me.  Check this out. I'm glad I didn't slow up or deviate my course.

We waited at the red buoy for Josh who was only behind us a few seconds.  Swimming from that buoy to the beach was crazy.  We were getting hit with wind and waves at our 1 o'clock.

Paul got his first taste of Utah's dead sea.

When we got back to silversands beach, Paul and I talked as we waded to the rocks.  He told me of his MIMS swim, and his group of swimmers from Perth, and briefly of his adventures over the past month traveling across the country meeting people and finding new places to swim.  What a wonderful holiday he is experiencing!

One thing he told me is that he got sick after MIMS with the pollution of the water.  He suggested that I talk to my doctor and get a prescription for antibiotics BEFORE the swim so that I have something in my body to fight those germs, before the race.  Sounds like some great advice!

He complimented me on my stroke and commented that I am in good condition for Catalina.  That meant a lot coming from someone who is an expert in the field.

He's off to San Francisco now and I suggested that he stop at Lake Tahoe on the way for a mid-day swim.  Being that this is his first time across the USA he definitely needs to stop there.  It was cool to see another outsider come in and take in the lake so openly.  With the wind it kept the brine flies away, so that was a major bonus.  There were some definite hot/cold spots out there in the water, and I got a few mouthfuls of water with that wind.  It was coming over the top of us and drops were getting lifted up off the surface of the white caps and down into our mouths.  It was awesome.  Probably the fastest swim from the marina opening along the deep reef channel.

Total: 1.25 miles in who knows how long.  Time flies when you're having fun.

Adrenaline

 This morning was another breathtaking moment in Pineview.  The full moon was just setting on the southwest, and the sun was just rising in the northeast.  Just beautiful.

I was in the water at 6am sharp and did one full dam buoy route and then tacked on an additional buoy route.  The water temp on my watch read 67 and 68 degrees.

There were a three times when I nearly jumped out of the water and got a huge adrenaline rush.  The first time was when I was swimming along and my hand passed within just an inch or two of a fish.  It was only a small thing, probably 6 - 8 inches, but it wasn't something I was expecting and made my heart skip a beat or two.

The next couple times was when my hand passed through a couple of small bushes or tumbleweeds that were floating on the surface, again not something I was expecting and bam!  My heart pumped at doubletime for just a few seconds.

Other than that it was very non eventful.  I swam strong and didn't have any issues with soreness or tiredness.  The water was like glass and I was able to pull strong and on the last half mile was able to pour it on for a bit.

Last night Jacob made me take my first ice batch.  He sure is taking on the coaching role.  He sure will be disappointed if he doesn't end up making it on the boat in the Catalina crossing.  I think I'll do a role call on who has already bought airline tickets.  I have one crew member too many I think.   He put in only two ice buckets instead of the normal 6 or so.  The water temp got down to 65, and then stayed there.  I was in for about 15 minutes.  It was cake to be honest.

Total miles: 3.52 miles in 1:47

Tomorrow I'll do a longer pool set.

One communication tip for the crew - YELL

Here's a video of Joe Locke's recent attempt to swim from the Farallon islands to Golden Gate a few weeks ago.  I was watching his spotGPS and was rooting for him the whole way.  I was disappointed for Joe when I saw that he was pulled.  He did a majority of it.  It was a valiant effort!

Here's the video:


One thing that stood out to me had nothing to do with swimming, but communication.  I'm not sure if Joe is wearing ear plugs, I sure do.  Notice how many times he asks for Vito to repeat what was said.  For me that would be frustrating.  Frustration and wasted time: two things that shouldn't happen during a swim where every second counts.  It reminded me of a similar situation in England last year.  Cathi was trying to tell me something, and I couldn't hear what she was saying.  Here's what I wrote:  

"After Josh got out I kept on going and at some point during a feed Cathi tried telling me something.With my ear plugs I couldn't hear, so I yelled out "Speak up!!!"  She jumped.  She yelled back....[the statement]"

If you are on my crew, I need you to YELL,  I'll get pissed off if I constantly have to ask for a repeat.  It's just a matter of volume, not emotion.  So it won't hurt my feelings, in fact it'll show me that your words are important enough to come from your gut.  

Don't mind me, I'm fine

This morning I met Annie at 5:45am at Pineview's Windsurfer beach.  We did a lap together just as the sun was coming up over the east.  The full lap is just under 2.5 miles, so I backtrack just a bit to get that 2.5 miles in there per lap.  The water felt just a touch colder than earlier this week.  When I got to the dam buoys my watch said it was 66 degrees.  The water was flat and calm.

Annie swimming into the turn at the dam buoys.

Annie told me at the dam buoys that she would join me for one lap and had to get on after that.  We swam along the southern side to the no wake buoys and then along that line back to the north side, then back to the start.  I got out and had to use the men's room real quick.  Then got back in for three more laps.  Annie introduced me to a couple of other guys in wetsuits that were there at the beach.   Talked with Matt for a few minutes and I was starting to get cold so I went on to my next lap.  The second and third laps were nice and more and more boats and recreational SUP and fisherman also grew in numbers.

But on that fourth and final lap the wind really picked up from the east.  It was c

I love watching the sun come up
from within the water.  

oming up the canyon from Ogden fairly strong.  Got some white caps and the boats and all the SUP and fishermen started to head out.  It was just me and a few far away water ski boats, without water skiers.  It was too windy.  Heading into the dam was tough and a little frustrating.  I was getting a little ticked off getting mouthfuls of water instead of air and near the end was sprinting just so I could get to the dam buoy line and then get a free ride along the southern side.

When I got there at the very southwestern corner of my route I took a quick break for a feed and take a picture.  Just when I was about to start up again I noticed some dude up on the road watching me.  I'm sure he was watching to see if I was struggling.  I wanted to yell out "Hey!  Are you OK?!  Do you need some help!"  But figured that would be a bit too cheeky.

Chop always seems to look quite wimpy in pictures.

The last lap was awesome I got a new burst of energy with the waves.  It seemed to give me a surge rather than a drain on my energy.  It made it more entertaining, that's for sure.  The swim along the sourthern side heading east was with the wind and the waves, it was quite a fast finish.  Then when I started heading back north along the buoys I was getting hit at my 9 o'clock.  I noticed a couple of boats slowly circling me watching.  Another group of people making sure that I'm safe.  Thank you!  There was a guy who drowned out here very close to shore and that already hit the average quota of drownings for the year in Pineview.  One more, and they're double the average.  I wanted to stop and reassure them, "Don't mind me, I'm fine."  But figured if I just kept swimming they'd notice that I wasn't struggling and rather enjoying it.  At the end, my GPS read 9.93 miles, so I back tracked for a couple minutes, and then swam back.  10.0 miles exactly.  My time was 5:40, but about 15 minutes of that was on the John and talking to Matt and Annie.  So not too bad on the time.  I was glad to be done, but had more in the tank which is a great feeling!

There were some wind surfers, SUPers,
fishermen, and lots of boats out
there during my third lap, but
on that fourth one, you can see it
pretty much died down to just
a couple boats and some chatterboxes
enjoying the sun in their beach chairs.

SpotGPS takes waypoints
every 10 minutes.
It appears that I took different
 routes almost every lap,
but not so.  The interval is too
 long for decent accuracy.
But you get the gist.  

I feel like I'm ready for Catalina.  Sure it'll be tougher than the EC.  But I think I can take it.  The sun was out in full force today and that felt great.  The water temp reading I got as I got out was 69.8 degrees so it warmed up a few.  Felt wonderful.





Total: 10 miles in 5:40

No more tears

This morning I used my special antifog spray that I mixed up.  Again, thanks to Open Water Chicago blog for the recipe.  Man that works even better than the Jaws Spit antifogger that I buy, and at a 10th of the price.  My little 3 ounce bottle will last me forever.  My goggles didn't even come close to fogging up the entire swim.

I was about 30 minutes late this morning, so I worked into where James and Paul were at, and stayed after to pick back up from the beginning, and then added a little more to get my goal for the day.  Here's what I did:

600 warmup - 400 free, 200 kick
500 - 200 pull, 200 buoy only, 100 - 4 x 25's fast on :30
400 - 4 x 100 IMs broken up by 50s
Then went back and did the prescribed workout from the board:
600 - 8 x 75's free/stroke/free on 1:15
1500 - 3 x (200 pull, 200 buoy only, 4 x 25's fast on :30)
200 kick with fins
200 IM
100 easy

4,100 yards total in 1:10

My Mom at the NWRC pool walking against the current.

Just as I was packing up my stuff I heard someone call my name from the other pool.  I looked over and my Mom was walking against the current in the winding river with all the other old ladies.  She was smiling real big and waved at me.

My parents both are are dry land people and never get in the water.  I've only seen my Dad in a pool once before in my entire life!  And this was probably my second time with my Mom.  If I didn't look so much like my uncles I would suspect I was adopted.