Introducing Grid Squid Coaching

With the Endless Pool installation completed (minus some cosmetic paneling around the outside), I am now ready to proceed with my dream:

To swim at my convenience at home, and to offer coaching to those who need help.  The thing is, I don't want to mess with insurance, a business license, etc...  So this will be FREE coaching, as long as I get a signed waiver.  The only thing I ask is that folks who feel the session was of value to them, that they become a member of Salt Lake Open Water (a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization).  

If you're interested in getting some coaching, whether it be for simply learning how to survive in water, or to make your stroke more efficient and faster, I can be of some help.

What you'll get:

• Individualized analysis of your stroke, in the endless pool, including video analysis that you will get a copy of.
• Review of your current training program in relation to your goals.
• Some actionable tasks for you to work on with a follow up visit if you like.

Some of my qualifications:

• Level 2 USMS Certified Coach
• I was a coach a few years ago for a USA Swimming club (Syracuse Rush Bluefins)
• Experienced open water swimmer
• I was WSI Certified and taught swimming lessons to kids from 5 to 15 when when I was in high-school and college.
• CPR/First-Aid certified, with an AED on premises. 😟

If you're interested, email me at: ggridley@gordongridley.us

DC Installs the liner

This morning at 7am DC arrived with his boy and they worked together all day. They worked hard and got an amazing amount of work done.  We filled up the pool to the level of the hydraulic hoses.  Finally he installed the security cover.

Tomorrow he comes early to install the hoses, and pipes and finalizing all the functional part.  He will show me how to do the insulation and skirting. I'm hoping that I'll be able to swim first thing Monday morning.

Even at 10 minutes, the time lapse of today is a bit long....

In comes DC to save the project

After having to undo/redo several parts of the wall construction due to various missed steps, I knew I was in big trouble with this thing. The wall construction is probably the easiest part and yet here I was having issues.  I found the DVD, and that is what made me actually find where I was doing things wrong.  So if you're stuck, check out the DVD, cause it actually shows you what to do.

Granted, I still had some room in my budget to have a professional help me.  So I called DC (Dave Christensen) and he came out to check out the pool parts and the configuration I had with the location of where it was going.  He seemed kind of excited to put it together which was encouraging.  He's a certified installer with Endless so he knows what he is doing. He's done this many times before.

His number is 801-347-0194. Here's some background on DC on the endlesspools website.

Anyway, this morning he came out and got started.  It rained quite a bit last night, so he just anchored the structure and did the coping.  He found that the shipment was missing a couple corners, so he's going to get in touch with them and get them to rush the missing parts so he can resume next week.  It's kind of like having a Real Estate Agent when you're desperate to find a home.  Can you find a home without an agent, Yes, but it's a major pain in the ass.

Having this guy take care of all the hard work for me already is worth it!

Here's some time lapse of the work he did this morning....

Endless Pool Shipment and skeleton installation

Last week the Endless Pool shipment came from ABF who where the freight company that transported it.  The main crate had some apparent damage and was strapped together to prevent further damage.

After taking the straps off and removing the side panel that was bowing out to look inside, everything looked intact and undamaged. The guy who unloaded also took pictures and marked the shipment as damaged just in case there was real damage to it.  He took the straps and I resumed removing the panels and exposing all the boxes inside.

I'd say that base is a little uneven.  All the supporting
bases need to be the same height, and distributed evenly.
And the forklift base I think should be as wide as
 the entire crate to avoid damage.

We then broke down the panel crate and started putting the skeleton together.

Notice the fat side down.  WRONG!
Dummy!

After we got all four corners put together I realized we had the thing upside down. So we took an hour to disassemble the panels and turn everything right side up.  Small side down, fat side up!

Then I realized that I missed putting in the California braces, so then I had to loosen things up a bit to get that in there.  At this point I found the manual in amongst the boxes in the original crate.  I was operating off of instructions that were emailed to me.  The binder in the crate is the way to go.  Don't bother with downloading and printing out instructions. Everything is in that nice binder and in the right order.


After completing full inventory of the damaged crate I discovered one of the turning vane assemblies had a broken part.

I called Endless Pools and they were very quick to respond and get a replacement part shipped out.

However the first day of assembling things, made me realize this is a bit over my head.  So I asked Cathi to get in touch with Tom, the guy who allowed me to do my test swim, and find out who helped him assemble his pool.


She found out he is a factory trained Endless Pool installer.  His name is DC (Dave Christensen).  He is coming over this afternoon to look at what we've got and see if we can make a deal.

The easiest part was the stairs going up on the outside of the pool. It looked like something Lifetime would make. It was super easy to install.

Anyway, I'm hopeful that with DC, I'll be able to get this thing put together sooner rather than later. But that will come at a price. And I'm hoping the price is something I can handle. Cause the pool itself was insanely expensive.

Coming out of retirement soon - Endless Pool purchase

After years of dreaming and coaxing Cathi, we finally made the jump and purchased the Endless Pool that I've been configuring, designing, and refining until it was just what we wanted.  It also took several years of saving, and investing to be able to get the funds to buy this thing with cash.

Some consolations I had to make with Cathi in order to proceed was:

• No more gun purchases (except ammo)
• No more long-distance table tennis competitions (US Nationals and US Open)
• I had to commit to a training program, with milestone swims leading up to a 2022 English Channel swim attempt, when I turn 50 and will make the English Channel Half Century Club (More on that in a future post)

For those that are considering an endless pool, here are the details of what I ordered:

I'm expecting that it will take approximately 4-6 weeks for them to assemble all these items into a shipping crate, and ship it. Which is fine.

I have lots of friends who are willing to come over and help me put this thing together. Which is good cause I'm not the best mechanic and when I get hot and frustrated, I get nasty, end up breaking stuff and my language eventually isn't very clean. So it's good to get some help and some peer-pressure to keep things family friendly in the back yard.

I'll be sure to post some time-lapse video of the pool assembly and some explanations in case someone needs it as a reference for their own pool.

Stay tuned....

It's official, until further notice, I'm retired from swimming

I'm still coaching Rush Bluefins, and helping friends by crewing on their marathon swims, and still helping Josh with the Salt Lake Open Water races.  But as for me.  I'm going back to my old love:

Table Tennis

Tomorrow will be my last day coaching for South Davis Masters.  I've made many good friends, and I'll miss them.  But I'm confident that our paths will cross again someday.  I'm sure one day I'll get burned out with table tennis and I'll get back in the water where I won't get my butt kicked by little Asian kids.

I have a robot setup at work and I have several friends to hit with.  On average I'm getting about 10-12 hours of practice per week.  That's about the same amount of time I was swimming when I was in to it hardcore.  So it's a fair trade-off I think!

Until then, Do what you love and love what you do!

Battling Bronchitis

OK so I've had a cold for 3 weeks.  I no longer have a runny nose, but the cough is still persisting. I read this document and there are several things I need to do better:

• Get more sleep
• Drink more water
• Lay off the Dayquil/Nyquil

One of the points was to avoid exercise.  I already took two weeks off and it still is here.  Enough is enough.  I'm not going to take 3 weeks off of swimming.  I actually scratched from the QUAC meet last Saturday, because of my cold.  I basically did take 2 weeks off the first twand my swimming suffered.  I definitely wasn't about to compete in this condition.

This morning I got up at 2:50am and met Chad in the water at 3:50am at 24 hr in Sugarhouse.  It was his turn to come up with the workout.  It was awesome:

600 warmup

5 x 200's free, 5 sec rest interval only!

50 breast

8 x 150's free/back/free by 50, 5 sec rest interval only!

50 breast

6 x 100's free on 1:30 (got 1:20-1:22)

50 breast

2 x 200 IMs moderate pace

5 x 200's pull descending paddle size (Trash can lids... PT paddles) on 3:00 ish

2 x 300's kick with fins

10 x 100's free fast (on 1:15) :30 rest (1:45 intervals)

2 x 200's descending

300 kick with fins easy

7,250 yards total in 2:15

2016 One Hour Postal

Last year was the first year since 2010 that I missed doing a one hour postal, but this year I was not going to let it pass by.  I've only been at solid swimming for about a month and I feel great!  I know I'm not in tip top shop, but not shabby either.   It would also be helpful to be about 20 pounds lighter.  Working on that.

This morning I met Chad at 24 hr in Sugarhouse at 4am.  Swam a 700 nice and easy, and then started off.  I had my garmin give me an alert every 1:30 to help me know where I'm at from a pacing perspective.  Every time that alert goes off I should have done 100 plus several more yards.  My goal was to get a minimum of 4,000 yards which is a 1:30 pace.  By the time I got at 30 minute I was already 150 yards faster than that 1:30 pace.  Awesome.  Now to hang in there and increase that a little more.

I managed to get in 4,280 yards right at the one hour mark.  Would have been nice to get that 4300, but I'll take it.

Here's the data from Garmin:

Lengths	Distance	Time	Cumulative Time	Avg Pace	Best Pace	Avg SWOLF	Total Strokes
1	25.00	0:20.8	0:20.8	1:23	1:23	30	9
2	50.00	0:18.2	0:39.0	1:13	1:13	26	8
3	75.00	0:19.3	0:58.3	1:17	1:17	27	8
4	100.00	0:18.8	1:17.1	1:15	1:15	28	9
5	125.00	0:22.3	1:39.4	1:29	1:29	32	10
6	150.00	0:20.3	1:59.6	1:21	1:21	28	8
7	175.00	0:21.6	2:21.2	1:27	1:27	31	9
8	200.00	0:21.6	2:42.8	1:26	1:26	32	10
9	225.00	0:20.8	3:03.6	1:23	1:23	30	9
10	250.00	0:20.6	3:24.2	1:23	1:23	30	9
11	275.00	0:21.2	3:45.4	1:25	1:25	30	9
12	300.00	0:20.4	4:05.7	1:21	1:21	29	9
13	325.00	0:20.8	4:26.5	1:23	1:23	30	9
14	350.00	0:21.2	4:47.7	1:25	1:25	30	9
15	375.00	0:21.2	5:08.9	1:25	1:25	30	9
16	400.00	0:20.3	5:29.2	1:21	1:21	29	9
17	425.00	0:21.1	5:50.2	1:24	1:24	30	9
18	450.00	0:20.9	6:11.1	1:24	1:24	30	9
19	475.00	0:21.6	6:32.7	1:26	1:26	31	9
20	500.00	0:20.8	6:53.5	1:23	1:23	30	9
21	525.00	0:21.3	7:14.8	1:25	1:25	30	9
22	550.00	0:20.8	7:35.6	1:23	1:23	30	9
23	575.00	0:20.6	7:56.2	1:23	1:23	30	9
24	600.00	0:20.6	8:16.8	1:22	1:22	29	8
25	625.00	0:21.9	8:38.7	1:28	1:28	31	9
26	650.00	0:20.5	8:59.2	1:22	1:22	29	8
27	675.00	0:21.1	9:20.3	1:24	1:24	30	9
28	700.00	0:20.3	9:40.6	1:21	1:21	29	9
29	725.00	0:21.1	10:02	1:25	1:25	30	9
30	750.00	0:20.8	10:22	1:23	1:23	30	9
31	775.00	0:20.9	10:43	1:24	1:24	30	9
32	800.00	0:20.7	11:04	1:23	1:23	30	9
33	825.00	0:21.4	11:25	1:26	1:26	30	9
34	850.00	0:20.7	11:46	1:23	1:23	30	9
35	875.00	0:20.9	12:07	1:24	1:24	29	8
36	900.00	0:20.6	12:28	1:22	1:22	29	8
37	925.00	0:20.9	12:49	1:24	1:24	30	9
38	950.00	0:21.1	13:10	1:25	1:25	31	10
39	975.00	0:21	13:31	1:24	1:24	30	9
40	1000.00	0:21.4	13:52	1:26	1:26	31	10
41	1025.00	0:21.8	14:14	1:27	1:27	31	9
42	1050.00	0:21.8	14:36	1:27	1:27	32	10
43	1075.00	0:21.1	14:57	1:25	1:25	30	9
44	1100.00	0:20.6	15:17	1:23	1:23	30	9
45	1125.00	0:21.3	15:39	1:25	1:25	30	9
46	1150.00	0:20.8	15:59	1:23	1:23	30	9
47	1175.00	0:21	16:20	1:24	1:24	30	9
48	1200.00	0:20.9	16:41	1:24	1:24	31	10
49	1225.00	0:21.5	17:03	1:26	1:26	31	9
50	1250.00	0:20.6	17:23	1:22	1:22	30	9
51	1275.00	0:21.7	17:45	1:27	1:27	31	9
52	1300.00	0:21.3	18:06	1:25	1:25	31	10
53	1325.00	0:21	18:27	1:24	1:24	30	9
54	1350.00	0:20.8	18:48	1:23	1:23	29	8
55	1375.00	0:21.3	19:10	1:25	1:25	30	9
56	1400.00	0:20.7	19:30	1:23	1:23	30	9
57	1425.00	0:20.6	19:51	1:23	1:23	30	9
58	1450.00	0:20.9	20:12	1:24	1:24	30	9
59	1475.00	0:20.7	20:32	1:23	1:23	30	9
60	1500.00	0:21.2	20:54	1:25	1:25	31	10
61	1525.00	0:21.3	21:15	1:25	1:25	30	9
62	1550.00	0:20.2	21:35	1:21	1:21	29	9
63	1575.00	0:20.4	21:55	1:22	1:22	29	9
64	1600.00	0:21.1	22:17	1:25	1:25	31	10
65	1625.00	0:20.7	22:37	1:23	1:23	30	9
66	1650.00	0:20.5	22:58	1:22	1:22	31	10
67	1675.00	0:21.3	23:19	1:25	1:25	30	9
68	1700.00	0:20.3	23:39	1:21	1:21	28	8
69	1725.00	0:21.3	24:01	1:25	1:25	30	9
70	1750.00	0:21.1	24:22	1:25	1:25	30	9
71	1775.00	0:20.8	24:43	1:23	1:23	31	10
72	1800.00	0:21.4	25:04	1:26	1:26	31	10
73	1825.00	0:21.6	25:26	1:26	1:26	31	9
74	1850.00	0:21.3	25:47	1:25	1:25	30	9
75	1875.00	0:21.9	26:09	1:28	1:28	31	9
76	1900.00	0:20.8	26:29	1:23	1:23	30	9
77	1925.00	0:22	26:51	1:28	1:28	31	9
78	1950.00	0:21.5	27:13	1:26	1:26	32	10
79	1975.00	0:21.6	27:35	1:26	1:26	32	10
80	2000.00	0:20.8	27:55	1:23	1:23	30	9
81	2025.00	0:21.1	28:16	1:24	1:24	30	9
82	2050.00	0:21.4	28:38	1:26	1:26	30	9
83	2075.00	0:21.6	28:59	1:26	1:26	31	9
84	2100.00	0:21.1	29:20	1:25	1:25	30	9
85	2125.00	0:21.7	29:42	1:27	1:27	31	9
86	2150.00	0:21.1	30:03	1:25	1:25	30	9
87	2175.00	0:22.8	30:26	1:31	1:31	33	10
88	2200.00	0:21.6	30:48	1:26	1:26	32	10
89	2225.00	0:21.4	31:09	1:26	1:26	30	9
90	2250.00	0:21	31:30	1:24	1:24	31	10
91	2275.00	0:21.4	31:52	1:26	1:26	30	9
92	2300.00	0:21.4	32:13	1:26	1:26	30	9
93	2325.00	0:21.8	32:35	1:27	1:27	31	9
94	2350.00	0:21.6	32:56	1:26	1:26	31	9
95	2375.00	0:21.3	33:18	1:25	1:25	30	9
96	2400.00	0:21.1	33:39	1:25	1:25	31	10
97	2425.00	0:21.2	34:00	1:25	1:25	30	9
98	2450.00	0:22.1	34:22	1:29	1:29	31	9
99	2475.00	0:21.3	34:43	1:25	1:25	30	9
100	2500.00	0:21.1	35:04	1:24	1:24	29	8
101	2525.00	0:21.5	35:26	1:26	1:26	31	9
102	2550.00	0:20.9	35:47	1:24	1:24	30	9
103	2575.00	0:21.8	36:09	1:27	1:27	31	9
104	2600.00	0:20.3	36:29	1:21	1:21	29	9
105	2625.00	0:21.8	36:51	1:27	1:27	31	9
106	2650.00	0:21.3	37:12	1:25	1:25	30	9
107	2675.00	0:21.8	37:34	1:27	1:27	31	9
108	2700.00	0:21.6	37:55	1:27	1:27	32	10
109	2725.00	0:20.9	38:16	1:24	1:24	30	9
110	2750.00	0:20.8	38:37	1:23	1:23	31	10
111	2775.00	0:21.6	38:59	1:26	1:26	31	9
112	2800.00	0:20.4	39:19	1:22	1:22	29	9
113	2825.00	0:21.8	39:41	1:27	1:27	31	9
114	2850.00	0:20.6	40:02	1:23	1:23	31	10
115	2875.00	0:21.1	40:23	1:25	1:25	30	9
116	2900.00	0:20.5	40:43	1:22	1:22	31	10
117	2925.00	0:20.9	41:04	1:24	1:24	30	9
118	2950.00	0:20.6	41:25	1:22	1:22	30	9
119	2975.00	0:21.3	41:46	1:25	1:25	31	10
120	3000.00	0:20.9	42:07	1:24	1:24	31	10
121	3025.00	0:21.5	42:28	1:26	1:26	31	9
122	3050.00	0:21.3	42:50	1:25	1:25	31	10
123	3075.00	0:21.4	43:11	1:26	1:26	30	9
124	3100.00	0:21.3	43:33	1:25	1:25	31	10
125	3125.00	0:21.9	43:54	1:28	1:28	31	9
126	3150.00	0:21.3	44:16	1:25	1:25	30	9
127	3175.00	0:21.4	44:37	1:26	1:26	30	9
128	3200.00	0:20.9	44:58	1:24	1:24	30	9
129	3225.00	0:21.3	45:19	1:25	1:25	30	9
130	3250.00	0:21.3	45:41	1:25	1:25	31	10
131	3275.00	0:21.4	46:02	1:26	1:26	30	9
132	3300.00	0:20.5	46:23	1:22	1:22	31	10
133	3325.00	0:21.4	46:44	1:26	1:26	30	9
134	3350.00	0:21.1	47:05	1:25	1:25	30	9
135	3375.00	0:21.4	47:27	1:26	1:26	30	9
136	3400.00	0:20.8	47:47	1:23	1:23	29	8
137	3425.00	0:21.6	48:09	1:27	1:27	31	9
138	3450.00	0:21.8	48:31	1:27	1:27	31	9
139	3475.00	0:21.6	48:52	1:27	1:27	31	9
140	3500.00	0:21	49:13	1:24	1:24	30	9
141	3525.00	0:21.7	49:35	1:27	1:27	32	10
142	3550.00	0:21.3	49:56	1:25	1:25	31	10
143	3575.00	0:21.6	50:18	1:27	1:27	31	9
144	3600.00	0:20.8	50:39	1:23	1:23	31	10
145	3625.00	0:21.3	51:00	1:25	1:25	30	9
146	3650.00	0:21.3	51:21	1:25	1:25	31	10
147	3675.00	0:21.6	51:43	1:27	1:27	31	9
148	3700.00	0:21.8	52:05	1:27	1:27	32	10
149	3725.00	0:21.1	52:26	1:25	1:25	31	10
150	3750.00	0:20.4	52:46	1:22	1:22	29	9
151	3775.00	0:21.5	53:08	1:26	1:26	31	9
152	3800.00	0:21.3	53:29	1:25	1:25	31	10
153	3825.00	0:21.5	53:51	1:26	1:26	31	9
154	3850.00	0:20.8	54:11	1:23	1:23	30	9
155	3875.00	0:21.4	54:33	1:26	1:26	30	9
156	3900.00	0:21.5	54:54	1:26	1:26	32	10
157	3925.00	0:21.6	55:16	1:26	1:26	31	9
158	3950.00	0:20.4	55:36	1:21	1:21	29	9
159	3975.00	0:21.3	55:57	1:25	1:25	30	9
160	4000.00	0:21.1	56:19	1:24	1:24	31	10
161	4025.00	0:21.2	56:40	1:25	1:25	30	9
162	4050.00	0:20.4	57:00	1:22	1:22	29	9
163	4075.00	0:20	57:20	1:20	1:20	28	8
164	4100.00	0:20.5	57:41	1:22	1:22	31	10
165	4125.00	0:20.4	58:01	1:21	1:21	30	10
166	4150.00	0:20.3	58:21	1:21	1:21	29	9
167	4175.00	0:20.4	58:42	1:22	1:22	30	10
168	4200.00	0:20.1	59:02	1:20	1:20	29	9
169	4225.00	0:19.8	59:22	1:19	1:19	29	9
170	4250.00	0:19.4	59:41	1:17	1:17	28	9
171	4275.00	0:18.9	59:58	1:16	1:16	28	9
171.2	4280.00	0:2.0	1:00:00
Lengths	Distance	Time	Cumulative Time	Avg Pace	Best Pace	Avg SWOLF	Total Strokes
171.2	4,280	1:00:00	1:00:00	1:24	1:13	30	1,567

Total Calories burned: 1,026

Interesting side note: I burn 6 calories every length, and average 9 strokes.

Here's my history of one hour postal events:

Jan 2010: 4,255 SCY

Jan 2011:  4,535 SCY

Jan 2012:  4,350 SCY

Jan 2013: 4,425 SCY

Nov 2013: 4,405 SCY

Jan 2014: 4,560 SCY

Jan 2015: Rotator Cuff Surger (Bye)

Jan 2016: 4,280 SCY