3 days of 1 mile in open water

This past week I was up in south eastern Idaho at a scout camp, Camp Bartlett.  The waterfront at camp was restricted to a "25 yard pool" roped off in the lake.  No going outside of that perimeter until Friday at midday, when the aquatics team would organize a mile swim.

Camp Bartlett 

"1 mile" course - extends north towards the lodge.  They had a rope with an occasional noodle to keep the rope afloat.  The turn around float was actually below the surface so if you want to know where to turn around, you better be right there next to the rope to see it.  The course was 5 laps of 200+ yards which makes this a little more than a mile. 

I told Sam to stay right on my tail the whole time as we would be weaving and out of scouts.  There were probably 60 swimmers total.  Most of them swimming sidestroke, backstroke and some breaststroke.  After the first lap the field was dispersed pretty well and we were able to get into a rhythm.  At the 3rd lap I saw Sam right on my tail as directed.  At the 2nd half of the 4th lap he swam along side me, and then picked it up as we approached the finish.  The last 100 yards he was full out sprinting. And I was struggling to keep up with him.  He out-touched me by 2 seconds. 

He set a new course record for the season (2 weeks remaining in the summer season for camp): 35:21 . Which also confirms to me that this is actually more than a mile.  We swam this just about as fast as Bear Lake, and the finish time should have been closer to 30 minutes even.  The water felt like it was probably 67ish.  It was a little chilly at first, ("freezing" according to the scouts), but after going it was totally fine. 

Bloomington lake 

This lake is high up in the mountains east of Bear Lake and Bloomington, Idaho.  The water here was quite a bit cooler.  I would estimate in the high 50s or even 60 degrees even.  I really need to get a thermometer for my goggle box.  Its only a 1/2 mile hike from the parking lot. I had my swimmer buddy board with me. Sam and I got in and swam across to the other side where there was a huge slope full of snow.  I got out and did a snow angle in the ice and then got back in and we swam back. I had to remind Sam to put his face in the water.  He felt swimming waterpolo style was easier on his face with it being so cold for him. 

Sam was pretty cold and got out and I did one more lap, but this time the perimeter of the lake.  The scouts and the other leaders enjoyed the rope swing.  This was a fantastic place to swim. Crystal clear water (greenish hue), and I saw a bunch of little fish underwater.  This was my favorite swim of the month. 1 mile.

Jordanelle 

Normal Monday morning swim in Jordanelle with Josh and Chad, but Cathi suggested I bring Sam along and she would pick him up on the way to Kearns for Waterpolo. Great idea.  I got Sam his own Safe Swim Buoy. He was shivering before we even got in the water. The air temp was a little cool for him at 5:45am when we started.  I used the aquasphere goggles that I got from endless pools.  They're like a diving mask almost and it was tough for me to get a seal.  It took about 4 times during the first quarter mile to clear water out and attempt to reseal.  I finally got it after I tied a knot in the strap to force it to stay put.  I'll probably not use the goggles anymore for training.  Too much fiddling with them to stay sealed.  1.22 miles and felt good.

2019 Bear Lake Monster Swim

This morning Oliver, Sam and I arrived at the Bear Lake Marina in Garden City for the annual Bear Lake Monster swim.  I have never participated in this race as a swimmer in the past. Mostly as a director or paddler.  I arrived early to help setup the buoys with Chad and help with Josh at check-in.

My friend from work, Angela came to help paddle for the 1 mile section, and I had another boat that I originally was going to paddle, but realized I really should be in the water.  So I found a dad for a young swimmer that was willing to take my place as a paddler.


Two days ago, our family was up at Altamont at a family reunion, and we went on a training swim to Starvation reservoir.  The water was pretty cool getting in and I wanted the boys to experience a cold open water swim as a measure of what they should expect on Saturday.  They were doing so well! Sam was keeping up with me no problem.  At that point I realized I needed to show him how to draft and demonstrate the advantage that it is for an open water swimmer where drafting is legal.

At that point I decided I would do the one mile race as well.  We started that morning and Sam kept up with me the whole time.  I noticed that every time I would sight that I was already in line with the buoys that I was shooting for. So my stroke is pretty good as far as swimming straight.

Oliver swam the 1/2 mile, and Sam and I swam the mile.  There were several swimmers who "cut the line" to the proper buoys and shaved off some of the distance.  But to me, it's not about winning the race, but about getting the full distance in a time that meets or exceeds my pre-set expectations.

The goals we agreed upon:

• Oliver - 1/2 mile in under 20 minutes
• Me and Sam - 1 mile in under 30 minutes

We all made our goal and felt great about it.  Oliver got 18:56. I got 29:54 and Sam right on my tail at 29:58. It was nice to get out there and feel the coolness of the lake and see the fish below us in that beautiful crystal clear water.  It was a successful day!

Here are the results of the race.

Wesley Johnson's birthday swim

I recently learned through Facebook of Wesley Johnson's upcoming Catalina attempt (on July 25th), and reached out to him to see if he needed any help training.  It's awesome that we have another Catalina Crossing from a Utah swimmer since last summer's Catalina swim from James Jonsson.

Sleeping in the van the night before.
Kinda lonely on a 4th of July evening.

Wes told me he wanted to do a long training swim that started very early in the morning on his birthday.  I took the day off work and drove up the evening of July 4th and stayed in a campsite that his friend Mark bought for him.

I got up at 3:30 and met Wes at the Deer Creek boat ramp.  For his birthday I gave him a bulk pack of light sticks which will come in handy for his Catalina crossing which will require at least a dozen.  We got everything packed up and lit up and he made his way in the water.  I didn't have a thermometer but the website said that the water temp was in the low 60s.

There was no wind, and it was a clear night. In fact prior to getting in I saw a star make its way overhead which I immediately recognized as the international space station and snapped a pic.

We started the swim about 4:15, and I started my tracking on mapmyfitness.  He wanted a drink every 15 minutes, which he must have programmed into his watch because he was the one to initiate the stop only a few seconds before the 15 minutes elapsed.

At 7am we met several of his friends at the boat ramp where they joined us.  The all wore wetsuits, and man were they fast.  I sensed about a 25% jump in the pace.  Wes I'm sure really enjoyed the opportunity to draft.  Unfortunately none of that will be available for the Catalina crossing, but it was a great chance to get a slight break and also increase the speed.

The sun was warming the air and the swimmers kept up their quick pace only stopping every 30 minutes for a regroup and quick drink break for Wes. At 10:30 we stopped at the boat ramp and picked up a couple more swimmers and made our way over to sailboat beach (just around the bend west of the boat ramp) where the swim ended.

Mark, who reserved the campsite, also cooked up a very nice barbecue for the group of burgers and hotdogs.  It was cool to meet these young international triathletes and celebrate Wes' birthday together.  We talked about a few of the various Catalina crossing topics.  I'm betting Wes gets it done in about 10 hours.  His pace was about a 28 minute mile.  The reason we finished when we did was because we ended up waiting at various times at the boat ramp for additional swimmers to join in.

This was a fun experience, and again made me realize that kayaking these distances is quite a big deal too.

2019 Open water kickoff - two open water swims this weekend

I texted Chad re: swimming in Pineview last week and he mentioned that it was still a little cold, but he was open to go for it.  I looked up the temp online and it showed 55 degrees!  Woah!  So on Saturday, 6/15/19 I went with Cathi and Oliver up to Pineview to take a temp reading.

It came up as 62 degrees.  Much better.  I tried to convince Oli to swim with me at least out to the first buoy east of Windsurfer beach, but the water was too cold for him.  The water was way high.  It was only a few feet from the bottom stair down from the parking lot.  I set Cathi up with a camp chair and she and Oliver watched (along with about a dozen other people hanging out in that area playing), while I swam.

I went a little bit further, but then realized that I didn't lock the car and the parking lot was a zoo of people.  Didn't want anything to get taken so I called Cathi on my watch and told her to please lock the car.  I figured I had gone enough and turned back.

Once I got about 50 yards from shore, Oliver was there with a big smile on his face and he wanted to race to the shore.  I had to push it faster than my normal pace to beat that little kid. The little stink wasn't even wearing goggles, and was swimming water polo style.  I couldn't help laugh while I was swimming. 

It was a ton of fun and I'm ready to start swimming here on a weekly basis.

I texted Chad and he was at Jordanelle and sent me a pic of his thermometer reading 60 degrees even.

So the plan is to swim together at Jordanelle on Monday morning....

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Jordanelle

Got up at 4:30 to get on the road in time to meet Chad at 6:00am.  Got there and Chad and Josh were there!  Chad brought a friend too, Zack.  I couldn't get over how high the water was.  It was basically at the top of the boat ramp.  Last time I was here it was about 25-30 yard walk down the ramp to get to the water's edge!  We had all agreed to do a 15 minute in and 15 minute back swim. About a mile.

What? My avg heart rate was
104?  Man, I'm sandbagging I guess!

When I got to the water, I started the wade in.  Yes it was cold, but not unbearably so.  I kept on going in to my waist. Didn't stop and got up to my shoulders, neck, and started some breaststroke.  I was a little freaked that I WASN'T affected by the cold. I didn't hyperventilate, and it felt fine. After about a minute of breaststroke I saw the other guys coming in and swimming towards me in freestyle.  That's when I started off. I knew I'd get passed pretty quickly.  I'm still pretty slow. 

Once I got to the red buoy, Josh was there and passed me.  We turned and went along the white buoy line and Chad and Zack passed.  I never felt any kind of numbness from the cold. It felt quite refreshing.  I knew that 15 minutes in and 15 minutes back was gonna be cake.  And it was.

When we got to the turnaround point, we chatted for a bit, and turned around.  I was feeling great and the water quality was awesome!  The recovery was easy.  I hardly did any shaking at all in the drive in to work. I definitely want to come here once a week!

Monument to Lynn Kubasek

Cathi informed me recently, "We should name your pool, you spend so much time in it.  What should we name it?"  I'm not into naming objects, as it just doesn't make sense to me.  Pets, fine. Non living objects?  Not so much.

But in the process of thinking of forcing myself to come up with names, I remembered Lynn Kubasek and the kind of person she was.  I first heard of Lynn via Steven Munatones' openwatersource.com video in April 2011.  Here's the original experience.

Here's the full interview that captured my attention:



When I watched her tell her story and love for swimming, I fell in love with that down to earth sweet personality and had to meet her in person.  I was quite star-struck when I attended Jamie Patrick's swim camp and was able to swim along side her and spend the week at swim camp with her and many other open water legends.

Lynn came out to Salt Lake and raced the Antelope Island to Blackrock races in 2014, and shared in the adventure of swimming an open water marathon distance in the Great Salt Lake!

Then when my time came to swim Catalina, she made an effort to be my observer, which she did.  Her presence there was very reassuring and comforting. And when I finished the swim and got back to the boat she was there to hand me a burrito and make sure that I was comfortable and cared for.

She compiled her own video log of that swim she observed: https://youtu.be/BuJd1Gvz2Dg

When I heard of her cancer diagnosis it was only a few weeks until I heard that she had passed away. My father died of the same type of cancer.
Some of the dearest people in the world are taken far too early from this disease!

When Kelly Gneiting made his Anacapa attempt, Lynn also was the observer for that swim and I was able to spend time with her on that trip as well.

One thing she did during swim camp was bring a Wilson volleyball and put goggles on it and take pictures of it in the open water at some of her swims. Her Facebook page often had other pics of Wilson at various open water locations. It was pretty entertaining to me.

So I'm happy to now have a monument dedicated to her to permanently in my endless pool, to float alongside me in the current & eddies and every time it bumps into me it will push me to keep on going.  Love you Lynn!

2019 GSLOW race

This morning, Lucy, Sam and I went paddling for the swimmers in the 1 mile in the GSLOW race.

It was a little breezy at 7:30 when we got there but by 8 it calmed down pretty good.  It was a nice day for a swim.

Senthil and his daughter helped bring up the rear with the last swimmer. 

Sam is such a good sport. He doesn't complain at this age when I ask him to help me do stuff like this.  What a good kid.  He was a great paddler!

Sam posing from a distance!

Utah Open Water legend, Jim Hubbard rounds the final buoy.

Three young girls did the 1 mile.  That's some hardcore swimmers there. 

Anna-Marie Forest won her category (assisted). She's always up for these open water adventures!









I got my crusty salt fix for the day all over my pants and boots.  Felt good to come home and jump in the hot tub.  I'm ready for a nap and I didn't even swim!  I'm excited to get my own swim in the evening.

Summary of May

Today was my last swim of the month. This month has been fraught with pool leak issues, rainy weather, and tasks with the back yard.

	Total Time In Endless in hours	Total Estimated Distance  in miles
	7.98	16.34
Date	Time Spent in minutes	Estimated Distance in Yards
5/31/2019	40	2400
5/30/2019	10	650
5/29/2019	30	1800
5/28/2019	35	2000
5/27/2019	60	3600
5/25/2019	30	1800
5/24/2019	30	1800
5/23/2019	30	1800
5/22/2019	30	1800
5/20/2019	30	1800
5/15/2019	49	3000
5/6/2019	45	2700
5/2/2019	30	1800
5/1/2019	30	1800

This month I helped 3 up and coming sprint triathletes with some swim technique advice, and helped Oliver, Sam and Isaac as well. So it's been a great month!

Go Pro suction cupped to the floor mirror.

Most of the swims were in sets of 15 minutes, but I had a few that were sprint/distance reps that were programmed into the Fit@Home app.  Here's a summary listing of the various workouts I've got programmed:

Tomorrow morning I head to the GSL to help Josh and Chad with the race.  I have some friends from work coming. Hopefully we get every kayak filled and the race is successful.  Good luck swimmers!

Ferris Bueller - "I Can't Swim"

I remember watching this movie as a kid: Wargames. It was one of my favorites as I was fascinated with computers, and I also appreciated that it included a swimming reference:




It makes me happy to help people get to the point where they feel safe in the water.  And even more when they take their drive beyond into real competence and skilled!

If you, or someone you know would like some lessons and practice time swimming, let me know!  I don't charge anything. Just encourage membership in the Salt Lake Open Water Swim club.

The Pool is complete!

I finished the insulation and skirting around the pool.  The temperature control display is embedded into the front panel. I assembled a lifetime shed for all the pool cleaning gear.  I bought the pavers for the outside edge of the patio.  But the pool itself is 100% Except for the issue with the lights not running while the pool is operating.  Need to follow up on that one.

So far, I've put in 4 1/2 hours swimming in the pool and each time I'm thrilled with the experience.  I just watched this video clip about the amount of pee in the typical community pool.  It's scary.

One thing I don't have to deal with.  I definitely don't pee in MY pool.  I admit when I was in a lap pool, I didn't care. I guess it's a bit of a reflection on socialism. "It really isn't my pool, it's shared, so I don't give a crap." But with my pool, I'm obsessive about it's cleanliness and upkeep, so if I have to pee I'll get out.  I've reminded my kids with the hot tub to do the same. No guarantees with the kids, but at least they know that if they get caught Hell will follow.

Here is a quick time lapse of this morning's 30 minute swim (2 sets of 15 minute swims at 1:30 pace), wrapped up into one minute:



Gonna take the weekend off, to let my shoulders rest. Then Monday I'm gonna go for an hour swim (2 miles). Which will be a new PR for the year.

SLOW Service project and skirting the endless

Today I met Chad, Josh, Gustavo at the marina with their various family members for a trash pickup.  It was rainy this morning, but just overcast for the cleanup.  Which meant the mosquitos came out and they were out for blood.  I had some grabbers which made it easier to get down into the cracks of the big rocks.

It was fun to catch up with Chad a bit.

When I got home I started working on the skirting of the pool and got quite a bit done.  Got about 1/2 the pool skirting completed.  Can't wait to have it completed!

We put round up on the back yard cause we are starting over with fresh sod.  When the backyard is done it'll look profesh!