Rough Night swim

Goody came to pick me up at 8:30 tonight and we went out to the Antelope Island Marina.  We met Bob one of the Park Rangers.  He recognized my name after we introduced ourselves and said he felt better about us being out there knowing that we were experienced with the lake.

I went first, and the wind was coming from the northwest.  I swam right into the waves for about 20 minutes, and then Goody stopped me and asked if we could go west for a bit, which we did.  After swimming for 30 minutes I stopped for a quick drink, and then swam back.  Going back was easier, but it was also getting darker.  I could see the red and green flashing lights signifying the entrance to the marina.   We swam into the marina and made our way to the boat ramp.  

The round trip took 1:02 and only logged .96 miles on the GPS.  I was gonna go get changed for my turn on the kayak, but Goody admitted that the kayaking was a shoulder workout in itself and that he felt just fine calling that as his workout for the evening. 

So I got in a token swim this evening.  Small in terms of distance, but fairly significant in terms of the amount of chop and wind to deal with.  It was awesome.

Total Distance: 1.96 miles in 1:02

I never did manage to get a water temp reading but I'm guessing it was in the mid 70's.  It was HOT!  I didn't like that part of it.  I'm gonna swim pineview tomorrow.  Gotta put in some decent distance.

Loch Laura

I was thinking the name "The Great Salt Lake" is pretty lame.  I mean, its a description of it, but it really isn't a good name.  It has personality.  It can be asleep with the water flat as glass, and it can be grumpy.  It's very moody.  So it should be a woman.

If I were to name it, I'd call it "Loch Laura" (after the very moody Dr. Laura Schlessinger).  This morning Loch Laura was in a pissy mood.  It took me 1:20 to swim one lap of the Gridley Straight.  Granted I was feeling rather sluggish, but the waves were definitely an impact.  On the way back I realized I was only going to do one lap, so I took a much wider path back.  Good thing I tied my drink down to my board, cause it was dragging a couple times, and I would have been guilty again of littering, but I'm learning.

The temp this morning was also a little warmer than I like (71f), so I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and start doing trips up to Pineview at least once or twice a week in the mornings.  It'll mean I'll have to stay later to work to make up for coming in late, but it's only for less than two months!  Then I could care less about colder temperatures.

Total Distance: 2.3 miles in 1:20

Year of the Brine Shrimp

This morning I was out at the marina at 6:15am and did two laps of the Gridley Straight (strict school teacher version).  I went around the red buoys both times.  The water was clear as glass and the swim was spent thinking about brine shrimp, brine flies, and Greg Mockett's planned swim today.

This morning he is planning to do an individual attempt (with his kayaker) from Antelope Island To Black Rock.  He has arranged it with Dave Shearer to take him out there by boat.  He's one lucky guy.  Not many people get this opportunity.

I just got a text from him saying he completed it in 4:24.  I'll post pictures and quote his story here once I get them.  Another person is in the books!


Total Distance for today: 4.2 miles in 2:04


Here is Greg's Map of his actual course.

And here is his video:

Back to full training

I am SO glad that the GSLOW race is over.  Now I can focus on ME.  Today I got up a little late so I got to SLCSC just in time to go straight to the 50M pool.  I did:

2000 free

2000 pull

2000 - 10 x 200 free (50 normal, 50 sprint, 50 normal, 50 slow) On the sprint and slow sets only breathe on one side, alternating which side  by 200.  No rest between 200's

2000 - 1000 no strap paddles, 1000 freestyler paddles

2000 - 10 x 200's free TT descending :01 per 200

10,000 M = 10,925 yards

Felt good today

GSLOW one mile event

This morning I took all the kids with me since Cathi was running her Utah Valley Marathon.  When I woke up and was STILL physically exhausted from yesterday, I realized Cathi would be just as tired as I was and she was gonna have a tough time with the marathon.  But she'll finish.

We got to the Marina and visited with people as they arrived and set the kayaks up on the boat ramp.  Half an hour before start time, still no show from a majority of our volunteer SUPs.  Some phone calls were made.  I took the kids and a couple kayaks and we went over to Black Rock to be in the water at the second half of the race ready for the swimmers.

I loaded Lucy up on the yellow one man kayak and we were out on the water about 20 minutes before we saw the first swimmer.  He was heading a little too close to shore.  There is an outcropping of some rocks about 2/3 into the course.

So I positioned myself right at the end of those rocks and focused on getting the swimmers out and around them instead of swimming too close to them.  You only have to go out about 25 yards or so to avoid them, it isn't too much of a deviation from the straight line.  There were a lot of people at the later end of the field that were having a difficult time sighting.  I paddled up right next to them and helped them get going in the right direction.  When all else fails, if you find yourself alone in an open water race.  Chances are, you aren't where you're supposed to be.  I told some of the swimmers that were really off course, "Stay with the other swimmers".  I counted just over 10 paddlers total, so we had enough.  But far from the 20 we were expecting.  But given that the race was pushed to an earlier time, having no-shows is expected.

The wind was starting to pick up and by the time the race was over and we were on our way home, the lake was nothing but white caps.

Some swimmers I especially noticed:

Etsuko's family at the finish line
giving hugs

Henry Hudson - he was really cranking.  He broke last years time (26:17) by nearly four minutes (22:35).

Etsuko Abe - She's the only female I know with a "Got Salt?" swimsuit.  I've seen her out at the lake a few times now.  This one mile event for her was a big deal and her family came out in full support of her which was awesome to see.

Rachel receives her medal from Josh. 

Rachel Wagner - Rachel has been fretting nervously about this race.  She's already overcome several obstacles in her life, and this race was just another one.  I'm glad she proved to herself she could do it.  Her confidence has been reinforced.




This year, Josh and I really had to scramble last minute to avoid cancelling the event with the high winds on Saturday afternoon.  The one mile perhaps could have gone as planned at noon, but it would have been much harder on many of the swimmers and for some of those who took close to an hour or more, it may have actually resulted in a DNF.

I preferred the earlier start.  I think we'll stick with that for next year.  Also the 8 mile event we will schedule for two days and then pick the best day on Thursday.  While this may be inconvenient especially for locals who may unnecessarily have to plan for Friday, it will also allow more flexibility in choosing the better day.  Some people argue, "It's open water swimming, if it's rough, it's rough." But at the same time, many people go to an expense to get here, and we want the best conditions possible.  And especially do not want to cancel it outright.  But if we end up with two days of storms, it could come to that.

My favorite part of the whole thing is to watch the support these swimmers get, and the new friendships that are formed by these participating athletes.  It's different than pool competitions because everyone deals with the "hardship" of the salt, and that struggle seems to create a bond between people regardless of swimming abilities.

I'm looking forward to next year's event and hope that participation will continue to grow!

More pictures can be found on the facebook page.

GSLOW 8 mile event

Goody, Gilles, myself, Josh, Sabrina, Harrison, Cole,
Cindy, Nicole, Roxy, Derek, and Michele at the Old
Spaghetti Factory for Dinner on Thursday.

I have so much catch-up to do!  With the forecast getting closer to actually occurring, I was getting more panicked.  The forecast showed some serious wind out on the lake, and a westerly wind too with gusts up to 30mph.  Dave Shearer, the harbormaster at GSL Marina was concerned and said we may have to cancel.  I scrambled because this was Thursday morning, and people were already arriving on airplanes, and from long drives.

So it was proposed by someone that we consider doing it on Friday, which was forecasted with more favorable conditions, although less than perfect.  We made some calls, and while we couldn't get everyone to switch to Friday, we got 7 swimmers who could.  That's a much better field of swimmers than zero, with bad weather.

8 Mile swimmers, and their paddlers, with Antelope Island
in the background.

Thursday evening we got together at the Old Spaghetti Factory at Trolley Square and it was so much fun getting to know everyone and to learn about their swimming circles, and swap stories.  I picked up Gilles Chalandon from the airport and took him immediately to the marina.  I was really struggling with the idea of having the 8 mile event cancelled.  Chad and Josh met us at the Marina and we discussed the idea of moving the 8 mile event to Friday.  Chad couldn't move to Friday and mentioned that he felt confident going Saturday anyway.  So I discussed the idea with Dave Shearer and he radioed Antelope Island and they were OK with us going Friday.  So we had a plan!  The out of towners were no longer restricted to doing just the one mile!

Swimming friends, Roxy, Madhuri, and Gilles

On Saturday morning, we met at the Marina at 7am and got everyone loaded up in the two vehicles and the kayaks in Chad's trailer, and headed for Antelope Island.  The bugs this year on the island were much less in number.  The hike from the end of the dirt road down to the waters edge, again was about 100 yards over rocky terrain, and then mud.  Several inches of it.  I was laughing when I heard all the moans and even screams when they felt the mud between their toes.


We took a group picture before starting into the water and then slowly made our way to a point where everyone was at a reasonable depth to start swimming.  We lined everyone up, did a count down and everyone began there swim.  I paddled for Cindy Cortes.  Right from the start Gilles took off, followed by Goody, Kim and Michelle.  The wind was present, but not so bad that it was much of an issue.

Life is muddy, move on!

As the race progressed, the waves also grew.  There were dozens of waves that spilled over inside the kayak I was using.  I used Josh's kayak that is NOT a sit on top kayak.  So water was building up.  So much that the bag that had Cindy's phone and car keys took on water.  I realized it a little too late and her phone had died.  I was ticked off at that!  I will never use a sit inside kayak again.  They suck.  About 90 minutes into the swim, I noticed Jim was right behind us with Madhuri in the front of the kayak.  I guess that the conditions were just too much.  She looked fine and they appeared to not be in a terrible hurry to get out.  I feel bad for anyone who aborts a race for any reason.

Everyone is ready to go!

Cindy was very pleasant to paddle for.  

I realized that I had used plenty of sunscreen on my face, shoulders, neck and arms, but none on my legs and they were getting burned.  Cindy was making decent progress considering the buildup of waves.  She was averaging a little more than a mile every 30 minutes.  By four miles, she slowed down just a little, but not dramatically.  She was still making good progress.  I could make out Black Rock way in the distance even from mile 2.  I knew where on the mountain to look for it, and as we got closer, what I perceived as Black Rock, definitely came into shape.

The thing I loved most about paddling for Cindy, was that she is NOT a whiner.  She didn't complain once about how tired she was, or how bad her shoulders hurt, or how cold it was.  I loved that.  I made sure to time her feedings right so that when it was time to stop, I was right there next to her with a bottle that was already opened for a quick feed.  Near the end of the race, we no longer timed the feeds, but she'd stop for a stretch or to breathe, and I asked her if she wanted a feed since it was only a few minutes away anyway.

When we got to mile 7 she admitted that she had never swam this far before.  Which was a shock to me.  That's quite brave to have your longest swim be in the Great Salt Lake.  (But now that I think about it, my longest swim too is in the GSL).  We then stopped at 7.5 miles, 8 miles, and then finished up at Black Rock.  She was only a couple minutes behind Roxy.

Cindy spent the most time in the salt
water which surely deserves an award
in itself.

My favorite part is reminiscing with the swimmers afterwards.  We gave out the awards.

First Place (Male): Gilles Chalandon
First Place (Female): Kim Patterson
Strongest Saline Stamina: Cindy Cortes (Movie of Redemption)
Most Pickled Tongue: Roxane Phifer

We got everyone back to the Marina, and we packed up for another day tomorrow....

Pickled tongues.  Cindy and Roxy battled it out for the worse
pickled tongue.

More pictures of today's event can be found on the facebook page.

MC Hammer workout

Today I did a workout with Goody and he had a Marcia Cleveland workout.  It wasn't terribly difficult but gave some nice structure to today's swim.  It involved lots of 200s and fortunately all free, and there were no kicking sets.

Did a nice warmup before that, and a nice warmdown afterwards.  I also used my new Tempo Trainer v.2 and that thing is awesome!  I was a little late for work and was really tempted to just skip my last 500M which I wanted to do, but remembered I hadn't used my TT yet, so I threw it on and did 100s starting at 1:00 and decremented by :01 each 100.  It took my mind off how tired I was and I was able to increase my stroke rate without much effort at all thanks to that thing.

There was one set that really took a great deal of effort, thus MC put the "Hammer" on us.

So today's workout ended up totaling:

500 yards in SC pool, then moved to LCM and did:
10,000 M

11,425 yards total in 3:25

Wave action at GSL

This morning I went to the marina and the wind all of a sudden went from nothing to pretty crazy.   The waves were higher than I have ever dealt with there before.  I opted for the rocky path and beach rather than the boat ramp.  I went around the underwater rock wall and got the white buoy.  It was just too crazy to really get in a decent swim and my shoulder blades were still sore from Saturday so I called it a day.  Only about a 800 yard swim.  Was in the water for only 14 minutes.

Photo courtesy of Josh Green

This afternoon I went to pick up the permit for this Saturday's legal use of Black Rock, and noticed that I could make it out the marina in time for the afternoon group.  When I drove up, there was Josh and a new swimmer, Kate Leksander, who was a little intimidated by the waves. I don't blame her, these were insane. She decided to come back on Thursday. I got in through the boat ramp and my goal was to simply swim around the marina back over to the eastern side and get out on the rocky path. I took my Go Pro and took a few shots. It was awesome exiting the marina into those swells. There were swells that no lie were about 8 feet from low to high.

I swam over by the white buoy, and got too close to the shore cause on one of the low swells I hit my foot on some rocks and got cut up pretty good. I was bleeding, but no major gash. And there weren't any sharks to sniff me out and nibble on me. So I kept playing. I found Josh and we tried body surfing. But I just wasn't getting far, so I went and fetched my Swimmer Buddy and took it apart to use as a boogie board. I even had my training fins.

I went back out and hit a few waves, but didn't get as far as I had hoped. It was fun, but need to learn a little technique on picking the right wave, sticking it and riding it as far as possible. Never had any experience with this before.

Today's total I'm gonna say was only about .75 miles. Not far. Kind of a rest day. Will do a pool swim in the morning with Goody.

 Total: .75 miles in @ 25 minutes

Race Directors who refuse to let everyone else have all the fun

Race Directors who participate in their own events aren't able to focus on the athletes, their safety, or be available to fix things.  While it can be rewarding taking care of everyone else, it is also a deep down desire (at least for me), to be in the water swimming too.

So Josh and I came up with this idea to swim the Antelope Island to Black Rock race one week before the event for a couple reasons:

1. To make sure there weren't any major differences with the course from last year.
2. To get our own piece of the action, and to appreciate what all the swimmers are about to do next week.

When I drove into the Marina parking lot this morning at 8:45am, there was some pretty decent wind and some chop.  There was a mild storm that was on its way east towards the mountains.  I met Josh and we both looked like we were unsure whether today was really gonna play out as we expected. 

We went and talked with Dave Shearer, the Harbormaster of the GSL Marina.  He brought up some satelite and radar images that were looking at the weather patterns in the area.  He said that the storm was on its way out and that the wind that we were noticing were remnants of that small storm, but that things would clear up just nicely in the next hour and that there shouldn't be any issues with weather or wind for the next 8 hours at least.  That sounded good.  

So we boarded his boat and he got us over to the south end of Antelope Island as far as he could go without hitting bottom.  When we got there I jumped out and we all started getting ready for the swim.  The water was clear and the wind had died down.  We were in about 4 feet of water and we could see the south shore of the island.  This is about the same place where the race will start next week.  When the swimmers get to the shoreline by land, they'll have to wade out a good 1/2 mile to get to water that is this deep where its comfortably swimable.  Sure you can swim in 24 inches of water, but we'll make sure that when we start everyone is at least up to their ribs.  

GPS Results of our swim (including the trip
back to the Marina)

I pointed Jake to the position we were headed in reference to the mountain, because we couldn't see Black Rock from the start, but I knew where it was in relation to the Oquirrhs.  

I started my stop watch and we were off.  We took a quick feeding at 34 minutes, 1:08, 1:40, and at 2:15.  Each time were were going slightly more than one mile per feeding.  In fact at the fourth feeding we were at 5.6 miles.  At the third feeding I noticed that the tiny ripple from the wind was even gone and the water was like glass!  It was so flat and beautiful.  The water temp was a little warmer than I would have liked (74°F).  But the water about 2 feet below the surface was much cooler and that felt really good!  

Josh and I swimming side by side
the whole way there.

I noticed after the fourth feeding that Josh was really pouring it on!  I could see the fire in his eyes and could tell he was now motivated to get a good time.  After that feeding we didn't take another one until we arrived on dry land at the shore of Black Rock.  We really pushed it.  I noticed that his stroke is so relaxed looking. It looks like he isn't putting a ton of effort into it,  because his stroke rate is much lower than mine, and his reach looks effortless.  But that is quite misleading, because he is cruising!  My lats and triceps were really getting a workout!  I really wanted to get in the "zone", but because of this pace I wasn't able to.  At least not comfortably.  Time did go by super fast.  In fact I was slightly disappointed when we arrived because I still had alot more left and the time just seemed to go by!  I stopped my watch as soon as I was completely out of the water: 3:34:23.  That was much faster than I was hoping.  I was hoping for just under 4 hours.   That last 2 miles was especially fast.  

Josh and I nearing the finish.  Marina
rocks can be seen in background.

Josh's wife, Sabrina was going to meet us at Black Rock, but because we pushed it, we were there before she was.  We decided to just swim back to the Marina.   So after a few pictures, some drinks (perpetuem), we took an easy pace swim back to the marina.  The GPS I had stowed away read 9.26 miles when I got out.  

Find more Swim in Tooele, UT

The Spot GPS that we had setup stopped working about halfway through the swim.  My theory is that it was because we had so many GPS devices tracking that it caused interference.  I had my GPS at the very front of the boat.  The Spot was at the back, and I noticed that Jake also had his at the back of the boat.  The Spot GPS manual does say to avoid having another GPS device within a few feet of it or it may cause problems with the data upload.   

Why is my tongue so messed up and Josh's isn't that bad?
Guess I'm not as tight lipped during my swims.
Gotta work on that I guess.

Today's swim was so fun! And Josh totally pushed me on this swim.  I had to really focus and increase my stroke rate just to keep up with him.  We were within 4-5 feet of each other for most of the swim, and our pace was practically identical so it was easy for Jake to keep both of us within range.  

Thanks again to Jake for a job well done on the support boat.  Thanks to Dave Shearer for taking the time, and for the fuel to get us out to Antelope.  Now I'm going to be able to watch next weeks swimmers without turning green with envy.  I won't feel ripped off watching everyone else have fun.  

I'll add more pictures once I get some from Josh.  Jake took plenty of photos, but with Josh's camera, so I'll add those later....

Total distance: 9.26 miles in 4:15

Easy day

This morning I made it to SLCSC and swam the following with masters:

500 free
700 kick

then moved to 50m pool:

100 easy
1200 - 8 x 150's  - 50 kick, stroke, free
1250 - 50 to 250 pyramid pull
600 kick

3150 M + 1200 yd = 4625 yards total

Easy day today cause Josh and I are swimming a fairly long one tomorrow morning.  Antelope to Black Rock