Jen's ultimate endurance feat

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. A couple of weeks ago (June 8 to be exact), Jen and I finally welcomed our first child. Poor Jen labored for over 17 hours before our son -- who we named Cooper -- arrived during a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I'll tell you what, the endurance Jen exhibited during the labor process trumps any marathon swim I've ever seen, and I know some hardcore open water swimmers. My apologies to Gords, Josh and Goody.

Jen's 17-hour labor process made my Bear Lake crossing look like a stroll in the park.

We had a bit of a scare when Cooper was delivered, as the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and he came out of the womb completely lifeless. Jen and I watched helplessly as the emergency unit at McKay Dee Hospital revived him on the table a few feet away. They were true pros and had him up and running withing a minute, but it felt like a lifetime. It was probably the most traumatic thing I've ever experienced. Although I briefly considered trying to talk Jen into doing an at-home birth (my hippie granola side), I'm so glad we didn't. After Cooper's birth, I can't imagine not delivering in a hospital as he wouldn't have made it if we weren't in such close proximity of doctors. Despite my massive distrust of doctors and the healthcare system as a whole, when it comes to my child's life, it truly isn't worth the risk, regardless of the benefits of being in your own home.

Cooper has long limbs, and gigantic hands and feat. Already a swimmer in the making. I'm so excited to get him into the water with me.

We spent the weekend in the hospital and I lived off a diet of greasy cafe food. It was tasty, but it took a toll on my body. I literally felt sluggish and gross after eating cheese fries and bacon burgers. Our families brought us dinner every night for a week and I didn't exercise once. It was incredibly generous of them and we are so lucky to have such a wonderful support system, but this week, I'm glad to be back into a routine of preparing my own meals (for the most part).

Anyway, swim class was good this week. I worked on my breaststroke a lot, which is by-far my worst of the four strokes. Already, I feel like I've taken massive strides and I'm moving through the water much faster. I'm still not piling up a ton of yards, but paying special attention to my technique is paying dividends.

Race report: Bear Lake crossing

What a 24 hours it has been. The Bear Lake swim turned out to be a success, although at times I felt like a total failure. Anyway, here's a breakdown of the day.

The best smile I could muster after the race.

Jen and I stayed at a campground the night before on the Idaho (east) side of the lake. There was nothing else available in the camping department, even though I checked six weeks in advance. We both slept like crap, due to noisy neighbors and a windy night. We both probably got less than two hours of sleep. Not a good start. In the morning, before the sun was even up, we drove around the lake to the marina in Garden City to get shuttled to the start, which was at Cisco Beach, close to where we were camping, but we wanted our car to be on the other side and ready for us when the race was over. On the bus, we chatted with Chad, Goody and his support kayaker, Lang while we drove back around the lake to the starting point. It's always fun to see those guys and I hope to see them more often this winter in some polar bear plunges.

The start of the race at Cisco Beach. I pilfered this photo from Goody's blog.

Jen and I got the kayak loaded up at the start, I did some light stretching and waded around in the water waiting for the start. A wet suit swimmer next to me was complaining about the cold water and it made me laugh, because I thought it was really warm. I looked over at Goody when she said that and he just grinned. I didn't crack any jokes about her finger paddles and flippers she had on for the swim either.

All is well and progress is good about halfway across.

The race started and we were off. I felt very good early, even though I fell to the back of the pack within the first mile or two. I was only in front of one other swimmer at that point. The water was calm, and Jen had me going at a nice pace. It wasn't until about Mile 4 or so that I started to have trouble. There were supposed to be buoys marking every mile across the lake, but some were nowhere in sight, except way off to the left and right of us. We probably followed the wrong one for a good 40 minutes before realizing the buoys had drifted and I wasted some very valuable "shoulder time" as I called it. Because not long after that, the pain started and my left arm deteriorated quickly after that. It got really bad, so I immediately went into breaststroke. For most of the remainder of the race, I alternated breaststroke and freestyle, but for a while, I couldn't get more than 20-30 strokes at a time before going back to breast. I had fallen into last place and the nearest swimmer was beyond sight, so I knew I was very far back.

Plugging away with my breaststroke

At that point, after another feed, I really wanted to stop. The race organizers were in a speedboat and were constantly zipping around me causing a strong wake and it made progress very slow. I was pissed off, in a lot of pain, but Jen wouldn't let me quit, even though I probably took a lot of my anger out on her. She pointed out a buoy to me after talking with the guys on that boat, claiming it was the Mile 5 mark, even though I probably had already done at least six. I could see the marina way off in the distance and those last "two" miles were torture. Every time I looked up, it didn't appear any closer. Later, Jen said I was pretty much swimming in place because there was a heavy current coming out of the marina due to a constant stream of boats exiting the docks. It didn't help that the same organizers were turning up the water all around me. I was beat down, both physically and emotionally.

After what seemingly took forever, my shoulder went completely numb, which probably isn't good, but the pain went away, so I said screw it and went back to freestyle for good. I finally saw another swimmer about 300 yards ahead as I finally approached the marina and Jen just looked at me with a stone face and said, "If you have anything left in the tank, now is the time. You can catch him." That got me amped and I really poured it on with my strokes, even though I was still moving slow. I caught the guy and passed him with ease as we rounded the rocks on the corner of the marina for the final stretch to the beach. I thought I was crawling at a slow pace, but when I passed the guy, I felt like a missile in the water, because he was BARELY moving, making progress in inches, so I cruised past him.

The final stretch.

Jen and I at the finish. Note the guy and his kayer I barely beat behind me.

Zonked. I couldn't hear very well for a while after. My sinuses are still messed up this morning.

I could hear Tim and Jen's parents cheering me on during the final few hundred yards which was awesome. They made the trip up just to watch me finish, which I can't thank them enough for. I stumbled out of the water and gave Jen a big hug. My watch read 4:21.34, which was well ahead of my goal of finishing under five hours. I didn't finish last either, which would have been a huge disappointment to me. Apparently, I also passed one of the relay teams during that two-mile torture stretch, which was kind of cool. I did the whole thing myself and still beat them. That boosted my ego a bit. Jen claims I probably ended up swimming around 10 miles, although I think that might be a bit of an exaggeration. It was probably closer to eight, or maybe nine at the most, but it was still more than I initially planned or trained for. The race was supposed to be a seven-mile crossing.

I'm so glad to have such a supportive wife. Jen was also hurting from paddling that whole way, fighting the same current and wake that I was and the whole time, she stayed patient with my childish complaints and didn't let me stop, no matter how much I whined. Finishing was quite an accomplishment for her, too and I'm glad we did it together. I'm super proud of her.

Jen is the best wife and support paddler I
could ever ask for.

Overall, I'm glad I did the swim, but it was very poorly organized. I had a hard time getting info leading up to the race, the shirts were cheap, there was ZERO food, water, medals or anything for that matter at the finish. The "marked" course was non-existant, due to the drifting buoys, which in a race that long, is a pretty big thing to screw up. Not to mention the damn race organizers buzzing around me in that boat like a fly throughout the last half of the race. I heard similar complaints from many other swimmers at the beach after the finish. The only real praise I have for the first annual Bear Lake Swim, was the shuttle service before the start. That was nice, I guess.

We went to lunch with Tim, Greg and Anita and we both were pretty much zombies until finally getting home at about 9 p.m.. We immediately fell asleep after showering and twelve hours later, we both feel like we got hit by a truck, but it was totally worth it. Now, it's off to the doctor to see a specialist about my shoulder on Tuesday...

P.S.: I didn't realize it until this morning, but I also passed the 200-mile mark with this race. Kind of a cool coincidence.

UPDATE: The results are posted and the "relay" I thought I beat, was actually another individual swimmer, so I finished third from last, instead of second from last. 14th out of 16 swimmers in my division. Sweet!

Total distance: 8-9 miles. Not really sure, exactly.

Here's a few more photos from the race.

We were all smiles the night before.

Bear Lake at sunset. I was ready to cross that sucker in the morning.

Chad and Goody on the shuttle to the start. They both are first-class
 swimmers and a lot of fun to be around. Utah open water swimmers really
have a great support system.

Break from rest

I haven't worked out at all since last Friday, trying to let my body rest up, recover and taper for Bear Lake next Saturday. Today I went to the gym just to get my heart rate up a bit and warm up my muscles.
I kept it short and sweet, riding 20 minutes on the bike and then doing a quick one-mile sprint on the treadmill. I followed it up with some light weight work on my legs and arms, doing nothing that would put strain on my shoulders. No ab work today, though. Maybe tomorrow.

I was particularly inspired today knowing Gords was in the middle of crossing the English Channel, even as I type. He's kicking ass so far, well on his way to accomplishing the monumental feat. You can track his progress here. http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=08lOCEPFE797pCPfsKG2qcDWn6FPhNKBE. Also, I watched the finish of the women's open-water marathon at the Olympics on the TV while on the treadmill. Exciting stuff. I'm so amped for Bear Lake, even if it surely will hurt like hell.

Total distance: 5.65 miles cycling, 1 mile running

F*$#@ng shoulders!!!

Well, bad news today. After Tuesday's five-mile swim (almost) I woke up the next day with the worst shoulder pain ever. Which would have been tolerable if it were just the one. But now, my other shoulder has joined in on the act. I've never had a single problem with it until now, and I'm certain it's tendinitis just like the other. Exact same kind of pain.

It's left me with some serious thinking to do. I have to consider the long-term consequences my body might suffer if I continue marathon swimming. Nothing I've tried over the past year has really worked, and icing constantly has kept it manageable, but I can't do it forever. I think Bear Lake might have to be the final "long" open water swim for me. I refuse to give up swimming and I'm pretty sure I can keep at it, training for pool events where the focus is more on intensity rather than volume. So here's the game plan ... for now.

1. No more swimming until Bear Lake. My shoulders are in such bad shape that I can't risk injuring them further before my big swim. I feel my cardio level is ready for the event, so I'm not too concerned about finishing in that regard. I just hope my shoulders can hold up to get across that sucker.

2. See a doctor, and actually get the work done to properly diagnose and treat my problem (MRI and possibly ultrasound).
3. After Bear Lake, take 2-5 weeks off (or whatever the doctor suggests) from swimming. I know I'll be in considerable pain after Bear Lake is all said and done, so I will need to take some time to heal. In reality, if I want to fully heal, I need to take months, rather than weeks off, but I don't know if I can do that again. I really need to work on my kicking if I want to improve pool times, so I'll probably do regular work with a kickboard while I rest my shoulders.

4. Swim in the SDRC Masters meet in mid-November. I hope six or so weeks of solid, intense training will get me ready. I might set daily yardage limits on myself, though, to keep from furthering the destruction on my shoulders. I have a few goals I'd like to meet, beating some times from last year and perhaps trying some new events.

As far as after that goes, I just don't know. I will probably swim in the open water races the following year, but they will have to be the shorter 1-mile events. Anything more probably won't be possible or even good for me.

Anyway, Kelly and I went to the gym this morning and got some leg work in. I rode the bike for 30 minutes, followed by squats, leg presses, lunges, mountain climbers and some ab work.

Total distance: 7.35 miles cycling

Longest open-water swim yet

I got up very early this morning (by my standards, since I work swing shifts) at about 7:30. Kelly and I wanted to get to Pineview Reservoir nice and early, so we could get a good swim in on calm water. We took Kelly's kayak, because he wasn't interested in logging the same kind of distance I had planned.

Passing the dam on my first lap.

When we got in, the lake was completely empty, short of a few paddle boarders and some jumping fish. I wanted to do two dam routes, which is about 2.2 miles per lap. Kelly paddled next to me for the entire first lap, snapping a few photos before his camera died. Sorry Kelly, no pics of you today... I felt good for the most part, taking a feeding after about 50 minutes. Kelly said it looked like I was starting to run out of gas during the last half mile and he was right, I simply wasn't feeling it and my arms were getting tired. Once we finished the lap, we carried the kayak back to the car.

I quickly ate another jelly-cube thingy, drank some water and got back in the water with Kelly. Instead of doing another full dam route, we did a slightly modified version of it, which is about one mile shorter. To my surprise, the feeding and quick break boosted my energy and I felt great for the whole second lap, even sprinting my last few hundred yards or so to the beach. I stretched my muscles as good as I could, while Kelly finished up his lap. It gave me a little more confidence for Bear Lake, knowing that if I take my feedings regularly, maybe every mile or so, then I should be just fine if I train hard for these next couple of weeks.

Empty lake, just asking for me to jump in it.

On a funny and kind of gross side note, I got attacked by a fish early in my swim. Well, not attacked exactly. Sometimes, when I'm swimming long distances, my nose starts to run. It occasionally runs in big elongated boogers that hang out of my nostril until they eventually detach (didn't want to interrupt my stroke to take care of it). Haha. I don't know if this ever happens to other swimmers, or perhaps I'm just a mutant. Anyway, seemingly out of nowhere, a fish was right in my face and took a snap at my nose. At first I thought it bit me, but then I realized it was going for that booger. And he got it... Scared the living shit out of me and Kelly just laughed his ass off when I immediately panicked. Yes, a fish ate a booger right out of my nose.

New open-water long today. I haven't swam that far since the Deer Creek race last year (3.1 miles). I have finished a 5-mile swim once, but it was in a pool.

Total distance: 3.4 miles

Two-mile pool swim

I only had an hour to swim today, so I made it count. I pushed it hard, knowing I'd have to if I wanted to get at least two miles in. After the first mile, I looked at my watch and it read 31:01. I gave it a little more and settled my stroke down a bit and improved my second mile, finishing both in 60:08.

It was geared a little more toward
female swimmers, but I still enjoyed it.

I was counting my strokes every half-mile. The first half, I was at 17 strokes per length, the second at 19, the third at 17 again and the fourth at 16. I must have been tightening up a bit during the tail end of the first mile, but improved in the finish.

I'm really trying to increase my weekly mileage, so my arms don't fail on me at Bear Lake. I just finished reading Lynn Sherr's "Swim: Why we love the water" and I really enjoyed it. She talks about her experiences while training for the Hellespont Swim from Europe to Asia, which is about four miles. It gave me a little extra motivation to really give then next few weeks my all.

Kelly and I are going for another long open water swim on Wednesday and I'm really looking forward to it. Hoping for at least four miles.

Total distance: 3,500 yards

The Pineview Mirror

Kelly and I hit Pineview Reservoir for an open water swim today and we couldn't have asked for better conditions. There were a few clouds out, but the water was as still as glass. Looking out over the lake, it was like one big mirror.

Mmmm ... mmm ... toasty!

When we got in, we chatted with a triathlete who was just finishing up his swim for a little while then finally went out. I did a buoy lap to start, then turned back around and did a half buoy lap. Kelly was doing his own thing, swimming out to a buoy and back and he left a gel pack and drink on the beach for me for when I returned, since we probably wouldn't cross paths for a while.

After sucking those down, I did a big lap around the little bay, not quite going all the way down into the damn. Based off my watch (1:29.10) I estimated I swam just about 3 miles, perhaps a little less. That would have been a very fast three miles for me. I usually do it in around 1:35.00-ish. But when I went and looked at the map online to get a better calculation, it says I only did 2.4 miles. I'm certain it was more than that, so I'm going to conservatively say I came just short of three miles. I did feel like I was moving quickly in the glassy water and my shoulder felt OK.


We went to Quiznos after. We were starving, and it was so damn good....


Total distance: 2.7 miles

Return to Causey

Wes came to my house bright and early this morning so we could go up to Causey Reservoir. The weather was supposed to be beautiful and he wanted to do some fishing, so I figured I could get a good swim in while he was doing that in the kayak.

The water level was really low, making for some big jumps off
the cliffs. Note the previous water line above me.

Just as predicted, the weather was perfect and I set out on the same course I did on Saturday with Kelly. We hit the first cliffs after about a half mile and did a few jumps. We then swam (well, I swam while Wes kayaked) to the other cliffs and did the bigger jumps. I had to kind of coax Wes into it, but after a while, he finally jumped off the big one. He then did some fishing while I swam back and forth across the reservoir a few times to increase my yardage a bit.

Swam back to the car, strapped the kayak on my roof and hauled ass to get home so I could shower and make it to work on time.

Total distance: About 1.5 miles

Fun swim at Causey Reservoir

Today Kelly and I took a little trip up to Causey Reservoir for a swim. I had a terrible week in the exercise department, only working out once before today, so I had no excuses and needed to swim. Plus, the weather was great.

This isn't a photo of us, but it is of the same "smaller" rocks we jumped off. The bigger one was probably only 15-20 feet higher.

When we got there, we immediately realized we forgot to bring a camera. Oh well. We got in and just went for it, swimming a little over a half mile out to some rocks were a bunch of people were cliff jumping into the water. The biggest jump was at least 70 feet up and pretty intimidating, but I took my safe swimmer off, stowed it on a rock and climbed right up. Everyone was just standing there daring each other to jump, with nobody really doing anything, so I just went for it. Kelly told me after that he was a little stunned I just went up and jumped without even thinking about it.

We then swam back across the reservoir to another area of cliff jumping and this one was a little smaller, so Kelly and I both went up and jumped off those a few times. We could see some dark clouds a ways off and decided it would be best to put our goggles back on and swim back. It was perfect timing, because just as we got out of the water, the wind started to pick up and rain began to trickle.

All in all, the weather and the lake itself were both beautiful and it was a very fun swim, even though my shoulder is very mad at me for it. Totally worth it...

Total distance: About 1.5 miles

Day at the beach

I joined Wes and Dani for an afternoon at Pineview Reservoir before heading into work. It was the first day in a while where the wind wasn't blowing, so it was perfect for a day at the beach. Jen was shacked up at home with a dislocated knee, so I felt kind of bad leaving her there, but she was in no shape to be swimming.

I didn't plan on doing any ACTUAL swimming, but it only took about two minutes once we got there for me to cave, slap on my Speedo and head out. I swam out to the first buoy with my safe swimmer and then turned around and went back. It probably wasn't more than half a mile. It was a nice little swim though, considering the sad state of my shoulder at the moment. I wish I would have taken pictures...

Total distance: 1,000 yards (roughly)

Short Pineview swim with anxiety

I took a trip up to Pineview Reservoir for a swim today. I was planning on doing three buoy laps to start training for Bear Lake, which is probably going to be my next big swim. It's a crossing of the width of the lake, which is a bit over seven miles. The weather was beautiful and when I got there, the water appeared calm.

Snapped a quick photo when I got out of the water since I couldn't get the damn camera out of the safe swimmer when I was in the water.

The water felt great and I was moving along nicely for the first part of the swim. I hit the first buoy, realizing I accidentally went to the second one, rather than the first, so I doubled back to the original buoy before crossing the length of the "bay." The water was starting to get a little choppy by the time I hit the fourth buoy, which is the turnaround point, so I stopped and attempted to pull the camera out of the safe swimmer, which is where I discovered my first complaint about it. If you have more than a few small items in it, it is too difficult to grab anything from inside it while it is still inflated, thus making it nearly impossible to tread water and keep it from getting submerged while you take stuff out/in. I spent a solid two minutes doing eggbeater kicks just trying to re-inflate it and then readjust the waist strap. It was exhausting and I never could get the camera out.

Before I got in. The ripples in the water may look small, but they aren't so little when you are trying to swim through them.

On my way back, the waves really started to pick up, just like they were at the GSL race last Saturday. Although this time, rather than hitting me from the side, they were coming straight at me. There wasn't a boat in sight, but all the sudden a great deal of anxiety and panic came over me. Sighting the buoys became very hard and the waves really shook my psyche. I swam as hard as I could to the final buoy and then back to the beach. I'm not sure what came over me, because my stroke felt strong and I wasn't getting tired, but I just had a feeling like I was truly alone and it freaked me out. Being by myself and with no support kayak, it just didn't feel right to go back out for another two laps, even with my safe swimmer. All-in-all, it wasn't a great start to my Bear Lake training. I only did about 1/3 the distance I wanted to. Next time I'll just have to go out with Jen on the kayak and then I'll probably feel better about going for longer.

Total distance: About 1 mile

Race report: Great Salt Lake swim 2012

It's strange when you train for something for so long. The event comes and then goes just like that. You spend so many hours preparing for something that seems to last for only a few minutes. That's how today's race was.

The waves didn't really seem so bad until you got out in the open.

The weather at the Great Salt Lake marina wasn't as rough as originally expected, although there were decent-sized waves from the wind. Apparently, a few support boat volunteers ditched Josh, so he had to square that away, forcing us to get off to a bit of a late start. 

By the time the race started, I was already a bit psyched out. Just swimming out to the starting buoy proved to be a challenge in the 3-to-4 foot swells. The first 700 yards or so were the toughest. Although I wasn't having as difficult of a time sighting as last year, the waves made it very hard to see Black Rock and the finish line. However, a giant red arch above the finish line in the distance saved me from getting too far off the course. The same waves kept me from getting any real rhythm and breathing was hellish with waves crashing into your face with the stinging salt. At the pace, I was going, I thought for sure I'd have a disappointing finish time.

Heading out to the starting buoy

However, something clicked a little over half-way through and I started getting into a nice groove. I passed a handful of swimmers that darted out ahead of me earlier, and for once, it seemed like my few ounces of open water experience paid off. By the time I reached the beach (which seemed to appear in front of me out of nowhere) , I took my time standing up and trotting to the finish line. Last year I almost vomited from getting up too fast, and fortunately, all was well this time. 

Just before the start. BRING THE PAIN!

Jen was waiting there for me with some mouthwash after I received my medal. Then, I realized I forgot to stop my timer. I'm not sure how much time ticked off after I finished, but when I stopped it, the clock read 31:10. I'm almost certain the real time was at least 15-20 seconds faster, but either way, I still topped last year's time by over 2 1/2 minutes despite much more challenging conditions. I didn't get under 30 minutes, like I wanted to, but I'm certain if the weather was better, I certainly would have. I haven't seen the official results, but Jen says I was the sixth swimmer out of the water and the fourth male. I'll certainly take that considering there were about 35 swimmers.

We took off pretty fast after the race, and I didn't get to see Rachel finish, but I'm sure she did just fine. She was a bit nervous about the swim, even though she did the same route earlier this week in 8-FOOT swells. I also got to chat with Chad for a few minutes, which was nice. He finished just before me. Blast!

I'm the dude on the far left.

P.S: Here's a shout out to Josh, who once again, organized a heckuva race, despite having to adjust to a few speed bumps. Nice work!

Total distance: Around 2,250 yards

UPDATE: I just got the official results and I finished 10th out of 28 swimmers (4th out of 11 males) with a time of 31:01.

8-mile swim next year?

Josh is all smiles after organizing another successful swim

Double dip with a little salt

Today was such a wonderful day for swimming. First, I hit the pool for a nice easy mile early this afternoon. I actually did it, to make sure I was getting a decent amount of yardage in, just in case I didn't do to much in the Great Salt Lake open water clinic in the evening.

View from the top of the boat ramp before I jumped in.

I was stunned to see how many people were at the marina when I arrived around 5:45. Josh and Gords have really done a great job with these and more and more people seem to be interested in open water because of these two guys. They did a nice little talk, going over some of the basics of open water and then we all jumped in.

I kind of felt like an overeager fool at first, because after the "lesson" I was the first one in the water. I was pretty amped and immediately took off before the rest of the group. I finally purchased a Safe Swimmer from Josh and I was excited to try it out, so I set out for a buoy Josh told me about a little earlier. I seemed to hit the buoy in no time and flipped around to head back up to the boat ramp. I passed the group on my way back and it seemed like they were heading out to the same white buoy.

I'm so happy I bought one of these. I was pleasantly surprised with it today.

The salt wasn't bothering me nearly as much as it did last year, and it was nice to be able to stop once I reached the buoy and pull my bottle of water out of the Safe Swimmer to rinse out my mouth a bit. I did the same thing once I returned to the boat ramp. I was feeling good, so I went right back out and once I swam out of the marina, I saw Josh and Chad by a different buoy (green one this time) and swam to meet them. It was nice to finally meet Chad and chat with the two of them for 30 minutes or so, floating lazily in the warm Great Salt Lake water, while we waited for the rest of the swimmers to all finish up and return to the ramp. I'm not positive how many yards I swam, but Josh gave me some rough calculations based off his GPS, so I think I guessed fairly accurate.

The lake was so calm and the weather was perfect. I didn't think I'd be so excited for next week's race, especially after the experience I had last year, but thanks to today, I feel much more confident about it.

P.S.: I really need to invest in a waterproof camera, so I can take some good shots during swims, now that my open water season has officially began.

Total distance: 4,200 yards (sum of both swims)

Descending 1,000

The Roy Rec Center's hours have officially changed for the summer, severely limiting when I can get in the pool. I now have only a one-hour window to swim every day during the week, but that's OK, because it's about time I start open water season. I'm planning on FINALLY joining Utah Open Water for a group swim at the Salt Lake marina on Thursday to christen the new year of outdoor swimming for 2012. Anyway, here's today's short swim.

Warm up
250 free
Core
2 x 1,000 free (17:03 and 16:31)
300 kick with fins
Cool down
300 easy (alternating breast and free every 50)

I'm still really trying to work on my pacing over long distances, especially after my disappointing one-mile time last Friday, so I tried to do a moderate 1,000 followed by another 1,000 negative split on only 30 seconds rest. I knocked off 32 seconds from the first one, so that's a good start. Getting a good sense of pace and then picking it up down the stretch is a tricky beast in marathon swimming...

Total distance: 2,850 yards

Speed sets kicking my a$$

A week ago, I received the newest issue of Swimmer in the mail. There was a fun little article about developing a sense of pace and getting better at negative splitting long sets. With only five weeks left until the Great Salt Lake swim, I figured it's probably time to work on my speed a little more, now that my distances are on the rise. Doing one mile is no sweat now. I'm actually almost back up to three miles again. But I want to smash my time from last year's GSL 1-mile swim, so I'm going to focus on speed a little more, at least for the next month or so.

The newest edition of Swimmer.

A few days ago, Gordon blogged about Brandon Slaugh, who won the GSL swim with a time of 26:17 last year. That's pretty dang fast and the dude did it backstroking the whole way. I finished in 33:39 (13th out of 23, and 8th out of 15 non-wet suit swimmers). I'd love to be able to get around 28 minutes this time, perhaps finishing in the top 10 overall and top 5 in the non-wet suit category..

Warm up
200 free
Core
10 x 100 free (on 1:30, rest 20 seconds)
4 x 200 free (on 3:15, rest 20 seconds)
250 sprint
Cool down
300 breast and free (alternating every 50)

The sets were seriously tough. There's a huge difference between being able to go long distances at a leisurely pace and being able to do those same long distances quick and getting faster as you go. Today was a big wake-up call. Just the 100 free sets were difficult to keep my time. Twice I ascending to 1:31, which isn't good, but once I descended down to 2:49. I kept the rest of them consistent, though. However, I was able to negative split the 200s, doing 3:16, 3:15, 3:15 and 3:13. Still, that's only 1800 yards (about a mile) and I had 20-second breathers between them. I need to be able to drop those times a bit and slowly eliminate the breathers.

Total distance: 2,550 yards

One-mile improvement, plus a short bike ride

It's such an awesome day outside! I wish Pineview Reservoir was warm enough to swim in, so I could enjoy the weather a bit more. The pool and gym had to suffice, though. First, I did a short 30-minute cycling session upstairs while reading my book. After working up a bit of a sweat, I went down to the pool.

Warm up
250 free
Core
1,750 free (28:47)
Cool down
150 breast

I knocked some serious time off my 2012 one-mile pool time. I even came within 17 seconds of my personal-best time. Perhaps, if I really push it, I can beat it next week. I didn't do a ton of yardage today, but all-in-all it was a good week, coming just 400 yards short of 10,000. Who knows, perhaps I'll jump in tomorrow morning for a bonus swim...

Total distance: 7.25 miles cycling, 2,150 yards swimming

Open water practice

Every now and again, I'm stuck in a lane right between two swimmers who don't have particularly good strokes or old guys that flop around in the water a lot. The combined effect is a choppy, wavy lane in the middle, the one I'm trying to swim laps in. Every four or five strokes, I come up for a breath and get a mouthful of water from the wave hitting me in the face. There are no lane lines to work as wave absorbers either. I get used to it after a little bit, and to be honest, today it was kind of fun, because it felt like I was in open water again. Good practice, I suppose...

My shoulder was still a bit achy from last week, so I started small this week. Here's what I did.

Warm up
150 free
Core
10 x 150 (100 free, 50 breast on 3:00)
4 x 50 free sprints on 1:00
Cool down
150 breast

Not a terribly productive day, but I plan on cranking up the yardage on Thursday. I'm going to attempt my first 1-mile bilateral breathing swim.

Total distance: 2,000 yards

Already excited for open water season

Yesterday, I got the latest issue of Swimmer Magazine in the mail. Almost the entire issue is dedicated to open water swimming. It has articles discussing feeding, safety devices, the top open water swims in the world and even a story on people having heart attacks during cold-water swims. Just thumbing through it was getting me amped for my first full open water season.

Gordon Gridley introduced me to the sport a few months into last season, so I didn't get to experience it from start to finish. This year, I already own a kayak, which technically isn't mine, but the owners live overseas now, so until they return, it's safe to assume it's mine. The real challenges will be getting my shoulder back into ship-shape for open water marathons and talking Jen into paddling for me during the weekends.

Gords, Josh Green, and Goody Tyler have been doing a ton of distance stuff in preparation for their big open water swims this year and I'm super jealous. Gords is swimming the English Channel, Josh is swimming the full length of Bear Lake and Goody is tackling the Catalina Channel. All three are monster swims of 20 miles or longer. I'll be fortunate to pull off my first 10k swim at Deer Creek in August. Hopefully, when my swimming and stamina have improved, I'll be able to meet up with those guys more often.

Anyway, I hit the pool for my second swim of the week today. I got there a little late, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to do a ton of yards, so I got in as many as I could before they kicked me out.

Here's what I did.

Warm up
100 free
Core
500 free (bilateral breathing)
4 X 200 alternating 150 free, 50 breast
Cool down
100 breast

It was all I could manage in just under 25 minutes, before the pool closed, but I was super stoked to swim a full 500 yards with bilateral breathing. I'd been having a hard time with just 150 yards in multiple sets, but I found that after about 250, I got into a bit of a rhythm and it got much easier. Distance swimming is nice like that. It really isn't that much compared to the thousands of yards I used to swim consecutively before, but this bilateral breathing thing is a whole different beast. I'm excited to try a longer one next week.

Total distance: 1,500 yards