Of bubbles, beards and year end things...

Today is New Years Eve and none of my pools are open for an early morning swim (thankfully). In preparation for this evening ones attention tends to turn to bubbles aka champagne to be enjoyed while ringing out the year and welcoming in the new. We will certainly enjoy indulging in some champagne bubbles tonight but lately my thoughts of bubbles are of a different sort....the bubbles that flow through my beard when I swim. 

Yes, I have been growing a beard since December 18th and I think it is coming in quite nicely albeit gray. Others would tend to disagee. As my beard has grown the sensation of water flowing through my beard has changed over time. It started off as a mild irritation with whiskers rubbing on my shoulder (poor swimming technique) to a slight tingling feel to perhaps now and a possibly overstated a bit a ticklish feeling. I quite like it! I feel it most when I dive into the pool and swim under water for a bit and after flip turns streamlining off the wall (loosely speaking). 

This will end in about five days and I go back to the smooth silky feel of my naked face cruising through the water.  

Before I close the pages on the blog for the year a couple of noteworthy items, at least to me.

*My goal was to blog twice a month in 2015. I did that and a bit more-31 posts. Goal accomplished!

*My fitness log goal was to swim 400 miles. I swam 430.73 miles (758,078 yards). Goal accomplished!

*I participated in two inaugural open water swims; Swim Around Lido Key, Misery Challegne.

*Serendipitously, I was able to swim in the Trans Tahoe relay.

*I swam in 12 new pools this year.

*Met Rowdy Gaines

*Had a short article on briefs vs jammers published in Swimmer Magazine.

*Snow swimming in front yard.

*Made new swimming friends.

Onward and upward to new swimming adventures and new swimming friends in 2016!

FLOG...Go The Distance

Goal accomplished!

The USMS website has a section called  the Fitness Log (FLOG). The FLOG has feature called Go The Distance that allows you set an annual swimming goal of how many yards or miles you want to swim in the year. I have been tracking my distance for the last five years. My goal  was 400 miles (the biggest goal ever) for 2015. I hit my goal on November 30th-one month ahead of schedule! 

Across the country thousands of masters swimmers track their distance. Since inception master swimmers have logged over 8,000,000,000 miles. The website also slices and dices the data by sex, age and local area. While I feel proud of my distance and my ranking there are many that have swum 600, 700, 800 and even 1000 plus miles year to date.

Below is the workout that put me over the top.  It was a manageable 3500 yards with a good variety of stroke and freestyle. My favorite set was the 9x100's. A variety of speeds with a bit of push at the end. 

Now begins the hard task of trying to set the goal for 2016 and looking forward to it. Let the Flogginng begin!

#73 California Dreamin' & Thanksgiving 2015

California Dreamin' the classic 1970's summer of love song by The Mama's & Papa's took on some added meaning this Thanksgiving break. Rather than having Ryan fly back to Boston for the holiday we flew to SoCal to bring Thanksgivng to him!

It was going to be a quick trip only Tuesday through Saturday so we headed straight-away to the SC campus to pick up Ryan grabbed a fast lunch at a food truck and then made our way to the OC. Shannon yet again found another great place to stay a half block from the beach on 24th Street on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach.  When in Orange County you are never far from a great place to swim, be it a outdoor pool or the Pacific Ocean so I knew I would get in a couple of good swims!

Wednesday morning started bright and early with the 5:30am practice with Newport Beach Masters at Newport Harbor High School. It was nice 50 meter x 25 yard outdoor pool home to championship swimming and water polo teams. Backstroke Olympic legend Aaron Peirsol swam for NHHS. Coach Kevin was all bundled up and welcoming on a very cool dark morning. It was a lightly attended 3500 yard practice and a perfect way to kick off a sunny (but cool) Southern California day. 

On Thanksgiving Day there were no open pools or organized masters practices so it was time to hit the Big Pool-The Pacific Ocean! It was yet again another cool morning and I made my way to Corona Del Mar State Beach (aka Big Corona) around 7:30am hoping the air temp would warm up a bit-it didn't. Big Corona is an expansive protected bay that abuts the jetty that leads into Newport Harbor-perfect for open water swimming. The beach was quiet but as I drove up I saw two men walking towards the calm water so I knew it was safe to swim. A quick deck change in the parking lot and I found myself wading (slowly) into the cool water. Bracing myself I took the big plunge into a wave and per usual it wasn't as cold or as bad as you always imagine. The water was fairly clear and I swam out to the buoy line and swam up and down it a few times. My guess is I swam 1-1.5 miles before I got lonely and decided to get out.  The water was in the low to mid 60's and ultimately quite refreshing. Not a bad way to start my Thanksgiving.

Early Friday morning I found myself back at NHHS with Coach Lexie Kelly, FINA open water swimmer and friend of some of my Swim Across America buddies. It started out as a dark, cold and rainy morning and ended up just cold.

We have so much to be thankful for and this quick trip California once again reminds me of that fact yet again. Family time on the beach at sunset, boat cruises in the harbor, and new places to swim-what more can you hope for? Well...two things; Ryan found out he got the summer internship at Aloca he was hoping for and Sean was accepted into one of his top school choices CU Boulder!

There are always reasons for California Dreaming and I will be dreaming (again) for a long time to come.

Tough Turkey Throwdown 2015

The week of Thanksgiving always brings a special treat to a handful of us at MIT Masters the Tough Turkey Throw Down (newly coined name by Coach Bill). Urban legend has it that I came up with this set-I beg to differ. I prefer to believe that it was a collective effort between a couple of my primary partners in crime; Hubbard and Ian. This set has been part of our pre-Thankgiving festivities for the last 4-5 years.

So here is the main set after a light warm up: 200 fly, 400IM,1650 free all in one stop now-stop swim!

The most daunting part of the set is the anticipation of the first 300 of fly. After the fly there is a bit of a reprieve with back and breast followed by lots of free. Counting laps is the hardest part. While clearly a challenging set it is rarely as bad or as hard as we make it out to be. 

Coach Bill set aside three lanes for this event as the number of participants increased along with the sense of bravado and hence the set took an interesting twist this year. 

It all started with an early morning stop to Dunkin Donuts...

Somehow over a series of emails it was decided that post main set we would slam a Boston creme filled donut and swim a 50 fly sprint for time from the blocks. At the 25 yard turn is when the Boston creme began to kick in...ugh. There was a clear sense of accomplishment by all post time trial.

Not sure whose wise ass idea it was (read Joe) for the warm down but it was a good one...

400 reverse IM, 200 fly followed by a 100 fly (with short breaks in between this time). 

Let the season of Thanks begin! I'm thankful for crazy swimming friends.

Gobble Gobble

#72 Chinatown YMCA, New York, NY

This weeks travels brought me to Manahttan neighborhoods that I rarely spend time in Wall Street, NoLita and Chinatown.

I was in town for John Hancock Investments Bell Ringing Ceremony at the New York Stock Exchange for the launch of our exchange traded fund suite. There were a couple of pools to choose from in the area and I am sure glad I chose the Chinatown YMCA. The Y was a 1.5 mile walk from my hotel so I took a leisurely morning stroll up Bowery watching the city wake up and come to life. There was alot see but two highlights were great view of the Brooklyn Bridge and a restaurant with fun name as I made my way into Chinatown. 

I didn't have high expectations for the Y but as it turned out I really liked it. It was fairly good sized and very clean. They waived the $20 guest pass day fee for me as everyone gets 3 free visits to NYC YMCA's before they have to pay-looks like I have two more to go.  

The pool was a brightly lit subterranean six lane pool. It was fairly crowded at 8:00am and as expected there many elderly Asians swimming pretty slowly. I was able to find a lane with older gentlemen that seemed to move at quicker pace. It's was a leisurely 2000 yard swim weaving between other swimmers and timing starts and stops off the wall. The funny thing is I was required to wear swim cap. Luckily I had one with me. 

Post swim I stopped for tea and muffin at the Little Cupcake Bakeshop in NoLita and then walked back to the hotel people watching and checking out street art.

The day capped off with our Bell Ringing Ceremony at the NYSE. I couldn't help but think that it may be the last time that I would be on the floor of the exchange during my career.  Another great trip to NYC and certainly a place to continue to look for new pools.

#71-Keeping it Weird...Barton Springs Pool, Austin, Texas

Two cities in the United States have the motto, "Keep (insert city name) Weird"--Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas.  

The really weird thing is I was in both cities this week and swam in two new pools. First Portland (blogpost 10/12/15) and then Austin. I had never been to Austin before but everyone you talk to gives it rave reviews.  It was a quick business trip so there wasn't any really time for sightseeing but I did accomplish two important things; live music on 6th Street and dip in the renowned Barton Springs Pool. 

This huge natural pool is fed by springs that pump in 27 million gallons of water daily and is set in Zilker Park just west of downtown a little bit.  The green grassy hills gently slope to a very long and fairly wide pool that is suppose to be three acres in size. It was a hot day when I was there so their were lots of people swimming in the water and hanging out on the hillside. I swam an easy four laps up and back before taking a short nap on the grass. 

The men's locker and changing room was  great. It was a big open aired landscaped courtyard with benches along the sides and showers in the middle. I would love it if the weather in Boston would allow for outdoor showers like this at MIT. It feels decadent to be showering and changing naked outside. It's kinda like showering outdoors on Nantucket.

I wouldn't call the pool weird. The whole setting was just a very cool and unique vibe.

What really confirms that both cities are on the same hip wave length is they both have Voodoo Donut stores. It's not just coincidental-it's weird.

What are the odds of going to these two weird cities in the same week again? Weirdly, low I'd say.

#70-Multnomah Athletic Club & Keeping Portland Weird

Pool #70 is a pool I had the opportunity to swim in many times in the past. The past, being in my youth 34 plus years ago-that's a long time! The pool was at the prestigious Multnomah Athletic  Club in Portland, Oregon founded in 1891. It's a big club with a long storied history of producing top Pacific Northwest athletes of all ages in many different sports. It's on a hill in northwest Portland overlooking Providence Park (in my day Civic Stadium). Along with an extensive weight room, there are numerous studios for pilates/yoga and spinning, raquet courts, basketball courts, a couple restaurants and a pub. It also has two subterranean swimming pools in the basement. My benefactor to get into this exclusive club was my adult niece Sarah. Not only is she smart, pretty and fun but she is a star athlete and basketball coach and earned a scholarship to join the club in high school.

There are two pools at the club now, both in the basement. The new one is an 8 lane 25 yard pool and the old one is a 6 lane 50 meter pool with bulkhead. As a kid I went to many swim meets at the MAC Club and swam in the 50 meter pool. My strong memory as a kid was how shallow the pool is and on starts and flip turns you had to make sure not to go to deep or you would hit your head.

As expected, the pool area was very clean, the water was a great temp and yes, it was still shallow. I swam a short 1600 meters that felt like a lot more. Fours days out of the water and I sure felt it!  

In honor of kepping Portland weird or maybe better said keeping Portland fun we went for a brew cycle tour of Northwest Portland post swim. It was a fun group of Linda, Susie, Spencer and Sarah a couple of their friends and some friendly strangers.  We pedaled our 15 person bike to three different local micro breweries in several hours. It was beautiful Sunday Funday weather cruising Northwest listening to music (I DJ'ed) and drinking beer with friends and new friends. A perfect way to forget about a very average swim. 

Sarah-Thanks for the invite to your swanky club! Don't give up your membership. We're going back together someday.

10 Year Anniversary

Walking into MIT's Z-center this morning I pulled out my identification card to get into the pool locker room and noted the following on the top right corner of the card; member since 9/30/2005. I have been swimming with Tech Masters formerly known as MIT Masters for 10 years! Wow-I can't believe how time flies!

My only real recollection of that first day was walking onto the pool deck with a bit of trepidation of meeting new people and trying to figure out what lane I belonged in.  With assistance from some outgoing regulars and a gregarious coach I settled in Lane 3.  There was also the warning not to touch the toes of the swimmer ahead of you, especially one woman.

(that one woman) ; )

(Coach Bill & me)

Ten years later I have moved up a lane or two, swimming faster (I think) and have made great friends. I can't believe, nor explain how much this morning ritual and the all people, my now friends, are such an important part of my everyday life and life in general.  It is such a great mix of people of all ages old and young and walks of life. I swim with doctors, lawyers, phd's, deans, business people, academics, consultants, students, techie types, the list goes on. 

(A Lane Night Out)

(A Dean and a Doctor)

Everyday I look forward to seeing who is on deck. While you would think the very nature of swimming and having your head in the water that it isn't a very social sport-it's quite the contrary. The camaraderie in the water is so strong that sometimes I feel that swimming is just an excuse to socialize with your friends.

(Lane 1&2)

Special shout out today to the people that help make my life feel so full in and out of the water; Coach Bill, Katie, Elaine, Hubbard, Heather, Josh, Jeff, Carmen, Steve, Ian, Joe, Sarah, John, Bill, Rachel, Elaine2, Dr. Bob, Dr. Bob (yes there are two), Carrie, Jacki, Dustin, Phil, Craig, Mike, Cliff, Frank, Chris, Chris, Joel and the lifeguards that keep us safe, Jimmy and Andy.

My best days are when I start it at MIT's Z-Center with my friends at Tech Masters. Looking forward to many more.

(After 10 years...l need a nap)

(After the next 10 years...?)

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Most likely yesterdays Boston Sharkfest was the last open water competition of the year. From here on out the water will get colder and fewer and fewer swimmers will want to compete in organized races. So sad!

Happily though it was a beautiful day in Boston with a gorgeous water temp of 68 degrees and I walked away with a "W" in my age group-again! This was the fourth annual Sharkfest swim in Boston's Seaport District. Swimmers are shuttled from the booming Seaport district via water taxi to Pier Park in East Boston to swim 1500 meters across the channel to the Moakley Courthouse. The Sharkfest Series is organized by Enviro-Sports out of Stinson Beach, CA. Brother Bill and I are familiar with them as their marquee swim and a original swim is the Alcatraz Sharkfest swim which we have done multiple times San Francisco Bay in the late 90's (yikes-that makes one feel old).

It has been fun to see the franchise grow to multiple swims across the country and finally to land in Boston.  I have competed all four years and have won my age group the last two years.

This year I swam with my fast (younger) friend Tucker.  He is a fast former Weston Tide swimmer and Massachusetts state champion. Tucker and I swam this event with each other in a couple of years ago. (see blogpost dated 9/22/13) 

We both had good swims this year. Tucker swam with his fast new wetsuit this year and got second overall and first in his age group. I swam skins got first in my age group and swam two minutes faster than last year.  Me being me I did a bit more analysis of the results and found out I was the top non-wetsuit male in every age group down to 30-34. Not to bad.

All in all it was a great day. Great weather, great water temp and great swimming.  Couldn't have asked for a much better fall Saturday! 

End of summer...

I hated typing that subject line! While I think we have some beautiful summer type days ahead of us the traditional Labor Day end of summer weekend has come and has almost gone. 

Below are some aquatic type adventures for the tail end of the traditional summer.

This years Salem Swim & Fin was the last weekend of August. My MIT friend Josh and I did the 5k with no wetsuits. The water was a very nice high 60's to low 70's. It's a big three loop course that gets pretty old by the end of the thrid loop. Josh and I both won our age groups. I'm four age groups ahead of him. There is a good chance I was the only person in my non-wetsuit age group. I'm always a winner!

The long Labor Day weekend started with a Saturday morning workout with Wayland Masters and Coach Jen. She always gives such great workouts. This was the last workout before they put the bubble back on. Very sad. Outdoor pools and swimming are the best! I hope to swim more there this fall.

The highlight of the long weekend was an  impromptu Sunday day trip to Provincetown by Shannon and I. We took the first ferry out from Boston's Long Wharf and the last ferry back with a lot of activity in between. 

Once we got to Ptown we headed by bike to Race Point on the National Seashore for some beach time. After a nice but sometimes hilly bike ride we were pleased to see this long white pristine beach and the blue Atlantic that stretches as far as the eye can see. In fact, the next body of land you hit would be Europe. I  couldn't wait to take a dip.

Walking down to the beach we were welcomed by the sign below. 

Needless to say, for as crowded as the beach was, not many people were in the water and they certainly didn't swim far out. I swam maybe 100 yards about 15 feet from shore. Just 10 miles down the beach a male great white  washed up onto to the beach later in the day.  

The rest of the day we enjoyied all the colors of the rainbow Ptown has to offer. A late light lunch at the Red Inn celebrating its 100th year over looking the harbor followed by the traditional Tea Dance at the Boatslip-oh my!

Our evening was capped of by a nice dinner at Jimmy's Hideaway and a evening stroll  down Commerical Street with homemade ice cream from Spiritus and people watching. A long but very fun day.

The beloved Weston Town Pool was closed for the season so this Labor Day finds me at a beach and body of water a bit less familiar. The Wayland Town Beach is on Lake Cohicuate. While I've done a couple of open water swims here with friends and have picked Courtney up numerous times from crew practice it's has never been a destination beach for me. It's actually a lovely setting with a good amount of activity and a nice way to wind down a Labor Day weekend.

As summer technically draws to a close I've decided that when my next chapter starts I will aspire to an "endless summer" lifestyle. I will wear shorts and flip flops all year long! I will never type that subject line again. Here's to Endless Summers!!!