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!