#95 & #96 Long, long, ago...

This blogpost really takes things back to the beginning of my swimming career, like nearly, 45 years ago (gulp-that's hard to type)!

Summer family vacation this year was in Bend, Oregon. Some people were coming to Bend for the solar eclipse however we were there for vacation a family reunion and to celebrate Pa's (my dad's) milestone birthday.

You see Bend is where I joined my first swim team in the early 70's. It was the Bend Swim Club and we practiced at the Juniper Park pool. Back in the day it was a 40 yard outdoor pool-yup 40 yards. I have many fond memories of practicing and competing at Juniper Park with the Walker, Corrigan, Miller and Ellis family's. At swim meets we sat under the tent played truth or dare, ate powder jello-o mix and admired our stacks of ribbons and medals. 

Today, pool #95  is a 50 meter competition pool with a retractable roof to enjoy swimming outdoors during nice weather. There is also an indoor 25 yard indoor pool with an adjacent teaching pool and jacuzzi. The aquatic complex is part of a fitness and recreation center with a weight room and exercise studios. 

It was quite busy with lap swimming and swim team and polo practice in the divided up competition pool. The indoor pool was packed with people doing water aerobics. Pool #95 certainly wasn't what it use to be!

Not fully expecting it I was able to squeeze in another new pool on vacation. Pool #96 is the Sunriver Homeower's Aquatic Recreation Center in Sunriver, Oregon. Sunriver is where we use to train in the winter when the Juniper Park pool closed down. The original pool was  a heated outdoor rec pool with six lanes set up for lap swimming. It was fun to swim in the cold and snow with the steam rising from the pool. That pool was filled-in years ago and moved to another location. The new pool is a big outdoor family aquatic park with water slides, a lazy river with a three lane area sectioned off for lap swimming. Despite the warm pool water for family activities I was able to get several decent swims in.

Water wasn't too far away from several of our vacation activities. There was a fun family tube float down the Deschutes River and kayaking, swimming and SUPing at Elk Lake. 

There was also activity outside the water with the requisite family snipe hunt and a trip to Mt. Bachelor for Sean to do some reconnaissance.

It's always great to hit two new pools in a week especially when they are kinda sentimental. Even better when you can mix in a family celebration! Fun family vacation!

(unusually colorful sunset due to wildfires pic taken from Pilot Butte looking at the Cascades)

#94~Pac12 Pool Challenge

Not all the universities in the Pac12 have swim teams (my alamater being one) and likely not all of them have beautiful aquatic complexes. 

After my swim today at pool #94 I thought why not hit all the pools at the Pac12 schools? If they don't have a swim team they certainly must have a pool-right?

Pool #94 was Arizona States Sun Devil Fitness Center in Tempe. It's a rather new looking facility with a 50 meter by 25 yard pool. I swam with the Swim Devils Masters team. Coach Jonny, a Brit with a fun accent had a funky and and fun workout that was a perfect recovery after two long slogs in San Francisco over the weekend. 

It was a short practice and the main set was a kick set:

Six times through:

30 seconds kicking from the wall

50 kick

30 seconds vertical kicking

50 kick

30 seconds kicking on pool deck

100 kick

So I have swum at three of four Pac12 schools pools; USC, UCLA and now ASU. I am thinking I can get one more in by the end of October. This may challenge may take some time as I don't have any reason to go to Coug Country and Pullman, Washington!

#pac12poolchallenge

San Francisco Cold Water Training Camp

The final push and apex of my English Channel training was a weekend in San Francisco. It was a camp organized by Chloe McCardel and Dan Simonelli for myself and three others; two Texans and a Belgian who are swimming the Channel in September. It was a intense packed weekend designed to maximize our time in cold water. The base of operations was at the historic South End Rowing Club in Aquatic Park.

Friday early evening we had briefing session at the club to lay out the logistics for the weekend. The SERC is sooo cool for as long as we lived in San Francisco and have spent time there I had never been there-that was a mistake. It's an old two story building part museum and athletic social club with awesome views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the USS Balcutha in Aquatic Park.  The plan for the weekend was simple-to swim! Friday night a short night swim and then two 6 hour swim on Saturday and Sunday.

Friday night's swim was short but very memorable. It was only three of us; Dan, Brian and me. We set off for a break wall swim in darkness with the lights of Ghirardelli Square dimly lighting the way. Once we got to the break wall and took the turn it got really dark real fast except for an occasional flash of the strobe from Alcatraz. At times kinda creepy but so fun!

Saturday morning came quick with goggles up at 8am. After a short logistics conversation with Dan about feeds and the course we were off. Water temp was in the low 60's and it felt just fine. I was encouraged that I felt so acclimatized. Basically, I swam in half circles and full circles most of the day with some detours to the buoy just outside the park. The tedium of swimming in circles set in around four hours. I powered through the last couple hours and swam roughly a total of 22,000 yards. My watch stopped keeping track of distance at three hours and 11,000 yards so just doubled it. Nutrition wise I stuck with the warm Roctane mix and  added in a couple of baby foods. I was tired when I got out but not bad.

After a short rest at the hotel we ate at my fave Italian restaurant Trattoria Contadina. It was just the nourishment that I needed for the next morning. I popped two Advils and slept ok. Goggles up was at 7am so it was an early bell well at least it felt like one.

Surprisingly, it was pretty easy to get in the water as I think the mindset was, "let's get the work done"  and I was happy we were going to swim outside the park to shake it up a bit. Yet again the water temp felt fine which made me feel good. The first three hours went fairly quick as I was swimming with Brian. We went out of the park a couple times; down to Fort Mason and out and around the break wall. After Brian got out my primary track was lapping the park with some small tweaks. The conditions were noticeably  choppier than the day before. For feeds I mixed in some sliced peaches~quite tasty. At hour five I decided to do one last break wall swim as that swim along with the park loop would get me almost to six hours. It may not have been my brightest move as I was pretty beat at that point and it was quite rough and choppy on the outside. At one point I thought I shouldn't be out here alone. I completed the loop and had only 15 minutes left. Unlike the day before where I had a burst of energy at the end  I was dragging butt. 

Bottom line...I did it a broken Channel (two back to back 6-hours days)! Feeling pretty proud as it was a big training milestone for the English Channel. Just over a month to go till Dover!

My reward was a trip to North Beach Pizza to treat myself to some good eats...yum!

Below is the favorite cartoon I saw in the locker room at the club.