#92 & a week of opposites

Not sure really where to begin it's been quite a swimming week! 

From indoor pools to outdoor pools from chlorine to salt water from coast to coast. It started on Patriots Day under the bubble at the Wayland Town Pool staring at the black line in lane 8.  In the short hour I could swim before heading to the airport Coach Jen had the perfect workout to knock me out for the long flight to Los Angeles. 

A short twelve hours later (maybe not so short) I found myself in the Pacific Ocean in my old stomping grounds-Laguna Beach!  It was for the second swim of the day! The water was a cool 59 degrees and I swam with no black lines from my hotel the Pacific Edge to the base of Las Brisas and back. It was just over a mile round trip and the water temp felt just fine. Cool but very doable. I could have swum longer. It was also a first~a bi-coastal east coast pool swim followed by a west coast open water swim all in the same day!

The next morning before having to leave for a business meeting in San Diego I was able to squeeze in three laps on the same course for about 1.5 miles. 

Post meeting in San Diego it was back up to Los Angeles for meetings the next day. After a quick pit stop at my hotel in Marina Del Rey it was off to the Bungalows and downtown Los Angeles to take Ryan and a friend to dinner. We went to the hip Ace Hotel had a drink on the roof top bar and then went downstairs for dinner. It was a fun and quick dinner with Ryan as he a lot of homework. Looking forward to seeing him in three weeks for graduation. 

It was early to bed as the next morning had the potential to be another first. The alarm went off at 5:00am. I groaned, rolled over and wrestled with whether or not I should go to swim practice or not. Good prevailed and I rolled out of bed for 5:30am practice with Southern California Aquatic Master. It was as at Loyola Marymount University in Playa Vista and pool #91. Per usual, in Southern California it was a 10 lane outdoor pool and set up long course too boot. It was a 3000m workout that started in the dark and ended at 6:30am with the light of dawn. It had been awhile since swimming long course and it felt good.

Post swim it was time for some quick nourishment on Abbott Kinney. I went to the TOM store where they have a cool back patio grabbed a bite to eat and did some work.

Recharged I was ready for round two~an open water swim.  It was off to Santa Monica and (lifeguard) Tower 26. It was a bit choppy with a fair amount of surfers in the line up. Once I made it past the break it was smooth-ish sailing. It was pretty kelpy in some spots and I got whacked by an unsuspecting wave once. I swam towards the Santa Monica Pier for bit and swam back. My guesstimate is that I swam 2000 yards. A quick check in with the lifeguard confirmed the water temp was 59-60 degrees. Feeling much better about my cold water acclimatization while I need to be in cool water longer than I have been it's really feeling quite good. A confidence boost, for sure. 

A chlorinated pool and the salty Pacific a two-fer before 9:30am~another first!

East coast vs west coast, old pools vs new pools, chlorine vs saltwater, indoors vs outdoors, black lines vs no black lines. So many opposites this week really shook the swim routine up-that's good!

#91 St. George's Prep & SAA Relay Challenge

This is a combo blogpost hitting on two swimming swim related events in the last couple of weeks.

The first was a quick hit, pool #89 in Newport, Rhode Island.  I was in town for a business meeting.  A little work on the World Wide Web let me to St. George's Prep School a quick 10 minute drive from my hotel. It was dark when I drove on to the spacious campus and I got lost for a bit. When I finally found the preppy lacrosse fields I knew I was in the right spot and just followed the small parade of cars and swimmers to the pool.  As expected at a swanky prep school the pool was nice. There wasn't much time for a long workout as I had to get back for a breakfast meeting. I was able to squeeze in 3000 yards-not too shabby.

Next up was the Swim Across America Relay Swim at Harvard's Blodgett Pool. I have participated in SAA events in the past, all open water but I had never volunteered for this worthy cause. My open water swimming friend, Jen contacted me one day and asked if I would be willing to help out. It was a Sunday and I had little else to do so-why not? Maybe I could get a few laps in myself!

The event is a 2 hour continuous relay swim with multiple teams competing against each other to raise money for cancer research, see who can swim the most yards and to have fun. There were over 250 swimmers of all ages from USA Swimming teams to US Masters teams. The pool deck was bedlam.

I got there early to help set up the sign up area and put signage up in the gallery. The most fun part was handing out t-shirts when the kids and adults came on to the deck.

The event was really fun to watch with teams of 5 swimmers to 15+ swimmers swimming 25 yards apiece up to 100 yards per swimmer. The music was loud and fun and the emcee was calling out instructions from specific strokes to doggy paddle to corkscrew to Macarena swimming. After watching the first hour and realizing there wasn't much volunteering to be done I decided to jump in with some friends on the Cambridge Masters team. I may have swum a total of 12 laps and I pretty sure everyone of them was some crazy made up stroke. It was a lot of fun!  With one minute left to go everyone jumped in the pool and cheered!

While SAA events are always fun they are always for a serious cause-cancer research.  With $80,000 raised before this event they were on track to raising well over $100,000. That's  a lot of money for a two hour relay swim. Unfortunately, I was reminded once again that cancer isn't something that effects other families it also has effected ours (again).  I swam for Ant Megan. She is a real trooper!

Cold Water Acclimitazation...Mediterranean Style

Every open water season has to begin with a plunge into somewhat cold water.  For me, most of the time that plunge is in Boston Harbor or Walden Pond. This year I fortunate enough that this virgin swim was the Mediterranean Sea in Barcelona!

Shannon and I were in Barcelona for a clients incentive trip for the week. Knowing that there would be some free time I packed my speedo, cap, goggles and orange floatie buoy. 

We checked into Hotel Arts right along the beach and went for some sightseeing and a lunch of tapas and sangria. After brief siesta I decided it was time to take the plunge! 

It was sunny and around 63 degrees outside, the water was a pale blue...and a wee bit chilly. I stripped off my clothes slowly and stuffed them along with my shoes into my floatie that also serves as a dry bag. I blew the floatie up strapped it around my waist and slowly made my way the waters edge. I'm sure during the summer the sea temp is quite refreshing but today it was very, very refreshing 58 degrees. My stroke count suggested that I swam just over 800m and was in the water for about 20 minutes. It was a tad tough getting in but once I got going I felt great.

Over the course of our stay I got in four sessions and was in cool water for a total of 2.5+ hours.  I saw a few other swimmers out there but all of them were wearing wetsuits.  This week was a big mental boost to get my cool water confidence back under my speedo.

One of the highlights of these open water swims were the looks I would get from people as I would walk to the waters edge take off my clothes, stuff them in my floatie and swim away and then swim back put my clothes back on and saunter back down the beach.

The open water season has begun-at least in Barcelona. 

#89 & #90 Piscinas Con Vista...

Pools with a view

Wow-what a productive day for hitting two new pools with great views. I had no idea!

The first stop was Club Natacio Atletic de Barceloneta It was short walk down Barceloneta Platja from Hotel Arts. I researched this municipal fitness and aquatic facility before I left home. Little did I know I would spy it the first day on a cable car high above the city. 

It was 13€ drop in fee for the entire day. I could have stayed all day(really)-I didn't!

The complex has four pools. Two lap pools and a wading pool outdoors along with a indoor pool. There is a fitness center with an outdoor free weight area and at least four paddle tennis courts.  I changed and made my way to the outdoor pools. The upper pool was a bit crowded so I made my way to the lower pool where I had a lane to myself. I swam for 3000m at a moderate  pace. Fortunately, there was no pace clock to hold me accountable to swimming fast. When I got out of the water and walked upstairs towards the locker room is when I fully appreciated the pool, the weather and beautiful setting along the beach. I walked into the locker room and realized my work wasn't done. So I turned around and went back to the pool deck. I needed to swim in all three lap pools! It was a short 100m swim in the  upper pool and then I squeezed into a lane with some people for another 100m in the indoor pool. Mission accomplished!

Club Natacio Atletic de Barceloneta now falls in place with my all time favorite pools; the Coral Casino in Santa Barbara, California and Heybeliada Sports Club in the Princes' Islands off the coast of Turkey. All three complexes  have outdoor pools, spacious sunbathing decks and athletic facilities all with easy access to the beach if you want to go between the salt water and chlorinated pool water. 

I will definitely come back there in the future.

It was a quick change in the locker room as I was to meet Shannon in front of the Palu de Mar. We were off for a visit to the Picasso Museum, shopping in the Born district and then lunch with tapas and cava sangria. 

Sightseeing, shopping and lunch was exhausting so it was siesta time back at Hotel Arts. To refresh myself post siesta it was time for another swim. The resort style pool had been closed all week for repairs but was re-opening at 6:00pm.  I donned my board shorts as I don't wear a speedo with the possibility of seeing clients and made my way to the pool.

The pool sits at the base of world-renowned architect Frank Gehry's huge iconic "Fish" sculpture. The pool water was quite cool maybe colder than the ocean as it was just filled up that day and wasn't heated. Slowly I eased into the water and swam a length. By my stroke count is was at least 25m long so it was a relaxed 1000m swim. It was a bit of a rush to change and get ready for dinner but certainly worth it. 

Great day in Barcelona! Looking forward to finding more pools with views!

#87 & #88 Sleepless in Seattle

Shannon, Courtney and I went to the Pacific Northwest for winter break to visit family, friends and a college tour of the University of Washington. After four days of no swimming due to a busy travel schedule and pool closures I was pleasantly sleepless in Seattle with jet lag that helped me get up early to hit a couple new pools--#87 & #88

The first pool was the swanky Bellevue Athletic Club on the east side. I was a guest of my good friend Mark a long time member. It's a full service club with multiple weight/cardio rooms, racquet courts, a hotel and restaurant, a spa and...two pools. I swam in the 25 meter competition pool next to the local club team. Across the bulkhead was a 25 yard warmer and shallower therapy pool.  It took me a few hundred yards during warm up of tight send offs to realize I was in a meter pool. Easing back into the routine in luxurious surroundings was definitely the way to go. A good workout, a steam bath and breakfast treated by Mark made it a good start to a Presidents Day sightseeing in Seattle.  A trip to Pikes Place and  lunch with Connor were a couple of the days highlights.

#88 was at the other end of the spectrum, a spartan city pool next to Green Lake. Back in the day, running around the lake and passing the pool was routine yet I had never stepped foot in the pool and rec center.  After a slight disagreement with the pool manager I figured out when the actual lap swim hours started. I waited about 15 minutes and was finally able to get in. The lanes filled up fast without much regard to swim speed. Flip turns were tough as the shallow end was really shallow and it was like bumper cars in the lane however I managed to get in 4500 yards. Post swim we stopped at a favorite Seattle institution~Starbucks to fuel up for a college tour of the University of Washington. 

We then headed off to Portland for three busy fun filled days visiting family and eating and eating and eating.  I also had two solid training sessions at my home pool #16 Lake Oswego District Pool. Great get-away in the Pacific Northwest. Go Huskies!

#86-A Good Start

Three new pools in a month! I haven't done that since October 2015 where I swam in pools in Oregon, Texas and New York.

January 2017 had me in two new pools in Massachusetts and pool #86 in Phoenix, Arizona. Business took me to Phoenix which always nice in the New England winters for obvious reasons but it's also good outdoor pool country.

A little research led me to the aquatic center at the Phoenix Country Day School.  It was a beautiful outdoor facility. A 50 meter pool with a lot of deck space and adjacent to that a 25 yard pool. The looming feature of the complex is a massive jumbo-torn that serves as the pace clock-very cool.  It was an early bell as masters practice started at 5:30am.  Practice was good but the best part was the coach, well actually his name--Coach Taco! Kind of an interesting name as he was--Japanese!

It was a perfect way to start the day on a business trip.

Good progress was also made in January with English Channel prep.  I found a great house to stay at in Dover. It's called Sea Purse and it sits at the base of the white cliffs in St. Margarets Bay. Seemingly ideal accommodations.

January swimming recap:
*94,000 yards/53 miles
*average 23,500 yards a week
*22 pool workouts
*26 hours swimming
*10,000 yard workout (100x100's)

Onward and upward!

#85 Narrow lanes...not narrow minded

Oddly, the title of this blog ends up being timely with the presidential inauguration taking place this week.

The Wayland Town Pool's heater is broken so Coach Jen moved practice to Babson College on this Martin Luther King holiday. Yay a new pool! I really wanted to sleep in today but couldn't pass up the chance to hit a new pool.

Babson College is a short hop from the house to Wellesley.  The athletic field house is tucked in the back of this pretty suburban campus.  I wasn't familiar with the campus however I followed a few cars that ended up having fellow masters swimmers in them and eventually made it to the pool.

The pool isn't totally old school but it certainly wasn't built in the last 10 years (actually it was built in 1989-I looked it up).  It's a six lane 25 yard pool with a viewing gallery that holds about 150 spectators.  It one of those pools where it has high and deep open tiled gutters.  Before heading to the locker room a quick glance confirmed what I would have suspected-narrow lanes!

By the time I got out of the locker room the lanes were pretty crowded so I ended up with the dreaded lane by the wall. While I do swim next to the wall at MIT the lanes are quite roomy.  At Babson College that was not the case.  I kept an open mind about the narrow lane situation and jumped in the pool with my two new lane mates. It was a bit tight and it took some getting use to coming into and out of the turns.  You also had to be careful not to smack your hands on the wall, the lane line or even on your lane mates hand. 

In the end it worked out ok. The practice was tough and I only smacked my hand a couple of times.  I found that if I just tried to stay positive and focus on what I can control it worked on in the long run.

With the incoming administration it will likely be a tumultuous and challenging four years. One can only hope that they will be thoughtful, open minded and lead with class and decency. Like swimming in narrow lanes all we can do is stay positive, focus on what we can control and know that the tough workout will end in four years!

E plurbis unum.