#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.

#93 Keeping it weird-part deux

It was back to keeping it weird in Austin, Texas. The last time I was in Austin was pool #71 (Barton Springs) in the fall of 2015.

This time it was in the middle of the summer with blazing hot temps for our sales meeting.  Shannon and I made it a long weekend to enjoy the great food, music and all the fun weirdness Austin has to offer. We did some food trucking, watched the Congress Bridge bats, listened to music and cruised hip South Congress.

Importantly, I was able to sneak in a little swimming on the side. It wasn't ideal water temp or enough distance swimming for English Channel training. It was a bit of a rest week or at least I told myself that.  Pool #93 was the Deep Eddy Pool which is purportedly the oldest man made pool in Texas-how about that?  The began as a swimming hole in the Colorado River and turned into a resort in the 1920's.

By my stroke count I knew it wasn't 25 yards so I guessed it was around 33.3 yards. Sure enough when I asked somebody they said it was.  The water is spring fed so it was refreshingly cool. It was a bit murky, not that big a deal. It was kinda hard to guess how far I swam as I was just swimming back and forth so I would guess it was around 3,500 yards. It wasn't enough but it was all I needed to start the day.

The coolest part of the pool is the outdoor locker room that was built during the Depression by the Works Progress Administration. Barton Springs has a similar locker room. You are certainly one with nature when you are rinsing off and changing outdoors!

After a great brunch with mimosas and some shopping on South Congress it was time for a reprise of pool #71.  It was as hot as heck so we went to Barton Springs to cool off with hundreds and hundred and hundreds of other people.  It was a bit of an obstacle course to get in four laps in this 260 yards of this pool like swimming hole.  I just kept telling myself that its ok...its a rest week!

Looking forward to going back to Austin in the future. It is a really cool town that would be fun to explore even more when its a tad bit cooler outside.

Miles and miles

These days when I speak of putting in the miles I tend to think about swimming. Generally, that is true but over the 4th of July weekend it wasn't only miles in the water but a lot of miles in the car too.

It started with a trip to JFK airport so Courtney could meet up with her Barcelona group for their 3 week adventure. While it seemed like a good idea to drive her there it wasn't, as traffic was brutal leaving Massachusetts. The upside was Courtney got to spend time with us (😉) and we stopped in Westport,CT for the night to visit with old friends.  

When in Westport in the summer where does one go but Compo Beach for a morning dip. My trusty sidekick Andy joined me for a beautiful sunrise swim to beat the boat traffic for the holiday weekend. We swam from Compo to Burying Hill Beach and back. Great morning! 

We then wandered up the Connecticut coast towards home to Hammosett State Beach in Madison for some beach time.  A long and wide beach and very crowded. A quick several hundred yards to round up to 8,000 yards for the day!

It was back to Weston for a quick turnaround the next morning for the second part of the weekend. To kick off the day I made a trip to L Street for a dip. A really nice morning with calm waters.

By 11:00am we were out the door to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts and Stockbridge. We had a fun afternoon playing corn hole and lounging in the pool at our  friends lovely new home. The highlight of the day was a picnic on the lawn of Tanglewood and the traditional July 3rd James Taylor concert. Really nice evening.

The next morning we kicked off be the 4th of July celebration with swim in a quintessential Norman Rockwell setting, the Stockbridge Bowl. It was a relaxed group swim. Post swim brunch with mimosas and a short stop at the Norman Rockwell museum we on our way back to Weston. A quiet cookout for Shannon and then to bed. A great weekend with beautiful weather.

Total mileage for the long weekend 758.5. 750 miles driving and 8.5 miles swimming. Oddly enough I was more tired driving than swimming. I guess that is a good thing if you,are training for the English Channel.

Recovery week...of sorts

Well...while not totally intended to be a recovery week it was quite likely that. The prior couple of weeks the yardage/mileage had ramped up quite a bit. I had some great pool swims and time in cold open water. Despite a mildly aching left shoulder-it was all good!

While I did swim four days this week the intensity was greatly reduced. It was a forced reduction due to a mix of business and pleasure travel. 

Monday started with a quick morning swim at L Street before a dash to Logan Airport. I went at low tide. Not ideal for conditions as my hand scraped bottom more than a few times. It was a cold water swim of about 56 degrees so it was good nonetheless.  

Tuesday I was in Orlando for business and it was the official day off from swimming. Felt a bit guilty. 

Wednesday was a return visit to pool #28 the YMCA of Central Florida in Orlando. It's an ok 50 meter pool. I didn't swim well. It was a bit of a struggle. That's ok because after that I was on my way to meet Shannon in Boulder to visit Sean.

I got to Boulder mid afternoon for a quick visit with Sean to check out his new apartment and to meet Kenney the kitty (named after Kendrick Lamar) before Sean had to go to work.  I hooked up with my MIT buddy Dustin and went to an Eagles tribute band concert on Pearl Street. We then went to visit our favorite bus boy at the Boulderado Hotel. Very fun!

Thursday morning was an early bell for Dustin and I to join Boulder Aquatic Masters for an open water swim at the Boulder Reservoir. It was a beautiful morning. Such a well organized swim with a great looking group of triathletes and swimmers young and old. I took a three hour break and then joined the masters group back a Scott Carpenter Park Pool (#78) an older but nice 50m outdoor pool. It was a sprint workout with lots of rest. Not my favorite but I did get a double workout in before noon!

Friday was back at Scott Carpenter for the 7:00am practice. The intent was to do the double a 5:30am and roll into the 7:00am. I just couldn't get out of bed. Just as well as my shoulder was still feeling a bit wonky. The masters coach Angelique was a former MIT masters swimmer and I also swam with another former MIT'er Ulla. Small world. 

The balance of the trip was Shannon and I hanging with Sean. We had a great time being with him and his friend Lexi. There was a fun hike around the base of the Flatirons followed later that day by dinner with Sean's favorite meal of steak frites. The next day it was a visit to the bustling Boulder Farmers Market and off to Nederland for lunch. 

I was happy to get four days of swimming in albeit light-ish yardage during seven days of travel. Not always the easiest thing to do. I was even happier to meet Sean's friends and to see how well he is adapting to living on his own, working and adapting to living in Boulder (likely not hard). Very proud of him.

Recovery break is done. Tomorrow it's back to ramping up the training and yardage as I don't have any meaningful travel for the next three weeks-sounds fun!?

A Good Friend...

We all have friends that we believe will stick with us in thick or thin but it's not often when you see it in action. In fact this training session it was really going way, way above and beyond!

In preparing for the English Channel there have been challenges along the way like trying to find a pool if I am traveling or not being able to swim enough because of work obligations and I am sure there will be more of that to come. The big stressor has been getting my 6-hour qualifier swim completed. It's a requirement that all solo swimmers need a solo six hour swim in water temps below 60 degrees. Living in Boston coming out of a long winter and coolish spring the harbor has been in the low 50's. I wasn't going to subject myself to that torture. I was stressed about getting it done soon to get it off the check list and before the local waters spiked up above 60. So was time to take the show on the road? I thought of flying to San Francisco to swim in Aquatic Park or even flying to England for a quick trip to Dover Harbor. With a little Google work, the right water temp and encouragement of a good friend it was off to a familiar open water swimming hole of Westport, CT on Long Island Sound.

My good friend Andy and crew member for my Channel swim suggested that I come down and swim off of Compo Beach and he would kayak for me. I struggled a little bit with it at first as I was hoping the water would be around 59/60 degrees and it was only 57. With the encouragement and pushing of Andy I decided it was the right time to get this qualifying swim-done.

I got to Andy's house around 9:00pm on a Thursday night with the intent of shoving off from Compo before 8:00am. We chatted about logistics and did the food prep for the both of us. You wouldn't think it would be that complicated but when you are in the ocean and in kayak for six hours there a lot to take into consideration. When I went to bed around 11:00 it was raining and thundering outside-a bit ominous for our morning adventure. We got up around 5:30 to a cloudy and drizzling morning. We pressed on and decided if it was too miserable we abort the mission and try another day.

The tide was out and Long Island Sound was fairly calm.  We got the kayak off the car and got our provisions loaded up. With some laughs along the way about our ensuing adventure and some strange looks by passer-byes and a shriek as I entered the water we started just before 8:00am. 

No doubt the water was chilly and within the hour the rain had stopped but it remained overcast much of the day. The plan was to have a warm feed every 30 minutes. It took a couple feed to get the kinks out and then we settled into a solid routine. I very much looked forward to the feeds to get something warm in my body and to have somebody to talk to. Andy, was so attentive to making sure I drank the whole drink and have everything prepared on time so I wouldn't have to tread water in the cold for too long.  He even counted my strokes along the way to determine a baseline of when it looked like I was slowing and got tired.  We slogged on for about 2.5-3.0 hours past Sherwood Island, Southport and up to Fairfield before we turned around to head back. There were a few times where there seemed to be a strong tide against us where it felt like we were going nowhere. We were much closer to shore on the return trip and it was fun to see the huge mansions along Long Island Sound.  It was even more entertaining to see Andy doing some type of yoga moves on the kayak to work the kinks out from sitting for so long. In fact, at one point it is rumored that he may have fell asleep in the kayak for a moment.

I was so happy to see Compo Beach and the lifeguard shack was we made our way back across Mill Pond. By the time we got to the beach it was just over 6 hours.  Mission accomplished!

All in all, it was a good day.  I was able to practice feeding, got in a long solid swim and importantly began the cold water acclimatization process in earnest.  There times I was quite chilled but not enough throw in the towel.  This was my first time in cold water for a meaningful swim so I felt real good about the accomplishment and certainly getting the 6-hour qualifier completed. Big stress relief off my back.

Some say that swimming is an individual sport but those "in the know" certainly understand that it is far from that and when it comes to long distance marathon swimming it is truly a TEAM sport. I would have never completed this mandatory 6-hour swim if it wasn't for my good friend and kayaker Andy! Thank you Andy!

Postscript:
Two weeks later I connviently had a business meeting near Westport so I was able to sneak in another swim at Compo beach in 58 degrees.  Yes-Andy was there this time without his kayak but with his cap and goggles. We swam for two hours from Compo Beach up past Sherwood Island. It was a big swim to start the day.  A gorgeous morning and great place to swim!