Abandoned Aquatic Adventure due to Oceanic Ornithological Excitement

bait ball starting to build

So that was the fanciest way I could think to say our swim got shut down half way through due to a couple thousand birds chowing down on a big bait ball off the pier :) I can’t complain too much about today’s swim because at least we got in. Before I left for the beach I got a call from Niel who had driven down early. He said Avila was majorly fogged in (you couldn’t even see the buoy line from the beach) and that there were big groups of birds on either side of the pier. I decided to go to the beach anyways and just hope the birds would split and the fog wouldn’t be so thick that a swim was out of the question.

By the time I hit the beach the fog was most definitely in full effect over the water even if it was pretty clear in town. There were birds flying around but I didn’t see them grouped in any major way from the shore. We had 5 guys total show up and we decided to give it a go and hope for the best. As we waded out into the waves I could see a lot more bird life flying and diving but it wasn’t too crazy. I was a touch apprehensive but I wasn’t going to give up an ocean swim over it.

getting in for whatever swimming we could get in

Since there was a ton of fog and major glare to the right hand side of the pier we planned to keep close to the buoy line and swim at the sun first so that when we swam back down the length of the buoy line the sun would be at our backs. We ended up swimming under the pier a little closer to shore than usual because there were a lot of guys fishing in the spot we would usually cross under. The water on the other side of the pier was decidedly colder than what we had started with! Niel had measured 60 degrees on the left hand side… it felt closer to 57 on the right. On the way down to the last buoy on the right side I saw more birds cruising around and lots of little splashes from diving. We paused to regroup at the end of the line and we were surrounded by a lot of seals. There were some big boys in the mix too! I was starting to feel a little more uncomfortable. Lots of birds and lots of seals has a tendency to leads to a couple of sharks and I didn’t need any of that in my day.

playing it cool while a gang of seals mean mug us

a couple of our new seal friends

From here the plan was to swim back under the pier to where we started and then down to the other end of the buoy line. I hung right on Niel’s hip the whole way there. With all that wildlife floating around I felt better a little more buddied up with somebody than forging my own line through the water.

one of the guys after crossing back under the pier... lots of fishing going on behind him

you guys want to keep going?!?

When we paused on the other side of the pier the bird activity had gotten much heavier. We debated the merits of actually continuing from here. Personally I was pretty cool with bailing out. The flotilla of birds that had been forming was pretty formidable already and I could see a solid flow of birds en route to the spot that apparently no one else could see just yet. The guys decided to take it just a little bit further and see what happened… Well it just got thicker! After about 200m we all kind of stopped and looked at each other to reassess our decision. 3 out of 5 decided to not tempt fate. Me, Niel and Pete made a left hand turn for the beach and watched our other 2 disappear into birds and fog.

screw you guys... I'm going home < /cartman >

I took some video from the beach that gives you a little better idea of what we were dealing with. The fog kept me from getting anything too great, but you can see lots of birds and the seals cruising the outsides of their circle.

Eventually Ryan and Eric came back to the beach… I’ll admit they made me a little nervous. Especially since we couldn’t see where they were due to the fog. There’s a good chance those of us that got out were a little overly cautious, but seeing as Avila Beach is the home to a real live fatal shark attack within the last 7 years or so you really don’t want to put yourself into situations that don’t look good if you don’t have to. We’re planning to go back out on Sunday and Monday (Labor Day) and hopefully the oceanic snack bar isn’t right in the middle of our swim course next time!

September 1, 2010 | 2 Comments »

A Little Overtime…

Today’s workout didn’t exactly fit the time allotted. We had a pretty good crowd today… 6 swimmers and 2 of them weren’t regulars… but everybody except me was a little late. I was already 300-400 yards deep into my swim by the time the lanes around me started filling up. I ended up just chilling out for a little while as everyone caught up and I think that’s what put us off track enough that the workout wouldn’t fit inside of an hour. Some of the intervals in the main set were a bit too fast for some of us, but there was a nice big rest at the end of each round that let us reboot and get started together again so it at least felt like we were all doing the same thing. We wrapped up around 10 after one and I had to hustle to get back to the office on time today!

300 swim
200 kick
100 drill
50 bonus while waiting

8 x 50 choice @ 1:00

100 free @ 1:40
2 x 50 @ 1:00
2 x 50 kick @ 1:00
100 free @ 1:30
2 x 50 choice @ 1:00

Repeat x 3
150 moderate @ 2:30
150 drill/kick/swim by 50 @ 2:30
150 build @ 2:30
50 easy @ 2:00

3050 yards total

I’m doing pretty well with keeping to my goal of 3 grand or better at these lunchtime swims. Unfortunately I’m going to have to miss my regularly scheduled Thursday swim due to work. I’ll have to try and motivate myself into an after work solo trip to a pool. I’m about a month and a half out from my big swim of the year now and I need to get in all the training I can!

August 31, 2010 | No Comments »

Must Have Man-ccessory for Open Water… the Adventure Beard

me and my adventure beard floating in the ocean with the Santa Cruz Boardwalk in the distance

“You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion.” – G. K. Chesterton

I pretty much always have facial hair of some sort going on… a goatee type thing or the occasional fu man chu is in action at all times. It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen my chin and I often wonder what it looks like hidden way in there. Undoubtedly it’s nowhere near as tan as the rest of my face… beyond that who knows… let’s just assume I have some sort of manly cleft in it.

This summer I’ve been working on what I’ve dubbed the Adventure Beard and determined it’s a must have for any open water swimmer (of the male persuasion… ladies, feel free to skip figuring out how to grow beards) on an expedition involving cold salt water… I’m still not 100% sure where this beard is taking me but I’m convinced it will lead me in the right direction.

I’m not the only one of my friends who is or has recently sported an adventure beard. My buddy Dave VM recently completed a 12 mile crossing of the Santa Barbara Channel, his adventure beard was in full effect for the swim. Cliff who just swam with me here in Avila Beach pretty recently had a pretty healthy adventure beard in play for his Catalina Crossing as well. I’d like to think their salty beards played a role in each successful venture. As a side note it looks like Cliff is still rocking his adventure beard which leads me to believe he has some new aquatic excursion brewing in his head :)

ready for adventure

Some people have encouraged me to at least cut the beard back if not shave all together and to that I say no… not until I’m done adventuring. It just seems like the right thing to do. Think about people who do big things at sea, they all have beards… it’s pretty much the law. Pirates, boat captains, King Neptune (Poseidon if you’re feeling more Greek-y), fishermen, Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway – all had awesome beards. If I ever hope to do something truly epic at sea the beard is pretty much a prerequisite to oceanic greatness. Also I think it has some kind of magical effect upon my cold water tolerance. More Beard = Colder Water.

So although I may see my chin again someday, today is not that day. Waters from all over the country have flown through this ridiculous beard and it’s thirsty for more. Me and my adventure beard will see you in the ocean!

August 30, 2010 | 4 Comments »

Long Beach Open Water Double

I was up bright and early this morning to get to Alamitos Bay in Long Beach (the same place as the Naples Island Swim) for a training swim of a TBD length. I had made plans to get out and swim with Beth who is going to be my kayaker on the 12.6 mile Distance Swim Challenge coming up in October. Beth is the local go to Kayaker for hire if you want to do a long distance swim, especially a Catalina Crossing… you can check out her website over at ikayak4u.com. This was our opportunity to meet each other in person after plenty of emails and feel each other out on the water in advance of the race.

Beth from ikayak4u.com!

I got to Long Beach a little bit early, but was probably a minute or two late getting to the dock because I spent a bunch of time at the car getting ready. I had to get into a suit and grease myself up a little bit. Since I was anticipating a pretty long swim I went with the Bag Balm today around my neck and armpits and then just some TriSlide on my legs where my suit would rub. I also filled up a water bottle with some Gatorade and packed an extra bottle along with some Gu packets into my bag I was bringing along for the swim. When I walked out to the dock Beth was waiting for me in the water ready to go. We talked a little bit about where we were going and how I wanted to do things. In pretty short order I realized I had no idea what I really wanted besides the boat to stay on my right since I very seldom breathe left. Since she’s the expert I let Beth dictate the feeding stops and she settled on a 25 minute interval which turned out to be pretty much perfect.

feeding time!

Somewhere around 7am I hopped into Alamitos Bay and it felt colder than it was a couple weeks ago for my Naples Island Swim race. We probably topped out around 60 degrees. I floated around for a few minutes soaking in the cold and chatting with Beth until the water temp was largely neutral for me. The initial plan was to swim around Naples Island (a little less than 3 miles) and then play it by ear from there. I was pretty stoked with this because even though I’ve raced here 3 times now I’ve never done a complete circumnavigation, I always do the 1 miler that goes through the canal as my annual open water how-am-I-doing swim.

Once I got down to business and started swimming I felt great. The water was perfect for me and having a kayaker there just for me was very glamorous. Very minimal sighting was required on my part even though I did it occasionally anyways out of habit. Swimming with Beth as my guide I settled into a really good rhythm and I was taking nice big long strokes. Beth took my stroke rate occasionally and I was cruising along at 50-52 pretty consistently through the whole swim. In comparing it to what I see from other swimmers that’s really low and I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing. I figure I don’t really need the heat generated from spinning the wheels faster since I don’t tend to get cold, and less strokes saves the shoulders from burning out. Either way once I fall into a pace on a long swim that’s pretty much what you’re getting out of me for the rest of the day.

I love swimming here

Once we got half way around the island we ran into a gas spill from a boat. I didn’t even notice but Beth stopped me and asked if I wanted to charge through or have her call a lifeguard to give me a ride back to the beach to avoid swimming in it. I took a harder look at the water through my heavily mirrored and tinted goggles and noticed a definite technicolor sheen to the top of the water, but it was just a film. I decided to keep going and just not drink it… which I don’t really ever want to do with salt water anyways! I figured the beard would keep me safe … I just had to remember to not stand close to any open flames later just in case :)

Having a kayaker guide me around the island really let me dissolve into my swim. I didn’t have to think about it, just keep moving. I played a little internal radio and contemplated where my hands were going. We stopped for a feed just past the last bridge (2nd street) and Beth gave me a few options of how to continue since a second lap around the island wasn’t really on the menu seeing as we’d have to swim through that gas again. I could either stop at 3 miles, do a little loop that got us to 4, or stretch it out way down the beach over by where we started and make it around 5 miles. I opted for the 5 miler, I needed the mileage to get ready for my bigger swims.

At this point more people were awake and in the water and traffic control was a little more important. Beth kept me out of the path of various rowers and even helped stop a group of unescorted swimmers that weren’t paying too much attention from getting run over by a tiny row boat! I continued to feel good all the way down to mile 4 and was just happy. Close to our turn around point we had a feed and chatted a little bit. She let me know I was looking really good… strong and steady. It was good to hear that what I thought I was doing matched the reality of what was going on!

all done with our 5 miler

From there we did a slow curve to port and angled back toward the beach we originally launched from. We had a few different row boats get way up in our business but they kept just clear enough that I didn’t get smacked with a paddle or anything exciting like that. Upon arrival back at the beach there was a water polo tournament going on in the bay! Totally weird but very cool. A friend of mine had told me about it on Friday, but I didn’t realize they’d still be playing today. Once Beth dropped me off and paddled back across the bay I watched a little polo and soaked up the sun. When I made my way back towards the street and started to put some clothes on I realized I had left my car keys in her dry bag on the kayak! Oh crap! I didn’t know her phone number off the top of my head and needed to get some internet access and borrow a phone to make it happen. My first few attempts to get this accomplished failed… who knew there were still so many people out there with flip phones? Eventually I found a cop who was just hanging out on the street keeping an eye on things because they had closed the street down and he helped me out. He too was rocking a flip phone, but there was an internet connection in the cop car! Score! We pulled up Beth’s website and he let me borrow his phone to call her up. She shuttled my keys right back over and we both laughed about it pretty hard. I’m just glad she’s not telephonically elusive like I am because my phone and wallet were in the car and it was going to be a long day if I couldn’t get to either of them!

water polo tournament in the bay... weird but in an awesome kind of way!

Once me and my keys were reunited I went back to the car and got into dry clothes and started to arrange swim number two! My friend Merritt who organized this year’s Naples Island Swim lives in Long Beach and wanted to go for a swim when she saw I’d be in town. We set it up for around 11:30 which gave me a little time to go find something to snack on and rehydrate.

the view from where swim #2 started

We met up by the beach up towards the bridge at second street. Her plan was a swim across to the island and then to jam through the canal in the opposite direction of the Naples Island 1 Mile swim which she said was about 1.7 miles. This version was a little more death defying than the usual race just because it was the middle of a beautiful day and tons of people were out on the water. Kayaks, boats, paddlers, etc were all floating around out there. Waaay more sighting was involved on this swim than my morning excursion!

one of the Pirate statues scattered throughout our route

We were pretty clear on the way to the mouth of the canal but traffic picked up once we got in. We stuck to the left hand side of the canal but still had to dodge the occasional gondola or tourist kayaker. Those gondolas were pretty stealthy… a black boat hidden under a bridge is pretty much invisible until you almost swim straight into it. We stopped to regroup every couple bridges or whenever there was a turn mainly because Merritt was kicking my ass. I have a perfectly good excuse for this however… she’s substantially faster than I am :) After our swim we grabbed some lunch in town before I had to embark on the big drive home.

Merritt at the entry to the canal

It’s almost not fair how good my weekend was… I got to spend a lot of time around people I like and a lot of time in or on the water! A definite win on all fronts!

August 29, 2010 | 2 Comments »

2010 Corona Del Mar 1 Mile Swim Wrap Up

in my happy place... cold salt water

I made the way out to the beach this morning with a friend and despite being right in the middle of Orange County things were looking much more like a Santa Cruz kind of swim. It was gray, a little overcast, and we had plenty of cold water. They were announcing anything from 58 to 61 depending on where the reading came from. I would say 58-59 is about on point with how it felt. Not too tropical! There were way more wetsuits on the beach than you would normally see at a Masters event today.

Santa Cruz or SoCal? Hard to tell today!

On the beach I caught up with some friends that I had swam with last week in Laguna. Since it was so cold a lot of people didn’t want to get in and warm up, but me and Natalie decided that we needed to go spend some time underwater to get acclimated. It took a minute to get used to but once I was all the way wet I felt fine. 58 is a pretty warm day at my house, but that first contact with the water never gets any warmer no matter how often you’re in it! We swam out to a buoy and just floated and talked a little bit. The conditions weren’t too bad, the waves weren’t a big deal and the chop was definitely manageable.

just enough chop to be fun!

Back on the beach everyone asked us about the water temperature. There was a lot of temperatural apprehension in the air. Eventually we got a little bit of a course briefing and they had us get lined up on the beach for the start. While waiting for the start I ran into a guy that swam with me at Alcatraz (a fellow non wetsuiter!) and we got to catch up real quick, very cool to see him again.

The start of this thing was the roughest crowd I’ve dealt with all year. I don’t think people self seeded so well. I got caught up in a lot of people slower than me and little traffic jams were building all over the place. I kept having to move laterally to try and find holes to swim through, that wasn’t going particularly well however. Everywhere I tried to go, roadblock. Also I apologize if I crossed of the top of anyone or cut them off… I try to avoid that but this was kind of a mess. As we neared the first turn buoy it only got worse as the pack tightened. I got squeezed in on by somebody and they seriously smacked me in the head like 5 times. In the meantime I was swimming right up into a pocket of people that were going slower than me. As much as I was trying to not touch anybody I’m pretty sure one of my strokes landed square into someone’s butt cheek. I would have swam away from them but I had no where to go with the impending buoy. The upside was at the turn I managed to get the inside line and was able to start distancing myself a little bit.

on the beach waiting for the start

The long leg at the top of the rectangle we did was interesting. I hung to that inside line and tried to aim as directly as I could for the next buoy, the vast majority of everyone else arced waaaay out to the top. It was a little lonely on the straight shot line. I’m not sure how that happened and it made me a little nervous that there was another buoy in the middle that I wasn’t aware of. Turns out 85% of everyone just decided to take the long way to turn number 2. Although a little odd it was fine by me! I think I moved way up in the overall scheme of things on this leg just because I cut like a 100m off of what everyone else was doing.

I turned tight on the next buoy and just tried to continue with an inside line. People were playing this particular leg a little better and I was passed by one or two people. I don’t like getting passed but it was a good wake up for me. I had settled into a groove that was a bit to slow for a mile long swim and it was a good push to speed it up a bit. Had to remember 1 mile is basically a sprint in Open Water!

The last long leg back I tried to hang on to the guy that passed me and draft off him a bit. I did this with varying degrees of success. We got separated a few times though because of big strands of kelp in the middle of the course. I hate scraping over the top of that stuff but I didn’t want to go around it either so I just took the free full torso exfoliation in stride.

On the last turn to the beach I tried to catch the guy in front of me but I just wasn’t quick enough. I even tried to catch a wave on the way in to speed me up but I didn’t quite get it. I maybe got 5m out of a little one and then it pushed on without me. I stood up to run in too early because I could see the bottom and though it was closer than it was. At home if I can see the bottom it means I’m about to hit it… apparently CDM is much more see through! I did an awkward high leg run thing through the last couple meters of the race and and jogged it up into the chute. I didn’t see a clock and haven’t caught my time yet, but I felt like I did pretty well. I was like 50th out of 200 (including wetsuits) which is right about where I think I should be right now. I ended up 3rd in my age group and got an In-n-Out gift certificate for my efforts :) The guy that won my age group was out from Virginia and I had the pleasure of losing to him repeatedly in various national championship swims this summer. We got to talk for a couple minutes and I’m impressed with how well he dealt with the cold water out here considering the hottest swimming I did this summer was all in his state!

After hanging out and watching awards and talking to people on the beach a few of us went to go eat. Apparently the place we were going had changed hands like 3 times since anyone had been there and it had gone from a breakfast burrito kind of joint to a Vietnamese/French restaurant. Odd, but why not right? Lunch was good!

standing on a board in Newport Bay before my first unplanned swim in the bay...

Once we finished up with lunch me and my friend Bekah went out and spent some time on Stand Up Paddleboards. I’ve been wanting to do this forever so it was tons of fun to finally go do it! We did almost 3 miles around the harbor and only took a couple of unplanned swims on our way.  My balance was suspect for sure… I think my feet got the biggest workout in the whole expedition just trying to hold the other 225 pounds of me steady on this floating board! My first fall was a pity fall as I was watching and laughing at Bekah while she went headfirst off her board into the water. I followed soon after… instant karma for sure. Way on the other side of this island we circumnavigated I took another tumble that was best I could tell for no good reason at all. Apparently I just spaced out, leaned too far one way and went face first in slow motion. I wasn’t excited about this, but some people in a passing boat enjoyed my unplanned dive so at least it was good for somebody :) Well and I guess Bekah too because she got to laugh at me without falling in herself like I did earlier. I totally need to go do more of this. It’s fair to say I’m not actually good at it… but I had fun! All told super good day so far, tomorrow I’m off to do a somewhat longer training swim… in the meantime I need some dinner and an adult beverage…

Bekah sneaking past a sailboat

August 28, 2010 | 5 Comments »

2010 Big Shoulders Psych Sheet Breakdown


So it’s almost time for Big Shoulders! I’m stoked to get back to Chicago in a couple weeks. Now that the event is sold out and registration is closed they sent out some psych sheets. Like last year it was just everybody all together with no divisions for distance, website or age group mixed in so…. like last year I used my excel skills for good and turned it into a broken down psych sheet kind of deal. So here you go, the annual unofficial Rob Aquatics Big Shoulders Breakdown! Enjoy and if you find an error it is totally not my problem :) this is for your entertainment only

Men’s 5k
Men’s 5k with wetsuit

Men’s 2.5k
Men’s 2.5k with wetsuit

Women’s 5k
Women’s 5k with wetsuit

Women’s 2.5k
Women’s 2.5k with wetsuit

August 27, 2010 | No Comments »

Hang on to That Feeling…

I wasn’t really sure who was and wasn’t going to be at the pool today so I made sure to have a workout with me in case no one else did. Once I got on deck no one had a plan so we defaulted to the post it note in my swim bag. I think they’re liking this whole Rob bringing a workout thing, they’re just not necessarily liking the workouts WHILE we’re doing them :) I guess that means they’re good! Today was a borrowed workout from a friend modified a little bit for time and speed.

300 swim
200 kick
100 drill

3 x 100 IM @ 1:45
6 x 50 @:50

500 swim
2 x 200 @ 3:00 descending 1-2
300 swim
12 x 50 1-4 @ 1:00, 5-8 @ :50, 9-12 @ :45

3000 yards total

I have no idea what has happened to me, but the fly on those 3 (only 3!) hundred IMs was kinda kicking my ass. I need to phase more butterfly back into the rotation. Luckily the Summer of Fly showdown is kind of melting into Fall since me and Mike keep have been having schedule issues. There’s 3 races left, 150, 175 and 200… I am so not ready for that!

Besides not being so hot butterflytastically, I’m feeling really good in the water. I felt nice and smooth last night in the ocean, and both of this week’s pool swims have been strong and steady. I’m hoping I can hang on to that feeling through the weekend. I’m racing a mile at Corona Del Mar on Saturday and then swimming a yet to be determined distance with my kayaker for the upcoming Distance Swim Challenge. We’re going to do some laps around Naples Island in Long Beach which will be cool because I’ve never done the long swim when I race Naples Island so I’ll finally get to see the outside of the island. Plus we’ll get to feel each other out a little bit so we’re more comfortable with each other out in the water once the 12.6 miler comes up in October.

August 26, 2010 | No Comments »

A Little Pocket of Sunshine

last swimmer comes in under the pier while we chat with a cyclist on the pier

After a few days of big heat here on the Central Coast we slipped back into our usual summer fog. At some point in the middle of the day the temperature at my office in Grover Beach dropped like 10 or 15 degrees as the marine layer drifted in. Since it came in so deep and so thick I figured even Avila would be ensconced in a layer of gray when I went out for my Wednesday night swim. It was all fog between work and the Avila Beach off ramp, but as I wound my way closer to the beach I passed into a pocket of sunshine that was oblivious to the fact that it was supposed to be foggy. From the beach you could see the marine layer off the coast lined up like a wall running from the hills in the north and looping around to Shell Beach in the south.

the northern section of the marine layer bubble out past the pier

There were only 3 of us swimming today… Niel, Pete, and me. Because the fog out over the water was so thick we decided it was best to stick to the buoy line in case it decided to make moves for the beach. We didn’t want to get lost in a fog bank in the middle of our swim. Although there was a NOAA warning earlier in the week about major waves hitting south facing beaches it never came to fruition. The waves were healthy with nice clean faces on them, but not huge as advertised. As we got in I was very pleased to learn we had nice “warm” water. The water was all the way up to 62 degrees which is a swing of 9 degrees from what the guys measured on their Sunday swim. It’s kinda crazy just how wildly our temperatures are yo-yo-ing this summer. I fully expect my race down at Corona Del Mar this weekend to be 47 degrees now to balance out my 62 degree excursion today :)

Pete swimming towards us as fog spills over the hills

Today’s swim route was pretty easy… swim to the south end of the buoy line and follow it all the way to the point, turn around and swim the buoy line all the way to the other end on the north side of the pier, then turn around and swim back to where we started. We think it was about 1.25 miles or so.

me and Niel down at the point

On the way down to the point we swam through a lot of loose kelp. Bits and pieces of it were all over the place. This is my least favorite kind of foliage… the ninja kelp. Virtually invisible until you hit it and your imagination decides it’s something far more exciting than a plant. My brain usually goes straight to shark or jellyfish. Amazingly after some very lively swims I didn’t see any animals at all in the water today. No seals, no nothing… just birds overhead. I think I figured out where they all went afterwards though. A huge bait ball was building like 3/4 of a mile off shore like straight out from the point, I didn’t realize this until we were back on the beach. You could see thousands of birds circling in one spot and they were eventually joined by a fishing boat. I’m guessing that’s where all the seals and who knows what else were spending their evening!

The swim from the point back towards the pier was interesting in that we had some current pushing back at us and a lot of that water was quite a bit colder than what we had started in. It didn’t really throw off my swim at all because even at what was probably 57 or 58 degrees it was still way warmer than what I had this weekend in Port Hueneme!

We regrouped at the pier and then swam underneath together. The view on the other side was pretty cool. That dense wall of fog with the sun shining on it and some boats parked inside our little bubble.

looking off towards a sailboat parked just out past the buoy line

We wrapped up our swim by going under the pier one more time and then arcing out towards the beach. We didn’t want to swim too close to the pier because there were a few dudes fishing up there. On the way in we were followed by a decent set of waves. I backstroked a little and waited for an opportunity to surf something. I caught a good one and bodysurfed down to the really shallow water right at the edge of the beach. In retrospect I should have swam back out for a few more because it’s pretty rare we get waves that nice and clean to ride.

Tomorrow I’m back in the pool and this weekend I’ll be racing 1 mile’s worth of open water in Orange County… I’m also looking for somewhere to swim on Sunday or a bonus swim to do Saturday while I’m down there.

August 25, 2010 | No Comments »

Expanding What I Can Get Done in an Hour

As I get closer to some bigger swims I need to work on making the most of my noontime workouts. That means showing up with a plan and not letting myself get too sidetracked during the workout. I needed something that didn’t really afford for a lot of time spent hanging on the wall so I dug up a workout we did back in March out of my Go the Distance logs that would have no problem expanding to fit the space alloted.

200 swim
200 kick
200 pull

1 x 300 free @ 4:30
2 x 250 free @ 3:45
3 x 200 free @ 3:00
4 x 150 free @ 2:15
5 x 100 free @ 1:30
6 x 50 free @ :45

3400 yards total

I was excited to have Mike back in the pool after a long absence doing cool stuff like coaching one of his swimmers into a spot on the Junior Pan Pacs team. Even a little out of swim shape he’s still faster than me and gives me somebody to chase during workouts. We started the workout together and were eventually joined by 2 other swimmers. He hung around through the 150′s and then it was just me and one other guy who knocked out the 100′s and 50′s. I’m pretty sore but in that good sore kind of way.

In other Masters news… USMS just released a video with Coach Patty and the SwimMAC Masters from North Carolina. I got a chance to swim with SwimMAC back in May when I was in Charlotte for the 1 mile USMS Open Water National Championships. They were a really great group to swim with and I’m glad I managed to get in the pool with them!

August 24, 2010 | 3 Comments »

Late Breaking Pan Pacs Update!

**So I don’t really have any new Pan Pacs news… I just fell asleep before I could write anything about it on Saturday so you get your update from the nosebleed seats a few days late, sorry :)

the view from deep within the sold out crowd

I knew Pan Pacs were going on down in Irvine this past weekend, but up until about Tuesday of that week I didn’t know that I would be in town. I changed up my schedule and added an open water event in SoCal on Sunday so I figured I’d make a whole weekend of it and hit Pan Pacs as well. I went online and bought a couple tickets and reserved up a room in town. I wish I would have gotten on it sooner to buy better tickets, but they turned out pretty ok.

My friend Bekah scooped up my extra ticket and her friend Kelly came out with us as well. We figured we could buy her a ticket once we got there since I only had 2. We figured wrong. Totally sold out. We started texting around to see if we knew anybody there with an extra ticket to sell but that didn’t go so hot either. Hmmm… as we stood there dejected next to the will call area I saw a glorious site… a dude settled into an opening in the crowd and shot his hand straight up into the air holding a ticket! This is the universal sign for “hey I don’t want this.” As he started to say “anybody need a…” I sprung into action! I think I like whistled and shouted at him simultaneously and snatched the golden ticket from the hand of our mystery benefactor, well it was a yellow ticket but anyways… victory! He didn’t even want money for it, he was just letting it go! Thank you random guy who didn’t want his ticket for whatever reason, you saved our evening from epic 3 people 2 ticket lame-ness.

me and Bekah up in the cheap seats (that happened to cost the same as all the other seats)

Now that we all had tickets we made our way into the bleachers… amazingly our random free ticket was literally 5 feet away from the ones I had purchased earlier in the week. Kelly sat like 2 rows down and one seat over so we could still talk to her without too much yelling. The only downside to where we were sitting, besides being about 1200 feet above sea level, was the sunshine. Since we were almost in orbit it was right there in our faces until it got late enough to drop behind the buildings on the other side of the pool.

Chris from LiveSwim.net got a picture of us too... it's a little more Where's Waldo-esque though

The events being raced that night were the men’s 800m free, 200m IM, 50M free, 200m breast, women’s 1500m free, and the 4 x 100 medley relay. In the course of the night I got to see some really great swims and some excellent races. With all the big names in the pool there were a few that ran away with the show. First, Ryan Locthe… The dude is on fire and his 200m IM was nuts! Emily Seebohm from Australia had a great 2oom IM as well way out in lane 7… it was the kind of race where you keep saying “no way… she can’t keep up that pace,” and then eventually she wins the whole thing! Another one of my favorites was there in full effect… Katajima… I just like watching his pulldowns. Rebecca Soni ran away with the women’s 200m breast and look great through the whole thing. Nathan Adrian looked awesome out there too… the guy’s a beast and must be at least 13 feet tall because he made Phelps and the other guys on the 400 medley relay look short! I was also stoked to see Cullen Jones and Mark Gangloff out there… they were the only people in the meet who’ve had the pleasure of racing me :) Both were in my age group at USMS SCY Nationals in Atlanta back in May.

Lochte blowing away the field in the 200m IM

Ryan up on the big screen after his big win

Soni after winning her 200m Breast

US Men's 400m Medley Relay... Piersol, Gangloff, Phelps and Adrian

Other observations from up in the crowd… those blow up noise maker things they handed out were awful. Not that they didn’t work, but the kids directly behind us really enjoyed them and never got tired of bashing them together right next to my head. At least no one brought a Vuvezela like they had at the World Cup! The younger swimmers are applying the Twilight Vampire school of thought to the classic question of which swimmer do you like better. Best I can tell Team Lochte is beating out Team Phelps these days with the 13 and under crowd. They also seem to really like Soni and Kukors. Ariana losing the 200m IM was a heart breaker for a large contingent of kids in my section. Overall I gotta say USA Swimming put on a really good show. The pool set up was nice and dramatic, the display screens were awesome, they had a hype man out in the crowd between events, all kinds of music was playing to bring on the A Finals, and people were all very excited to see some swimming. It was really encouraging to be at a sold out swim meet that was basically in the mid-point between Olympiads. Hopefully they can keep up this momentum for 2012!

August 23, 2010 | Tags: | No Comments »
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