2010 Santa Cruz Roughwater Swim Wrap Up

**Overall results
*Age group results


I woke up nice and early this morning to drive up to Santa Cruz for the annual Roughwater Swim. It’s about a 3 hour shot from my house and a really boring drive through miles and miles of farm fields. Luckily at the end of the big drive you’re rewarded with the wonderment that is the Monterey Bay. I got to the beach a little before 9:30 and was one of the first people to get signed in at the registration table. After getting my numbers written on and picking up a tshirt and timing chip I went and got situated on the big concrete steps between the beach and the street.

I decided to race in my Finis Hydrospeed 2 tights today and got those put on under a towel on the beach then marched off to the water to see what we were dealing with. The first thing I ran into was a water quality warning… uh oh… not what I wanted to be greeted by. The race director said it was because of some bacteria that eats decaying kelp, as long as it’s not poop related I guess I’m ok with it.

at least this is better than the shark warnings I had earlier this month

The water was plenty frosty today, they announced 59 degrees but I have a hard time believing it. At least on the right side of the pier it had to be closer to 57. It was colder than my swim last night anyways and we pegged that at 58. I took my time getting all the way wet and I was a little slow acclimating. Probably because I was a little tired… that seems to have an impact on how fast I can get used to the cold. Once I was comfortable in the water though I was golden. I didn’t really swim so much as I just floated on my back and relaxed and let my muscles soak in that cold water.

the wharf in the distance past my feet

At about 10:45 we got our pre-race briefing and then did the march under the pier over to the start line. I was in the first heat with the other 18-39 year olds. The overall crowd at the start looked smaller than last year, but it was still pretty healthy… maybe 300ish. I made one last short dip into the water to keep cold before the race officially started. They had a boat offshore signaling to us with flags and then a siren to go.

view of the start line from the water with the boardwalk in the background

We ran to the water and were advised to get about chest deep before we started diving or dolphining. I’m not so much for running so I was one of the last to get to the water but I started passing people pretty much right away. As we got going the first big decision was which way to go around a boat someone had parked right in the middle of the line our swim was taking. I swung right on the side closer to the pier, it seemed to be the shortest way to go about things and I’m pretty sure that was the right decision.

that's me swimming up the middle

On the way down the pier I tried to not hang too overly close to it because there were tons of people fishing off of it. I wish they could have given it a break for like half an hour, but the fisherman were undaunted by a couple hundred swimmers crossing through their fishing area. Not too long before the tip of the pier I swam over what felt like fishing line and stopped dead in the water to untangle before I found a hook. I think it was just a big thin string of seaweed though… I guess I’m a little touchy about that kind of stuff from a previous fishing line encounter I had out at Avila beach a couple months ago. While I was stopped momentarily I got a big whiff of the sea lions living down below the pier… they stink… bad.

sea lions... fun to look at... not so fun to smell

On the other side of the pier I started to try and pick up the pace and pick off people in front of me. I had been in a bit of a pack on the other side of the pier but it sort of disintegrated around that corner. I started to look for people to catch up to in front of me and hopped from person to person. This phase of the swim is where spending a lot of time in the ocean was coming in handy. I had people in front of me that were clearly faster than me but couldn’t hold a straight line. They were slaloming down the side of the pier while I was trying to take as direct of a line as possible to the yellow finish chute.

I managed to sneak past maybe 4 people that I was aware of and stroked all the way in until my hands hit the sand on the bottom. I got up and jogged it in and felt really good about my swim. I finished with a pretty respectable time for me and won 3rd place in my age group… last year I was 8th. I swam a 23:15 which is actually slower than last year, but I think maybe the course was a bit short last year because last year’s time was way too fast for me.

Overall another great swim in Santa Cruz, I really dig this event. Lots of swimmers, cold water and easy navigation. This was probably one of my best races all summer. Tomorrow I get to come out and go at it one more time in the 2 mile Cruz Cruise. In the meantime I’m kicking it in Monterey for the evening. I used to live here and it’s one of my favorite places to be. See you kids again tomorrow in the ocean!

post race dip... I'll be back tomorrow!

July 31, 2010 | 7 Comments »

Avila Rock Touch and Go

My buddy Dave VM is getting ready for a big swim from Anacapa next weekend and is getting in some bonus ocean time in preparation. Myself and 2 other guys swam with him tonight out at Avila; it was a beautiful swim. The water warmed up a few degrees from Wednesday night’s swim to around 58ish and we had calm seas. I’ve never swam in the ocean with Dave’s friends, but when I didn’t see any neoprene on either of them I decided they were ok by me :)

Our plan was relatively simple, make a straight shot for the rock and come back. This group functioned a little differently from my usual Avila swims in that there was no stopping to regroup. Once we hit the water we just charged straight out until we hit that rock (which is probably about 3/4 of a mile from the beach). I was a little bit slower than the other guys, but I was always within 5-10 meters and used them for sighting since I couldn’t see all the way out to the rock.

On the way there we passed through plenty of kelp which I’m not really a big fan of. I’ve been most of the way out to the rock, but never all the way to it because it’s totally surrounded by the stuff. Today we got all the way there. I had to crawl of the top of it in spots where it was so thick I wouldn’t necessarily call it swimming. I think the key to dealing with kelp is to not stop and not freak out when you get tangled up. It floats so the worst case scenario you get stuck but you’re floating, worse things could happen. As we got closer to the rock it got a little ripe because of all the bird poo on it, but as we got deeper into that kelp the little patches of clear water inside it were almost like calm little lakes. We hung out by the rock for a while and one of the guys mounted it!

After our humanly dominance was asserted upon a barren little rock in the middle of the ocean we turned around to swim home. We all took different routes out of the kelp and then kind of reconverged on the outside. The line we took on the way back in was a little better then the way to the rock. We bypassed buoy number 4 on the south end of the buoy line. It’s surrounded by all kinds of kelp and on the way out we swam right through that stuff… I was plenty relived  to get to skip it going home! Once we got to the main section of the buoy line we paused for a minute to make sure we had everyone before swimming the rest of the way in. Me and Dave hung out in the water for a bit soaking it all in for a few minutes before making the way back to the beach. You’d be hard pressed to find a better day for a little excursion like this! Off to our left about 25m were the heads of 2 seals who were apparently doing the same thing, I guess even the natives were pretty impressed with today.

Tomorrow I’m making my way up to Santa Cruz for the Roughwater swim. This is year number 2 for me doing that race and I’m excited to go back. The day after I’m doing the 2 mile Cruz Cruise which will be a first.

July 30, 2010 | No Comments »

Borrowed Beatdown

Normally my Santa Maria swim group makes up the workout on the spot, but I borrowed today’s workout from a friend. Her version was a little too long, and too fast, for us so I made some modifications to get it to fit our speed/time available. It ended up being just me and Mike doing this workout today, we had a couple other guys in the water but they were following their own agendas this afternoon.

I did warm up by myself while I waited for Mike to get in. He started with the first set since he was late to the pool. We kept a pretty brisk pace and I felt pretty good in the water. It’s been a while since I’ve been in chlorinated water. It was nice to have a flat controlled body of water to work in, but my walls were off today. I think my stroke has been changing from all the open water stuff and I’m hitting the walls at a different point than I usually would. I also catch myself sighting occasionally in the pool which is pretty funny :) Gotta remember there’s a cheater line on the bottom!

200 swim
200 kick
100 swim

Repeat x 5
2 x 50 kick @ 1:00
100 free @1:30 descending down to 1:10 by :05/round

Repeat x 2
3 x 100 free @ 1:30 descending
200 free @ 3:00

2500 yards total

Tomorrow I’m off to go play in the ocean post work, in the meantime I’m going to watch a movie about a dude swimming the English Channel on Netflix that someone at the Ventura race this weekend recommended!

July 29, 2010 | 3 Comments »

I Don’t Think the Ocean Knows it’s July

I mean yeah I like cold water, but it’s July… can I at least have some high 50′s in mid summer? It was pretty chilly tonight… no official reading but the general consensus amongst the 5 of us swimming was 55-56. The nearest ocean buoy is reading 53-54 (it’s usually a little warmer where we swim) so I think our guesses were pretty close to right on. The nice thing is I had a partner in wetsuitlessness… Dave VM was out there in just a speedo. He’s gearing up for a 12 mile swim from Anacapa Island back to the mainland early next month.

you guys go on ahead... I'll be right behind youI took my sweet ass time getting into the water today. I’ve been a little sick/run down and that cold was really hard on me. Once I got going my skin just burned… it probably took half a mile before I transitioned from burning cold to semi-numb.  There was a lot of chop in the water today and it was moving right to left so when I picked out the route I decided to front load the course with the worst chop early on. I think the best word to describe the leg from the end of the left end of the buoy line to the tip of the pier is burly. The water was relentless and coming straight at us. It wasn’t real big but the way it was spaced out and the speed it was moving made it fun and challenging.

floating at the end of the pier

On the way to the tip of the other end of the buoy line we still got a little bit of the chop but it wasn’t quite as bad. As we neared the actual buoy we got a very welcome warm patch. I have no idea what was making it warm and why but I was pretty stoked to find some water that was a few degrees warmer. We finished by swimming under the pier with the current to our backs and then turned back towards shore. All in all about a mile and little bit.

Tomorrow I should be back in the pool in Santa Maria assuming I can actually get there. On Tuesday the freeway was backed up for a few miles for mystery reasons which kept me from making it to the pool… I was not pleased! Friday I have another ocean swim planned and then it’s off to Santa Cruz for a few races!

July 28, 2010 | No Comments »

Ventura Splash’n'Dash Event Wrap Up

*Event info
**Official Event Photos

the start of the 1.2 and 2.4 mile swims

So I was *supposed* to go to the LCM Meet in Fullerton today but I got a little sidetracked by some fun in the ocean :) On Saturday the plan was to drive down to Orange County with hopes of getting there early enough to swim in Laguna Beach with my friend Lynn. That didn’t quite happen… I went to a concert the night before and waking up at 4am just wasn’t happening. I still got out the door fairly early though and was down to Thousand Oaks (where the team I’m attached to is) around 9:30ish. I gave my coach a call and we went out to get some breakfast and catch up a bit since I hadn’t seen her in person since nationals in Atlanta and I’ve been swimming all over the place. She told me there was an event in Ventura on Sunday that a bunch of my teammates were going to. It was mainly a swim/run type thing but they were offering a 2.4 mile swim as well… I was pretty much sold at this point. I still went down to Orange County to have a mellow day next to my hotel pool and have dinner with some friends, but Sunday morning I was on my way back up the coast to get wet in Ventura!

yay cold salt water!

When I got to the beach it was very California-Summer-Beach-Morning-tastic. A little chilly and totally gray. The waves weren’t looking too big but the water was definitely active out there. The buoys weren’t set up yet so I didn’t know where we were going, but best I could tell we were in for a bumpy ride. I registered there on the beach and got into my swimsuit and put on a rash guard. I was definitely in the minority as a non-wetsuit swimmer. There was one guy in jammers (hi Chris!), some dude in board shorts doing the 400m swim and Becky from my team was in a B70 Nero Comp which looks wetsuitly but as I can personally attest to has absolutely no warming properties! Everyone else was wrapped in neoprene. The water temps felt like they were around 60-62 which is about perfect for me, I was so stoked to be in water that wasn’t in the 80′s!

On the way down to the water to check things out I was greeted by something I really didn’t want to see, a dead seal. Depending on just how he died could have been a day ender for me. If he was freshly deceased with a big bite taken out of him my interest in an hour at sea was going to diminish greatly. After doing a quick visual autopsy I determined natural causes… no big bites which was quite the relief… although it didn’t really have a head which was somewhat concerning :o

let's just assume old age got this one...

I waded out in the water and cooled myself down in stages until I was comfortable with the water temperature. Eventually other people started to hop in as well. I got out for a while but was colder on the beach in the wind and ended up going back into the water to I guess warm up even though that’s kind of a non-sensical thing to say. I had a whole bunch of CVMM teammates out there today in the water which was really cool! I haven’t been in SoCal for a few months now and it had been a long time since I’d seen most of them.

a group of CVMM ladies en route to getting warmed up

Once all the buoys were in place it became pretty apparent what the course was going to be. We would go straight out to a buoy, hang a right and then round a buoy to the north and come back to round a buoy to the south then back to the middle. Those in the the 1.2 mile swim (the majority of the racers) would get out at this point, the rest of us in the 2.4 Iron Swim would do the loop one more time. Pretty simple on paper but a lot harder once you got into the choppy waters!

A little after 9 we got the go ahead to start and we all rushed into the ocean. I stayed in the very back of the pack to sneak in a couple pictures before I took off for real. Once I started actually swimming I worked my way up through a good number of people and did my best to not swim over or cut anybody off. It was hard though because we were really getting tossed around. On the way to the first turn buoy I caught a mouthful of seawater and almost yakked. That mixed with the motion of the ocean almost got me. I managed to hold it down and get back to my swim. As I came around the turn buoy it became very apparent to me that I wasn’t going to be seeing any of the other buoys for a while. All you really saw was peaks and valleys of salt water. I tried to swing a little wide with my line in search of smoother water but it just wasn’t out there.

On this long leg I had an experience I’ve never had before… I punched a jellyfish! I’ve never actually even seen a live one in the water before (I’m a lucky guy), so to jam my hand straight into a big orange one was a bit of a shock! Luckily I didn’t hit the business end of the jellyfish, I smacked him right in the dome. Disaster averted… but now every piece of kelp or debris I came across was a jellyfish in my head for the rest of the swim. I guess the upside to that is I ceased to think about sharks and other bigger marine life. A little while later in that first loop I had another first experience in an open water swim… my friend Julie stopped to wave and say hi to me. She was a little stressed out by the cold and the water conditions and apparently seeing me swim by was too exciting to let pass by without commemorating with a wave :)

swimmers finishing the 400m swim... teammates Krystal, Nancy and Bonnie are all in there

That second loop didn’t get any shorter but it did get a lot lonelier. The majority of the swimmers exited the course at the 1.2 mile mark to go embark on a run. Only about 8 of us were signed up for the iron swim (I think all but one was on my team!) and 6 of us finished. I think two of them got seasick and pulled out early. I managed to hit another jellyfish on my way around, but I did see and dodge another one that looked way different from the other two. After the turn on the north end  I picked up my own lifeguard on a paddleboard. I think every 2.4 miler got their own escort at some point in the last loop. Since I couldn’t really see the buoys so well I used the paddlers as nav points. I swam from one yellow shirted lifeguard to another to stay on track.

Going towards my last turn I saw two other swimmers going the other way… they turned out to be Heidi and Becky from my team, they took the first two finisher spots for the 2.4 miler and I think I was the 3rd person and first guy across the finish line. When they announced finishes I ended up in second, but the guy placed in first said “hey didn’t you beat me?” so I’m going to go ahead and say a number got crossed somewhere. It didn’t really matter though places 1-3 all won the same prize, an event sweatshirt, so it’s not like it cost me anything. It does make me a little suspect of my time though. They’re saying I came in around 1:18 which given the conditions is totally believable, but I may have been a little faster… I’m not sure… I have a bad habit of not actually looking at clocks when I finish open water races.

After the race a bunch of us went into town and had lunch and talked about the swim. Pretty much everyone was in agreement that that was one of the gnarliest swims any of us had done in an organized event. I’ve swam through bigger swells this year, but nothing quite as choppy and difficult to swim through. That being said, it was totally fun and I would do it again! This week I’m back to my normal grind and then I’m off to Santa Cruz for the weekend.

July 25, 2010 | 7 Comments »

Quick Dip in Pismo with David Barra

I was very stoked today to get a call from David fresh off his epic crossing of the Catalina Channel letting me know he was driving through my town en route to San Francisco. I skipped lunch and held an hour open so that I could go hang out with him once he got all the way up to Pismo from Orange County.

Around 2:30 he hit town and I ran out towards the beach to meet up with him. I wasn’t sure if we’d just hang out for some coffee or actually hop in the ocean for a little post channel recovery swim so I made sure I had a suit and goggles in the truck. He was feeling like a little dip which I was pretty happy about because the beach was looking pretty nice. We walked down to the beach and got suited up. I only had a Rob Aquatics speedo with me so I had to go European tourist style today. Normally on the beach I’ll wear a jammer just for the sake of everyone else on the beach, but today they got the zebra speedo… sorry folks :)

The plan was to swim straight out to one of the buoys about 400m off shore and then play it by ear from there. The water was probably about 58-59 degree and the surf was pretty small. Although I’ve intended to do this swim before I’ve never actually found the buoy before. It’s pretty short and just gets lost out there in the ocean. We waded out aways (Pismo is really shallow) and eventually got down to actually swimming. Even though the surf wasn’t big the water was definitely moving. The swim out was pretty uneventful but we did stop a couple times to try and figure out where that buoy was.

Much to my surprise we actually found it! We floated around by the buoy for a bit and chatted while soaking in the view. Not too far from us a fairly big dolphin broke the surface and then swam away. That’s always cool to see! David saw a seal off to the other side but I didn’t catch him. Eventually we figured we had to come up with some kind of plan. We decided to just swim back towards the beach and try to maybe grab a wave en route.

It was really great for me to meet David in person and hear about his Catalina Crossing first hand. David blogs pretty regularly about his swims on the USMS website and you can check out part one of his Catalina swim here. Make sure you watch his USMS Blog to catch the rest of the swim! I’m hoping our race schedules cross each other next year so I can see him out in the water again some time soon!

…and I know you all are accustomed to me having all kinds of pictures, but I totally left my camera on my desk today… boo. I was charging the battery and totally forgot it wasn’t in my bag, sorry kids.

July 22, 2010 | No Comments »

Having Fun in Choppy Water

woah that's cold!

I made my valiant return to the ocean and it was quite the ocean swim. Cold, choppy, and totally fun. We were about 6 swimmers deep today and we swam the triangle around the pier which adds up to about a mile and change.

my neoprene encased friends getting a head start on me

I was making the jump from mid 80′s water back to high 50′s today so it took me a little bit to get all the way wet. I was the first one in the water just because I needed the time to get somewhat acclimated before everyone else came through in their wetsuits. I was still the last one to actually start swimming… 58 was feeling really cold to me today! I met up with everyone at the buoy line and I was feeling pretty cold still but I started to warm up on the way to the end of the line. We were charging right into the chop on this leg and that made it nice and distracting for me. I had to think about the water and when/where to breathe instead of being cold. We regrouped at the end of the right side of the buoy line to decided where to go next. We toyed with the idea of swimming to the Poly pier but opted to swim to the top of the Avila Pier instead. I don’t think anyone wanted to keep charging directly into the chop.

at the end of the buoy line contemplating our next move

As we made moves for the pier I started feeling really good. My shoulders were doing great and my body was getting comfortable with the idea of sub 60 again. This kind of water is really more where I belong. There were plenty of people fishing on the pier today so we tried to steer really clear of it today and regrouped a good distance away from the top of it. Once we had everyone gathered up we aimed for the last buoy on the other side of the pier. This time we were moving with the chop which was an interesting sensation. To me it felt like almost catching little waves that never broke. You’d get that little lift from the swell and then fall back down to where you started.

Eventually we rounded the last buoy and aimed back towards the pier and through the chop again. We planned to turn early so as to avoid the fish hooks dangling off the pier. Since the wind was blowing towards us a lot of their lines were out way further than usual. I decided to sprint in from the buoy line back to the beach. I just wanted to be fast for a couple hundred meters. I turned the kick way up and let my arms spin. It felt good. Hopefully I can turn some of that on in my upcoming shorter races in Santa Cruz and Long Beach! I stopped short of the beach to try and grab a wave or two. I caught just a piece of one and decided to swim back out a little bit to get a better one. I body surfed the next one all the way back into the beach… I love doing that! One of these days I need that to happen in a race!

everybody out

I’m not 100% sure what’s going on tomorrow. I may have a special guest visiting or I’ll be racing 150 yards of fly at my workout… possibly both… Thursday’s plans are still up in the air as of right now, either way I should have something good for you guys tomorrow night :)

July 21, 2010 | No Comments »

Back Home and Back to Work

ahhh Pacific water

I got home late Sunday night and my luggage got here sometime Monday afternoon… whoops. Oh well, at least I got it right? Anyways first order of business at lunchtime on Monday was to go to the beach and say hello. I ran down to Pismo and waded out into the water… it burned at first but eventually it mellowed out to that nice crisp cold I’ve missed :) We’ll see how much I like it tomorrow when I have to get my whole body wet! Hopefully I acclimate fast like I did last week. Beyond getting my feet wet that was pretty much all the swimming I was going to get done Monday… I was in bed by like 8pm!

Today I was back to training with a pool swim in Santa Maria. There were 4 of us swimming today plus some random dude in swim trunks that hopped in my lane midway through and went about his own business. We only swam about 2400 yards and honestly I’m cool with that for today. I just wanted to make sure everything still worked and I hadn’t caused any harm to anything. So far the shoulders seem to be ok and it’s just a spot in my back between my shoulder blades that’s mad at me. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to crack or stretch or pop that spot all day but so far no luck. Hopefully I can just sleep it off.

200
400
600
400
200

12 x 50 @ 1:00 w/ fins variable speed by 50 (easy/fast, fast/easy, all easy, all fast)

2400 yards total

I had fun with the fast stuff with fins on today. Just going a speed other that “10k survival” was good for me, especially seeing as I signed up for some LCM races this weekend down south! I’m just hoping I can put up some semi-respectable times given my lack of actual preparation for pool racing.

I do want to give a quick shout out to David Barra who had a really impressive Catalina crossing that I followed all day on Facebook. The ocean decided to be creative with currents and David had to really fight for every last meter at the end of that swim. After 15+ hours of fighting the ocean he won! I’m really stoked for him and very inspired, I love to watch people do big things in open water… I hope to be one of them one of these days!

July 20, 2010 | No Comments »

The Rob Aquatics Summer Tour, Phase 2: California and Beyond

me getting in the water at last year's Santa Cruz Roughwater Swim

Through the magic of in flight wireless I’m writing somewhere above Nebraska as I make moves back towards California with plans of actually staying in my own state until September! Although I really enjoy floating all over the rest of the country, it’s going to be really nice to spend some time away from airports and in colder water! I still have plenty of racing to do however, here’s what’s next on the agenda…

I’m going to start with a brief excursion to the pool for SPMA LCM Championships in Fullerton this coming weekend. Right now the plan is to pop in for just a day. I should be on deck Sunday swimming a few events. I’m not even remotely ready for LCM swimming right now, but I really wanted to go down south and see my SPMA friends… it’s been way too long since I’ve swam anything in SoCal!

The weekend after I’ll be up in Santa Cruz for 2 Races. I’m doing the Santa Cruz Roughwater swim for the second year in a row, and trying out the Cruz Cruise (2 miler) for the first time. I really love it up around the Monterey Bay so I’m excited to have an excuse to be up there for a weekend.

I have some weekend space in my schedule after that isn’t accounted for just yet. Not sure if I should spend a weekend at home, run off to a race, or maybe do a big swim locally… that’s still being debated in my head.

After that is my favorite race, the Naples Island Swim! Like in previous years I’m swimming the 1 Miler (which is really 1.25 miles) and I really want to go fast this year. I’m more than ready for the distance at this point, the water should be mid 60′s which is my favorite and I know the course pretty well. I’ve been 2nd in my age group the last 2 years and this time around I really want to win it, especially seeing as it’s my last chance in the 25-29 age group!

At the end of August I’ll be down in Orange County for Corona Del Mar which is a 1 Mile Open Water Championship race for SPMA. I’ve never done this race but I hear it’s pretty good, plus one of my new open water friends from Virginia who swam a few USMS Championship races with me will be out there which will be cool (besides the part where he’s really fast and in my age group).

As it stands right now my open water race season ends with Big Shoulders in Chicago. I swam this last year and it’s a really cool event. The view from the water while you’re swimming is ridiculous… you’re right in the city and can see all the skyscrapers, totally unique venue.

the view from Ohio Street Beach, the site of Big Shoulders

It’s entirely possible that I’ll find something after Big Shoulders to sneak into (considering a swim in Arizona in October), but for right now that’s all I’ve got.

I was talking with my coach last night after my 10k swim and I told her that my summer tour kinda of felt like one big training mission. It’s like I’m getting ready for something and I just don’t know what it is yet. I think I’ve decided that I want to adventure further out into the world of open water and marathon swimming. I have some ideas in the back of my head of things I may want to attempt to accomplish, but first I need to continue to gain experience and build my stamina… then conquer the world :)

July 18, 2010 | 2 Comments »

2010 USMS 10k Champs Wrap Up from Morse Reservoir, Noblesville, IN

**Results are posted here

sun coming up before the race

I got up at 4:30 this morning so I could be in Noblesville by 6 to get ready for the race. It was dark almost all the way there, but by the time I hit the beach the sun was on the way up. It was very pretty. I’m not a morning guy so this whole watching the sun rise thing is a little out of the ordinary for me.

I met up with some friends on the beach and we all kind of gave each other the wow-we’re-really-going-to-do-this look. I think most swimmers that are moderately serious could do an open water 10k, but regardless it’s still a pretty reasonably serious undertaking. After lathering my noggin in sunscreen (they Ok’ed swimming capless, hooray!) and applying some swim lubricants I got in the water a little early just to get a feel for the water temperature and talk with some of the people out there floating around. It was like 85ish in the water, with visibility that didn’t extend much past your elbow with your arm outstretched. Luckily the sun wouldn’t be in full effect for awhile, but I was dreading the accompanying heat that would come with it’s arrival. I don’t know how hot it got during the swim, but the thermometer in my car was over 90 by the time I left the lake. It’s fair to say that I felt cooked to about medium well by the time I was done.

my heat starting to assemble itself at the start line

The race had 3 heats. 1 and 2 were for 10k-ers and heat 3 was for the people doing the 5k or the 10k relay. I was in the second, slower wave which is good because I wasn’t particularly speedy today. I’ve learned my lesson about how fast I can actually go when warm water is involved and seeded myself appropriately. The start was pretty civil and I only ran into one person a few seconds into the race and it was just barely. We exchanged brief apologies since neither of us really knew whose fault it was anyways and then I proceeded to spend about 94% of the rest of the race swimming pretty much by myself. Within the first 1000m we spread out quite a bit and I never really spent any time in a pack.


Heat 1′s start

Sighting on this course was really hard for me. With all the sunshine that was rising up over the water and the buoys being really far apart I just couldn’t see them. Maybe I need to investigate prescription goggles, I have this problem way too often. The day before one of my friends described a swim she did as an easter egg hunt for little green buoys. Since this race was marked off with fat little orange bouys I kept thinking about one of my favorite Swedish words for this one… pumpajakt. It basically translates to Pumpkin Hunt. I found all my little pumpkins, but it wasn’t always easy. Luckily I did the boat tour the day before so I had a decent feel for what the course should be like, but it did stress me out a little to not be able to see where I was supposed to be going. Occasionally I would be able to see other swimmers and sight off of them, but as the race went on and we spread out that became less and less of an option.

My first length out to the 2500m mark was pretty rough. I wasn’t feeling so good and my stomach was really upset. I don’t know what set it off by I was cramping a bit and having a hard time finding a comfortable rhythm. I was really hoping this would subside since I had no desire to not finish a swim I had flow half way across the country for! After a little break at the supply boat for some water I started to feel better and able to just focus on my swimming. From here to the 5k mark was pretty much a blur. I hit 5k around 1:34 which was a lot slower than I was anticipating. I was thinking 1:25ish would be about right for me…. apparently not. I figured it was no big deal though since this swim was about completion not necessarily speed. I can worry about going faster at the next 10k whenever that may be.

At the 5k marker they had a boat with water and special needs bags if you had one. I passed on having a bag because I carried some gu packets on my person, but I really should have put some Gatorade or something up there. Water was good, but some sports drink would have been waaay better. Lesson learned. While I was there I saw my buddy Sully who managed to make it out to the race at the last minute. It was his first 10k as well and he was doing really good. We chatted a little bit while eating up some gu packets and then he took off for the second lap of his swim. I proceeded to have a sneezing fit. I don’t know what it is about fresh water lakes but I sneeze like crazy once I’m done swimming. Once I was done spazzing out I got back to business as well. I dolphin kicked underwater for about as long as I could stand it in an attempt to find some colder water (no such luck) and then got back to swimming.

I felt pretty good on this length. I was a little more confident on where I was going and spent a lot more time with my head down swimming without sighting so often. It was nice to take that stress off my neck for a while. As I started to fatigue a bit I made some variations to my stroke technique and pattern. Normally I just breath to the right side almost every stroke, but I spent a fair amount of time breathing left and occasionally switched to bilaterally breathing every 3 strokes. Little things like this were enough to change the dynamic of the stress on and in my shoulders and give them a little reprieve from the repetition of doing the same exact thing for hours.

At the 75oom mark I stopped at the boat for a little bit and ate the other gu packet in my suit along with some water. The volunteers on each boat were all really great. Friendly and positive… after all that time swimming by yourself it was nice to hear someone talking besides the voice in your head, and even better that they were telling you that you’re looking good and doing a good job!

Admittedly I started falling apart a bit in the last 2500m. I mixed in some backstroke to use some different muscles and I even did a little bit of butterfly just to move my shoulders in a new direction for a little bit. No matter what I did though I was dragging through the water. I could have really used some kind of electrolyte drink around this time I think. I was getting so hot and worried that dehydration would take me down despite taking in a bottle of water at each turn. As I got closer and closer to the finish I got more excited about the end but I couldn’t really get any faster. I had settled into a speed and that was all I had in me. As I neared the finish chute a few of us started to bunch up a little bit, this was the first time I’d been around other swimmers, that I could see anyways, in quite a while. I crossed the finish line at 3:23… not exactly the time I was looking for, but again I can’t complain. My pre race guess was 3:10, but when you factor in 3 stops to eat/drink I guess I wasn’t too far off of that.

Once I was done I floated over to shallow water where I could stand up and contemplated what had just happened. I just finished 6.2 miles in water under my own power… wow. The swim today confirmed two things for me… 1. I want to continue doing bigger and bigger swims, I enjoy the sense of completion involved in it. 2. I have lots of work to do to get there! Oh and if/when I ever do a majorly long swim it’s going to be in COLD WATER!!! This 80+ degree water thing is not doing me any favors. I’m excited to do some California swims in the next month, I should be much more comfortable in the Pacific than these hot inland lakes.

After the race we did awards and they had laid out some food for lunch. I nibbled at some stuff and drank whatever I could get my hands on. I was cooked and really needed the fluids. I managed to get a medal by default… 10th out of 10! Look out! I decided to look at it like this… I outlasted everyone in my age group :)

glorious...

Once the awards portion was done my next priority was food! I saw a White Castle on the way into the race and during the swim I had determined this would be the perfect post swim food. The nutritional validity of that statement is questionable, the the deliciousity of my lunch was off the charts. I devoured a big pile of sliders, it was magical. From there I hit the grocery store for some more water, Gatorade, some snacks and I may have accidentally picked up a couple beers too… I figured I deserved an adult beverage after that swim! I’m in Indianapolis until tomorrow afternoon and then flying home all evening. The only undetermined part of my weekend from here is whether I actually do something with my remaining time here in Indiana or just sleep off my 10k… it could go either way right now.

the start of heat number 1

July 17, 2010 | Tags: | 11 Comments »
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