There she slows!

Saturday was the Chris Greene Lake 2 mi cable swim, in Charlottesville, VA. The course is four, half mile loops around a floating cable. (I know, pretty lame for an open water swim. Cable swims are a lot like swimming laps in a pool, only with 100+ racing people in your lane. Also the turns are trickier - buoy turns instead of flip turns). Every other year, this race is the USMS national championships, so it generally is a fast race.
I entered myself with a fast mile seed time because I wanted to be sure to start in the first wave. This way, I would know where all the faster swimmers were right from the start. However, this plan backfired somewhat. The lead swimmers in my wave took off faster than I could say "sprinters!". Unable to hang with the lead pack, I fell further behind. I had no one to draft off of during the race, a disadvantage during a cable swim.

My mom ended up winning her age group, despite recovering from a displaced elbow. I won my age group and placed 2nd out of the women, the same as I had placed last year. However, my time was over a minute slower! This has been a theme for me this year - swimming slightly slower in races than the year before. And in a lake cable swim, there are no currents or directional challenges I could blame it on!

Of course, Yogi was still impressed and awarded us with many wet kisses.



It seems that all my extra swimming for channel preparation is not making me any faster, at least in shorter races. You don't have to be fast to swim the English Channel - crossing times range from 7 hrs and change to over 17 hrs - but it certainly helps. Swimming 5 seconds faster per hundred yards would save you 34 minutes over the course of 23 miles. That's 34 fewer minutes in the icy cold! That's also 34 fewer minutes to get to much earned beer and chocolate.

So, for the next 6 months, I'm going to change my focus a bit. My new plan is to hold steady at 32-38,000 yds a week and not increase my weekly totals any further until January. I also will keep my long swims down to 10,000-12,000 yards, which psychologically and physically are much easier than super long swims. In exchange, I will be swimming harder, faster sets to get my base speed back down. That means less junk yardage - easy, slow swimming that has made up the bulk of my yardage base. If a set is too slow or easy, I will try to modify it to make it more productive.

Week 27:
Mon: swim 4800 yds, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi
Tues: swim 5400, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi
Wed: swim 5400, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi
Thurs: swim 5800, 1 hr boxing
Fri: walk/run 4.5 mi
Sat: swim 5,000, walk 2.5 mi
Sun: swim 10,000 walk, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi
Total: swim 36,400 yds, 5 hr boxing/kickboxing, walk/run 19 mi

Getting back on track

Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly of this week:
The good: My favorite swimming hole, which has been closed due to toxic algae, has finally reopened! A nice little nature hike leads to an abandoned rock quarry, which looks like this:

I got in a couple of short, very refreshing quarry swims this week.

The bad: Since the Swim Around Key West, I have been unable to make myself do any swims over 8,000 yds. This is not good, considering I have a 10 mile race in a few weeks.

The ugly: This week was my highest yardage week since high school, which left me unable to move by Saturday. Jason had to drag me grumbling and groaning to go watch the fireworks.

Since I don't have much interesting to post this week, I'll share some of the open water drills that we did in the quarry. Normally, I'm not a fan of drills, because I find them slow and boring. I also think that breaking complex, fluid movements into component parts is not conducive to motor learning. It's not that I'm opposed to technique work, I'd just rather work on something in the context of the whole stroke. But my open water drills are fast and fun, and focus on race skills and strategy instead of stroke technique.

The first drill I like is called the "leapfrog."

1) Swimmers (ideally 3) beginning swimming in a line.


















2) The last swimmer in line (here, the fox) sprints ahead until he passes the line leader (the penguin).


















3) The fox takes the place as the line leader. The drill continues until all swimmers have had a chance to pass and lead.

4) Of course, if currents pull at you from different directions, staying in line can be more difficult.

















I like this drill, because it is a great way to work on drafting and passing.


Matt and I did another drill, one that I invented. I call it "the draft and drop." Two swimmers of similar speeds start swimming, one in front of the other. The goal of the last swimmers is to stay on the leader's feet and draft for the entire predetermined distance. The leader's goal, on the other hand, is to pull away from, or "drop" the drafting swimmer. The last swimmers has the drafting advantage, while the first swimmer has the element of surprise - he or she can make his move at any time, throwing the other swimmer off guard.

Next week is the Chris Green Lake 2 mi cable swim. The race involves swimming around a long cable, so line swimming is a must. Hoprfully these drills will come in handy!

Week 26:
Mon: swim 6100 yds, 1 hr kickboxing
Tues: swim 8200, hike 2.5 mi, 1 hr boxing
Wed: swim 5700, run 3 mi, 1 hr kickboxing
Thurs: swim 5500, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi
Fri: swim 4500, hike 2.5 mi, 1 hr boxing
Sat: swim 8,000, walk 5 mi
Sun: run 5 mi
Total: swim 38,000 yds, 5 hr boxing/kickboxing, walk/run 21 mi