Channel bound...well, not so much

To some this will come as surprise, to others less so. After months of training and a gazillion yards swum, I have decided not to attempt an English Channel crossing. My reasons for this are threefold:

1) I've been rather unsuccessful at finding sponsorship. I have not looked all that aggressively and certainly have not exhausted all my options in this area, so if this were my only reason or even my main reason, I wouldn't let it stop me. I could also *gasp* work longer hours at my day job. Holding 1 extra therapy session a day between now and the end of the school year would be enough to cover boat and pilot fees, the most expensive part of the trip. But, as convenient as it is to use finances as an excuse, I have to be honest with myself. Even if I won the lotto tomorrow, I still would not do the channel. Luckily, I've invested nothing but training in preparing for my goal so far, so there's little to lose by backing out at this point.

2) I'm not handling the cold well. While I'm fine when the mercury is above 60, as soon as it hits 59 I begin to suffer, even during swims as short as 1 hr. Temperatures in the channel typically range between 58-62, but can dip down further in cold patches. I worry about becoming hypothermic, especially when I am exhausted from hours of swimming. Boxing has made me lean, as least for a cold water swimmer. Perhaps I no longer have the insulation to handle the cold. My mom was very lean when she swam the channel, but her stroke count was over 90 strokes a minute. I swim at a similar speed, but my stroke count is only about 55 strokes/min. I don't have the turnover speed to generate as much heat as my mom did. But, as with issue #1, if this were my main concern, I would not let it stop me. Continuing to cold water train through the winter would help. I could also wait until after nationals and then spend some quality time with my buddies Ben and Jerry. An extra 10 lbs of insulation would goal long way towards keeping me warm. But this brings me to the real issue...

3) My heart just is not in it. I'm swimming faster that I have since high school and I don't want to give that up. The thought of doing 6 hour training swims fills me with thick dread. I am a distance swimmer, but I'm not the endurance machine that my mom is. Doing super long swims breaks me down and this takes me a long time to recover from. I don't like the cold and I hate swimming alone. I've been swimming about 25,000 -30,000 yards a week, but to get ready for the channel, I would need to swim about 50,000 yds a week. To build up to that kind of yardage, I would need to give up a lot - time, speed, sanity, and other activities I love, such as boxing. It just isn't worth it. I'm much more excited about other things - USMS nationals, next year's open water season, maybe one day learning to spar and box in the ring.

I want to thank everyone who has helped and supported me in pursuit of my goal. I couldn't have come this far without so much support from my family and teammates. Really, without you guys I would have given up after week 1! I can't say that I regret my decision to attempt to swim the channel. It's been a good year and I'm glad to be back in good swimming shape. One day, I might decide to attempt the channel again - probably when I am 45 years old and in the midst of a midlife crisis. If I do, I will go into it with a very real understanding of the kind of commitment it takes to pursue this goal.

I plan to continue blogging, but maybe should find a new name for this blog. Any ideas??

Cold feet

No, not this kind of cold feet...

This kind.

The cold water training continues. And as predicted, the quarry temperature is declining at a regular rate. At 61 degrees, getting in was difficult but once I started swimming the water was comfortable enough. 59 degrees, however, was another story. There's no accurate way to describe it except to say that the water was f**king cold. No matter how hard I swam, I couldn't get comfortable. My core stayed warm enough, but my extremeties went numb fast and never regained their feeling. I didn't realize how little blood flow was going to my feet until I climbed out and my feet had a "pins and needles" feeling as if they had fallen asleep. The wornout little suckers stayed asleep during the mile and a half hike to the parking lot. I managed not to trip over any branches during what turned out to be the longest hike ever and blasted my heater as soon as I got to the car. It wasn't until I was home in the bathtub that my toes regained their feeling.

Perhaps I need to kick more...


Now for some more encouraging news. Last week was the Fall Brawl, a masters swim meet at UNC. I hadn't swum in a pool meet in many years, besides a scrimmage against Jordan high school the week before. I was very encouraged with my times, my best since swimming masters.

500 free: 5:24
100 IM: 1:05
1650: 18:20


My time in the mile set a new state record for my age group. Heidi Williams broke her age group record for the mile too!

For the first time in a long while, I'm excited about racing in the pool. I hope that by masters nationals in May, I can get my times down closer to lifetime PRs.

Week 46:
Mon: swim 4500 yrds, 1 hr kickboxing
Tues: swim 4500, 1 hr boxing
Wed: swim 4500, 1 hr kickboxing, run 5 mi
Thurs: rest
Fri: swim 2500
Sat: swim 8,000
Sun: swim 4,000 in 59 degree water, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi
Total: swim 28,000, 4 hr/boxing/kickboxing, run 10 mi


Week45:
Mon: swim 5,000 yds, 1 hr kickboxing, run 5 mi
Tues: swim 5200, 1 hr boxing,
Wed: swim 4500, 1 hr kickboxing
Thurs: swim 4800, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi
Fri: rest
Sat: swim 3300, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi
Sun: swim 4000 in 61 degree water, box i hr, run 5 mi
Total: swim 26,800, 6hr boxing/kickboxing, run 20 mi

Get Fit Durham

or as I like to call it, sticking it to Bill Bell. The mayor of Durham has initiated an 8 week fitness contest that I decided to participate in, sponsored by the LA boxing where I train. Participants take a free fitness evaluation, have 8 weeks to "get fit", and then take another fitness evaluation. The winners are those whose fitness scores improve the most over the 8 week period. Being that I already do my fair share of exercise (like the pope says his fair share of prayers) I didn't think I had any chance of winning. But the evaluation contains a lot of free, valuable information so I decided to give it a shot. My results fell into 3 categories:

Excellent:


Overall, my initial fitness score was the highest out of all the contest participants and also higher than anyone who had taken the test at my boxing gym since it opened. My results in many of these areas were off the women's charts.


Pushups (not the girly kind): 40 in 1 min
Crunches: 80 in 1 min
Situps: 49 in 1 min
Bench press: 145 lbs
VO2 submax: 48 milliliteres per minute


Average:
My body fat was 28%, well within the healthy range for women, but I was told it's a little high for "someone as fit as me."
My pulse was 67 beats a minute. Again, not a bad number, but a little high for "someone like me."



Scary. Why aren't I dead yet?:
Blood pressure was not part of the fitness score, but it's something that the contest monitors to make sure that participants are getting fit safely. My blood pressure was a whopping 164/104!! Holy Hypertension, Batman! Why on earth was it so high? I've been eating healthily and my job is pretty peachy. True, my dad and grandma developed hypertension later in life but not at the ripe age of 28! What was going on? Would I even be able to pass a physical to get clearance to swim the channel? I knew that this was something I needed to get under control ASAP.


**** Warning - the following section mentions "ladies issues" and may not be appropriate for male readers not in touch with their feminine side****

I wondered if my blood pressure might be artificially high due to a visit from my reliable Aunt Flow. See, I can usually tell when I'm about to get my period because I'll gain about 4 lbs all of a sudden. Sure enough, such was the case the morning of the evaluation. Wouldn't all that extra bloat increase my blood volume and therefore my blood pressure? I'll be curious to see what my blood pressure is like the next time my annoying relative makes a visit.

Bloat nonewithstanding, I knew my blood pressure shouldn't be as high as it was. I bought a home monitor and started reading the book The Blood Pressure Cure: 8 Weeks to Lower Blood Pressure without Prescription Drugs. A lot of the advice in my book was things I was already doing - exercise, not smoking, avoiding stress, not acting like a raging bitch, limiting saturated fat, etc. But, I found out, there was a lot more I could be doing, especially in the area of diet. After reading the book, I made the following changes:

- Cut out diet soda (I went from about 7 a day to 0, overnight). This temporarily made it hard to follow other blood pressure lowering recommendations (namely not acting like a raging bitch). But, after staying clean for 3 weeks now, my caffeine cravings are subsiding and I'm no longer acting like someone who might eat babies.
- Balance my electrolytes. I cut way back on sodium and increased my intake of the other electrolytes. I'm taking calcium and magnesium supplements and sprinkling potassium chloride on food.
- Take enough supplements to recession-proof GNC. I have added the following supplements to my diet, all of which have been found to lower blood pressure by several points: Fish oil, coenyme Q10, folic acid, melatonin, arginine, grape seed extract, and tomato extract.


The result? After 3 weeks, but blood pressure is way down. I've been checking it at different times of the day and it usually ranges from 115/75 to 139/90. Still a little higher than I'd like, but I shouldn't keel over anytime soon.


More scary news - Jason and I hosted our annual Halloween party last weekend. Here are a few of my favorite costumes:

Amie, the swine flu

Yogi, a skunk

Karen, a skull set. The scariest costume by far!

Me, a boxer. Not a successfule boxer, but a boxer nonetheless!

Week 44: Recovery
Mon: swim 4500 yds, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi
Tues: swim 4800, 1 hr boxing
Wed: swim 5600, 1 hr kickboxing, run 4 mi
Thurs: swim 5300, 1 hr boxing, run 4 mi
Fri: 1 hr kickboxing
Sat: rest
Sun: 3200
Total: swim 23, 200, 5 hrboxing/kickboxing, run 11 mi


Week 43:
Mon: swim 5200, run 5 mi
Tues: swim 5100, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi
Wed: swim 5299, 1 hr kickboxing
Thurs: swim 5000, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi
Fri: swim 4700, 1 hr kickboxing
Sat: run 4.5 mi, 1hr boxing
Sun: swim 4000, run 5 mi, 1 hrboxing
Total: swim 29,200, 6hr boxing/kickboxing, run 22.5 mi


Week 42:
Mon: swim 4500, 1 hrkickboxing, run 3 mi
Tues: swim 4800, 1 hrkickboxing
Wed: swim 5600, 1 hrkickboxing, run 4mi
Thurs: swim 5300, run 4 mi, 1 hr boxing
Fri: 1 hr kickboxing
Sat: rest
Sun: swim 3200
Total: swim 23,200, 5 hr boxing/kickboxing, run 11 mi