Smith Mountain Lake 5K

This weekend was my last open water race of the season, the Smith Mountain Lake 5K. The weather couldn't have been more miserable - cold, wet, and very rainy. When we left Durham, the weather was sunny and pleasant so I packed for warm weather -mostly shorts, t-shirts, and sandals. So when Virginia greeted us with very cold rain, I was unprepared. The one sweater, towel, and pair of jeans that I packed were very quickly and thoroughly soaked! With nothing to do but stand around in the freezing rain, I got in the water early for an extra long warmup.

Maybe the extra warmup paid off because I swam what might have been my best race of the season. For most of the distance, I swam in a pack of about 12 fast, buff, and very aggressive high school boys. I don't remember ever swimming with a group so willing to wack and be wacked. The boys were fast, but they were clearly pool swimmers without a lot of open water experience. Navigation is generally a weakness of mine, but not today! For once I felt like I was cutting a straighter line than my competitors.

I ended up placing 2nd out of the women. Even better, my time of 1:05 was my 5K PR. Heidi also swam a very fast time of 1:08 and checked with the officials to see how accurate the course was, and they assured her that the course had been measured by a laser.

I'm a little bummed that this was my last open water race of the season, especially since this means it's time for me to start phase 3 of my channel training - cold water swimming. Yuck! (Phase 1 was building a base, phase 2 was building speed, and phase 4, beginning in January, will be building mega amounts of endurance). All this racing this year has been fun and a good way to guage how my training is going. It's been a few years since I've raced in a pool, but I'm tempted to do some pool meets this winter to tide me over until open water starts again!

Week 38

Mon: swim 5700, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi

Tues: swim 2200, 1 hr boxing

Wed: swim 5100, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi

Thurs: swim 5000, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi

Fri: rest

Sat: swim 7200

Sun: swim 4200, run 5 mi

Total: swim 29, 400, run 16 mi, 4 hr boxing/kickboxing

Pier 2 Pier swim

Last weekend was the Wilmington Pier 2 Pier race, a 1.71 mile race between 2 piers in Wrightsville Beach. This a big, fast race, one of my favorites each year. There are always a couple of college teams there as well as very fast local age group teams, so the field is generally fierce. I was very happy with my time of 35:35 even though I did not place over all.

I won my age group, and Erik Crankshaw, Kacie Wallace, and Billy Su won age group awards as well. Here are some pictures from the race:

Me

Kacie and "Tom in the morning"

Billy and Kacie

Erik

Today, I borrowed Erik Crankshaw (above) from Duke Aquatics, in order to attempt Danielle's infamous test set of doom. As with walking into creepy old attics, swimming this set is not something that should ever be done alone or, for that matter, on Halloween. Thankfully, Erik proved to be good, fast company.

The set is composed of 40x100 yds, swum continuously on rotating intervals. Danielle has a very nice, colorful interval grid to go along with the set, but I lack the technical know-how to post that in my blog. But this was the gist of the set:



4x100 on 1:25, 3x100 on 1:20, 2x100 on 1:15, 1x100 on 1:10
1x100 on 1:25, 4x100 on 1:20, 3x100 on 1:15, 2x100 on 1:10
2x100 on 1:25, 1x100 on 1:20, 4x100 on 1:15, 3x100 on 1:10
3x100 on 1:25, 2x100 on 1:20, 1x100 on 1:15, 4x100 on 1:10



Erik made the set without a hitch (he might disagree with me, but he didn't look very tired afterward). I was able to get through the first 27 without a problem, but thereafter I was just a little too slow on the 1:10 intervals (usually coming in around 1:11). I want to try the set again in a few months and hope that I will be able to make it then!



Week 37
Mon: swim 4800 yds, 1 hr kickboxing
Tues: swim 5000, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi
Wed: swim 5600, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi
Thurs: swim 5200, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi
Fri: swim 4600
Sat: run 5 mi, 1 hr boxing
Sun: swim 6600, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi
Total: swim 31,800 yds, run 21 mi, 6 hr boxing/kickboxing



Week 36:
Mon: swim 5300, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi
Tues: swim 5000, 1 hr boxing
Wed: swim 5000, 1 hr kickboxing, run 4 mi
Thurs: swim 5500, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi
Fri: rest
Sat: swim 4200
Sun: swim 5200, run 5 mi, 1 hr boxing
Total: swim 30,200 yds, 5 hr boxing/kickboxing, run 15 mi

Nuclear swim

Last weekend was the 3rd race in the inaugural Triangle Open Water series, a 1 mi swim in Harris Lake (near the nuclear plant). While the water tasted midly of uranium, it was a fun, well-organized event. It was a big race for a first time event and it reached its cap of 250 entrants.

With so many people, the race organizers split us into 2 waves, with the men starting several minutes ahead of the women. I didn't like not seeing where the male leaders were or having to weave through the pack of men as the female leaders caught up, but there was a bright side to starting behind - there was always plenty of feet ahead of me, so it was nearly impossible to get lost!

I came out of the water first out of the women. Heidi Williams finished very soon after, placing 3rd. We didn't know how we placed overall, until they posted the results. I was very surprised that I had placed first overall! The rest of DAMA did very well too - Jessica Proud, Matt McElwee, Matt Davis, Mary Anna Hovey, and Sandra McKinnon all placed in their age groups.

Game face

Heidi's finish

Heidi and I cooling down

In other news....

Yes, the summer is now over for me and it's back to the real world. While I didn't sell any sea shells, I had almost unlimited time over the summer for channel training. Now it's back to work for me and squeezing everything in is going to be much more difficult!

Week 35:

Mon: swim 5600 yds, 1 hr kickboxing, run 4 mi

Tues: swim 6200, 1 hr boxing

Wed: swim 5500, 1 hr kickboxing, run 4 mi

Thurs: swim 5000, 1 hr boxing, run 4 mi

Fri: swim 4200, 1 hr kickboxing

Sat: 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi

Sun: swim 4500, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi

Total: swim 31,000, 7 hr boxing/kickboxing, run 22 mi

Week 34:

Mon: swim 6,000 yds, 1 hr kickboxing

Tues: swim 5200, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi

Wed: swim 4000, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi

Thurs: 1 hr boxing, swim 4700

Fri: swim 1900, run 3 mi

Sat: run 5 mi

Sun: swim 4500, run 5 mi

Total: swim 26,300 yds, 5 hr boxing/kickboxing, run 19 mi

Week 33:

Mon: swim 6500 yds, 1 hr kickboxing, run 5 mi

Tues: swim 4000, 1 hr kickboxing, 1 hr boxing

Wed: swim 5100, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi

Thurs: swim 5300, 1 hr boximg, run 4 mi

Fri: swim 3500, 1 hr boxing

Sat: run 5 mi

Sun: swim 7000, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi

Total: swim 31,400 yds, 7 hr boxing/kickboxing, run 22 mi