Channel drop out!

Tobacco Road Half Marathon

2011-03-21T22:39:00.016-04:00

This weekend was my much anticipated Tobacco Road Half Marathon. A big group of swimmers joined me for this race including Billy, Karen, Sean, Jeb, Ashleigh, Robert, Amie, an my freindly archnemesis Mark Mendendorp.

I have run a half marathon once before in 2006, back before my chlorine doused running hiatus. My time then was a 1:33. I'm not running as many miles as I was back then, but I'm running faster, higher quality miles with a little speed work mixed in. So I was hoping to beat my previous time and was really REALLY hoping to break 1:30.

Of course Mendendorp didn't need to know this. I told him that my main goal in running was "not to fall down." Mendendorp was feeling chivalrous. He generously offered to spot me fifteen minutes in the race; I graciously accepted.

a camera trick turned me into the pink blur

In swimming, I have always had a hard time hitting tapers just right. In retrospect, I think that I never tapered quite enough. So the week before the race, I really took it easy, even taking a little break from jiu jitsu. By race morning I felt great!

I kept pretty even pacing throughout (my 2nd half was about 1 min slower than my 1st). I felt loose and relaxed, except for a brief lull about mile 9. The miles went by really quickly and before I knew it I was sprinting toward the finish line. I ended up finishing in 1:29.06 (6:49 pace). I was thrilled!

Karen also had an awesome run. She finished in a 1:39, which was also a PR for her. She celebrated by dressing like a baked potato.

Karen and I also celebrated by getting pedicures. At this point my feet were calloused, blistered, and probably a little stinky. I felt bad for the technician, but she fixed them right up!

I placed 8th out of the women, bringing home some very practical, conveniently-sized drinkware.

Kevin made the following comment about my venture into the world of running - "It's like the evolution of species. Started out in the primordial soup (aka Campus Hills Pool), then started writhing around on the ground (grappling), and now you're a fully evolved biped!"

I am happy to be evolving, but do miss my primordial soup encased swimming buddies. It was great to see you this weekend! Even Mendendorp, who proved to be chivalrous even in defeat.

St Paddy's Day 8K (5 mile)

2011-03-07T23:36:00.010-05:00

This was a REALLY fun race! It was big (about 1800 people) , with lots of people dressing in green costumes. There was a fun expo with live music that continued into the evening. Of course, these things alone would not be enough to attract my swimming friends to a running event. But when they promised free beer at the end of the race, that convinced a big group of us to sign up.

I was using this as a tune-up race before the Tobacco Road half marathon in 2 weeks. My main goal was to maintain even pacing, since I have a terrible habit of getting excited at the start and going out way too fast. I was pleased to stay very relaxed for the 1^st mile (I didn’t get my split because I was rocking out to my headphones, but I felt like it was even with my other splits, right around 6:35. The laws of mathematics agree). The course was pretty hilly, so I focused on maintaining even effort throughout.

I ended up placing 3^rd out of the women, with a time of 32:57. I pushed it very hard in the last 100 yds because another woman appeared and it ended up being a sprint to the finish. When I crossed the finish line I felt like I was going to puke, but the free beer did wonders to settle my stomach!

My swimming/running/jiu jitsu friend Chris Castorena placed 3rd out of the men with a time of 29:13. We didn't know he placed so well until the results were posted the next day. As a hyper-competitive jackass, I always try to start races in the most favorable position possible. As a hyper-lascivious dumbass, Chris, however, had other priorities. He started in the back of the pack, where he could talk to the most girls possible. With so many people in the race, it was a full 40 sec after the gun when off before he reached the starting line. He was sixth when he crossed the finish line, but after subtracting the 40 sec he wasted at the start, his racing chip put him in 3rd. Way to go!

Lookin' good in green!

Back again!

2011-02-13T22:00:00.016-05:00

As most of you know, this blog was initially about the all-consuming task of training to swim across the English Channel. Then, as you also know, I came to my senses and realized that a Channel crossing would be a terrible, horrible idea. So I made this into a general swimming blog. That was all well and good - until last fall, when I fell into swimming hiatus. I had no swimming news to report, so I vanished off the blogosphere, never to be heard from again...until now!

[side note: My aquatic leave of absence is due to my new obsession with Brazilian jiu jitsu/grappling. I love BJJ because it is extremely skill based. As a beginner I have tons of room to improve (earning a black belt takes 10-15 years!) So, by showing up consistently and learning new skills, it is almost inevitable that I will improve. In swimming, on the other hand, I feel that all I have to look forward to is a gradual decline as I age. The only way for me to get faster would be to become more athletic (difficult for me at this point) or making big changes to my stoke (even more difficult after swimming hundreds of thousands of strokes a certain way). Plus, choking people is fun. I almost never get to choke my students - BJJ gets that out of my system.]

But I've found that I don't like blogging about BJJ. Swim races are easy to write about in an impersonal way (you can say, "I placed 2nd in such and such a race. I made some navigational mistakes, but had great pacing, blah, blah blah" without mentioning any specific people who you competed against). But BJJ matches are limited to 2 people, which automatically makes them more personal. It is me vs. her. And that makes it hard to talk about in a public space. I don't mind saying general things like "I won 3 matches out of 4," but I don't think it's nice to discuss specific matches with specific people. You win some, you lose some. But if I found someone's blog talking about the specifics of how she armbared me, I don't think I would like it.

And as it turns out, a lot of my swimming friends are taking aquatic breaks of their own. So when Billy invited a group of us to run the Tobacco Road half marathon this March, Karen signed up, as well as my archnemesis Mark Mendendorp. Obviously, I couldn't resist. I also signed up for several shorter running races this spring and had a blast competing in them. Since running is not tied to my identity - I don't think I will ever feel like "I'm a runner" the way that I feel "I'm a swimmer" - I don't feel any pressure with it. No one expects me to win running races -especially after seeing my shoulders!

I wrote a race report for the Bull City Running Club, a local group that I joined, and thought - hey this reads a little like my blog! And that made me nostalgic. This is a slightly more colorful version of that race report:

Raleigh Run for the Roses 5k

What made me sign up for this race was its pump and run contest. I love to run, but get passed quite often by slender folks who I can bench press. I thought, “finally, a running event where I can use my swimming shoulders to my advantage!” People who entered this contest participated in a bench press competition before the 5k (guys had to bench their body weight. Girls had to bench half their weight. Each rep takes 30 sec off your net time). The contest used a smith machine, which I found to be much easier than using free weights (you move the bar up and down, but the machine limits lateral movement).

The woman in front of me (a flat chested gal) joked about how big-breasted women had an advantage in this contest, since they wouldn't have to bring the bar down as far. I laughed and agreed that this was indeed true. But then she decided to take nature into her own hands. When it was her turn at the bench press, this lady mentally inflated her A cups to double Gs. She brought the bar down less than halfway to her chest. She got in a whopping 28 reps - 2 more than I had done in practice - and the race officials counted every cheating one of them!

This made me mad. A wave adrenaline-fueled fury shot straight to my biceps. I was NOT going to lose to a cheater. I used every drop of my strength to get 45 reps in- legitimate reps, all the way down to my more ample bosom.

After that, I found it impossible to loosen up before the run. My adrenaline was going and I got caught up in the early excitement of the race. I went out way too fast.

Mi 1: 5:45

Mi 2: 6:30

Mi 3: - I dunno; But I finished in a 20:08, so you can see my pace went down hill. (Actually, the last mile went uphill. It was tough! I wasn’t used to it). I was a little slower than I wanted to go, but I learned important lessons about pacing, staying loose, and running my own race. I placed 3^rd out of the women in the 5k, and 1^st in the pump and run.

pre-prom, circa 1999

A first and a last

2010-09-26T20:48:00.017-04:00

Last weekend was one with two exciting events, in two separate states. On Saturday, I had my first ever grappling tournament in Wake Forest, NC. Then on Sunday I went to Smith Mountain Lake Virginia, for my last open water race of the season. I had very different approaches to these 2 events:

VS.

As you know, I have been around the lake a few times. So when I swim I am pretty cool and collected. Whether I am in shape or not, the open water is my element. I go into races relaxed, believing that I will do well. This confidence can be beneficial but on the flip side, I have a hard time getting myself psyched up. I approach the race start with a resting pulse rate of around 60. I listen to some aggressive rap music, take some quick, shallow breaths, and maybe - just maybe - I can get my pulse up to a pounding 65. Hell Yeah!

The mat, however, is a different realm. I went into my first tournament shaking in my rashguard. I had a crazy dream the night before that I was retaking calculus and forgot to withdrawl from the class and now had to cram for tomorrow's midterm, lest I fail. Now, you might argue that this dream is about sucking at math (true, I scraped through calculus II with a less than stellar B-) but the inner psychologist in me attributes it to performance anxiety (no, not that kind. Get your mind out of the gutter).

The morning of the tournament, my heart felt like it was racing along at about 312 beats per minute. I paced around, chatted incessantly, and couldn't touch the breakfast I had packed. In an open water race, you might get swum over or slammed into a buoy, but this was stepping it up a notch. These gals were out to choke me or break my arm.

Once I was on the mat with the clock running, however, all I was aware of were my opponent's limbs and my coach's voice telling me how to bend those limbs the wrong way. I won both of my matches by submission and left the tournament wishing I had more matches to roll. And my team won for overall team points! Here are the videos from my 2 fights:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=567078423251&ref=mf

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=567077739621&ref=mf

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=567074975161&ref=mf

Now, in the grand scheme of things, I still basically suck at Jiu Jitsu. I will continue to suck for some time, because it takes a really, really long time to get good. But among novice women, I seem to do ok! So, if you are a female of low skill level who's been thinking about attacking me, all I can say is DON'T!! There's a very good chance I can take you. However, if you are a dude or a chick with some skills who's been thinking of attacking me, well, still please don't. Chances are you can take me, and I don't want to get beat up.

The Smith Mountain Lake swim was fun as usual. My DAMA teammates represented well in the 5K. We camped out in a cabin, took a good old-fashioned snipe hunt, and told some very frightening stories around the campfire. The 1 mile swim was on Sunday morning. I was the 1st one out of the water in my wave, the age 20 and up old farts. One girl beat me from an earlier wave though, a scrappy 16 year old.

Now, the weather is getting colder and there will be no more open water races until spring. Boo! There will, however, be more grappling tournaments. Next time I will try to woman up and be less chicken.

Nuclear swim

2010-09-04T22:22:00.017-04:00

Two weeks ago was the last race in the FS Triangle Open Water Swim Series. As with last year, it was a very well run series of races, with chip timing, good post-race refreshments, and fast awards.

In this race, there was a $100 cash prize for the male and female overall winners, which made things a bit more competitive!

The guys started 10 min ahead of the ladies, which was good for Kevin, since he would not have the option of hanging back to draft off of me.

I won the ladies' race by the narrow margin of 1 second. Sheesh! Way too close for comfort. Here is a tape of the finish:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=438323353704&ref=mf

Kevin lost the guys' race by a heartbreaking 3 seconds (don't tell him, but I think the ladies finish was a lot scrappier)

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=438325513704&ref=mf

I also want to give a shout out to my friend Cynthia Aguilar, who attempted to break the world paddleboard record by paddleboarding 130 miles from Cuba to Key West. Here at Channel drop out, we are supportive of all those who attempt crazy endurance events, especially those that are water-based.

After spending 17 hours on the board in the middle if the ocean, Cynthia was pulled out of the water, short of her goal. Man of wars and hypothermia cut this attempt short, but Cynthia will be getting back on her board, giving it another try! To support her efforts and raise money for the Make a Wish Foundation, go to http://keeppaddlin.org/

Lake Gaston

2010-08-23T22:39:00.004-04:00

Last weekend was the Lake Gaston Crossing, a wonderful community affair in which practically every lake resident crosses the 1 mi lake. Folks get to choose their preferred mode of transportation - some walk across the bridge, some cross in man-powered vessels. and the truly aquatic inclined swim across.

I was introduced as the "target" for swimmers to chase.

I felt a little silly, especially when a young kid zapped me with his evil eye. I joked that this was a perfect swim for a navigationally challenged gal like me, since we had a lane line to follow the whole time. It would be impossible for me to get lost - famous last words!

We then piled into a World War II era amphibious landing vessel, which added to the swim's bad-ass factor. The landing vessel took us past the rocky shoreline so that we could enter the water safely. Certainly, it's a privilege to use such a vessel voluntarily, for a recreational swim. I'm grateful to those who boarded the vessel under less desirable circumstances, protecting a way of life that makes swims such as these possible.

We dove into the water and hightailed it to the shoreline. Being a directional dufus, I started to swim on the wrong side of the C-shaped lane line, leading me off-track. But I was the swimming target, with a bulls-eye on my cap. So the rest of the swimmers followed me off course! We went the wrong way until the support crew intercepted me to tell me where to go. Sorry guys, my bad!

I was happy to be the first person out of the water, despite my directional snafu. Local newspapers covered the event and wrote some very nice articles:

http://www.rrdailyherald.com/articles/2010/08/16/feature/doc4c67478f90c88831785449.txt

http://www.rrdailyherald.com/articles/2010/08/14/sports/doc4c67442b44ff5535466211.txt

Little Uno and Big Deux!

2010-07-26T21:59:00.010-04:00

This weekend was the Little Uno and the Big Deuce, 1 and 2 mile open water races put on by the FS series. My mom was in town for the weekend, and to avoid any family feuding, I opted to do the 2 mi, while she did the 1 mi.

My mama and Matt Davis before the 1 mi

The course was well marked and the field spread out quickly. I tried to draft off of my fast friend Kevin, but he didn't like that very much. So, in a very brilliant maneuver, he slowed down his own pace so he could draft off of me! That makes A LOT of sense. Of course, he could have pulled ahead easily, had he been willing to take the lead himself. But THAT would have been no fun! And truthfully, I really don't like swimming by myself, so I was happy for the company. Until, of course, Kevin and the superfast, crooked swimming overall winner took off at the end.

I ended up winning the women's race for the 2 mi and my mom won the women's 1 mi. Go Rices!

Me, looking scary after the Big Deux

I wasn't the only menacing creature looming in the lake this weekend.

::insert Halloween music::

While the scary music is playing, let's flash back to the Jordan Lake 1 mile swim, last month:

Here, my fast friend Kevin (the tall dude in the white cap) out-muscles a fiesty 13-yr-old (the little dude in the white cap) at the end of the 1 mi race.

Guess who took his revenge in the Little Uno? Guess who was the only one to beat my mama, whose accomplishments include swimming the 12.5 miles around Key West butterfly and being one of the fastest women to ever swim the English Channel?

This pint sized bad ass! The same pint sized bad ass who gave Kevin a run for his money at the Jordan Lake swim. Why don't you pick on someone your own size, son??

In other race news, my kickboxing friend Lizzie swam her 1st ever open water race AND won her age group. Way to go!

2 mi Cable Championships

2010-07-11T16:43:00.009-04:00

Yesterday was the USMS national 2 mi cable Championships at Chris Greene Lake. Heidi and I drove up together and as soon as we got there, we saw a great omen.

Apparently, angel Yogi had summoned a local Newfoundland named Teddy to visit the lake with his humans. I told Teddy I thought he was handsome, Teddy gave me some kisses, and I knew it was going to be a great day.

Cable swims are a kind of hybrid between pool and open water swimming and always make for intense races. We would swim four laps around a quarter mile cable. There's not much sighting involved, but drafting and pack swimming are inevitable.

In the beginning, I focused on trying to cut the most direct course possible. I did this by drafting off of the leader and hugging the cable. A pack of about 6 of us stuck together and I kept getting slammed into the cable (that's me in the white cap below):

Yowza! That hurt

I began to realize that all this slamming was slowing me down. Then, I remembered from Marty Gaal's open water swim clinics that the most effective place to draft is actually beside a person's hip. So, I swam out a bit from the cable to swim on the other side of the lead swimmers. This made cutting tight turns around the buoys more difficult, but it was nice not to keep hitting the cable.

There were two heats, one starting at 8:30 and one starting at 10:30. Heidi and I swam in the 10:30 heat so that we could drive up that morning. I ended up getting 1st out of the ladies and 3rd overall out of the 10:30 heat. More people beat me from the 8:30 heat though, including 2 ladies. The first heat is usually a bit faster than the second, so I might try to get up super duper early next year.

Heidi and I won our age groups and got to add to our collection of national championship patches. Kacie Wallace placed in her age group as well.

It's clear that Teddy brought us some very good luck. Thanks for sending him, Yogi!

Jordan Lake Open Water Challenge

2010-06-13T21:40:00.010-04:00

This weekend was the Jordan Lake 1 mi open water challenge. There were 150 swimmers and as usual, FS Series put on a very efficient and well-organized race. The race stared at 7:30 and we swam, got awards, ate Jimmy Johns sandwiches, and got home in time for third breakfast.

Keith, Kevin, and I after the race

Because of the large number of swimmers, they split us into 2 waves - the guys started in the 1st wave, and the ladies started 4 min later (and they subtracted 4 min from our clock time). This is something that I have grumbled about in the past because, in theory, it puts the fast ladies at a disadvantage. With the waves being only a few minutes apart, the faster ladies will inevitably pass a lot of the guys and waste time and energy going around them.

However, I have decided that I like the 2 wave system. It carries certain advantages for a sneaky, directionally challenged gal such as myself:

1) We get to learn from the fellas mistakes - In this case, the guys lined up in front of the second turn buoy, which put them in a disadvantageous position. Of course, girls are usually just a little bit smarter than boys are. I joined a group of ladies lined up in front on the first turn buoy, which gave us a more direct route.

2) It makes for an easier start - I usually waste a lot of energy at the start, trying to vie for position with sprinter dudes, who usually slow down within a few hundred yards. Because these sprinter dudes are big and strong, they can be hard to pass. In a ladies only heat, it is easier to establish a good position early on.

3) It's easy to keep track of where you place among the ladies - with full body suits, mandatory caps, and ubiquitous buff bods, we can easily morph into agendered blobs in an open water race. When the waves are divided by sexes, keeping track of who's who becomes much easier.

4) There are always plenty of people in front to help with sighting - my name is Kim and I am directionally challenged. I have no problem admitting that without my GPS, I would be constantly lost, chronically late for my therapy appointments, and would have been fired from my job long ago. Unfortunately, my Garmin is not water proof and is no help to me during open water swims. When half the field gets a head start, however, that does help. There are always people in front to show you which way to go.

5) You're racing against the clock - Since the guys have a 4 minute head start, to beat them you have to beat the clock, not them directly. If you come in 3 min behind the 1st guy, you still beat him by 1 min. You can see where the guys are but they can't see you. Certainly, there are guys who would pick up their game if they saw you chasing after them. But the benefit of this system is that they can't see! We can sneak up on them.

So, being split into 2 waves really is not so bad. It often works to my advantage and did in this case. I ended up getting first overall, after battling it out with a fast lady who finished only 4 sec behind me. In fact, in this race the first 4 finishers were ladies!

Way to go, girls!

Nationals, part Deux!

2010-06-03T23:14:00.015-04:00

So the weekend after the USMS short course yards national championships was the 1 mi open water national championships in Huntersville, NC. As in the pool mile at nationals, I won my age group and got second overall out of the ladies. Now, there's nothing like a four day swim meet to remind me why open water swimming rocks so much more! Let's take a look.

	Pool swimming	Open water swimming
Duration	Nationals lasted four long, grueling days	Nationals lasted twenty minutes and change
Hydration	Important to balance water and electrolytes to avoid dehydration	Can have beer within minutes of finishing
Physical contact	Swimmers must stay in their own lanes or they get disqualified	While drowning people is frowned upon, kicking and elbows are common. It combines 2 favorite things – swimming and whooping folks
Bouts with the arch nemesis	Has a chance against Medendorp in very few pool events	Stands a much better chance of making Mark her bitch

So, while pool racing is tolerable now and again, it is open water swimming that totally rocks. Excited for this summer!

National Championships!

2010-06-01T16:39:00.020-04:00

I ventured to Atlanta for my first USMS national championships. Pool swimming's not usually my bag, but Atlanta is so close and we had a fun group going, so I decided to give it a shot.

It was quite the experience! First, I finally met my imaginary boyfriend, Olympic gold medalist Cullen Jones.

After which I crushed my arch nemesis Mark Medendorp in the 500 free.

Now, it may be worth noting that I've been taking a fiction writing class and am learning about different shades of truth. Granted, the above statements might not hold up in the "whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help me God" sense, but they do contain certain nuances of validity.

When I say that I met my imaginary boyfriend Cullen Jones, what I might mean is that I got to meet him vicariously through my friend Jessica. I might have gotten to hear from her all about how tall he is, how nice he is, how handsome he is, etc. This might have sent me into a jealous fit that had me erasing that other broad from the photo and pasting in my own mug. Just a slightly different version of the truth!

And when I say I crushed Medendorp, what I might mean is that he beat me by a solid 11 seconds in the 500, but that I searched his Facebook page for a photo of him looking crushed. See, same thing really!

What doesn't need multiple interpretations is the fact that we all had a very fun time.

As for my goal of getting a lifetime PR: I'm still a ways off from this in my good events (meaning, distance events). However...events that I have always sucked at, I now suck at a little less! Between states and nationals, I've gotten lifetime PRs in the 100 IM, 100 back, and 50 free. Take that, 16 -year-old Kim! Plus, I could totally take you in a cage fight.

Here are my results from the meet:
http://www.usms.org/comp/meets/meetsearch.php?c=267530&MeetID=20100520SCCH10Y

Beaverdam 5280

2010-04-11T17:32:00.020-04:00

Saturday was the 1st open water race of the year, the Beaverdam 5280. It is a small race of about 60 people, but very efficient and well organized.

The water temperature was 68, and since it was sanctioned by a triathlon organization, it went by triathlon rules - that meant it was wetsuit legal. I'm not really nuts about wetsuits and haven't raced in one before. But...they give you a huge buoyancy advantange, which translates to faster times (I swam the course in my speedo last year in a 24:17. This year my time in a wetsuit was 20:45. I did get a bit lost on the course last year and I am now swimming faster in general, but 3 and half minutes is a big difference). The wetsuit made the water a lot more comfortable too so I might be a convert - If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! A few people held onto their principles and stuck to their speedos, but the overwhelming majority had wetsuits on.

DAMA cleaned up with awards. Kevin came in 1st overall, and I finished about a minute behind him, 2nd overall and 1st female. Keith came in 3rd out of the men and Teresa, Dawn, and Alicia all placed in their age groups.

Kevin and I setting a good example for the rest of the pack. It is so important to refuel properly after a hard race.

The race was fun, but something serious and disturbing happened afterward. I got flashed! This does not need mentioning, but I am a very innocent, young lady. So you can imagine my horror as the following event unfolds:

As shadowy figure approaches me from the bushes...

She opens her trench coat to expose herself to me...

Curious about the human body, I sneak a peak...
My eyes!!! Yowza!

Of course, by "shadowy figure" I mean Derek's sister Alicia. And by "exposed herself," I mean that she unveiled her decently clad, but very hot, triathlete bod.

Editor's note: Derek did not swim the race this year, but if he had, big sis would have wooped him up good.

Farewell to the baby monster...

2010-04-02T20:33:00.020-04:00

It is with great sadness that I had to say goodbye to my very favorite swimming buddy, Yogi. No offense to my other fantastic, equally lovable, albiet less slobbery swimming buddies (if any of you were to meet an untimely demise, I would probably write a nice blog about you, calling you my favorite swimming buddy as well). But Yogi was a great dog, with a big heart full of love and a big head full of nonsense. What he lacked in brains, he made up for with good looks and a dynamic personality. Yogi lived a short but very full life, full of walkies...

Long naps...

Car rides...

Costumes...
Piggy back rides...

And kisses...

Yogi loved to swim and he didn't mind the cold water. When I was training for the channel, Yogi would sometimes accompany me on my long swims. He wouldn't swim the whole distance, of course, but would jump in occasionally to splash around and give me kisses. He also became a fixture at open water races. At every race he attended, Yogi attracted more fans than anyone else there. Walking 100 yards could take as long as 20 minutes, with people stopping us constantly to pet him and talk about how nice and handsome he was.

Yogi was also quite the good luck charm. Of the open water races that Yogi attended, I won all but two. Of the races that he did not attend, I lost all but one. Of course, skeptics might say that Yogi came with me to local, less competitive races and stayed home for bigger races that I had to travel for. But I think that Yogi's presence gave me an invaluable morale boost. With a big, handsome monster on your side, how can you do anything less than your best?

At Christmas time last year, Yogi took the field trip of his life and came down to visit my parents in Miami. There, he spent several nights jumping into my parents' pool and then sneaking into their room to dry his wet, furry self in their bed. He pestered everybody, caused absolute chaos, and had a blast.

When we got home, Yogi wouldn't eat for a day or two and Jason and I thought he was just recovering from his awesome adventure. But when he started having trouble walking and standing up, we knew something was wrong.

Yogi had spinal meningitis, cause unknown. He was given lots of powerful, expensive meds but the vet was not sure he would make it. But Yogi proved to be stubborn and persistent like his mama. He started getting better. Neurological deficits left him clumsier, dopier than usual, but that didn't bother anybody. He was still his sweet, lovable self with just a little more nonsense than before. Yogi and I share a birthday, March 18th. Yogi turned 1 without incident and it seemed like he was out of the woods.

Then this week the meds stopped working. Yogi got sick and stopped eating again. He became too weak to stand up to go to the bathroom outside and started to go in his dog bed. This was not a good life for a 1 year old puppy. Yogi was having a relapse and there wasn't much more that could be done.

I didn't want to leave him at the end and held his big, giant head while he got put to sleep. The last thing Yogi did was give my mouth three tired kisses before he dozed off for the last time. Yogi is gone but I like to think that I now have a big, dopey guardian angel.

Yogi will be missed by many, many people. Next week will be my first open water race of the year, the Beaverdam 5280, and I know that many swimmers will be looking for him. Look behind you, and if you see a long trail of drool, you'll know he was there. I know that he wishes us all many happy swims with good snacks and slobbery kisses afterward. What more could we ask for?

Going postal

2010-01-24T11:02:00.015-05:00

This week was the USMS 1 hour postal challenge, during which participants swim as many yards as possible in 1 hour. My goal was to swim 5100 yards, and I was very happy to swim just over that, 5120 yards (1:10.3 pace). Kevin Herlihy swam 1 length more than I did, 5145 yards. Heidi Williams and my archnemesis Mark Mendendorp also cranked out the yardage (4850 and 4900 respectively).

::Disclaimer: Mark, if you are reading this, know that I mean archnemesis in the friendliest sense and that I of course harbor no real animosity toward you. But I think it's fun to have an archnemesis and I also really like using the word archnemesis. My only real gripe against you is that your drinking games involve too much thinking::

We had a nice sized group doing the postal, which helped the yards go by quickly. Having my archnemesis there also made things a bit more competitive because, as per usual, we were motivated to beat each other.

This brings me to my new goal for the season. Sources tell me that Mendendorp would like to do a 5:05 on his 500 free at USMS nationals. So my goal is to go under a 5:05! A 5:04.9 would be fine, as it would be under Mendendorp's goal of 5:05, but a 5:03 would be a PR, so I am making that my real goal. This is tough for me because in my world the 500 is a very short sprint. The last time we raced this distance, Mendendorp beat me by 9 seconds, so I have some catching up to do!

Since I like making comparison charts (like Mendendorp likes making nerdy graphs) I thought I would compare Mendendorp to Smurfette's archnemesis, Gargamel. As you can see, the circumstances are very similar. I have not watched the Smurfs in a while, so I did some thorough, very scientific research (Wikipedia) for descriptions of Gargamel.

	Gargamel	Mendendorp
General	“He is an evil wizard though his powers appear very limited... His main goal in life is to destroy the Smurfs and/or capture enough of them to create a potion to turn base matter into gold.”	Not full of evil, a decent fella really. Powers limited to making nerdy graphs (see exhibit A from the 1hr postal) and swimming distances under 1000 yds. Enjoys a more well-balanced life than Gargamel.
Goals	“Sometimes he wants to eat the Smurfs, other times he wants to use them to make gold, and still other times he has even more bizarre uses for them (in one instance he is so enraged by his loss that he yells "I don't want to eat them, I don't want to turn them into gold, all I want now is to DESTROY THEM!")	Not out to destroy me so much as defeat me in all swimming events.
Personal life	“Not much is said of Gargamel's relationships with women, although in one episode an ugly witch named Hogatha turns herself into an attractive woman in order to seduce Gargamel into giving her his secrets.”	Has a nice girlfriend. Seems to have more success with the ladies than Gargamel, perhaps due to his more upright posture.
Sidekicks	His mangy cat Azreal	Karen Fritchie, Keith, and other Davidson swimmers, none of whom have mange

Exhibit A (Mendendorp's splits from his 1 hr postal, a.k.a the nerdy graph):

So there we have it. I'm a bit out of my element with this speed business so any help/advice is appreciated!

Bring on 2010!

2009-12-31T12:34:00.016-05:00

Well, I've decided not to heed my own advice. I know I was just talking about how if you keep your goals to yourself you're more likely to accomplish them, but quite frankly I'm too much of a blabbermouth (or perhaps bloggermouth) to pull that off. Silence is golden, but I'm much more of a sterling silver, faux bling type of a gal.

So here is my New Year's resolution for 2010: to get a PR in something. Not an old-lady, now-that-I'm-back-swimming, USMS PR, but I want to break one of my times from high school. See, I had one good swimming year when I was 16, then I started to burn out and ultimately quit, er, retired. But now I'm back with full-force and ready to challenge 16-year-old Kim to a rematch!

I did a little digging and looked up my times from 12 years ago. My goal is to break at least one of the following in 2010:

Short Course Yards
500 Free: 5:03.59
200 free: 1:56.5
1000 Free: 10:25.62
1650 Free: 17:44.45
200 Fly: 2:13.33
400 IM: 4:44.30

Long Course Meters
400 Free: 4:38.99
800 Free: 9:30.57
1500 Free: 18:05.19
200 Fly: 2:34.11
400 IM: 5:34.13

Certainly I have a long way to go, but 28-year-old Kim is ready for a new challenge!

How do the Kims stack up against each other, you might ask? Well, let's take a look:

Looks to me like a fair match-up. Let's get ready to rumble!!

New Goals

2009-12-10T12:17:00.018-05:00

Yogi's goal: to make his kisses extra slobbery in 2010

Well, now that this Channel business has been canceled, I am excited to look forward to some new goals. Nothing as single-minded and all-consuming as swimming the English Channel, but I would like to set some challenging, shorter term goals.

There are several factors to consider here:
1) New research is out that states that people are less likely to accomplish their goals when they share them with other people. I was very surprised by this because social support is important for just about everything. However, new evidence suggests that when you share a goal with others, you experience a false sense of accomplishment. This temporary rise in self-esteem from talking about your goal makes you less likely to go out and do the work to make it happen. Also, some people might talk you out of the goals, probably without realizing it.

2) Goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely). Vague goals like "swim faster" or "read more" are not very useful. Pick something specific that you want to accomplish and give yourself a deadline. The goal should be challenging, but reasonable. It should rely on performance, not outcome ("Beat Mark in the 500 free" is not a good goal because it relies on an outcome that is beyond my control. "Swim a 5:10 in the 500 free at nationals" is a much better goal. Someone else might have a good or a bad race, but that shouldn't influence whether my goal is accomplished.)

Ok, so I took sports psychology in college. But my point is this: put a little thought into what you want to accomplish in 2010. Write it down someplace where you will look at it often. When you accomplish a goal, athletic or otherwise, or if you fall short but gave it your best shot, tell me about it and I will give you props on my blog. Good luck!!

In other news:

The "Get Fit Durham" challenge has ended. After 7 weeks, my overall fitness score did not change (my points had already maxed out in most of the subcategories when the contest began). But I improved in almost all of the subcategories. My results were the following:

Body fat: went from 28% to 27%
Resting heart rate: went from 67 to 70
Blood pressure: 165/107 to 128/75
Situps per minute: 49 to 54
Crunches per minute: 80 to 93
Pushups per minute: 40 to 52
Max bench press: 145 lbs to 175lbs

Mostly, I'm just happy that my blood pressure is out of the "way scary" zone!

Channel bound...well, not so much

2009-11-29T21:46:00.008-05:00

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

2009-11-25T22:42:00.023-05:00

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

2009-11-07T18:31:00.033-05:00

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

Feeling nipply...

2009-10-20T23:30:00.019-04:00

These past few weeks have been light on swimming, heavy on fun. Since open water season is now over and I don't have any races for a while, I've let my yardage slip a little. There have been lots of other fun things going on like:

A white water rafting trip...

Karen Fritchie and me

Me, Billy, Jessica, and Josh

Jimmy and Whitney's wedding...

Sarah Hoffman, me, David Hoffman

And a visit from my mom:

With fall upon us, I've also begun my cold water training. (Ok, so far, it's only really been cool water training, but close enough). The best news is that I've found a cold water training buddy! I absolutely hate to swim alone, and I was dreading that even more than swimming in the cold. But, it turns out my teammate Sean George is training to do an Alcatraz swim in San Francisco next summer and needs to start cold water training as well. Jason is also pleased with this arrangement, since now that I have company that means he doesn't have to come to the quarry every weekend to make sure I don't get hypothermia.

Sean checking the water temp

Last weekend, I swam 4,000 yards in 67 degree water (air temp 50). So far, so good. My core stayed warm, although my skin felt a little cold the whole time.

Week 41:
Mon: swim 5300, 1 hi kickboxing, run 3mi
Tues: swim 5100, 1 hr boxing
Wed: swim 5200, 1 hr kickboxing, run 6 mi
Thurs: swim 3300, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi
Fri: swim 5600, 1 hr kickboxing
Sat: swim 4000 in
Sun: rest
Total: swim 28,500 yds, 5 hr boxing/kickboxing, run 18 mi

Week 40:
Mon: swim 5200, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi
Tues: swim 5200, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi
Wed: swim 5200, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi
Thurs: swim 3100, 1 hr boxing, run 5mi
Fri: rest
Sat: 1 hr boxing, run 4 mi
Sun: 1 hr boxing, swim 4000, run 6mi

Week 39:
Mon: swim 2000 yds, 1 hr boxing
Tues: swim 5300, 1 hr boxing, run 4 mi
Wed: swim 5700, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi
Thurs: swim 4900, 1 hr boxing, run 4 mi
Fri: 1 hr kickboxing
Sat: 4 hr white water rafting!
Sun: run 7mi
Total: swim 17,900, 5 hr boxing/kickboxing, run 18 mi

Smith Mountain Lake 5K

2009-09-27T23:38:00.007-04:00

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

2009-09-19T12:33:00.010-04:00

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:

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

2009-09-06T17:19:00.013-04:00

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

Lake Gaston Crossing

2009-08-16T22:41:00.009-04:00

Last week was the Lake Gaston 1 mi swim/crossing, a very fun event every year. DAMA put up a huge showing, as shown in this picture:

We all wore DAMA tattoos, very intimidating to our competitors:

I was the overall winner of the race. My time of 20:45 was a good time for an open water mile, and faster than my time last year. I treated the race like a sprint and kept up a strong, fast turnover the whole way. My new emphasis on swimming faster instead of longer for the rest of the year seems to be working. I'm starting to make 1:10 intervals in practice, something I haven't done since high school!

The nice thing about racing in a small town is that since there is not much real news, open water is a big deal! I got interviewed by several area newspapers:

http://www.rrdailyherald.com/articles/2009/08/10/features/doc4a80189dc8034111810619.txt

http://www.vancnews.com/articles/2009/08/13/lake_gaston/news/news50.txt

http://www.littletonobserver.com/#The_Crossing_another_succedful_event_for_the_lake_and_osail

Week 32:

Mon: swim 6600 yds, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi

Tues: swim 5900, 1hr kickboxing, 1 hr boxing

Wed: swim 5400, 1hr kickboxing, run 4mi

Thurs: swim 5400, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi

Fri: swim 4700, 1 hr kickboxing

Sat: 1 hr boxing, run 5mi

Sun: swim 7000, run 4 mi

Total: swim 35,000 yds, 7 hrboxing/kickboxing, run 21mi

Week 31:

Mon: swim 6500, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3mi

Tues: swim 5200, 1hr boxing, run 5mi

Wed: swim 6100, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi

Thurs: swim 5800, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi

Fri: swim 4400,1 hr kickboxing

Sat: swim 3800, run 5 mi

Sun: swim 500, hike 2.5 mi, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi

Total: swim 32,300, 6 hr boxing/kickboxing, run/hike 26.5 mi

Tricks and stratagems

2009-08-02T18:49:00.020-04:00

Last week was the 10 mi Kingdom swim, in Northeast Vermont. The swim was in beautiful Lake Memphremagog (say that 10 times fast). The roughly triangular course took us right up to the Canadian border and back, so I guess that means I can say that I swam to Canada! Despite the high latitude, the water temperature was pleasant, right around 70 degrees.

I finished 2nd overall and the person who beat me was also female. The 10 mi swim took me 4 hours, 20 min, a time that I was happy with. I felt like I held a strong, consistent pace the whole way and did not bonk at the end the way that I had at Key West. It's amazing how much better 70 degree water felt than 88 degrees! While there is big difference between 70 and the 60 degree water of the English Channel, this trend bodes well for my cold water channel training.

For the vast majority of the race I swam alone, with the 1st place swimmer several minutes ahead of me, and 3rd place several minutes behind. This got lonely, since I prefer that bumping and jostling of swimming in a pack. The first few miles were more interesting, however, so I'll write about those.

The race started with a cannon shot and we all ran into the water. After a hundred yards, we all swam to our kayakers and the pack began to separate. Here, one guy latched onto my feet to catch a draft. I didn't worry about it because I thought we would split up soon enough. Before I knew it, thirty minutes had passed and my mom was signaling from the kayak to give me Gatorade. Lo and behold, the guy was still on my feet! I thought I would lose him at the feeding, but he stopped right behind me, gulped his drink, and started again right when I did, without missing a beat, or more accurately, a stroke.

Now I was getting annoyed. I did not want to pull this guy the 10 miles to Canada and back only to have him sprint past me in the last 100 yds. As a distance swimmer through and through, I do not have a lot of sprint speed and was pretty sure that he could take me in a short distance, especially since he was saving energy by drafting. I did not want this to happen! It is one thing to lose to someone because he is a faster swimmer, but another thing entirely to lose because I was outsmarted. I knew this was a critical point and wanted to use race tactics wisely.

I tried swimming ahead but I was unable to break away. Then I had another thought. I stared breaststroking, which for me means I was barely moving. With the drafter frozen in indecision, I tried to act like I had gone out too fast and needed to breaststroke to catch my breath. Reluctantly, the drafter passed me. Finally! Now I was going to draft off of him!

I did so for 30 minutes. It was nice to catch a little ride, but when he took the lead, he slowed his pace down and I wound up going slower than I wanted to go. I knew that I needed to pass him, and pass him for good. When he stopped for his feeding, I broke into an all-out sprint. I spun my arms and kicked my feet like I was in a 50 yd race. It was time for me to have my Gatorade and my mom motioned for me to stop, but I yelled, "Stop me in 10 minutes!" I wanted to make sure to have a good lead on the drafter before stopping for my drink. By the time I did stop, I was about a minute ahead and I knew I had broken away once and for all.

Thank you to Matt for practicing draft and drop drills with me in the quarry. I knew this practice would come in handy! No amount of tricks and stratagems would have helped me catch the lead swimmer, however, who was just plain faster.

I wan't the only DAMA swimmer in the race. Gretchen Van de Carr swam as well, completing her longest swim ever. She also won a special award for enthusiasm and persistence (or as they called it, being a "stubborn cuss"). Great job, Gretchen!

Overall, the trip was very fun. We toured the Ben and Jerry's factory.

And we took a gondola ride to the top of the highest mountain in VT.

We bought only a one-way ticket, so we then hiked down.

We toured the Bread and Puppet museum, which was quite literally the creepiest place I have ever been.

Lastly, we went to Montreal for some very yummy French food.

Week 30:
Mon: swim 3100 yds
Tues: swim 3600(rained out), 1hr boxing, run 4 mi
Wed: swim 4800, run 4 mi, 1hr kickboxing
Thurs: swim 6300, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi
Fri: swim 3800, walk 5 mi, swim 3800
Sat: run 5 mi
Sun: swim 6000, run 3 mi, 1 hr boxing
Total:swim 27,600 yds, run/walk 24mi, 5hr boxing/kickboxing

Week 29:
Mon: swim 6100, run 5 mi, 1 hr kickboxing
Tues: swim 4600, run 3 mi, 1 hr boxing
Wed: swim 2200, run 5 mi, 1 hr kickboxing
Thurs: hike 3 mi
Fri: rest
Sat: swim 19,000
Sun: swim 3200, walk 2 mi
Total: swim 35,100 yds, 3 hr boxing, run/walk/hike 18 mi

Week28:
Mon: swim 6000, run 3 mi, 1hr kickboxing
Tues: swim 5800, 1 hr boxing
Wed: swim 5900, 1hr kickboxing, run 3mi
Thurs: swim 5900, 1 hr boxing, run 3mi
Fri: swim 4900, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi
Sat: rest
Sun: swim 5000, 1 hr boxing, hike 2.5mi, run 6 mi,
Total: swim 33,500 yds, 6 hrboxing/kickboxing, run/hike 22.5 mi

There she slows!

2009-07-13T11:16:00.006-04:00

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

2009-07-05T23:33:00.010-04:00

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

Mama said knock you out!

2009-06-28T21:14:00.015-04:00

My mom inspired me, when I went to visit her after the Key West swim. She has been taking spin classes and raving about how great they are. As something different, they have taken her out of her cardio comfort zone. While she still swims, by adding some new exercise she has lost a few pounds, developed some new muscles, and firmed up a tight little toushy. I took a couple of classes with her and saw what she was talking about. Yowza! You can blame it on the Florida humidity, but I hadn't sweat that much in a very long time.

I liked the idea of mixing things up, but I wanted to find an activity with a little more punch. So I decided to join LA boxing.

I love the workout for a couple of reasons:
1) While I am a mild-mannered speech pathologist by day, I like sports that are a little aggressive. In open water races, I'd much rather swim in a tight pack of aggressive swimmers than swim by myself. And the best thing about punching bags is that they never hit back!
2) Boxing focuses on your arms and core, which directly benefits swimming.
3) My coordination on land is inversely related to my coordination in the water. On land, I run into things and fall down a lot. A little balance and agility work certainly is not going to kill me.

Boxing has been a lot of fun! After doing it for just a week, I'm already feeling stronger and leaner.

Catching up...

The past few weeks have been busy! With Key West, Disney, and a wedding in Boston, it seems like I have been doing more traveling than swimming. I tried to get back on track this week, but I conveniently forgot what time the pool closed on Sunday so I didn't get my long swim in. Oops!

Since I didn't take my swimming log with me when I traveled, I have also been slack about posting my weekly summaries on my blog. So here I am trying to catch up!

Week 25:
Mon: swim 3800 yds, 1 hr kickboxing
Tues: swim 5200, 1 hr boxing
Wed: swim 5700, run 3 mi, 1 hr kickboxing
Thurs: swim 5200, 1 hr kickboxing
Fri: swim 5200, 1 hr boxing
Sat: run 5 mi, walk 1 mi
Sun: swim 7,000 hike 2 mi, run 3 mi
Total: swim 32,100 yds, 5 hr boxing/kickboxing, run/walk 14 mi

Week 24:
Mon: Disney
Tues: Disney
Wed: swim 4200 yds
Thurs: swim 3800, 1 hr spin class
Fri: swim 4500, 1 hr spinning, 50 min kayak
Sat: Boston
Sun: Boston
Total: swim 12,500 yds, 2 hr spin class, 50 min kayak

Rob and Ellen's wedding

Week 23:
Mon: swim 3,000 yds, run 3 mi
Tues: walk 2 mi
Wed: swim 2700, walk 1 mi
Thurs: swim 1700 - rained out
Fri: rest
Sat: Swim Around Key West - about 20,000 yards
Sun: rest
Total: swim 27, 400 yds, walk/run 6 mi

Swim Around Key West

2009-06-17T13:12:00.037-04:00

Last weekend was the 12.5 mi Swim Around Key West, one of my favorite races despite the very hot water. This was my 4th time swimming the race - I did it twice in high school and also swam it last year. I was especially excited this year because several DAMA friends were swimming it as well. Matt Davis and Karen Fritchie did solo swims while Jason Mask, Joe Caruth, and Josh Eudaily did a party cruise, er, relay.

A couple of things were different about the swim this year. The swim started later than usual (8:30 am instead of 7:00 am) and it also started in a new location, a different point on the island:

I wasn't sure how these changes would affect the current-assisted swim, so I tried to set a reasonable goal. I finished the race last year in 4 hours, 37 min. Since I now had better endurance from all my channel training, I hoped to finish this year under 4:30.

The morning of the race was fraught with excitement. We ate our breakfasts, changed into our suits, and walked down to beach where the starting area was. Now for those of you who have never been there, Key West is a very colorful place. During our weekend stay, we were met with a variety of characters including several drag queens, a man in a Borat-style bathing suit, and a group dressed as the village people. Needless to say, this was not a place where Karen and I expected to draw much attention. After all, we are straight-laced young professionals who couldn't possibly match the level of weird that Key West is used to.

However, as we walked down to the beach we were repeatedly subjected to pointing, giggling, and incredulous looks from passersby. One man stopped his car, pulled over to the curb, and pleaded with us to let him take our picture. How could this be?! How could Karen and I draw such attention to ourselves on an island of freaks?

Perhaps it had something to do with the entire pound and a half of zinc oxide that we applied to our bodies before the race. One man even asked Karen if she would do "mime moves" for him. She respectfully declined.

After an hour or so of camera dodging, the race finally started. The water was hotter than I remembered - upper 80s -and it felt like bath water, even from the start. My original plan was to stop and drink every 30 minutes, but I already started to feel dehydrated after the 1st hour, so I changed it to every 20 minutes. I usually drank Gatorade, but every third feeding I took chocolate milk instead, to give me a little bit of protein and to take a break from all the electrolytes (since I was already swallowing so much salt from the water).

I felt very strong for the first half of the race, but then things began to fizzle. The race is usually timed so that the current pushes most of the swimmers the entire way. The fastest swimmers might slightly out swim the tide and could end up swimming about a mile against the current. No big deal, right? Well, this year there was a serious error in the timing of start relative to the currents. We swam AGAINST the strong current for almost half of the race. This is not something that any of my team had trained for and it was exhausting. After the race, Matt told me that he didn't stop to drink for 2 whole hours because he didn't want the current to push him backward while he was treading water and drinking.

As my kayak support person, my mom tried very hard to steer me to slower moving water. However, in many places the water became very shallow, too shallow to take complete, full strokes. In several places, my mom had to decide whether to keep me in the extremely shallow water, or to move me out to deeper water where I would be swimming against a stronger current. It was a tricky tactical decision. She usually kept me in the shallow water, which seemed to be to my benefit.

Finally, my stop watch read 4 hours. Thank God! I was absolutely elated. According to my projected finish time, that meant I should only have about a mile to go. I asked my mom how much further we had and she said "You're doing great. You're almost at mile 9." Almost at mile 9?! In other words, I still had 4 miles to go? I couldn't believe it. I had mentally prepared myself to swim for only 4.5 hours but now it was clear that I would swim well over 5. My arms couldn't handle that! I had already bargained with them, told them that if they hung in there just a little longer, we'd be done soon. Now what was I going to tell them?

It was then that I understood the value of what English channel swimmers call "total body confusion" training. These swimmers go into their training swims with no plan of how far they will go or when they will stop. They might swim for 1 hour one day, 4 hours the next day, and two hours the day after that. They make spur of the moment decisions at the end of their swims to extend their training a few hours longer. On long swims, they don't look at the clock; it is their coaches who decide how far they will go and when they will get out. The idea is to get out of the habit of training yourself to swim for a certain amount of time. These time frames impose physical and mental limits that are difficult to overcome. If I train to do a 10 hour English Channel crossing, what happens if conditions are worse than expected and I need 12 hours to complete the swim? How would I make it through those last 2 "bonus" hours? By preparing myself to swim Key West in 4.5 hours, I had made swimming beyond this point extremely difficult.

Sure enough, by 4.5 hours I was thoroughly cooked. I made it through the rest of the swim by sheer power of will. I began to understand why some English Channel swimmers give up within a mile of reaching France. We all have a point that we reach where it feels like we can't swim another stroke, let alone another thirty minutes. Extremes in temperature - the heat of Key West or the cold of the channel - add to the fatigue. I made it to the finish buoy and got another surprise - the finish line had been moved to the beach! I had another 200 yards to swim and then would have to crawl out of the water before the clock would stop.

Muttering expletives that only the fishes would hear, I swam hard to the shore. When I got out, the race had one last surprise for me and this one was a good one. I was the overall solo winner! They only 2 people out of the water ahead of me were relay swimmers.

I left the beach to shower, remove as much of the zinc oxide as I could, and change into some dry clothes. When I went back to the beach to watch the others finish, I realized that everyone was having a hard time with the conditions this year. Times were all much slower than expected. Karen and Matt both finished strong, but the relay ran into some trouble. I found out that Joe started throwing up 8 miles into the race and had to be rescued by one of the safety boats. Jason and Josh finished for the team, both swimming more than they had prepared to.

A reporter from the Key West Citizen interviewed me and I was quoted in the paper:
http://keysnews.com/print/14379 79

Awards for the race were Key West conch shells. Karen and Matt both placed in their age groups and the relay came in 2nd place out of the 3 person relays. We all won conchs!

Conch-erers!

The next day, a group of us drove to Orlando for some "active recovery" at Disney.

We had a blast! We all left much more broke than we had arrived, but such is the spirit of Disney.

Yogi's first swim

2009-06-08T16:39:00.005-04:00

This weekend was the 2nd race in the Triangle Open Water Mile Series - the Jordan Lake Open Water Challenge. While wetsuits were allowed yet again (grumble, grumble), the "naked" DAMA swimmers put up an excellent showing. Out of the 125 swimmers, I was first overall female, Heidi Williams was 2nd overall female, Sarah Todd got 3rd in the 25-29 age group, Derek Parr got 2nd in the 35-39 age group, Matt Davis got 3rd in the 35-39 age group, and Gretchen Van de Carr got 3rd in the 50-54 age group!

The real hit was Yogi, who came along to go for his first swim.

Its awfully early for a field trip...

Sand! It's like dirt, only tastier

You get in first, dad.
I already swam today. You get in, Yogi.
No, I'm just a puppy. You get in.
Your brain is the size of a walnut. Therefore you have to listen to me. You get in.

I'd rather eat more sand

Yogi swim for a minute or so, before he got out and returned to his adoring fans on the beach.

For us swimmers, there are certain disadvantages to swims run by triathlon rules (wetsuit rules, extra fees for USAT insurance), but I am finding that there are advantages too. Namely, they are run more smoothly than a lot of swimmer-run races. With the help of chip timing, results were accurate, awards were prompt, and official results were posted online that very day!

Compare this to the Masters NC state open water championships, held last weekend. Nearly all of us had some gripe or another (or 2 or 3 gripes) with the results. As for me, a whopping 30 minutes was added to my 5K time when results were posted. Our coach Andrea is very organized and sent a list of our grumbles to the race directors. She sent the following:

1) Joseph Caruth was not registered, did not pay and did not swim in the 800m. He is currently listed as NS.

2) Heidi Williams age is listed as 46 but she is actually 40, her DOB is 03-21-69

3) The five minute delay was not yet subtracted from the results posted.

4) Matthew Davis (DAMA) 36 is listed as David Mathew in the results. He also swam in the 800m and finished the first Masters men but was not listed. His time was approx. 9:15, he paid 15$ and added this event at registration. He was the first male Master's and received a medal that day.

5)" DAMA" stands for Durham Area Masters Aquatics, in the team scores we are listed as Durham Aquatic Masters.

6) Roerden, Jeffrey is not on our team, yet is listed in the results as DAMA.

7) Tommerdahl, Kathy is not on our team either, yet is listed as DAMA.

8) Mary Anna Hovey 66 is actually on our team yet is listed as unattached.

9) Mark Medendorp 31 is also on our team yet is listed as unattached.

10) Our team relay was not included in the results yet we paid 20$ in cash to Andrea (short brown hair) and wrote our entry on a yellow legal pad with the names on it and gave it to her. There were no relay forms available for us to fill out.
Heidi Williams 5K
Mark Medendorp 3K
Kim Sarah Rice 2K
Matthew Davis 800m

11) Kim Sarah Rice finish time was 1:18 in the 5K yet is listed as 1:48. She was the first Masters female and received a medal after the race.
12) Erik Crankshaw finish time was 1:13 in the 5k yet is listed as 1:29:53. He was the first male Masters to finish and received a medal after the race.

13) Mark Savoldi 42 is on our team yet is listed as unattached.

Yes, even with his walnut brain, Yogi could have done a better job with these results! For a championship race, this is disappointing to say the least.

My suggestion to the Triangle OW series organizers - why not put in a bid to run the USMS championships next year? We know you would do a better job!!!

Week 22:
With the Swim Around Key West next week, I've been cutting down my yardage a bit. To not lose any aerobic fitness, I've been trying to walk and run more.

Mon: swim 3800 yds
Tues: swim 3700 walk 4 mi
Wed: stormed out of practice; run 5 mi
Thurs: swim 8,000
Fri: swim 3300
Sat: walk 5 mi
Sun: swim 3500, walk 3 mi
Total: swim 22,300; walk/run 17 mi

Not swimming related - but Yogi is just so damn cute. Here are more pics:

NC open water championships

2009-06-01T14:09:00.013-04:00

This week was the NC state open water championships in Pinehurst.

They didn't offer a 10K this year, so I entered the 5K and decided to enter the 2K too, to get in some extra yardage. The 5K course was 4 laps around a 1.25km triangle - easy navigating! What I wanted to do more than anything was swim straight and not get lost. So concerned was I with knowing the course that I swam a practice lap before the race!

In order to keep the USMS and USA swimming races separate, we were started in waves. We old folks started 5 min behind the 19 and under boys, and 2 min behind the 19 and under girls. While weaving though packs of swimmers was a little time consuming, it did help with sighting - it's hard to get lost when there are always feet ahead of you! I'm happy to say that I stayed on course and swam relatively straight. I figured out that I tend to veer left when I swim. I made some minor course corrections, but nothing major. I swam hard, holding nothing back for the 2K and ended up getting first out of the masters women.

I cooled down, watched some of the 3K, then warmed up again for the 2K. For this, the course was different - 2 laps, out and back between 2 bouys. I was tired from the 5K, but did not want to swim the next day so I needed to do the extra yardage. Again, the masters started 5 min behind the 1st wave of kids. By the time we started, the kids were near the turn around buoy.

Trying to swim as straight as possible again, I sighted for the 2nd buoy right from the start. Soon, however, I ran into a little problem. The kids had rounded the first buoy and were headed back to the first - straight at us! We were trying to hold the same, straight paths but were going in opposite directions. My priorities shifted from trying to swim as fast as possible to trying to avoid a head-on collision. This was not a freestyle race - it was a head-up freestyle race! I got 2nd out of the masters women, but that's not as impressive as it sounds because there weren't many of us in the 2K.

Now on to more important things...

Meet Yogi - my future training buddy!

Yes, Daisy and Sneakers have a new little brother! Yogi is a Newfoundland, which makes him an excellent swimmer. According to K9 web, "the Newfoundland dog is physically well-suited to swimming, with its webbed feet, thick rudder-like tail, water-resistant double coat and its powerful build, strength and stamina." Welcome to the family Yogi!

Newfies in their natural element

As many of you know, Karen has been an excellent training buddy these past few months, not only keeping me company on long swims, but often pushing me to go farther and faster. Unfortunately, Key West is around the corner and I have been unable to trick Karen into signing up for something else extremely long. That's where Yogi comes in - open water champion of the future!

How do Karen and Yogi match up, you ask? Let's do a comparison:


Swimming fitness	Possesses webbed paws and a rudder-like tail; instinct for the water	Instinct for the water, but no tail of any sort. Shoulder and elbow joints allow for a rounder, more complete stroke
Location flexibility	Is not allowed in public swimming pools. Limited to open water and backyard pools	Enjoys free access to all public swimming areas
Cold water tolerance	Thick coat and extra blubber provide excellent cold water tolerance	Not hairy or blubbery. Better suited for warm climates
Bribeability	Will generally do what you ask in exchange for cookies	There’s a limit to what she will do for cookies. Often requires more complex, time-consuming persuasion techniques
Endurance	Easily distracted; requires frequent naps	Often prefers middle distance but does well during long swims too. Also a fan of naps
Personal hygiene	Frequent crotch sniffing, butt licking	Karen is the clear winner here

As you can see it's a toss-up! Time will tell how Yogi does as a swimming buddy, but he sure is cute and lovable. Welcome home, little bear!

Week 21:
Mon: rest - swim 16,000 yds
Tues: walk 3 mi
Wed: rest - swim 3800, run 3 mi
Thurs: swim 1100 - rained out
Fri: swim 2000
Sat: swim about 11,500
Sun: walk 5 mi
Total: swim 34,400; walk/run 11 mi

Oops, I did it again...

2009-05-24T13:21:00.014-04:00

Last weekend ended with me fizzled out and run down. I wasn't sure why until on Sunday night, when I started coming down with a nasty virus. I felt terrible and didn't swim for 3 days. On Thursday, I started to perk up, so I decided to ease back into the pool. I was coughing up hail-sized phlem, but a funny thing happened - my arms felt great! Three days of laying around sick left my muscles feeling tapered. I glided through the water without the usual fatigue and muscle knots that accompany weeks of heavy yardage. I was excited about racing the Low Country Splash on Saturday where I hoped to take advantage of my unplanned taper!

The race was 2.4 mi down the Cooper River, in the Charleston Harbor. We would start at Hobcaw Yacht Club, swim along the Mount Pleasant shoreline, continue under the New Cooper River Bridge to pass the USS Yorktown Aircraft Carrier, finally finishing at the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Center. The race is always fun because there are a lot of competitors (over 450) and there is a very strong current assist. What's even better is that they have kegs of beer for us at the finish!

It was a mass start, and with so many people I knew that I needed to start out fast so that I could break away from the crowd quickly. The gun went off and I broke into a sprint. With the current behind me, I was cruising! My arms felt great and I decided to try to maintain the pace for the whole race. Woohoo! Before I knew it, there weren't many feet ahead of me. I kept swimming farther and farther down the Cooper River, building up speed.

The New Cooper River Bridge was getting larger. I sighted to the right of the midpoint of the bridge, right between the 3rd and 4th piling, like thought I remembered from the prerace meeting.

I kept swimming and soon there was no one in front of me. In fact, there was no one behind or next to me either. Where was everyone? I started getting nervous. There were some very fast age group swimmers there and it made no sense for me to be so far ahead of the pack. Boats were going by and the wake hit me - hard. The boats felt close. What was going on?

It was then that one of the safety officials kayaked up to me. I was swimming into the shipping lane - WAY off course. I needed to swim to the left of the midpoint of the bridge, between the 1st and 2nd pilings, not the 3rd and 4th. I wasn't swimming alone because I was ahead of the pack - I was alone because I was to the RIGHT of the pack. I looked over to the race course and felt like crying. I was swimming so hard, sprinting the entire way, but it was for nothing. I was going the wrong way!

I felt like giving up, slowing down, and resigning myself to finish somewhere in the middle of the pack. How could I possibly do well now? Still, I swam back to the course, trying to maintain my pace. I joined the nearest pack and found that they were holding a quick pace. I guess I wasn't that far behind after all! I dug deep, trying to catch up to the frontrunners as much as I could.

Before I knew it, I was passing the aircraft carrier and rounding the finish. I ended up finishing 7th out of the women and 1st in my age group. I was happy with my swim pace and how I placed, but I was disappointed with how lost I got, yet again. When was I going to learn? Now I'm just thankful that I will have a guide boat for both the Swim Around Key West and more importantly for the English Channel.

Another issue had me and the rest of DAMA grumbling. Since this spring has been unusually cold and the race day water temperature was in the low 70s, the race director decided at the last minute to allow the use of wetsuits. Wetsuits are illegal in all races sanctioned by all major swimming bodies - USA Swimming, US Masters swimming, and FINA - because they provide a tremendous buoyancy advantage and can make swimmers up to 15% faster. However, triathletes like buying expensive workout gadgets so they have different rules. Wetsuits are allowed in triathlons under a certain temperature. The Low Country Splash was not sanctioned by any swimming body, so race officials could do whatever they wanted regarding wetsuits. The water was 72 degrees - hardly a cause for hypothermia concern - but they decided to allow wetsuits anyway, citing safetly concerns.

Most open water swimmers, like myself, are very pleased that more triathletes and beginner swimmers are participating in our sport. However, we are wary of "watering down" the rules, so to speak. Environmental elements, temperature, and navigation are all challenges that separate open water swimming from pool swimming. When wetsuits are legalized, you practically have to wear one to stay competitive. However, that's not a purchase that most of us want to make. If race directors want to legalize wetsuits to accomodate more swimmers, they should do so, but score these swimmers in a separate awards category. That way, those who don't want to shell out hundreds of dollars on a wetsuit and those who want to adhere to stricter, "purer" swimming standards would not be penalized.

Our Charleston trip was short but very fun. Here are some pictures:

Me with Heidi Williams, another age group winner, at the Battery.

A trip to the dungeon, which withstood both the Revolutionary War and the Civ - er- the War of Northern Aggression.

Week 20:
Mon: rest - sick
Tues: walk 5 mi
Wed: rest - sick
Thurs: swim 5100 yds
Fri: swim 2000
Sat: swim about 4000
Sun: swim 4000
Total: swim 15,200; walk 5 mi

Is that a Powerbar in your Speedo or are you happy to see me?

2009-05-16T00:42:00.014-04:00

I have started reading Swimming to Antartica, a collection of stories of long distance swimmer Lynne Cox.

Lynne is best known for swimming 1 mile in the iceberg filled seas of Antartica and that is what I knew her for. She was able to survive in water that would kill most people in just a few minutes. I was impressed by her cold tolerance, but I had no idea what a fast and accomplished swimmer she was!

Lynne Cox held the world record for both the English Channel and Catalina Channel crossings. While these swims were challenging, they were a bit too traditional, a little boring for Lynne. She soon set her sights on something more harrowing. Lynne swam across the Cook Strait in New Zealand and then battled torrential currents to swim across the Strait of Magellan. Next, she swam with 20 foot great whites and around raging whirlpools to circumvent the Cape of Good Hope. Perhaps most impressive was her swim across the 38 degree Bering Strait, taking to her from Alaska right into Cold War Russia!

Lynne completed dozens of such swims, too many to mention here. I thought I was adventurous for tackling the 60 degree waters of the English Channel. Nothing like this to put everything in perspective! Lynne Cox is 1 part Michael Phelps, 1 part Evil Knievel, and 1 part polar bear.

Now as for my more mundane swimming adventures:
Karen and I attempted a 17,000 yd swim on Friday, and I have to say that she rose to the challenge beautifully. Karen provided the workout:

4x1200 descend
4x1000 descend
4x800 descend
4x600 descend
4x400 descend
4x200 descend
200 cool down

I tried to hang in there - really, I did. But I got through the 800s and my arms just started to give out. I went a bit longer, but was going super slow and just felt like I was doing junk yardage at that point. I'm sorry to say that I abandoned Karen and got out after 12,000 yards. Karen continued to descend her swims and finished the entire workout by herself. Way to go!

As for the title of this post...Here at Channel Bound I like to write about a variety of swim related topics, because while my life is not as exciting as that of Lynn Cox, simply talking about swimming lap after lap is, well, boring. As I limped through 12,000 yds of this week's long swim, I ended up cutting some of the swims short in order to get extra rest. And as I hung on the wall waiting for Karen to power through the set, I noticed a curious sight.

A very skinny twenty-something man in a Speedo was walking around the pool deck in what I will delicately deem "an enhanced male state." This was not something I meant to stare at, but as with a car wreck I found my eyes flickering towards it against my will. The scene was peculiar for a couple of reasons. First, Homestead pool is competition temperature (read: chilly) and the young man remained in this state long enough to make me wonder if he should seek immediate medical attention. But even more puzzling was how unencumbered he was. With no concern for his appearance, he kept diving in, jumping out, running around the pool deck to talk to his friends (incurring numerous whistle blows from the lifeguards, which he was also unconcerned with), and jumping in again! He kept this up all while Karen innocently cranked out laps right in the next lane. Impressive feats of endurance all around!

Now, for obvious reasons I'm not posting a picture to illustrate this topic. However, Jason and I went to an art festival this weekend and bought our very first piece of real art! (Ok, so it's a print not the original, but it does come with its own certificate of authenticity). Since it looks very much like a picture of a swimmer, I'll post a photo of it here:

For more information about the artist, check out:
http://kelisegallery.com/pages/representational.html

Week 19:
Mon: swim 3500 yds
Tues: swim 4800, walk 5 mi
Wed: swim 4200
Thurs: swim 4500
Fri: swim 12,000
Sat: rest
Sun: swim ,000
Total: swim 35,000, walk 5 mi

Next week will be a much needed recovery week before a race in Charleston next weekend.

Trial run

2009-05-11T21:13:00.004-04:00

The channel gods were conspiring against me this week. First, I got pulled out of the pool on Tuesday because of a serious thunderstorm. I thought that the lifeguards were being lazy and looking for thunder, but the hail and tornadoes proved otherwise. Then, there was a major crisis at work on Wednesday. With the sky falling and pigs flying, my mind just wasn't focused on my evening workout. Then, the final, sabatoging blow to my weekly yardage count came when the Homestead pool was closed for maintenance, so I didn't get my usual long swim in on Friday. What was a channel bound girl to do?

I decided to call upon Matt Davis, a fellow DAMA swimmer who is also doing the swim around Key West. I was looking for someone to open water swim with for, oh maybe an hour or so, on Sunday. Well, Matt had other ideas. He wanted to swim for 3 hours, for a minimum of 6 miles. This put a damper in my afternoon plans of watching lifetime and eating bonbons. Still, despite the pleading eyes of my lap loving pug, I agreed (sorry Sneakers). I decided to make this a trial run for the Key West race, a dress rehearsal so to speak.

I wore my open water racing suit, since I had never worn it in a long event before and wanted to see where it might chafe. After 3 hr 8 min of continuous swim time (3 hr 30min of total water time and about 13,500 yards covered) I felt tired, but I didn't think my pace had slowed down much. I got out of the lake feeling hungry but pleased. When I changed, I found that I had 2 swim hickies (swimsuit chafe marks around my neck) and this very dainty little sunburn:

Week 18:
Mon: swim 4500 yds
Tues: swim 1600 yds
Wed: swim 3400
Thurs: swim 8300
Fri: swim 4400
Sat: rest
Sun: swim 13,500
Total: swim 35,700

The Slurpee turned on me...

2009-05-04T00:26:00.007-04:00

I left work on Friday with a sinking feeling in my stomach, thinking that I was about to walk into the jaws of doom. Voluntarily. Karen and I were about to attempt a 16,000 yd workout, the longest training swim I have ever done (so far, of course. They will only get longer in the next 15 months).

I left work on time, but got a phone call from my boss that left me running a few minutes late. I was left with a choice - should I forgo my usual slurpee run so that I could be on time to meet Karen? Forgo the frozen, sugary goodness that has fueled all my long swims up to this point? Which should I choose - friend or frozen beverage?

Well, my apologizes to Karen but the slurpee won. Karen, I knew, was dreading this swim as much as I was and she wasn't going to start without me. But in my haste to be no later than necessary, I forgot to stash my slurpees away in the side pockets of my swim bag the way I usually do. Instead, I boldly walked into the Homestead Aquatic Center with twin slurpees in hand, plopped them on the counter, and swiped my frequent swimmer's card. "Ma'am," the desk attendant chided, "you can't bring those onto the pool deck."

This was a moment I knew would happen, a moment I had been preparing for ever since I had discovered the wonders of the slupree. My response was prepared - "I'm about to do a very long swim and THIS is my energy drink. It's just a concentrated form of Gatorade and I need it to sustain my glyoogen levels." With a skeptical look I was waved in.

Our workout was written by fellow DAMA swimmer and distance swimmer extraordinaire, Heidi Williams. This was the gist:

Warm-up (1000), 15:00
5 x 200 3:00

Set 1 (3200), 44:45
1 x 800 swim - moderate neg split 10:45
2 x 400 swim - 2nd one faster 5:30
4 x 200 - descend 2:45
8 x 100 - descend 1-4, 5-8 1:30

Set 2 (5000), 67:10
1 x 600 50 drill/50 swim easy 9:00
2 x 500 swim easy/moderate 7:00
3 x 400 swim moderate 5:20
4 x 300 swim moderate/fast 3:55
5 x 200 swim fast pace 2:30

Set 3 (3600), 49:15
4 x 100 build each 100 1:30
3 x 200 neg. split 2:50
2 x 300 maintain mod/fast pace 4:00
1 x 400 fast pace 5:00
2 x 300 one recovery; one moderate 4:30/4:15
3 x 200 moderate/fast pace 2:40
4 x 100 fast 1:15

Set 4 (2800) - aerobic pacing, 37.20
2 x 500 6:40
2 x 400 5:20
2 x 300 4:00
2 x 200 2:40

Cool Down 400

Total Yards 16,000; Total Time 3:33:30 + breaks & cool down

I made it through the beginning without much of a problem, but toward the end of set 2 it hit me. A sick churning in my stomach. A wave of nausea in my chest. A cramp that ripped through the arch of my foot like Jason's teeth through a bacon cheeseburger. The slurpee was turning on me! I couldn't believe it but it was true. It dawned on me then that I might need an energy drink with less high fructose corn syrup and more electrolytes.

Maybe the man at the front desk knew something that I didn't. Next time, I will take a more conventional approach to fluid replacement and drink Gatorade for at least the first half of the swim. I will switch to my beloved slurpee if and only if my energy levels fall and I begin to crash.

In non-swimming news, Jason and I went to Brian Wear and Heather Hilton's beautiful wedding on Saturday. Here are a few pictures:

Week 17:
Mon: swim 4300 yds
Tues: swim 4700
Wed: rest
Thurs: swim 3900
Fri: swim 16,000
Sat: rest
Sun: swim 3200, 40 min abs
Total: 32,100 40 min abs

Stretching like Dara

2009-04-26T15:51:00.013-04:00

As some of you know, I'm about as limber as an uncooked noodle. What's worse, it seems I'm getting less flexible as I get older. I knew I needed to do something before I turned into a dry rigatoni, but I just wasn't sure where to precede.

Research is showing that the kind of stretching I did as an age group swimmer (static stretching, the kind where you hold a muscle in one place without moving) is counterproductive. Static stretching before exercise has been shown to reduce your ability to perform explosive movement, which in turn inhibits swimming performance. And contrary to popular belief, it is useless for injury prevention as well.
http://stronglifts.com/5-reasons-why-you-shouldnt-do-static-stretches/

So I did a little googling. And this came up

hmm....well if Dara Torres is doing it, it must be good! Dara's resistance stretching program involves simultaneously contracting and elongating a muscle. In other words, the muscle stretches at the same time as it contracts against resistance. The workout lasts about 15 min (5 if I do arms only) and after doing it for 2 weeks I am feeling looser.

In other swimming news this week...Karen is back! After a brief hiatus from long distance workouts to concentrate on pool meets, Karen is back to join me for super long swims. She is going to compete in her first Swim Around Key West this June and wants to be ready!

To celebrate, Karen and I attempted a test set of doom. Honestly, I didn't think I had much chance of making it all the way through, but I am so tired of doing the some old long workout that I was ready to give it a try. Here's what we did:

Warmup: 1500

Test set (swim 100 easy after each set of 10):

9 x 100 on 1:20, 1 x 100 on 1:15

8 x 100 on 1:20, 2 x 100 on 1:15

7 x 100 on 1:20, 3 x 100 on 1:15

6 x 100 on 1:20, 4 x 100 on 1:15

5 x 100 on 1:20, 5 x 100 on 1:15

4 x 100 on 1:20, 6 x 100 on 1:15

3 x 100 on 1:20, 7 x 100 on 1:15

2 x 100 on 1:20, 8 x 100 on 1:15

1 x 100 on 1:20, 9 x 100 on 1:15

10 x 100 on 1:15

500 cool down

Total: 13,000

What I liked about this set was that it focused on controlled pacework. To have any chance at making it, the set had to be swum smooth, loose, but reasonably fast. If we went a little too slow, we would miss the interval, but going too fast would tire us out and cause us to miss it in the end. I also liked that the set was broken into reasonable chuncks. We started each set of 10 with confidence from having made the previous set. With new each set, we only had to make one more 100 on 1:15 than on the set before. And before we knew it we were done! We made it!

The next day, we celebrated Daisy's 35th birthday (in dog years) and Jason's 34th birthday (in human years).

Sneakers and I threw a Spanish style fiesta with tapas, sangria, and plenty of rum punch. There was salsa dancing...

a brief episode of the running of the bulls...

and when Sneakers started to feel jealous, he got to wear the birthday crown for a while.

Finally, Jason closed the evening with a traditional Flamenco fan dance. Believe it or not, he was nursing a serious hangover this morning...

Week 16:
Mon: swim 3200
Tues: swim 5000
Wed: swim 4800, run 3 mi, 40 min abs
Thurs: swim 4300
Fri: swim 13,000
Sat: rest
Sun: swim 6300, run 3 mi, 30 min abs
Total: swim 36,600, run 6 mi, 70 min abs

Beaverdam 5280 swim

2009-04-20T16:01:00.013-04:00

Saturday was the first open water race of the year, the Beaverdam 5280 1 mi race. The water was a nippley 63 degrees. Most people wore wetsuits, but not DAMA! We were among a handful of swimmers who swam naked (aka no wetsuit) but we put up a fine showing - I was the overall winner, Derek Parr was 3rd overall male, Dawn Franklin was 2nd in the 40-44 age group, and Jason Mask was 3rd in the 30-34 age group. Well done!

Dawn picking up her award

After the 1st turn buoy I took a little unintended detour. To put things mildly, my sense of direction is not the best (I used my GPS to get to work for the 1st 6 months of my new job). After I passed the first turn, I simply couldn't remember where the next buoy was. After looking around for a few seconds, I put my head down and just started to swim. I went in the right general direction, but overshot the next buoy by quite a bit - by the time I got there the lead pack had passed me by about 200 ft. I had to work very hard the rest of the race to catch back up! After the race, the first male swimmer said that he had thought about drafting off of me to the finish but didn't quite trust my navigational skills so he went at it on his own.
Lesson learned: a few minutes studying the course before a race is time well spent if you are a navigational bonehead.

(Yes, it is rather difficult to get lost on a rectangular course. I'm just THAT talented).

I wasn't sure I would be able to make it through my long swim the next day, but I hobbled through it. 15,000 yds is the longest practice swim I have ever done and this was the workout:

15 x 100 on 1:30 (1500)

3 x 500 descend on 7:30 (3000)

10 x 100 on 1:30 (4000)

4 x 400 on 6:00 (5600)

10 x 100 on 1:30 (6600)

4 x 300 descend on 4:30 (7800)

10 x 100 on 1:30 (8800)

4 x 200 on 3:00 (9600)

10 x 100 on 1:30 (10600)

4 x 100 descend on 1:30 (11,000)

Big Set of Doom (rest 15 sec after each swim)

25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 225 250 275 300 275 250 225 200 175 150 125 100 75 50 25 (14,600)

400 cool down (15,000)

This set was done continuously on a 1:30 pace, with no stopping between sets so it took exactly 3hr 45 min. I've been doing variations of this for my past few long swims. On good days I'll hold a 1:15 pace through the workout, but when I'm tired I'll hold a 1:18-1:20 pace (yesterday was one of those days).

I'm starting to get very bored with this set. If any of you fellow swimmers have any long swim sets that you would like to send my way, I would be very appreciative. Here are my criteria:

- I like to swim a variety of distances during the workout

- In the interest of time, the workout has to be pretty continuous (without much stopping between sets) and all freestyle to almost all freestyle. Also no kicking, sculling, etc.

Week 15:

Mon: swim 4100 yds
Tues: swim 5000
Wed: swim 4500, 40 min abs
Thurs: swim 4600
Fri: rest
Sat: swim about 2800, including race
Sun: swim 15,000 yds

Total: swim 36,000 yds, 40 min abs

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T17:06:00.010-04:00

I was planning to swim through this week and take next week as a recovery week, but the water gods conspired against me. I got pulled out of the pool during my long swim due to lightning (the 1st time this year, so I can't complain too much). Then my arms decided to go on strike for the rest of the weekend. So it was a good weekend for cross-training...

Here's how week 14 shaped up:
Mon: swim 3900 yds
Tues: swim 5100
Wed: swim 4100, 40 min abs
Thurs: swim 4900, run 5 mi
Fri: swim 11,700
Sat: rest
Sun: run 5 mi, 30 min abs
Total: swim 29,700 yds, run 10 mi, 70 min abs

Also, open water season starts next weekend for me, with the first race of the year! I thought I would post my tentative race schedule for this year:

4-18-09 1 mi Beaverdam lake http://www.triangleopenwater.com/5280.html
5-23-09 2.4 mi Lowcountry Splash http://www.lowcountrysplash.com/
5-30-09 NC state open water championships
6-13-09 12.5 mi Swim Around Key West http://www.fkccswimaroundkeywest.com/
7-11-09 Chris Green Lake 2 mi Cable Swim http://www.cableswim.org/
7-25-09 10 mi Kingdom Swim http://www.kingdomswim.org/
8-30-09 Harris Lake 1 mi swim http://www.triangleopenwater.com/nuclear.html
9-12-09 Big Shoulders 5K USMS national championships http://www.bigshoulders.org/
9-26-09 Smith Mountain Lake 5K swim

Feeling better

2009-04-05T23:15:00.017-04:00

First and foremost, the pug is feeling much better! After 2 weeks on his special diet he is no longer scratching and his hair is growing back! Sneakers is adapting nicely to his new food (I think he realizes that ounce for ounce, he has the most expensive dinner in the house.) An added bonus - Sneakers no longer has crusty buildup in his wrinkles. We used to call him crusty old man (because of his face, and because he loves staring at naked people in the shower, but that's a story for another day). Now the nickname only halfway applies!

Daisydoo is also raking in the benefits of Sneaker's new lifestyle. She is getting his old, weight maintenance dog food (the one he can't eat anymore because of his allergies). Because Daisy needs higher calorie food, we have been mixing the dog food with Jason's homemade chicken stew (which to us was a culinary experiment gone bad, but to Daisy is a delicacy).

I have been feeling much better too. I am getting used to the increased yardage and am no longer so on and off at practice. My 10,000 yard long swim on Friday felt like a sprint!

First Open Water Swim of the Year

Today, Jason and I ventured out to do our first open water swim of the year. It's early in the season so we thought it might be a little cold, but it was a sunny day and we were feeling dizzy from doing so many laps in the pool. We decided to try out Beaver Dam, since we had never been there before and we have a race there in a few weeks. What's nice about the lake is that is it closed to gasoline powered boats so it is very safe for swimmers.

I told Jason that I didn't want to swim if the water was below 60 degrees because I thought it would be unsafe, since we had not yet begun to acclimate to the cold. He readily agreed. We took out our trusty ducky thermometer...

And it read a toasty 70 degrees - bathwater by channel standards!

Of course, if we had 2 ounces of brains between us, we would have realized that it would be much colder in the middle of the lake that in the ankle deep water by the shore (we found out later that the temperature in the deeper parts of the lake was 65). But of course if we had that much brains our lives would be much less interesting.

It was COLD! Initially Jason stopped me every five minutes to make sure I was lucid. Eventually we got used to it, warmed up, and lasted for about 3 miles. Clearly I have a long way to go to adapt to the cold!

Week 13:
Mon: swim 4300 yds, 40 min abs
Tues: swim 5700
Wed: swim 4800, run 5 mi
Thurs: swim 5400
Fri: swim 10,000
Sat: run 5 mi
Sun: swim 4800, 30 min abs
Total: swim 35,000 yards, run 10 mi, 70 min abs

Swimming for a cause

2009-03-29T22:45:00.008-04:00

People who train for long distance events often decide to put their hard work to good use and use their events to support a charity close to their hearts. In marathons, triathlons, cycling events, etc there is no shortage of "teams in training" and other such groups. See, training for athletic events is essentially a selfish endeavor - we put tremendous amounts of time and energy into pursuing our goals, but this is of little benefit to others or to society as a whole. But by supporting a cause, athletes are able to use their events to serve a greater purpose.

I counted myself as lucky since neither myself nor my immediate family members were inflicted with any serious maladies (mental quirks? Yes. Questionable tendencies? Perhaps. But no serious maladies to speak of). That was until very recently, when I noticed some changes in my favorite little man.

Sneakers has been losing some of the hair on his chest and under his legs. He has been itching and scratching these areas as well, meaning his problem is more than pug pattern hair loss. It turns out the little guy is seriously allergic to something. It's not life threatening, but it is a terrible nuisance that deserves our sympathies.

Sneakers requires a bath once a week, in special medicated shampoo. After he is lathered up, he must remain all soapy for a full 10 min before he can be rinsed (and before he can rub himself dry on our furniture).

As you can see, Sneakers is being amazingly brave and tolerant of his weekly bath. Much more distressing is the special diet that the vet has put him on. He can eat nothing except his special dog food (made of rabbits, potatoes, and kangaroo meat) and carrots for his treats. He gets nothing else! As any pug would tell you, carrots are NOT treats. Sneakers is hungry for some better food and I don't blame him one bit.

So I'd like to take this opportunity to raise awareness for K9 skin allergies, a very common problem among pugs. The next time you see a pug with a sparse patch of hair do not stare - the pug is a hero, doing his best to get by on carrot treats!

Week 12:
Mon: rest
Tues: swim 6000 yds, run 3 mi
Wed: swim 4500, run 3 mi
Thurs: swim 5200, 40 min abs
Fri: swim 14,000
Sat: run 5 mi
Sun: swim 6,300 walk 3 mi
Total: swim 36,000 yds, walk/run 14 mi, 50 min abs

New York!

2009-03-23T20:36:00.012-04:00

The Ducks in Central Park

Not much swimming news to report this week. You may have figured it out already, but I take every 3rd week as a recovery week and this was one of those.

Week 11:
Mon: swim 4100 yds, 40 min abs
Tues: swim 4600
Wed: swim 4100
Thurs: swim 5600
Fri: swim 7600 30 min abs
Sat: in NY - walk 1 million miles
Sun: in NY - walk 1 million miles
Total: swim 26,000 yds, 70 min abs, walk 2 million miles

More interestingly, Jason and I went to NYC this weekend to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary. We left on a 6:00am flight on Sat. morning and returned at midnight on Sun night to squeeze as much fun into the weekend as we possibly could. It was a blast! Jason had never been there before and true to expectation he had much diarrhea of the finger (my name for his excessive, explosive picture taking).

Here are a few:

Swimming to my own beat....

2009-03-15T21:10:00.007-04:00

I am sad to report that after a short 3 and a half months of life, my SwimM3 player has passed on. Perhaps it is now making music in a better place, blasting Bruce Springsteen and Kanye West for long distances swimmers in the sky.

As soon as I find the receipt, box, etc I will mail it back and try to get it repaired/replaced. But having swum this whole week with no music except the voices in my head, I've realized how dependent I've become on this little device. From now on, I'm going to use my SwimP3 player only during long swims (yes, I know I said this before, but this time I mean it!)

R.I.P, swimP3

Making my own music

Week 10:
Mon: swim 4100 yds
Tues: swim 4700
Wed: swim 4100
Thurs: swim 4800
Fri: swim 10,000
Sat: rest
Sun: swim 5300, run 6 mi
Total: swim 31,000 yds, run 6 mi

Stroke of genius

2009-03-08T22:28:00.008-04:00

Have you ever had one of those thoughts that, once conceived, you knew that your life - and dare I say it, the world - would never be the same? A moment of truth so profound that its ripples were bound to shape not only your life but those of generations to come? Well, dear friends, I had one such revelation this week. It can be summed up in one word - slurpees.

This weekend Karen had to go out of town, so we did our long swim on Friday after work. We didn't have much time (a 13,000 yard practice takes us about 3 hr, 15 min. The Homestead pool closes at 8:30, so we both had to rush over after work). I also didn't have time to eat much that day, so I grabbed a quick bagel and then stopped at a gas station to pick up some Gatorade. That's when I saw it - sitting inconspicuously in the corner, its juicy insides sloshing around in frozen splendor. The slurpee machine. It hit me - wouldn't a slurpee be a tastier, more concentrated form of Gatorade?

Just as expected, the slurpee proved itself to be a delightful little energy drink. The only problem was, I had only one and it lasted through only the 1st half hour of the workout. After it was gone, I made it through the rest of the practice with noticeably less vigor.

Outside of Halloween, there aren't many occasions where it's desirable to squeeze as much sugar into your body as possible, but long swims might be one of them. Next time I will skip the Gatorade and have 2 or 3 slurpees instead. Of course this will necessitate another kind of training...

Training for the inevitable brain freeze

Now, there are bound to be naysayers. Some might say that the icy waters of the English Channel would not be the place for the consumption of a frozen beverage. But that is the way with all great ideas. Did people not laugh when Galileo said that the earth revolved around the sun?

Week 9:

Mon: swim 5100 yds, 40 min abs
Tues: swim 5300
Wed: swim 4200, 40 min abs
Thurs: swim 4000
Fri: swim 13,000
Sat: run 7 mi, walk 2mi
Sun: walk 2 mi, swim 3400, 10 min core exercises

Total: swim 35,000, walk/run 11 mi, 90 min abs/core exercises

This is not a sex toy...

2009-02-22T21:46:00.005-05:00

No really, it's not!!

It's the Brookstone IGallup, a core exercise machine. I've had my eye on this baby for some time and now that it is majorly on sale I bought one. It's a lot like riding a horse (or so I'm told) and it has different settings so you can go from a trot to a walk to a gallup. You won't get knocked off or knocked up on this machine, but you really do work your core muscles trying to stabilize yourself. It's a painless way to get in some extra core work while watching TV.

Outside of getting the IGallup, week 9 has been a tough week. I've fallen into the pattern of swimming well on Tues, Thurs, Fri, and on my weekendend long swim, and swimming poorly on Mon and Wed (for whatever reason, those are the days my body is most tired). Well, this week began by following the familiar pattern. Except when it came time for my long swim on Saturday, I was so tired that I almost felt sick. For the first time, I was not able to even make it through the swim, and I got out after 9,000 yds, instead of 12,000. I then slept 11 hours, rested most of the day today, and now I'm starting to feel better.

At my ripe, old age of 27, I think it's time I started paying more attention to muscle recovery. My friend Matt has gotten me hooked on drinking chocolate milk immediately after practice (supposedly it has the perfect mixture of milk protein and carbs that your muscles need to refuel, but any excuse to drink chocolate milk, right?) Now I'm going to step it up a notch. I'm trying something called Muscle Milk light, which has only 160 calories but a whopping 20g of protein.
I'm also going to try to stretch every night, in hopes that I may one day be able to touch my ankles.

Week 8:
Mon: swim 4200 yds, 40 min abs
Tues: swim 4900, 10 min core exercise machine
Wed: swim 4800, 10 min core exercise machine
Thurs: swim 4200, 40 min abs
Fri: swim 3200, run 3 mi
Sat: swim 9100
Sun: rest
Total: total swim 30,500, run 3 mi 100 min abs/core work.

Channel Foremothers

2009-02-15T21:07:00.007-05:00

This week I began rereading Marcia Cleaveland's Dover Solo, her memoir from her 1994 Channel crossing. I can't help but be impressed by the immense amount of planning and preparation that she put into her swim. Marcia plotted out every detail of her crossing and analyzed everything that could go wrong. She listed each and every component of a successful channel crossing and tackled each one of these in her training. Her list was as follows (p. 24):

"- Being prepared to swim in 55-60 degree Fahrenheit (F) salt water for over 14 hours.
- Acquiring the necessary swim endurance.
- Researching the swim.
- Swimming in challenging weather conditions (waves and swells, wind and fog).
- Swimming with marine life (jellyfish, seaweed, fish, etc.) and through jetsam and flotsom. (Jetsam is man-made debris, flotsam is organic matter such as seaweed.)
- Swimming at night.
- Swimming across one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.
- Dealing with mental stress.
- Dealing with nausea while swimming.
- Selecting a boat pilot.
- Inhaling exhaust fumes from a boat while swimming and not getting sick.
- Practicing being fed while treading water, with emphasis on simplicity and speed.
- Keeping track of what works (and what doesn't work).
- Testing and practicing with the equipment.
- Practice, practice, practice!"

Juxtapose this with my mom's preparation for her channel swim, in 1999:
- Have a few too many Coronas while drinking with friends. Agree to swim the English Channel, which suddenly seems like a good idea.
- Wake up the next day and think "Oh crap! Did I agree to do what I think I did?"
- Resume swimming crazy amounts of yardage, as per usual.
- As the date gets closer, realize that a 90 degree swimming pool in Miami is not the ideal training condition. Take some trips to get in some cold water training.
- Arrive in Dover. Get bored waiting around. Take some time to see the sights, instead of resting up.
- Swim across the English Channel. Clock the fastest time of the year and win a Rolex watch!
- Drink a few more Coronas. Repeat step one, agreeing to some other crazy long swim.

My mom and me, a year or so before her channel swim.

So, yes, all sorts of personality types swim the channel. I think I will fall somewhere in the middle of these extremes (not quite type A personality...not type B...Maybe A-? B+?)

Week 7 of training for me went like this:
Mon: swim 5200 yds, 40 min abs
Tues: swim 4800
Wed: swim 4900
Thurs: swim 3100
Fri: swim 3300, 40 min abs
Sat: swim 12, 200
Sun: run/walk 7 mi, 15 min core exercises

Total: swim 33,500 yds, run/walk 7 mi, 8 min abs, 15 min core exercises

Cross training

2009-02-08T23:50:00.005-05:00

I want to take this opportunity to commend Karen on her excellent cross training this week. Karen participated in the Krispy Kreme challenge, a prestigious event in which competitors must run 2 mi, eat 12 donuts, and then run 2 more miles.

As you can see from the photos, Karen put up a valiant effort. She ran 2 miles, ate 6 of the donuts, and ran the final 2 miles, all in 53 minutes. Way to go! With proper training, I have no doubt that next year you will eat all 12 donuts.

Week 6 for me went as follows:

Mon: swim 3200, 40 min abs
Tues: swim 4400, run 3 mi
Wed: swim3700
Thurs: swim 4500
Fri: swim 2600
Sat: run 7 mi
Sun: swim 6600

Total: swim 25,000 yds, run 10 mi, 40 min abs

Go DAMA!

2009-02-01T20:20:00.006-05:00

I mentioned last week that while I was slaving away doing my weekly long swim, most of my usual swim buddies were at a meet in Charlotte. This meet was the USMS state championships and DAMA got 2nd place!!

Here's a picture of my husband Jason swimming his 50yd fly.

While he wasn't invited to the meet, here is a picture of my dog Sneakers swimming the 50 yd dog paddle. Isn't he handsome? Like father like son!

Here's how week 5 went for me:
Mon: swim 3,000 yds
Tues: swim 4,200
Wed: swim 3,900, 40 min abs
Thurs: swim 4,200
Fri: swim 2700, 40 min abs
Sat: run 7 mi
Sun: swim 11,000 run 3 mi
Total: swim 29,000 yds, run 10 mi, 80 min abs

I had lots of company during my long swim today, for which I was very grateful. Several people were there for parts of the swim, but Fillipo was there for 10,000 yds and Karen was there for the whole 11,000! Now while I like to fancy myself a badass, I have to state for the record that Karen is a super DUPER bad ass. While I swam the entirity of the 11K freestyle, Karen swam most of it IM (on the same interval as me, mind you).

On to week 6!

Under the weather

2009-01-25T20:49:00.004-05:00

This week was a very exciting one for us folks in Durham...we got snow! And enough snow to stick. We don't get snow here very often, so when we do everything shuts down. I had a holiday, a snow day, a teacher work day, and I took a sick day this week, so I only worked on Friday! Since I had a terrible cold, which on Thursday morphed into a fever, I was glad for the extra rest.

There was much frolicking in the snow, and general merriment about the extra time off:

So with my cold and the snow, I didn't get as much swimming in as I wanted to, but week four was still pretty productive:

Week 4:
Mon: swim 4500 yds
Tues: run 6 mi
Wed: swim 4300, 40 min abs
Thurs: fever - rest
Fri: swim 3200
Sat: swim 2500, 40 min abs
Sun: swim, 11,000, run 4 mi

Total:
swim 25,500 yds
run 10 mi
80 min abs

On Sunday, my usual swim buddies were at a meet in Charlotte, so I ventured to the Dark Side (Tar Heel territory) to swim at a new pool in Chapel Hill, with my friend Filippo. The pool is very fancy and new, and worth the $6 it costs to swim there.

We ended up doing 110 x 100 yds on 1:30, which ended up being a lot harder that the 100 x 100yds that we did on New Years on the same interval. I believe that the reason for this was threefold: 1) I swam 10% farther today 2) I swam slightly faster (averaging about a 1:18 pace instead of a 1:20 pace) 3) and I had the lane to myself, so I didn't get to draft off of Karen for half of the workout.

After practice, I was starving and grabbed some dinner at the hot bar at whole foods. Now, while I have been trying to lose weight in general (I've lost 5 lbs since New Years! woot woot), I pretty much eat whatever I want after long swims because I figure my body needs the nourishment. I gathered what I wanted from the hot bar and then looked down at my plate with alarm - I had filled it with mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, lakte (potato pancakes) and a few french fries. That's a crazy amount of carbs! Feeling that I needed to balance things out a bit, I added a couple of pieces of bacon as well as a pile of broccoli.
I chose to interpret this carb frenzy as my body's signal that my glycogen supply was zilch and that it wanted it replaced right away.

Rest Week

2009-01-18T23:51:00.003-05:00

Well all this swimming has finally caught up with me. My arms have gone from bags of sand, to bricks, to lead, to uranium, to eka-radon (a hypothetical element that supposedly is the heaviest thing possible). Well, you get the picture.

I was planning on making this a relative rest week, which I embraced happily. With no long swim this week and 2 days off of swimming in a row, my arms feel much better! Unfortunately, I now have a cold.

On another note, I found another race that I want to do this year. It's a 10 mile swim in a very scenic lake in Vermont. It looks very pretty, but cold: http://www.kingdomaquafest.com/

Week 3:
Mon: swim 4200 yds, abs
Tues: swim 4500
Wed: swim 4000, abs
Thurs: swim 4000, run 5 mi
Fri: rest
Sat: run 7 mi
Sun: swim 4300, abs

Total: swim 21,000 yds
run 12 mi
2 hrs abs

Sweet nectar of the gods

2009-01-11T20:07:00.003-05:00

For the New Year, Jason and I began modified version of the flat belly diet, which, to my horror, requires the elimination of soda. But we're doing a modified version of the diet, so there's no need to go crazy, right? I figure it's OK to have a diet soda or two, as long as I drink all the water that I need first. So my new rule is no diet soda until I've had 64 oz of water. After I drink my water, I'll have a diet soda or two in the afternoon and then will usually drink another 32 oz of water at swim practice.

So in the past week I've gone from about 7 diet cokes a day to one or two, and from very little water to about 12 glasses. At first, it was very hard for me to cut back on the sweet nectar of the gods. The first day I was tired, grumpy, and in general much less charming than usual (see exhibit a).

exhibit a

The good thing is, it made sticking to our diet much easier. When you break your leg, you no longer notice a paper cut. Similarly, when you drastically cut back on such a crisp, refreshing beverage, you miss it too much to notice that you miss junk food too.

After the first few days things got much much easier. If fact, I felt great. I told Jason that I felt like I was on some wonderful drug. "Yes," the smart ass replied, "the drug is called hydration."

Anyway, fully hydrated and properly nourished, week 2 of English Channel training went as follows:

Mon: swim 4200, do 30 min of abs work
Tues: swim 4200
Wed: swim 3100
Thurs: swim 3700, 30 min abs
Fri: swim 2600, run 5 mi
Sat: Run 7 mi
Sun: Swim 10,000

Total: swim 28,000, run 12 mi, 1 hr of abs

Happy New Year!!

2009-01-04T20:23:00.000-05:00

To usher in 2009, my swim friends and I completed our traditional 10,000 New Year swim practice. This may not seem like a fun thing to do after a night of drinking, but it's good luck. Very good luck. Since I don't like black eyed peas, this is one way to ensure a prosperous New Year.

7 of us showed up, at 8:00 am. There was several workouts to choose from, but to get it done as quickly as possible, we settled on doing 100 x 100yds. I swam with my friend Karen and we decided to do the set on a modest interval of 1:30, but to do it without stopping. With my new underwater MP3 player on (a Christmas present from Jason!), the practice was surprisingly painless and we were done in 2.5 hours. So it looks like this will be a lucky year! We had a very tasty brunch at Cracker Barrel afterward.

I also thought that that New Year would be a good time to officially start training for the English Channel. Clearly I have a lot of work ahead of me, but here is what I was able to crank out for week one:

Mon: swim 4400 yds, run 5 mi
Tues: swim 3100 yds in the am, swim 3200 yds in the pm
Wed: rest
Thurs: swim 10,000 yds (New Year practice!)
Fri: swim 3900 yds
Sat: Run 5 mi
Sun: Walk 5 mi

Week 1 total: swim 25,000 yds, run/walk 14 mi

Now on to week 2!