Tricks and stratagems

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