Barrington Ultra Marathon Swimmer helps others achieve their Dreams

Master Swimmer Don Macdonald knows in his heart that he would be gearing up to swim the English Channel if not for a cardiac arrhythmia that very nearly killed him.

Learning how to "take it easy" after the near-fatal episode, the 52-year Barrington man kayaked 28.5 miles around Manhattan Island on Saturday. Macdonald and his marathon swimming buddy and fellow Barrington resident, Doug McConnell, 56, have completed several similar grueling swims. But for the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, Macdonald merely offered support from the kayak as McConnell swam the course to raise money in the fight against ALS.



"Kayaking," Macdonald says dismissively, "is very easy."

With the tide helping propel his kayak, Macdonald says his effort was more emotional than physical.

"There's value in helping other people achieve their dreams," Macdonald says, recalling how he rooted as his investment banker friend swam the English Channel in 2011 just before a storm wiped out Macdonald's scheduled shot at fame. "You want to revel in his success, and at the same time I say, 'Oh, man, I wish that could be me. I know I could do it.'"

A doctor on the medical team that saved Macdonald's life says the environmental engineer appeared to be in shape for that 2011 trek across the choppy, cold water that separates England from France.

"Fortunately, he didn't get to do the English Channel," says Dr. George Christy, a cardiologist with Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington. "Swimming that distance in the cold of water for that long of time, there is a likelihood something adverse would have happened."

The bad weather that scuttled Macdonald's Channel swim gave the swimmer time to discover that a lingering pain in his shoulder blades was not just a training ache but a symptom of coronary disease.

"Here I am, a guy who swims 25 miles in 60-degree open water, and you're telling me I have clogged arteries?" Macdonald asked in disbelief.

Doctors inserted stents to open his narrowed arteries and put Macdonald on medication to regulate his heart.

"I'm fixed. They put the stents in. Let's go. Woo-hoo!" he remembers thinking. After a year of treatment and several stress tests on his heart, Macdonald was cleared to train again for a Channel swim this September.

"Even fit people develop coronary disease," says Christy, who adds that Macdonald developed another problem. "It's a false invulnerability people get, especially when they are endurance athletes. There's an aura of invincibility to some of these guys, and you can't blame them."

Having set swimming records during his high school career in Goshen, Indiana, competed on the swim team at Ball State University, played on the water polo team at Indiana University and enjoyed success as a master swimmer beating younger athletes, a confident Macdonald backed off his medications. "I made the decision to go with the less potent (medication), and it almost cost me my life," he says.

"He goes out for a jog when it's 100 degrees, which I wouldn't recommend for anybody," Christy says. Macdonald ran up to his home in the midst of a block party and "crashed," the doctor says, explaining how the athlete's heart went into ventricular fibrillation, an uncoordinated heart rhythm, which can be fatal.

A retired nurse on the scene performed CPR and a medical emergency team got him to Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital's emergency room within minutes. Knowing Macdonald's tolerance for long swims in cold water, doctors used a device to put him in a hypothermic state that lowered his body temperature.

"Neurological recovery was key," says Christy, noting that hypothermia slows the metabolic process that can cause cognitive damage when the brain goes without oxygen. Tests showed his heart and blood pressure were good. But Macdonald's life was in danger for days.

"Is he or is he not going to wake up? It was all guesswork until we warmed him up," Christy says.

"I wake up three or four days later," Macdonald says. "I don't remember a thing. I don't remember seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Nothing."

Knowing how close he came to dying and leaving behind his daughter, Rachel, 16, and his wife, Jennifer, Macdonald says he wants others to know the value of stress tests and good cardiac care.

"The harsh reality is very scary," say Macdonald, who practices kayaking in Lake Zurich and on Lake Michigan, but misses swimming. "I have been in the swimming pool three times, and just sort of paddled around. I'd be lying to you if I didn't say it was scary."

Long, open-water swims have been part of his life since high school, when he and pal Steve Conder swam 8 miles across Lake Wawasee in Indiana. Macdonald has completed swims from Alcatraz off the coast of San Francisco and lighthouses off the coast of Boston. He and McConnell swam marathon races in Crystal Lake, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

"We were beating kids in their 20s and 30s pretty regularly," Macdonald says. "One night at the dinner table, drinking some wine, we said, 'How about the English Channel?'"

McConnell became the 48th person older than 50 to swim the Channel and continues to do well in marathon swims. Macdonald, who has a device implanted in his chest to shock him if his heart gets out of rhythm, stays in the kayak.

"If it goes off when you're facedown in the water, you could drown. After all this, to die drowning, that would be really embarrassing," Macdonald says. "But I just can't sit on a floaty and hang around. It's not me."

When talk turns to his English Channel quest, he repeats the mantra, "Sometimes you have to let that go." Then he pauses.

"I'll tell you," Macdonald says, softening his voice as if he's sharing a secret. "I'm not so sure about that."

Reprinted with modifications from Daily Herald, Burt Constable.

Barrington resident Don Macdonald does not call himself an adrenaline junkie, but rather more of an adventurer – who has learned the art of restraint.

Macdonald, 52, previously swam the length of Tampa Bay, the Boston Harbor, Lake Zurich, Lake Michigan, off the coast of California’s Seal Beach and Manhattan Beach, and in the La Hoya Cove off the coast of San Diego.

Reprinted: Barrington Courier Bridget O'Shea

“I think water gives me a sense of freedom, but it’s a very quiet, lonely freedom,” said McDonald, noting that he has sometimes shared this freedom with jellyfish, dolphins and sea lions.

However, a different type of challenge presented itself to MacDonald in 2011, when he began to experience cardiac issues after returning from a trip overseas, where he planned to swim the English Channel but was unable to due to weather conditions.

While taking a break from swimming, MacDonald began experiencing shoulder, arm and chest pain, which he said he was not too worried about.

“When you’re training 10K a day for swimming, your body is going to ache,” he said.

However, it turned out that MacDonald did have mild heart issues. After seeing his doctor, who then referred him to a cardiologist, MacDonald was treated with stents for narrowed arteries, given a typical medication regimen and stress tests. He was later approved to begin training again for the English Channel.

“During that time, I was actually out jogging and I had a major cardiac arrhythmia event that put me in the hospital for 10 days,” he said. “I was standing at a block party after I ran and I collapsed. This kind of came out of the blue, which is why it was so challenging to wrap my head around.”

Luckily, a retired nurse was at the party and began resuscitating him.

“She saved my life,” he said.

MacDonald was taken to Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital, where cardiologists implanted a small defibrillator device just beneath his skin to detect any abnormalities and reset electrical impulses.

“It’s been challenging physically and emotionally,” said MacDonald, who was used to training by swimming up to 26 miles at a time in 50-degree water.

But instead of focusing on any setbacks, MacDonald is now using his experience as an example of the importance of proper health screenings and evaluations for open water swimmers, triathletes and others that engage in vigorous sports.

“People have to pay attention to what they are doing to their bodies,” he said. “Everybody needs to consider their health situation carefully. Here’s a guy who could swim the English Channel and look what happened to me.”

Particularly with high endurance sports, MacDonald said, a feeling of being indestructible can sometimes develop, leading to a false sense of security. He uses himself as an example.

“Before this, it had gotten to the point where I was no longer afraid to swim in any body of water regardless of seals, sharks or the temperature of the water,” he said. “The biggest thing is that you go from being able to do anything and everything to, ‘OK, what do I do now?’”

Since his 2011 stay at Good Shepherd, MacDonald has reached out to the community, working with high schools, middle schools and the District 220 Educational Foundation by speaking to young people as a living example of the importance of cardiac and other medical tests and screenings for athletes.

While less vigorous exercise is now part of his recovery, MacDonald, who has swum since he was a young child, has not lost his love for the water.

On June 28, he will kayak the perimeter of Manhattan Island in New York as his friend Doug McConnell swims in the Manhattan Island

Marathon Swim.

“Instead of curling up and being the wilting flower, I decided that instead of swimming every day, I would do kayaking,” he said.

MacDonald will kayak next to a 9-foot boat with food, water and medical supplies for the swimmers. His main objective, he said, is the safety of his friend.

MacDonald has kayaking experience, most notably the 28 miles from Catalina Island to Los Angeles, a ride that began in the middle of the night.

“It was pitch black,” he said. “You could hear dolphins and whales.”

Originally from Goshen, Ind., MacDonald said he moved to Barrington from Chicago about 15 years ago and he and his wife enjoy raising their daughter here.

“It’s a great community,” he said, describing Barrington as a place where you can go to the city, go horseback riding or go into town for ice cream.

“It truly has everything you want from a small town,” he said. “It’s kind of the quintessential experience.”

Barrington man takes on ‘Triple Crown’ challenge with swim around Manhattan

Don Macdonald Kayak's alongside Doug McConnell here pictured in the middle of the pacific ocean between Catalina Island and mainland California in 2013.

With Doug's swim, the third leg of the Triple Crown bearing down in several weeks, we have been focused on extending training time in open water. While Doug has the Yeoman's work in the water this time, Im in the kayak again, and support crew in the boat. Both exposed to the weather (what ever condition it is) for 9-10 hours. 

The biggest concern we have for Doug is safety. The rivers around New York Harbor are very congested and dangerous with large ocean going ships, ferries - docking, embarking at all hours. These ships also generate sizable waves that multiply both in height and length bouncing off sea walls causing both kayaker and swimmer tremendous stress to stay on course. 

The other challenge are the piers. These are not your standard piers but large loading docks, commercial businesses extending into the river sometimes 100 plus yards disrupting the flow of water, swirling ebbs, causing the kayaker and swimmer direction problems and immediate danger from a collision. 

"There's no room for error, the current never stops and at 2-4 MPH, you will get dragged into a pier pole, debris, or ship very easily", said Don Macdonald who recently went on a test run while in New York. 

As a marathon swimmer myself, I know its essential for me to remain focused on all aspects of Doug's safety but not outwardly show the slightest change in my tempo, direction and even mood as things happen. And they always do. 

As these swims progress, its not uncommon for swimmers to become depressed from the solitude of the effort coupled with the physical exhaustion. As the reach 6-8 hours mark, the swimmer hits "the wall" both physically and mentally. The slightest perception of stress can be detected from the swimmer, stress from changes to direction, hitting some debris floating in the water, swallowing some polluted water ... can weigh heavily on the swimmers mental outlook. 

For both of us, this will be another test of resilience, forged in the desire of pushing oneself to help others. 

Sometimes your simply alone

Article Reprinted from Sun Times

As harsh, cold and seemingly unending as the winter was, few were clamoring to take long dips in area lakes as of mid-May.

Doug McConnell, however, already was swimming about 20 miles a week, often in lakes registering thermometer readings in the 50s and 60s, including Lake Michigan.

No, he wasn’t wearing a wetsuit. And no, he’s not crazy. He’s on a mission.

On June 28, the 56-year-old will attempt what is known in marathon swimming circles as the MIMS, the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. Swimming long distances in breathtakingly, bone-achingly cold lakes is all part of the training.

McConnell, of Barrington, already swam across the English and Catalina channels. Only the MIMS — a 28.5-mile swim around Manhattan through the Hudson and Harlem rivers — stands between McConnell and the Triple Crown of open water swimming. If he makes it, he’ll join just more than a dozen others who have completed all three while over the age of 50.

Perhaps equally as remarkable, through a fundraising organization he started with his swimming friend and fellow Barrington resident Don Macdonald, McConnell has turned pulling and kicking his way through waves into more than $225,000 for the Les Turner ALS Foundation.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, claimed the life of McConnell’s father, David, in 2006. Another of his relatives now battles ALS.

“It’s just dreadful,” McConnell said of the disease, which affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. “It’s a slow motion shipwreck. To watch anybody you love go through that, to see them just go to pieces like that, it’s hard to watch.”

Proceeds from McConnell’s organization, A Long Swim, go to the Les Turner ALS Laboratory to advance treatments and find a cure. Researchers are making great strides, McConnell said.

“It’s a pretty gratifying and exciting time to be supporting research into a disease that has frustrated so many for such a long time,” he said. “There are drug trials going on. There are new discoveries about upper motor neurons.”

Dr. P. Hande Ozdinler is director of the Les Turner ALS Laboratory and an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.

Support received through McConnell and A Long Swim has been vital, Ozdinler said. With it, Ozdinler developed a method of making corticospinal motor neurons fluorescent. The labeling makes it easier for doctors to discover what goes wrong in patients with ALS and other motor neuron-affecting diseases.

Because of the headway that’s been made, the National Institutes of Health has granted $3 million to further studies at the lab, Ozdinler said.

“Before we got the NIH money, the only support was from the Les Turner Foundation, which depends heavily on people like Doug,” Ozdinler said. “His efforts make a difference.”

McConnell, meanwhile, is focused on ensuring that his body is well-prepared for the MIMS. Though he swims throughout the year at Foglia YMCA, recent conditioning has meant 6 a.m. loops around Lake Zurich and adventures in Lake Michigan, as well.

“It’s just such a lift to be outside in the sunshine,” he said. “The water’s been cold, but boy oh boy, to be out there and watch the sun come up, it’s just fabulous.”

McConnell expects to encounter chilly waters in New York, which “had the same crazy winter we did,” he said.

“The only way to get acclimated to cold water is to spend a lot of time in cold water,” McConnell continued. “It can be unpleasant and so forth, but the acclimation really works.”

McConnell noted that hypothermia is not a condition to be taken lightly. His swims are monitored. The crew often includes his wife, Susan, and their four children, ranging in age from 16 to 26. Macdonald also typically is there, riding alongside in a kayak.

The Manhattan Island Marathon Swim will start at Battery Park, with a view of the Statue of Liberty in the harbor. Twenty-three swimmers are signed up to participate on June 28, McConnell said. Others are swimming June 14 and July 12.

Start time is 7:20 a.m. Central time.

“They time it carefully around an incoming tide,” McConnell said. “It’s what pushes you north up the East River. You swim on the East River to about 120th or 130th Street, and then you cut left. You take the Harlem River northwest and swim that to 210th Street.

“That’s where the Harlem dumps into the Hudson, and you take that back to Battery Park,” he said. “This is 28.5 miles. However, because of the tidal push on the East River and the downstream ride on the Hudson, most people do it in eight or nine hours. It swims more like 17 or 18 miles rather than 28.

“That, of course, is all dependent upon the day and how well you’re able to hook into the currents.”

McConnell said he looks forward to the event, which also is a race. He crossed the English Channel — a feat that included 25-knot winds and 5-foot waves as well as pitch-black darkness — in 14 hours and 18 minutes. The Catalina Channel took 12 hours, 41 minutes.

McConnell said that turning a personal goal into a charitable endeavor adds to his motivation.

The response from both corporations and individuals has been tremendous. Minneapolis-based Medtronic is among his sponsors. The company makes medical devices, including the PRESTIGE disc, one of which was implanted in McConnell’s spine in 2009.

“From individuals, we had some $5 donations and one that was $5,000. The message and the disease really resonate with people,” McConnell said. “Many of the donations were from good friends of my father’s. I have another family member battling with ALS now, and a lot of old friends of hers are donating.”

Anyone interested in learning more or donating is encouraged to visit alongswim.com.

“The funding that [McConnell] received has turned into something really big and really good,” Northwestern’s Ozdinler said. “Without him and the support of the foundation, I don’t think we would have been able to generate the tools we have today.”

Nutrient Timing for Athletes – how the right types of sugar can help you

This will be the first of several posts from the same blog article. Offers great advice for those open water swimmers and athletes looking for alternate and healthful food energy sources beyond Gu's, maltodextrins and energy drinks.

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First things first, a carbohydrate is a sugar is a carbohydrate. The term carbohydrate refers to organic compounds with only carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms and sugar, or sucrose, is just one of many. Each has their own distinct structure, hormonal response and health impact, but for the point of this discussion it is important to remember that:

1. Refined sugar and excess fructose are highly inflammatory, which from an athletic point of view is the enemy to recovery and subsequent performance.
2. Excess carbohydrate consumption can inhibit our body’s ability to burn fat, which is the limiting factor in endurance events.

And because I know you’re now curious, to increase your fat burning ability and therefore your endurance capacity:

1. Make refined sugar free eating a priority.
2. Reduce your fructose intake.
3. Rely less on starchy processed carbohydrates. Fact. You definitely don’t need to be following our traditional (and now almost obsolete) food pyramid, or guidelines of up to ten times your body weight in grams per day (i.e. 10g/kg BW/day). I promise.
4. Train on an empty stomach a couple of times a week. More on this to come.

Carbohydrates: friend or foe?

A day-to-day intake heavily reliant on starchy carbohydrates (e.g. breads, rice, cereals, potatoes, sugary sports drinks and lollies) will not only limit your fat burning ability, but may also result in an inadequate protein intake and a diet lacking in many essential trace nutrients, vitamins and minerals. This most certainly will have a negative effect on your recovery and performance.

To increase performance and recovery however, the right types of carbohydrates can be extremely beneficial. Here’s why:

Firstly, carbohydrates are more oxygen-efficient than fat. Put simply, more energy is produced from the same amount of oxygen when carbohydrates are broken down. Why is this important? Oxygen availability is limited and determined by your own individual maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max). The consumption of carbohydrates during exercise of extended duration therefore, tops up your individual supply and acts to extend performance. Without this, your body will simply run of fuel and eventually come to a complete stop, otherwise known as “hitting the wall”.

Secondly, carbohydrates are the only macronutrient that can also be broken down rapidly without oxygen, to provide large amounts of extra energy during intense exercise. This anaerobic metabolism is vital to maximal performance for bouts between fifteen seconds and three minutes in duration. It is for this reason that athletes such as sprinters and weight lifters should consume carbohydrates prior to exercise, in order to supply adequate fuel for the following exercise effort.

Lastly, carbohydrates act to optimise muscle and liver glycogen stores (basically the carbohydrate you eat stored in your body) and enhance recovery from longer training sessions and endurance events. So the key to carbohydrate intkae is nutrient timing – when you eat them and why.

Reprinted from:
THE NATURAL NUTRITIONIST

Healthy Nutrition - What 2000 Calories Looks Like

Heart healthy nutrition for athletes (of any age) is a subject often not spoken about at the family dinner table, the team locker room, or often by coaches until you reach perhaps the elite level and even then selectively or at best incorrectly.  

Coupled with ninja marketing campaigns from babyhood ranging from outright miss-information to subliminal marketing, these messages cross the airwaves and internet bombarding our kids, teens and families. 

So for starters lets begin with some basics:

Stressed kids eat even when they’re full - Lack of Resilience ?

For all you One Stroke at a Time readers, This insightful article touches on some points parents might consider for resilience building skills for yourself and your kids. 

It suggests one of the factors driving obese kids could be a lack of underlying social and emotional resilience, leading to an inability to properly cope with and manage day-to-day life stress's, eating not for fuel but for comfort. I suppose many of us parents could learn from this as well with the side benefit of heart healthy living. Enjoy the commentary...

PENN STATE / JOHNS HOPKINS (US) — Children who overreact to stressful situations will eat even if they’re not hungry, raising their risk of becoming overweight or obese, a new study shows.

Children whose cortisol levels stayed high after being exposed to a stressor had the highest BMIs and consumed the greatest number of calories in the absence of hunger. (Credit:iStockphoto)

“Our results suggest that some children who are at risk of becoming obese can be identified by their biological response to a stressor,” says Lori Francis, associate professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State. “Ultimately, the goal is to help children manage stress in ways that promote health and reduce the risks associated with an over- or under-reactive stress response.”

For a new study published in the journal Appetite, Francis and her colleagues, Elizabeth Susman, professor of biobehavioral health, and Douglas Granger, director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research at Johns Hopkins University, recruited 43 children ages 5- to 9-years-old and their parents.

Straight from the Source

Read the original study

DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2012.11.008

To examine the children’s reactions to a stressor, the team used the Trier Social Stress Test for Children, which consists of a five-minute anticipation period followed by a 10-minute stress period.

During the stress period, the children were asked to deliver a speech and perform a mathematics task. The team measured the children’s responses to these stressors by comparing the cortisol content of their saliva before and after the procedure.

The researchers also measured the extent to which the children ate after saying they were not hungry using a protocol known as the Free Access Procedure. The team provided the children with lunch, asked them to indicate their hunger level and then gave them free access to generous portions of 10 snack foods, along with a variety of toys and activities. The children were told they could play or eat while the researchers were out of the room.

The team found that, on average, the children consumed 250 kilocalories of the snack foods during the Free Access Procedure, with some consuming small amounts (20 kilocalories) and others consuming large amounts (700 kilocalories).

“We found that older kids, ages 8 to 11, who exhibited greater cortisol release over the course of the procedure had significantly higher body-mass indices [BMI] and consumed significantly more calories in the absence of hunger than kids whose cortisol levels rose only slightly in response to the stressor,” Francis says.

“We also found that kids whose cortisol levels stayed high—in other words, they had low recovery—had the highest BMIs and consumed the greatest number of calories in the absence of hunger.”

The study suggests that children who have poor responses to stressors already are or are at risk of becoming overweight or obese. In her future work, she plans to examine whether children who live in chronically stressful environments are more susceptible to eating in the absence of hunger and, thus, becoming overweight or obese, Francis says.

“It is possible that such factors as living in poverty, in violent environments, or in homes where food is not always available may increase eating in the absence of hunger and, therefore, increase children’s risk of becoming obese.”

The Children, Youth and Families Consortium at Penn State and the National Institutes of Health provided funding for this research.

Source: Penn State

Nutrition: How Food And Clothing Size Labels Affect What We Eat And What We Wear

I found this analysis and commentary rather insightful recently as I asked for a grilled chicken sandwich and to my surprise found a monster gulp size drink being handed to me. I politely said you have got to be kidding, thats why Americans are exploding in size and dying from all sorts of diseases related to processed foods and huge servings. So take this article re-print for whats its worth and perhaps consider next time size really does matter...

When you go into a restaurant, you probably give some thought to whether you're ordering a small, regular or large sandwich.

That makes sense.With widening waistlines across the land, many of us want to make a health-conscious choice. But are we really getting a small portion when we order a small sandwich?

Article from H. Thompson & S. Vedantam

Well, that depends.

University of Michigan marketing professor Aradhna Krishna has studied how labels impact how much we eat. In one experiment, she gave people cookies that were labeled either medium or large, and then measured how much they ate.

 The catch? The cookies were identical in size.

"Just because there's a different size label attached to the same actual quantity of food, people eat more. But also, [they] think they've not eaten as much," says Krishna.

What happened? You guessed it. People ate more cookies when they were labeled "medium." Rather than trust what their stomachs were telling them, in other words, people went by the label.

Krishna said the psychological principle at work has big ramifications because a 32-ounce soda at McDonald's is called a large soda, but the same drink at Wendy's is called a medium. A small coffee is 10 ounces at Dunkin' Donuts and 12 ounces at Caribou Coffee. When you trust labels, you could end up eating and drinking a lot more than you thought. Check out some visuals over at fastfoodmarketing.org.

Most Americans, moreover, don't realize the "large" soda they order today is about six times as large as the same soda 60 years ago, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Across the U.S., again what has happened is that food sizes have become larger over time," says Krishna. "So, that same hamburger has become bigger, the french fries have become bigger, and again this is leading to obesity."

Restaurants today can label food and drink as they please. But given the power of labels in shaping behavior, Krishna said that standardizing portion sizes across restaurants could have a bigger impact on public health than New York City's controversial recent ban on all sodas larger than 16 ounces at restaurants and other eateries.

"We're not talking about restrictions in terms of freedom in any way," she said. "All I'm saying is that sizes should be made more uniform, and that will only help the consumer because you'll know what you're getting."

Sticking labels on menus isn't the only way to influence what people eat. As we've reported before, eating off a smaller platecan cause people to overestimate the serving size they've received — and eat less. Drinking beer from a straight glass, rather than a curved one, makes people drink more slowly and better gauge how much they've had to drink.

Krishna said the phenomenon of labels' influencing consumer behavior isn't unique to food. So-called vanity sizing is rampant in the clothing industry. Marketers are relabeling large-size clothes as small to give customers the satisfaction of feeling that they still fit into small-size clothing.

"What used to be a size 8 in the 1950s has become a size 4 in the 1970s and a zero in 2006," Krishna said.

	The New York Times

In another study, Krishna and her colleagues found that vanity sizing improved people's body image. Labels shape our experiences in both positive and negative ways.

Referring to different bust sizes among women in Asian countries and in the United States, Krishna argued that people often don't have control over their body size and shouldn't need to feel blame or shame for not conforming to society's ideals. "It's not a question of being lied to," she said. "It's a question of do you want to be lied to."

I guess I better just keep swimming...One Stroke At A Time

What would you pay to keep from getting sick as you get older? How about a daily walk or other exercise? A new study suggests that’s exactly the right investment. In the study, people who were the most fit at midlife lived longer and spent less time being sick than middle-aged folks who weren’t fit.

I am actually a better swimmer today than when I was 20, says Don, now 50.
I find the mental ability to overcome barriers can easily let me keep swimming further.
In recent years Don has trained millions of yards, most in cold open water below 70f with no wetsuit.

Probably the most difficult aspect of training as we get older is cross training to balance fitness and muscle response to prevent injury.

  

There are many benefits to staying physically active and exercising daily. Exercise

• strengthens the heart and lungs
• makes blood vessels more flexible and responsive, improving circulation
• controls blood pressure and cholesterol
• helps muscles burn sugar
• reduces stress
• decreases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, some cancers, and other chronic conditions
• preserves memory and prolongs life

Another important effect of exercise, one that doesn’t get enough attention, is that it improves fitness. Fitness is a measure of how well your heart, blood vessels, blood, and lungs work together to supply muscles with oxygen during sustained exercise. It also estimates how efficiently the muscles use the oxygen. Fitness also reflects your exercise capacity.

The most accurate fitness gauge requires complicated machinery and sensors to measure the maximum oxygen consumed during exercise. This is called VO2max. It can also be done using the kind of treadmill test that cardiologists commonly use to check for heart disease.

Fitness translates to better health later on

To explore the effect of fitness on health status in old age, researchers with the Cooper Institute in Dallas looked at information that had been gathered from more than 18,600 men and women who were part of another long-term health study. When the study began, their median age was 49. Fitness levels were measured using a type of treadmill test. Once a volunteer reached age 65, the researchers tracked his or her health with Medicare claims information.

Those who were the most fit at midlife were less likely over the course of the 26-year study to have died of coronary artery disease, Alzheimer’s, heart failure, diabetes and other chronic conditions, the researchers reported in Archives of Internal Medicine. Just over 2,400 people died during the study. In the last five years of their lives, the people who had been most fit at midlife spent about 50% less time with four or more chronic diseases than the least fit group and 34% more time with no or one chronic disease.

Find your fitness

How do you improve your fitness? Increase the amount and the intensity of exercise over time.

Exercise capacity is usually measured in metabolic equivalents (METs). One MET is the amount of oxygen used when sitting still or sleeping. Nonathletic, healthy, middle-aged men and women have peak exercise capacities in the range of 8 to 10 METs. Marathon runners can have values as high as 18 to 24.

But you don’t need an expensive exercise stress test to determine your fitness. Many fitness centers have exercise machines that show METs. Some home treadmills and elliptical trainers also show METs.

If you don’t have access to such a machine, or don’t like exercising on one, you can measure your current fitness with a simple walking test. All it takes is a one-mile track or level terrain that you know is one mile long. You’ll also need a stopwatch or watch with a second hand, paper, and a pen or pencil.

First, get yourself warmed up by walking briskly for a few minutes. Record the time and start walking as fast as you can. Push yourself, but don’t overdo it. When you cross the one-mile mark, record the time again. Calculate how many minutes it took to finish the mile.

	Time in minutes to walk one mile
Fitness level	50-year-old woman	50-year-old man
Excellent	under 14:42	under 13:24
Good	14:42 to 15:36	13:24 to 14:24
Average	15:37 to 17:00	14:25 to 15:12
Fair	17:01 to 18:06	15:13 to 16:30
Poor	more than 18:06	more than 16:30

Don’t be concerned about how low your METs are now or how slow you walked. What’s important is to improve them. You can do this with regular exercise that challenges your body. That means working hard enough to speed up your heartbeat and breathing.

The intensity of exercise and the amount of time spent exercising that are needed to improve fitness differ from person to person. The goal is to increase your METs or decrease the number of minutes it takes you walk one mile. Don’t rush it. Improving fitness starts within weeks but will continue for months.

Reprinted from: 

Howard LeWine, M.D., Chief Medical Editor
Internet Publishing, Harvard Health Publications

One Stroke at a Time Wins Nomination for Best Swimming Blog

"The nominations are an annual collection of the web’s most inspirational and thought-provoking blogs geared to teaching resilience through the educational systems of our country".

2012 Fascination Awards – Swimming Blogs

I am fortunate to receive such a nomination, any nomination, for the blog which simply reflects a persons journey to conquer life-long dreams despite everyday obstacles, to perhaps touch someone, somehow to take that next step, just outside their comfort zone by taking "One Stroke at a Time".

This journey is actually a team effort even through I am usually the one in the water. My team and this recognition belongs to my family members, coaches, close friends and training partners that support me to swim in various places around the world, namely the big marathon swims such as the English Channel, Tampa Bay, Catalina, Lake Superior, Hudson River all 20 plus miles each and usually a 10-14 hour event. The real work happens every day in a lake or pool, not the big event. 

This nomination came as a nice surprise but the article I wrote wasn't. The article nominated was for recalling my post English Channel attempt routine physical stress test where we discovered I had arterial blockage and during the recovery period actually flat lined for 8 seconds. Good news it was likely the post recovery withdrawal of Beta Blockers that were used to suppress my heart rate too quickly and that's it. I guess being a swimmer with a normal resting heart rate of 42 or so plus these drugs doesn't mix well. Since then I have completed a post procedure stress and passed with flying colors and recently re-started strength training and will later in the fall be back to swimming regularly for next season.