Alcatraz Swim

Found a you tube post of the Alcatraz Swim from two years ago that was my first. What a blast!!

Training swim - Madison, WI 2.4 mile race

Had fun in Madison, WI yesterday with the 2.4 mile open water race. Finished in 1:11:03 very relaxed and comfortable. Could have easily kept going a long time and that made me feel good. Swam with DOug McConnell and he had a great swim at 1:01. He has a very base and excellent stroke mechanics. He will continue to be a good inspiration and training partner as we go to these elsewhere.

My first official mass start was all the arms, legs, kicking and "bumper cars" of the 288 person start,,,,something. Threw me off a little bit especially when you really dont get a chance to warm up correctly. Doing more of these races in the future will be training but warming up a good idea if allowed.

Once out threre, got settled after 1/2 mile and worked through into the second mile. This came easier and I was able to focus on stroke rate and long pulls catching wet suit folks consistently. Swimming without a wetsuit is a great mental motivator to me as I look at it as "I'm tougher and still go as fast or faster" I think with some more experience with these starts I'll do even better. Overall a nice experience and good start to the racing side of open water swimming. As for finishing, Doug got I 15th and I finished at 38 out of 288. We both were pleased since this was a tough field. Many major tri-athletes were there gearing up for the Ironman and let me tell you some of them are really in shape!

In all, I am most pleased with how comfortable I felt, giving the level of training done to date (20k per week with no weights, cross training, etc) and know as I bring in other cross training and activity I will only get better.

Old saying - age, cunning & deceit...shall over come youth, brawn...

Well this week has been harder than expected on the body. I finaaly gave in and had to go see a orthopod. neck and left shoulder been bothering me with dull low grade pain. At this point (e.g. without MRI) it appears to simple overwork and lack of conditioning. The physical theripist has me doing some basic stretching and weight work to strengthen the neck and shoulder muscles back into balance.

I knew this was coming and now that its here will be joining the health club for weight training in the next several weeks. This will be a good break since outdoor swim practice at 630 am ends next week and back inside at the highschool. Because masters swim only 3x per week I was going to have to join a club anyway.

Tommrrow I have the Madison, WI 2.4 mile race. As this will be my first mass start should be interesting. I am planning to cruise at 30 minute mile pace so a 1hour and 10 minute finish would be nice, relax and negative split the back part. I seem to be able to make up good ground and concentrate on stroke technique for long pull cycles later in the effort but this has always been by myslef not in a pack. I need to find my own way and pace.

This should be a good training benchmark going forward.

Charity Ideas

I am in the formative stages of deciding what charity work I might tie into this effort. One aspect that intregues me is the potential to partner with several in a sponsorship arrangement where I do the swimming and us the miles swum as the donation metric. Perhaps they can manage the money side and folks could donat?

I would like to consider ideas from folks in Goshen, Indiana my original home town and where I live now Barrington, IL as well.

If you have ideas please let me know.

A fun picture swimming across Lake Wawasee 2007 Dad and daughter

This picture was taken in summer 2007 while vacationing back at Wawasee. Rachel decided to try a short cross morning swim with me and dad took the pictures. Reminded me of many summers, swim club swims across Syracuse and swimming the big 8 miler with Steve Conder.

Anyway - This weeks practice has been good above 4000 each day with hard sets, kicking and IM's. Fly is coming back around as shoulder strength increases. Starting to get serious about nutrition assessment and fuel for longer swims and looking at alternatives for practice as summer pool closes labor day so back inside.

Thanks to Emily Springer for joining the blog, appreciate the support. Emily was also a good swimmer from Goshen days.

how do you eat an elephant?

answer - one bit at a time.

goal setting both short and long term will be essential...

Friday lake swim

Looking forward to my usual Friday lake swim. plan a few miles hopefully its cold and choppy :).

I have a 2.4 mile swim planned in two weeks in Madison, WI called "MOWS" with US Masters so this should be fun. Since I am a loner when it comes to open water swimming, I have never done a mass tri-athlete type start, suppose I should bring my boxing gloves or I am sure my old water polo skills of grabbing swim suits should come in handy??

Thanks to Steve Conder, from Goshen, IN and an old swimming buddy for being the first supporter. Lets find a way to do an open water swim?