Thy Kingdom Come

Now training for the 10 mile Kingdom Swim in Vermont

http://www.kingdomswim.org/

Feeling a little flat at the moment but will try a long swim in the lake this Sunday. I believe the water in Vermont will be high 60’s-low 70’s. This should be a gimme for me after all the cold water training for MIMS, but it sure won’t hurt me to keep up the cold stuff.

Kingdom swim is in Newport Vermont.
Does anyone know a good place to stay?

I came out of a 2000 yard workout today feeling lightheaded and arms like lead. Hopefully it’s just because I’ve taken up running again!! Day off tomorrow to recharge the batteries.

Please Sir, I want some more

5 days to go until the big race..

Imagine my horror when I checked out the donations page on the race site this morning and saw that one of the other entrants hasMORE DONATIONS THAN ME!!

I am most seriously displeased.

If anyone would like to help me address this travesty, please go to:

http://www.nycswim.org/Event/Event.a…from=donations

and make a donation in my real name (Amanda Hunt).

My charity is the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and I’m giving away a free ShamWow to everyone who donates $10 or more in my name 

650

The Eggplant that Ate Chicago

With less than 4 weeks until the big swim, I’m running out of time to re-acclimatise myself to the cold.

Sick of sitting in a cold bath with only my hives for company, I ventured into Ohio St Beach, Chicago, for a quick immersion in Lake Michigan. My friend Liz went with me, though she vowed she wasn’t coming in to rescue me should the need arise. Hmmmm. I was also accompanied by my good friend Stanley, and Pepe, my newly acquired Epipen (in case of apopleptic shock).

What a beautiful day! Sunny, outside air temperature in the high 60’s and smooth, blue waters.

Water temperature supposedly in the high 40’s
http://www.coastwatch.msu.edu/michigan/m54.html

My thermometer read 51-52, and I’m going with that!

I set a modest goal of 20 minutes, as I wanted the day to be a success. Longer swims can come later.

25 minutes later I emerged feeling great! Shivery of course, but not too bad 
I was red all over, like a sunburn, but not a hive in sight 

617

 

Lunch in the sun at Bubba Gump’s defrosted me and we headed home.

Determined to insulate myself as much as possible, I stopped by the Haagen Daaz store on the way to the carpark.

Me: “I’ll have the dulce Sunday please”

Haagen Daaz girl: “ok”

Me: “how much will that be?”

HD Girl: “that’ll be $8.50”

Me: “$8.50?”

HD Girl: “$8.50.”

Me: “$8.50?”

HD Girl: “$8.50.”

Me: (discreetly looking for a price list) “$8.50?”

Thinking I’d heard wrong (people talk funny in Chicago) I handed her a $20. $11.50 came back to me accompanied by a delicious treat.  oh well!

616

Hysterical Goose Pimples

It’s now a month since my glorious, cold-water, clothing-optional qualifying swim at Austin’s Hippie Hollow.

I’ve swum many yards in this month, but all in a balmy 80-82 degree pool.

With the big race looming over me (6 weeks to go), I’ve decided to re-acclimatise myself to cold water. After all, who wants to swim 17000 yard workouts in training only to to be pulled from the water during the race because of silly-old hypothermia!?

So, for the second time this week, I ran myself a lovely cold bath and lay in it for as long as I could.

HIVES!!!!

553

Of course, my camera doesn’t do these raised, red, livid looking wheals any justice at all. Also my tiles need regrouting.

After consulting Google, I learned that my cold-induced hives were called “cold urticaria”.

Hives caused by the cold.

Apparently I suffered an allergic reaction to cold water.

556

In the above picture the hives are very raised, red and look like a cross between a bad case of chicken pox and measles. This photo was taken only minutes after getting out of a 66 deg bath (immersion 25 min total-very minimal!). Very itchy. They covered both legs and were worse on my feet and ankles.

DermNetNZ.com says that my condition could be either acquired (most likely idiopathic), or familial.

At the moment I’m going with the acquired “idiopathic” cause. This is mainly because I’m a bit of an idio, and also because I disproved the familial. I convinced my skinny but daring 9 year old, Harriet, to get in the cold bath with me. You could have heard the screams a mile away, but when the big H takes up a challenge, she doesn’t give up. No hives on her!!

About.com:dermatology claims that in cases such as mine, swimming in cold water can cause “massive release of histamine resulting in low blood pressure, fainting, shock, and even death”.

DrGreene.com claims that cold urticaria is a really good excuse not to go swimming in cold water, and is made more bearable by extra hugs. However, the same Dr Greene also claims that cold urticaria can be a symptom of a number of unpronouncable diseases, including, but not limited to syphilis.

All the websites I consulted advised taking an antihistamine prior to taking the plunge. That would be ideal, but I’d have to campaign for the legalisation of the Li-lo so I could nap.

558

Actually, I’ve only had these hives a few times before, and usually only when I haven’t been in cold water for a while. I didn’t even get them while training in Texas (though I did go dark red), so I assumed they were a Lake Michigan “thing”. Of course, our town water comes from the lake, so that might still be true.

Is that your Gu or are you just pleased to see me?

It’s done!! It’s done!!

The monkey’s off my back.

The 4 hour in 61 degrees or less qualifying swim for the Manhattan race is finally done!!

I arrived at Windy Point (Lake Travis, Austin) at 8am Sunday March 22nd. Air temp 64, water temp 60. Windy and choppy (it doesn’t look so in this photo). Terrified. The longest I’d been was 1 hour at 60 degrees.

After an extended period of procrastination, personal lubrication (vaseline), and psychosomatic illness, I took the plunge. By this time it was 8.18am.

528

I swam a couple of sad, self pitying laps of Windy point for about 40 minutes.

Feeling miserable and cold, I asked my friend and observer LeighAnn for some hot soup. Out came Stanley, my thermos and second-best friend.

530

Life suddenly got a whole lot better.

Buoyed by my newfound warmth, I headed round to Hippie Hollow to swim with some guys I’d only met via email, but who were nice enough to include me in their morning OW swim. LeighAnn drove the car and paid the hefty $10 parking fee. I swam there in about 25 minutes at an EZ pace to find my new friends already in the water.

Having checked out Hippie Hollow as a potential swimmin’ hole the day before, I knew what to expect.

529

Not a problem. I had a very liberal upbringing down-under.

We swam laps of Hippie Hollow for about an hour and a half, blessed with a constant stream of entertainment provided by nudists engaged in a myriad of activities on the rocky shore. Stanley came to my rescue about every half hour, and although I felt a little uncomfortable, I never got to the point of shivering.

My new swim buddies, Robert Alford and Tom Fornoff finished their swim, and I realised to my delight that by the time I swam back to Windy Point I’d be more than 3/4 of the way through my swim!! Yippee!!

By this time the wind had picked up to gusts of 30mph and there were white horses everywhere. Tough conditions, but I think they distracted me from the cold and boredom of swimming alone.

I took my time returning to Windy Point and there was only about 30-40 minutes remaining when I arrived. One more shot of Stanley and a couple more laps and I was there!!

My last 10 minutes were occupied by swimming a bit of breaststroke, stretching and watching a catamaran capsize.

12.18 precisely (not that I was watching the clock..) and I was outa there!!!

Very happy, very relieved, very grateful to all that helped, and feeling a lot better than expected, I went back to my friend’s house, showered, dressed, had some food and a Stella. Bliss.

During the swim I think I had 2 quart sized Stanleys of chicken broth, some gatorade (can’t remember how much), 6 Gu’s and an Ensure with a chaser of lake water.

My only complaints during the swim were a sore lower back (probably from sighting over the waves) and squashed ears because I wore 2 caps (legal!!). I also saw several Texan sized Bass and unfortunately, from below, a middle aged man hiking in nothing but a pair of shoes and a daypack. Quite a point of interest.

527

THANK YOU to all my friends in Austin, Texas, for helping me do something I didn’t think was possible. My friend LeighAnn Doherty and family, Lynne Smith, David Blanke and my new Hippie Hollows Robert and Tom.

Can’t wait to go back 🙂

Pearls of Wisdom

I’ve been a pretty hard-core, serious swimmer for 6 years now, and I think it’s my duty to pass on some of the valuable lessons I’ve learned the hard way.

Top 10 things never to eat/drink less than 1-2 hours prior to swimming:

1. A pulled pork sandwich;
2. Garlic bread;
3. 4 pieces of pizza (pepperoni);
4. Sardines;
5. more than 2 slices of birthday cake;
6. A really hot curry;
7. Baked beans;
8. a burrito;
9. 2+ cups of espresso (after the 3rd toilet break in a 1hr workout, don’t bother getting back in);
10. beer.

Top 10 things not to do less than an hour or two prior to swimming:

1. dye your hair red;
2. take an antihistamine;
3. apply self-tanning lotion;
4. get nice and warm in the hottub;
5. put on eye makeup;
6. start watching a long movie;
7. put a roast in the oven;
8. go for a long run;
9. go to the dentist;
10. donate blood.

I hope this has been helpful.

Beware the Ides of March

Tonight’s blog is a tired blog.

Today was my long swim day, and what a perfect day to be inside swimming for 4 hours.

It was the warmest, sunniest day we’ve had in Chicagoland for months. Aside from being tired, grumpy and in the final stages of Consumption, I woke up with “ladies” problems….grrrrrr. To cap it off, it was the Ides of March!!!!!!!

After much thought, I decided that the following would be a good workout:

488

This turned out to be way too easy, even for a consumptive, and I finished it in a personal best time.

So after much melding and mixing of my various plastic baggy clad workouts, the following was achieved:

489

yards swum: 13,100;
toilet breaks: 6;
coffee consumed: 20oz:
Nutrition: 3 bottles of water, 1 ensure drink (yuk), 20 oz espresso, 2 gels (lemon sublime and vanilla), 1 small block of Cadbury’s milk chocolate and 4 Tim Tams.
Recovery: 2 Stella Artois and miniburgers at the pub.

and there was much rejoicing.

It’s not over til the fat lady sings

This is more of a cry for help than a blog.

I’m doing a lot of long pool and OW swimming at the moment. A fair amount of my swims are solo, and I never really know what’s going to be swirling through what’s left of my grey matter during these sessions.

Usually there’s nothing at all going on upstairs, but occasionally I’m tormented by a song that’s completely annoying. I recently aborted an open water training session much sooner than I should have, and I honestly believe Jefferson Starship was to blame (NOT me!).

I’m sure I’m not alone.

What are the worst songs you can have stuck in your head during a swim??

Here’s a sample of some of the more painful songs I’ve endured during long OW swims:

1. “We Built this City” by Jefferson Starship;
2. “We’re all Alone” by Boz Scaggs;
3. “Lonely No More” by Rob Thomas;
4. “Island Girl” by Elton John;
5. “Dreadlock Holiday” by 10CC;
6. “Lumberjack” by Monty Python;
7. “We all know frogs go pop in the microwave” author unknown, but the party who suggested this song before a swim knows who she is…Kim Weeks….;
8. “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield;
9. “I’ve done Everything for You” again..Rick Springfield;
10. “Come on Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners;
11. “Jaws Theme” by John Williams.

I’ll end on that one, but there are many more.

Suggestions as to GOOD music to think of while swimming would be appreciated!

Chicken signing off…