Category Archives: Uncategorized

Channel Swimming Art

Years and years ago, and I’m talking decades, I remember a cartoon, perhaps in the New Yorker, called The Loneliness of the Long Distance Swimmer. The cartoon was black and white, and along the theme of the popular book and movie The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. I recall a poster showing a man from the back, running down a road, which winds away in the distance, like an art student’s study on perspective. The cartoon was similar, with a pool swimmer standing at the end of a pool lane, which winds away into the distance, over hills and dales, the lane disappearing into the far distance. I wish I could find that cartoon.

My search for the cartoon has led me to other art on the subject of marathon swimming. There are several for the English Channel.

Capt Webb crosses the English Channel

 

Ederle Crossing the English Channel
Ederle Crossing the English Channel

Found one of the wonderful Florence Chadwick at the end of her Catalina crossing.

Florence Chadwick finishes Catalina
Florence Chadwick finishes Catalina

One of my all-time favorites is this beauty from across the pond.

cross-channel-swim-lgOf course, the best artwork for channel swimming is a channel swimmer’s plot map of his/her own swim. I hope to have one of those one day, but for my dear reader(s) who don’t know what I’m talking about, here is one from friend of the blog, Evan.

Evan Morrison's Catalina crossing
Evan Morrison’s Catalina crossing

That would look nice hanging on the wall, wouldn’t it? What’s your favorite marathon swimming artwork?

 

Movember is over

Well, Movember is done. I’ll shave today, it no longer being November. I did my best, not sure if I “beat” anyone, as if you can actually beat anyone at moustache growing. And, as you can see, dear reader(s), I decided to grow both a moustache and a beard. I looked too porny the first week, and didn’t want to scare the kids.

Not that what I was able to grow didn’t scare any kids. You be the judge(s).

Movember is over
Movember is over

Delaware River

Spent a little time learning about our past. Family and I visited The National Constitution Center, on Constitution Day, which was awesome, both for historical reasons and for monetary reasons, as entry was free. (Saving me over $100, and that was with one fewer kid in attendance.) At the Center, besides watching a great presentation about the Constitution (worth (re-)reading) we got to see an actual copy of the Emancipation Proclamation (also worth (re-)reading) signed by President Lincoln, as well as one of 20 copies in existence of the Constitution (and the first public printing in an actual Philadelphia newspaper), two days after the actual document was signed. Incredible.

The next day we went to the site of Washington’s Crossing, when he and his troops crossed the Delaware river to sneak up on the British in Trenton. The area was beautiful, thanks to mid-70’s weather and the sun shining brightly. At this very historical location I learned two things: 1) the family and I are going to trace Washington’s Victory Trail someday and 2) the Delaware looks perfect for swimming.

861402_4725889163765_498802146_o

I call on my fellow marathon swimmers in the Pennsylvania area (you know who I’m talking to, right Leonard?): let’s find a 10K stretch of this river to swim one day! My wife can kayak it for us. Maybe we can do it on an historical day (not on the day of his crossing, that being Christmas Eve), combine it with activities at the two parks (one on the NJ and one on the PA side), what do you say? New Hope, PA to the park (south current) is about 11K. Cadwalader Park to Washington’s Crossing (north current) is about 10.5K. Sounds perfect.

Back in the water

Got up early enough on Saturday to actually make practice. I’d been out of the water in a funk for a while, so I needed this. Funny how easy it is to skip practice once you get in the habit of it. So much easier to make practice when you go 3-4 times per week.

Anyway, I made it there with 3 minutes to spare, which was plenty. Coach put me in what I thought was a fast lane, but he said to shut up and get in.*  So I did. The warm up was not too bad, I think 400 total, but had 150 of kicking, which sucks. I did side stroke kick. It’s too bad there is not a competitive side stroke because I freaking rock at it.

My back felt tight like it seems to every morning for the last 3 or so weeks. Pain in the butt. We’ve had this mattress for over a year, so it is not the mattress. I really think it is when I pulled it or jinked it weeks ago. Still coming back. But, the back felt good swimming. I didn’t jump in (shallow end only) so as to protect it. I just eased in like the old man I am.

And the workout felt great! 4000 SCM in total. Like I hadn’t ever left. Sure my intervals were slow. At one point we did 100’s on 1:50 and I would get ~:10 rest, which is okay for meters I guess. I’ll take it. Really looking forward to getting back in. I’ve taken so much time off that I can go a couple maybe three times a week for a couple weeks. You see, this summer I just paid the fees for “average of once per week” and according to my flog, it’s been mid-June since I’ve been to a workout. This week will be weird though, I probably won’t get there until Thursday night at the earliest.  Tomorrow night, the wife, boy two and I will go to a free bike maintenance class, and then Wednesday night is a book signing for Lynne Cox‘s awesome new book Open Water Swimming Manual (which I’ll review in a week or so). Depending upon when I get her autograph, I may be able to make Wednesday night’s practice. We’ll see.

Fish swim at Mason Neck today

Went to Mason Neck park today to put in some OW time. Been a while. Felt great this morning so headed out, but not before spending an inordinate amount of time (okay, just 15 minutes) in the car trying to turn the damn auto-lap function off on my Garmin 310XT. Swam last night after coaching for the first time in about 10 days, and it felt great. Could only get in 1900 meters due to time, but still, it felt great. Love that LCM pool!

So this morning on the way to the lake I told myself I’d do 5K. I really wanted to do at least 3 miles, but 5K was my goal. I knew my usual triangle was about 4K. I thought I’d add another leg to make a square. Got to the lake and set off to the little beach launch. A nice looking family of about 6 were setting off in their kayaks, and just as I was about to enter the water, I heard one of them answering the ranger with “…not a great day for a swim.” I don’t think she saw me but I thought it was quite a coincidence.

I set off toward the boats parked at the south end of the lake. There was a huge white boat down there, very simple to sight on, so I headed that way. Got to the boat in a bit, the auto-lap going off at some point. (Damn you Auto Lap!)  I pulled up next to the boat and pressed lap, took a few seconds break (36.3 seconds according to Mr Garmin), then headed north towards the bare hill with the nice house on it. (Bare spot at the very top center of the pic below.) On the way toward that point, I thought I’d head back toward the boats then do a long stretch down the middle of the pool. The waves/current were going S to N, so I didn’t want to do a long leg going into the waves. Funny how teeny-tiny waves from the beach will feel so huge when you’re down at water level!

So I hit point 2 and then turned back toward the boats, going into the waves. I couldn’t sight off the white boat anymore so I aimed for the end of the spit of land to the south. I went past the boats and got pretty far, the auto-lap beeping. I used that leg to do the 10-20-30-40-50 pyramid drill. This drill is very useful in keeping you from getting bored in OW. You swim 10 strokes slow, then 10 fast, then 20 slow, then 20 fast all the way up to 50, then back down the pyramid. I did two and a half pyramids on that leg.

Then the nice long leg through the middle of the lake. Or so I thought. Turned out I went diagonal through the lake. And it turned out to not be as long as leg 3. By the time I got to the end of leg 4 it was 1:30 since I began. I decided at that point to head for the beach. I angled into the current so that I wouldn’t get pushed past the beach, which is why that leg is kinda not straight. I came in at 1:45 and pushed the stop button on the Garmin.

4.87KM! I had no idea what that meant except that it meant I didn’t succeed in doing 5K. It has to be close to 3 miles. Sure enough, the Garmin connect says it is 3.02 miles! Check it out:

6 july 2013 mason neck swim.pngI didn’t mean to swim in the shape of a fish. It is funny, though. At some point during the swim, I thought it would be cool to swim a message. Like I *heart* S. Or in the shape of a heart. Well, when the spousal unit saw my map, she said that I should swim in a shape! Maybe next time I’ll swim a heart shape. Or, as the kids taught me:  <3

OW clinic and OW time on my own

Today was a banner day. Despite the lack of sleep last night (the neighbors had some friends over; not their fault, the night was cool so we had windows open), I woke at around 7:30 and hurried my ass down to the lake. The clinic was starting at 7:45. I knew I wouldn’t make that, but I did get there for the last 5 minutes or so before we got in the water.

The clinic was led by our local famous marathon swimmer, Chris Derks. If you don’t have time to click on that hyperlink on his name, I’ll sum it up. He was a multiple All-American in open water. He’s also got the course record for the Tampa Bay Marathon Swim (he’s done it multiple times), the fastest time in 2001 for an English Channel crossing (and the most efficient feeding evah! Watch the video at the link on his name.), MIMS, and many 25K wins. The guy is incredibly fast in the pool, too. I think he did something like 5500 yards this year in the one-hour postal.

For six bucks, you can’t beat it. He’s been mentoring me on my swims, and today I was lucky enough to have him escort me during a long leg of our practice race at the end of the in-water part of the clinic. So nice to not have to sight. He’s also offered to kayak for me for a nice long swim about two weeks prior to END-Wet. Nice guy, too.

Anyway, we had a nice triangular course set up with three “buoys.”  I have quotation marks on there because the buoys would have made cheapskates happy. They were each made of two gallon-sized milk jugs painted hot pink, tied with yellow boating rope and weighed down, I think, by bricks. Unfortunately, the tide was coming in and knocked a buoy out of place, so we started with two-buoy loops. I don’t know, maybe 300m total per loop. Yes, dear reader(s), I know what you’re saying. “IronMike, what do you mean ‘maybe 300m’? What did Mr Garmin say?”  Well, I made wonderful use of my 200-clams watch by leaving it in the car. (At least I brought it that far.)  So all distances for the clinic are guesstimates.

We did a bunch of those small loops; I did three, then the third buoy was back in place, so we did a bunch of the triangular loops. I put that course at 500m. I did four of them before we were stopped. All of these courses were in pretty shallow water, which I think some of the other swimmers appreciated. But I would have preferred to go farther out to get beyond the forest. I would stand up and people would laugh because I’d have vines and seaweed all over my head and arms.

With just a littel bit of time left we reversed course on the triangle and races. I lined up behind the fast swimmers and took off. Not sure how fast I did the loop, but I managed to lead the second wave. Not hard when you have a kayak escort for two of the three legs! But I did really try and push it, take advantage of not having to sight to really put the head down and stroke through it. It felt great.

At least until I went out and swam by myself. Let me state first a couple of things. I did run to the car and get my GPS. I had to pay for the clinic since I arrived late, so good excuse. Also, the entire time we were swimming, the waves were beating us, coming in from the west. We really had to power through the waves at some point, and when you do that, you really use your shoulders and lower back. At least, that’s where I feel it. When I went out on my own, I really tried to take it easy, using my back and chest (bigger muscles better) more than my shoulders. But I was in pain when I got back. More so than I should have felt after only about 6.55KM.

But back to my swim. I was wary because there were a couple powerboats out there going N-S up and down the lake at high speed. I wanted them to see me. I would stop every 10 minutes or so just to make sure there wasn’t a boat coming right at me. Ended up a boat only came near me once, and near I define at 30-40 yards away. But he was going pretty fast.

I decided to repeat, as closely as I could, the route from last week. But this time, I knew which button to push for LAP. In the map below, I pushed lap at the two corners, then END at the finish. What I learned when I came home, was that the watch, apparently, also counts as a lap every time it beeps for AUTO-LAP. I find this interesting. When I finished this route, I took the watch out of my cap, and as I was walking in, I found the way to review what I’d just done. In the watch memory it listed only 3 laps, which made sense since I swam a triangle. I was looking forward to seeing that on the map, because in the watch, leg 1 and leg 2 were each 1.61KM, exactly! Somehow I had managed to do the exact same distance on those two legs. And I just looked at the watch. In history it now lists what I swam as 9 laps instead of the 3. And sure enough, some laps are exactly 500m, just like I set the AUTO-LAP to do, so there’s the answer.

mason neck swim 15 Jun 13

That first leg out I was pretty much going straight into the waves. Of course, waves seem much bigger from eye-level in the water. They really weren’t that big, but they did slow me down. The tide was obviously coming in, because before I set off, my little beach where I put my sandals was almost covered by water and the tree in which I hang my drink and shirt was much closer to the water than normal! I put my sandals on a log for fear they’d float away. When I got back, the water was half-way up that log.

So, a little over 6.5KM today. Happy with that.

Voluntary pain and torture

Outside magazine online, and perhaps in the actual print version of July, has a great article from a writer who actually attended the Cork Distance Week. If you don’t know what this is, you should read the article.

It is, simply, torture, from the mind of Triple Crown marathon swimmer and inductee into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, Ned Denison. Lots of cold water swimming. I mean lots. Twice a day swim sessions in water in the 50’s and low 60’s. That’s cold. If you think your swimming pool is cold, well, you’re wrong. Your pool is probably set at something in the 80’s, or, if you’re lucky, in the 70’s. (Doubtful.)  50’s and 60’s is cold, and typical of the English Channel, and some other famous channels. And that’s exactly the reason for this camp. To train extreme marathon swimmers to be able to suffer these temperatures, and their effect on a swimmer’s body, is why people pay to go to Ireland for this camp. The cost isn’t so bad for a week’s worth of training. And at the end you’ll get to say you survived. You might even get a swim cap.

You have to pay extra for the Total Body-Brain Confusion swim. That sounds like a fun swim. Basically, you’re sent off swimming with no particular end in sight. Volunteers (torturers) will stop you at certain intervals and redirect you to a different place, or give you a quiz, or show you their backside. You know, hell. They may even tell you at some point that you’re done swimming, send you to shore, then right before you get there, tell you to turn around and swim for another hour.

There is purpose behind this TBBC. Spending 10-14 or more hours in the English Channel in, let’s say it’s a good day, 60 degree water, does a number on your brain and body. Fingers may develop a claw, with blood flow slowing to that area, making it hard for you to hold a water bottle. You may start seeing things, like WWII aircraft dive bombing you. Knowing how you react and how your body feels during these times is important. It is analogous to pilots learning the effects of hypoxia in the safety of an altitude chamber. Only, these swimmers are nearly naked in freezing water.

Yes, dear reader(s), I do want to do this camp. But if you’ve read me or known me for any length of time, you already knew that. Right?

The Still Water 8, again

I’ve written before about the Still Water 8, the brain child of marathon swimmer Michelle Macy. I wanted to bring it up again, because it’s on my mind.

The series is right up my alley. Mostly because no one’s done it yet. The lakes are unique, in and of themselves. Some would be a challenge to get in (Baikal and Titicaca). Some have annual, organized races (Zurich and Windermere), which would make planning a wee bit easier. Lake Ontario, currently, would be expensive, because the current governing body, Solo Swims Ontario, requires four escort boats. Yes, you read that right.  FOUR. Lake Tahoe’s organization seems really helpful, and you only need one boat. My Russian language might help me get into Lake Baikal. My lack of Spanish might make crossing Titicaca difficult!  Airfare alone would make Taupo in New Zealand difficult.

Perhaps I can come up with my own series? Maybe just U.S. lakes? Or North American ones? I can do the Great Salt Lake? And find not-too-long Great Lakes crossings. Lake Tahoe, of course.  Hmm…

Stupid mother nature

The only problem with summer season swimming is relying on the vagaries of Mother Nature. Twice in only a week I’ve had my practice cancelled due to lightning. Dammit. That’s the last thing I need right now with the big swim looming.

lightning

On the bright side, I contacted the owner of Openwaterpedia to ask them to update my link. I didn’t even know I was on the site, but sure enough, there I was under the M‘s in the People section. (People are ordered by first name for some reason.)  I told the owner about this new blog and he updated my link exponentially! Hopefully that’ll translate to more $$ for my charity!

First open water workout of the season

Drove down to Mason Neck State Park this morning for a dip. My masters coach told me about the place, and it looked perfect online. Not too far away from the house, but the highway down had lots of lights, so despite it only being ~20 miles away, it took me 40 minutes to get there.

But boy was it worth it. Very nice. Beautiful cicada sounds. Bugs. Boat launch. Lots of people. Fishermen and farmers. Well. Celery farmers. I hung my shirt, shorts and sandals on a tree limb and started wading in. I’m sure the farmers were watching me wondering what the hell I was thinking. The water was warm, probably low 70’s. I had to wade out about 30m to get past the foliage and to “deep” water. (I could have stood up during my entire swim, if I didn’t mind putting my feet in the nasty silt.)

mason neck first swim

I took off to the SW toward some parked boats. The current (from wind, I assume) was west to east, so I got to beat my way through some chop. It took me a while to get to the boats (no watch, today). When I finally got there, I looked around, to make sure I was nowhere near any of the kayak or boat fishermen, then turned back and headed into the sun. I had a good sighting point. The visitor’s center of the park is on a clearing, easily seen from anywhere I could have swum today. The beach where I took off was just to the south of that. So I headed toward the visitor’s center. Got there faster than I got to the boats. Waded back up. Didn’t get any looks, as far as I can tell. Fought the bugs back to the van, did the towel-wrapped-around-the-waist dance to get my wet and sandy suit off, then drove home. Based on time and google, I’m guessing I did about 1.5 miles.  Nice first OW workout of the season.  I think this’ll be an every weekend deal.

Lessons learned: Wear bug spray/sun screen, if only for the walk to/from the water. Bring a small cooler with a soda for the ride back, to kill the critters I (probably) ingest. Buy the Garmin Forerunner 310XT, so I don’t have to guess how far I’ve swum. Buy a parking pass for Mason Neck.