10Kmarathonswim

Winter Swimming World Championships

Someone over at the Outdoor Swimming Society helpfully uploaded a picture from the Winter Swimming World Championships. As I've blogged before, for some strange reason I want to take part in this insanity. Looking at this picture, I still want to. Again, no idea why.

Awesome, isn't it?!  Looks like a blast.

janet

Janet Evans, author of one of my favorite swimming books and possessor of one of the best smiles on the planet, last night swam fast enough to go to the Olympic Trials. For those of you who do not know who I am talking about, here is her performance 24 years ago.

 

That stroke of hers still trips me out all these years later. Any coach now would yell at you if you started swimming like that in practice. What is important to note, though, comes at 1:22. Check out her pull underwater! That is beautiful. Pure and absolute power pulling her body through the water. I'm jealous.

So, good luck to Janet Evans in Omaha in June.

 

Not really about swimming...

...but a great story. I'm glad we did this. Well, didn't expect anything less. For those of you without any military experience, or friends or family in the military, what you must understand is that the military of today is filled with some of the brightest and most capable people you'd ever meet. There is NO WAY a ship skipper would NOT rescue a ship is distress. Even an Iranian one. The carrier strike group commander put it succinctly when the press suggested that the U.S. was playing politics: "One of our obligations as mariners is to save lives at sea."  Love it!

If you haven't heard, the U.S. Navy rescued 13 Iranian fishermen who'd been held hostage by Somail pirates for more than a month. I've included here a wonderful picture from the rescue. Poor fisherman is probably being interrogated by his government right now! But still, the feeling between rescued and rescuer is clear.

2012 Race Schedule (tentative)

Alert readers would have noticed that I added a module to the left, my 2012 race schedule. It is pretty much tentative at this point, except for the 10-miler in Tennessee, which I've committed to. Much of all this is dependent upon my next assignment. I'm almost 100% positive it'll be Washington, DC, but one can never be sure. We'll see.

Even alert-er readers will have noted that I have two events list for 25 August. I need the long distance practice, so when dates are finalized everywhere, 10Ks will win. Then closeness will win. If the Potomac 10K is on the same date as those other two 25 August swims, Potomac will win. Again, if I'm in DC.

Hyper-alert readers will notice there are no European swims in this list. I am just afraid I'll plan a Euro-swim and then the Air Force will want to move me early and then my money is flushed. I will miss doing these swims. And I still haven't had a Russia swim. That'll be one of my regrets upon leaving here.

European marathon swim list being updated

Dear reader(s), I'm updating the European Marathon Swim List. You can see how it's looking currently by clicking on the link on the left.

Comparing oneself to others

I was intrigued today while reading friend of the blog, WaterGirl's post about her best stroke. She includes a link to Masters Motivational Times, sets of times one can use as motivation. The times are divided into grades, B (slowest) up to AAAA (fastest). 

Much like WaterGirl, I'm not near any of the times. On my best day in 2005 (the last time I had access to a "standard" pool), I missed the B time for 100 SCM free by 10 seconds. Even using my recent 200y and 400y times (when computing my CSS), I'm way off the B times. Jeez Louise. Unsure where author Steve Stuart got these times, but yikes, they're hard. 

I have my own standards. I've spoken before in this blog about my 1997 Navy PT test, where I swam 500 yards in 9:33 at the age of 30. Fast forward 14 years and I swam the same distance in 7:55. So as far as PRs go, I'm improving. But, apparently I need to get a coach soon so that I can drop my times closer to these motivational times.

Or find the chart with the "C" times. 

H2Open National Series

Across the pond, our friends at H2Open Magazine have developed a national ranking system. You swim at least 3 OW swims out of 7, and you are ranked amongst your sex and age range. They've got races all over Scotland, England and Wales, so Brit swimmers from all over can probably find 3 swims they can do. This got me thinking...

I know in the states we have the GLOW series, in the Great Lakes states. A series of seven (7, Evan, is that right?) OW races in the states that touch the lakes. You earn points then a series winner is crowned, as I understand it.*  But are there others? USMS has OW championships, but do swimmers earn points and then get placed among their peers?

And why not have these series in other areas of the country?  How about US-wide?  How about every USMS-sanctioned OW race have some sort of points system. At the end of the year the guy/gal with the most points gets the label "Most OW Swims Swum," or, more appropriately, "OW Swimmer with Biggest Expense Account"?

I like the idea of the most well-rounded OW swimmer. A swimmer who's done the widest range of distances and conditions. Perhaps everything from 1-mile to 10K, from lake or river to sea or ocean? There are so few races at the 25K or so distance, and many of these have limited fields, so I think 10K would be the best for the "long-distance" category.  There are plenty of 10Ks in the states. 

I like how H2Open does the point system. Basically, first place in your sex and age group equals 1000 points, with each place below that being 10% less (rounded up to nearest whole number). In my imaginary well-rounded swimmer series, I envision three race categories: sub-5K (but at least one mile, perhaps?), 5K-9.9K, 10K. You can race as many of them as you want, but your total standing will be based on your best points in each of the categories. But how do you think we should integrate different water conditions?

What say you, dear reader(s)?

*I can find info all over my internet machine about the GLOW series in 2010 and 2011, but nothing on 2012. I hope they haven't stopped doing the series...

Winter Swimming World Championships!

Sadly, I just found out about the Winter Swimming World Championships in Latvia in January. I'd love to not only swim in the championships, but I'd like to see them. Even worse, Riga is only an 1:45 from me now. Unfortunately, registration is closed, and the next championships isn't until 2014, when I'll be way more than two hours from Latvia.

Reading through the crazy peoples' blogs about ice swimming, I figured there'd be a couple dozen people signed up. Nope. Way more than that. Substantially more than that! Over 1400 people are competing. Incredible. Now I really wish I'd heard about this in November.

There are many events, and you can sign up for as many as you want. From simply dipping in the barely-above freezing water to doing the "endurance" freestyle swim event: 450 meters in icy-cold water! You can do some events freestyle, if you're experienced. If you're new, you can do breast-stroke for 25 or 50 meters, but the crown of your head must be above the water at all times. You can also do relays.

Reading further, it seems advisable that if you're going to swim free, you should wear ear plugs and a serious cap. All swimmers, actually, must wear a cap of some sort. And some swimmers on the websites are wearing wool stocking caps. And no gloves or booties. No wetsuits, no suits of neoprene. 



Open Water Advent Calendar, day 25

Merry Christmas! We've made it the 25 days of advent. (However, technically, I should have started this series on November 27th, the start of Advent in 2011, and today should be day 28. But, I was using the consumer advent calendar.)

For this day, we should all be thankful for our health. For our families. And for our fitness. In Russia, this is the season of the polar bear swim. Which is much more serious than in the west. Hell, there's a long history of polar bear swimming in Russia, starting with the annual baptism on Epiphany of children in freezing water. The priest would have a cross cut out of the ice, and the child would be dunked three timess in the icy cold water. 

If you read the book, Empire of the Czar, by the Marquis de Custine (highly recommended, btw), you'll read about an incident he witnessed. He observed a baptism of a newborn. The priest was dunking the child in the freezing water, when the priest's slippery hands dropped the kid into the river. The child's body sunk and went away with the current. The priest turned and stated, "Hand me another." 

So, one must be careful when completing polar bear swims in Russia. For the historical reason, as well as more practical ones.

 

Open Water Advent Calendar, day 24

This will be similar to a Christmas advent calendar, but I'll list OW swims I'd love to take part in or products that I would love to find under the tree.

Day 24:

Vacations are important. Trust me! The family and I took our first vacation in about, oh, 7 or 8 years this last summer. It was so nice. Talk about decompressing.

So why not mix swimming with vacation? And see some wonderful locations! I'm talking Swim Trek swimming vacations. 

I haven't done a Swim Trek vacation yet. I had to choose from doing one in Turkey (the famous Europe to Asia crossing) or doing a marathon in the UK. I chose the marathon. But I'd still like to take one of their trips. Malta? Slovenia? Almost too many to choose from.