10Kmarathonswim

Summer 2011?

Alert readers will notice that I changed the sub-title of my blog.  I'm having a bit of trouble finding a 10K swim in the summer 2011.  One that I can go to, that is.

I'll be busy this summer.  I will get to take a family vacation, our first in I don't know how many years.  We're going to Scotland (Outer Hebrides...look it up) and Cornwall.  But still, trying to find a 10K that isn't a FINA pro race or a national championship is difficult.

Unfortunately, I just found out today about the Eton 10K in England.  Unfortunately, timing is bad for me.  But what a great venue.  You don't need a kayaker or a coach.  They'll have water stations every 2.5K.  In other words, perfect.  Except for the timing.

So, as to not jinx myself, I've changed the name of the blog to take out a specific time frame.  Trust me, dedicated readers, I will complete a 10K one of these days, but it'll probably have to wait until we return to the states.

Cruise Interval

I've been doing a workout the last few months from the book Mastering Swimming.  It is an open water swimmer workout, supposedly.  It uses my 100yard cruise interval, derived from swimming a 10 x 100 with a :10 rest.  My cruise interval turned out to be 1:40. 

I would swim a 15 x 100 broken into a few different sets.  All the intervals were on cruise or cruise +:05.  Some sets are breath 50 left, 50 right.  Some sprint 25, cruise 75. 

Well, today I swam a 10 x 200 with :10 rest to determine my 200 cruise interval.  I averaged about 3 minutes per 200, at least I think.  (Recall that my watches have gone kaput, so I had to use the pace clock.)  Sure enough, I finished the entire swim in 31:30, which works out to 3:09 for my 200 cruise interval. 

The cruise interval workout is:

15 x 100:

1-2 fast on cruise +:05

3-5 moderate on cruise

6-9 breathing left 50, right 50, on cruise

10-12 swim 50 catch-up, 50 easy, on cruise

13-15 descend 13-15, with all-out for 15

The theory with this workout is to simulate an OW race.  You start fast until you get a position you like, then you cruise for a while.  Around the middle, you check out our competition (sets 6-9), then 10-12 you start getting ready to push, and in the end, you speed up for a fast finish.  Only problem with the workout is:  it is only a 1500.  Thus my desire to up it to 3K.  I'll report back after the first try.

European Marathon Swim list

This is a list of European marathon swims of 10K or longer.  All swims are now with 2011 dates.  This list is a companion to a U.S. list over at Evan's blog, The Freshwater Swimmer.

[Ed. note: this list updated as of 3 January 2012]

 

H2Open Magazine just keeps getting better

Not only does Simon Griffiths put together a great magazine, filled with wonderful articles, training tips, and pictures, but he and his crew at H2Open Magazine have gone one step further.

Everyone who subscribes to the print edition gets access to the online version of the magazine, for no extra charge!  You can still subscribe solely to the digital edition if you want.  I know I've said this a million times before, but come on already.  Subscribe!

Only 30 more years...

...and I might actually "place" in a swimming event.

Jeez Louise.  The results [link pdf] are out for the 2011 USMS One Hour Postal.  I am a lowly 130th place, actually tied for 130th place, out of 191 swimmers in the 40-44 age group.  Holy crap.  That means I'm in the top 68 percent of my age group.  When does my medal arrive?

As long as I maintain my level fitness and swimming speed for the next 30 years, and my peers don't increase their level of swimming fitness and speed, then I have a chance of placing in the 70-74 age group.  Good God.  60-year old Jim McConica swam 5285 yards in his hour.  Holy crap, batman!

Now, if only the t-shirts would get here already...

 

Ironman watches should be waterproof

At least, that's my opinion.  I don't know what happened, but my watch went tango uniform today.  I pressed the button that takes it through its four functions, stopped it at the first one, CHRONO, and there it stayed.  No other button worked.  I couldn't even start the chronograph.  I thought at first that the function button was stuck, but it wasn't.  The watch simply stopped.  I sure hope the 0630 alarm still isn't active.  I may have to 'fix' this watch with my IKEA hammer. 

There it is, just sitting there telling me useless information...POS.

That put a damper on my planned 3 x 20:00 swim for today.  I haven't swum since last Thursday's 90 degree fiasco.  I wanted just a smooth, 'long' swim.  Instead, I ended up doing my usual warm-up (1 x 400, 4 x 100 medium, 4 x 50 fast), then 20 minutes swim using the clock on the wall, then the warm-up reversed as a cool-down.  I did about 3100 yards.  Just a guess though as I lost count during my 20 minute main set about 11 laps in. 

This was my only alternative today...notice the top line should say MAR 21...POS#2

March, so far

This month has been weird.  I've tried a few things, and even switched up my workout times.  All for nought.

This month has been and will continue to be busy.  With a capital-B.  Busy.  It started at the beginning of the month with a visit from the VP (see son#2 below. We let him take the day off from school because his grades are the best of the four.).  This isn't as simple as just waiting around for his plane to arrive.  There are many planes and many people.  And being an Air Force guy, if we're talking about planes, then I'm involved in one way or another.  All this means is limited time to swim.

Then I got a visit from some colleagues of mine, fellow zoomies.  That took up some time.  Had to make sure their time was well spent here.  Unfortunately, that took up time as well.  And then there is this week's visitor, which will keep me busy. 

So, that means only 20.6 miles this month so far.  Not bad considering today is only the 20th, and my goal for the year was 20 miles per month.  This total has been helped by my awesome week of 6 March, during which I swam 20,100 yards.  My best yet. 

Here's hoping I can get some yardage in next week.  I hate missing the pool.

How hot is too hot?

Had a horrible workout today.  Usually, my tiny little pool is cold when I jump in.  Not so cold that I shiver, but I hurry to start swimming so as to avoid getting too cold.  Within a few laps, I forget about the temperature.

But today when I jumped in, I thought I had jumped into bath water.  Crazy warm.  Like a bath or a small pool that has been under the sun too long.  I did one lap, and immediately swam over to the thermometer to see the temp.

Ninety degrees fahrenheit.  Yes...90 degrees!  32 Celsius!  Holy crap!  That's too hot.  The Russian lifeguard/gym manager came over and apologized, explaining that he had reported it, but had no idea why it was so warm.  He asked me to check the water that was coming out of the outlet at the bottom of the shallow end.  Weak stream (STS) and hot water.  Horrible.  Then he told me the pre-school kids swam in this hot water yesterday.

I joked about the pool being filled with 20 kids' pee, then I left to finish my workout.  I did only 1000 yards before being worn out.  Then I remember Fran.

Fran Crippen died on 23 October, 2010, after suffering heat exhaustion in the water in a FINA 10K marathon swim in the UAE.  The water there, depending where you look on the internet, was anywhere from 87 to 92 degrees.  Granted he was a pro, and I'm not.  But he was a pro, and the preschool kids and I are not.  While I had the presence of mind to know when to stop swimming, I doubt the younguns do.  I stopped because I couldn't keep track of laps for a set that required counting only to 10.  How could I expect young 5-year olds to know when they're too tired? 

I wrote the manager of the embassy community and suggested the pool be closed to young children until the water cools down.  Hopefully, this will be taken care of before the weekend.

Not quite ready for the 10K

Well, at least not yet.  I attempted to swim 10K today (where the K means 1000 and not kilometer). I modeled today's workout on friend of the blog Evan's epic 25K pool swim.  I took his workout, and took 60% off of all his sets:

• 400
• 4×100
• 400
• 2×200
• 600
• 2×300
• 600
• 3×200
• 800
• 4×200
• 800
• 2×400
• 600
• 2×300
• 400
• 2×200
• 400
• 4×100

I made it up to the four italicized sets; just couldn't keep going.  Don't know if it was the time or the muscles, but I was ready to get out.  The 8400 yards took me 2:27.34.  If I did the math right, that's about 1:45 per 100, counting all the rest.  I tried to keep the breaks between sets short, on the order of :10-:15.  At the start, though, I had to adjust a few things and even move lanes when kids started showing up.  

I had swum 2+ hour sets before, as recently as Tuesday's 2:12 minute workout.  But never something broken up like this.  I of course had to swim the 100s fast, as well as the 200s.  That's different from the 6 x 22:00 I did on Tuesday.  Steady paced 22's was easier than the 8400 I did today.  But one of these days I want to swim 3+ hours, which is what it would take me to do 10,000!

What is it about swim t-shirts?

I just love the t-shirts I get at swim competitions.  Why do I like those shirts so much?  It must be from my teen years when I ran 10Ks.  I loved getting those t-shirts, and wearing them the first day of school after the run. Unfortunately, none of these go with my charcoal gray suit.

My favorite is this group is the one I got today:  got chlorine?  OK, that's not a real "swim" shirt.  I bought it.  But still, its subject is swimming, so that counts, right?  After that, I like the one I got from my Copenhagen swim.  Sadly, the Danes' idea of an XL is like a M for us Texas-bred Americans!  So...it's my son's shirt now!  The one missing is the 2011 One-Hour Postal, but that's because I live in Moscow and the post takes a bit too long.  Oh well.