10Kmarathonswim

MWM seeks OWS for six-some

Been reading a lot about swimming the English Channel recently. Mostly due to H2Open having an English Channel issue. But also because I've been thinking of marathon swimming, true "beyond 10K" marathon swimming, lately. 

Looks so small...

Some swimmers take part in a relay English Channel crossing as a way of experiencing the channel before doing their solo. So...I thought...who would I want to swim with?

I came up with 5 swimmers, counting me of course. I'd start out with Evan, winner of Tampa (pdf) and Ederle, third in MIMS. In fact, I'd start him out first in the crossing. Perhaps he'd get us far enough ahead the rest of us would each just have to swim one hour?

Then there's Rob. The guy is a swimmer, and as far as I can tell, don't much care what he swims (check out his Recent Events on the right side of his blog). He'll swim pool pentathlons, or 12+ mile ocean swims that require a jog on the beach 8 times. He's gotta be in my relay.

Katie, better known as WaterGirl, will be in my relay. She's gotten terribly fast recently, but even more important than that, she swims every day. I'm sure her shoulders could handle the channel.

Gords will have to be in the group. The guy swims 1000's of yards a day, and swims in OW a lot. In fact, I think he'll be swimming the channel solo next summer, so a relay? Easy stuff.

And me. Not the fastest of the group, certainly. But, if I'm organizing it, I get to come along. Otherwise, I'll take my football and go home.

But that leaves one more swimmer, one more OWS to complete our team. Who will it be?

Russians love Michael Phelps

Went to FINA's World Cup yesterday here in Moscow. It was held at the pool I swam in when my embassy pool was closed for cleaning, the home of the 1980 Olympics swimming events.

The phrase Трибуна С is Russian for nose-bleed section

I went early to watch some of the preliminary heats, and cheer on some of the American swimmers, like Lia Neal and Allison Schmitt, Josh Prenot and Tyler McGill, Chelsea Chenault and Melissa Franklin.

And of course, one swimmer in particular. I had no idea how much the Russians love that guy.

I noticed early in the finals on Tuesday that the Russians would very politely clap for all the swimmers as they were introduced, except the Chinese. Very weird. But I wasn't prepared for the 200m butterfly final. Most finals began with an announcement about the race and the swimmers would be led out to their lanes. However, the 200 fly started with about 4 minutes of the announcer getting the crowd going.

ANNOUNCER: Who did you come to see tonight?

CROWD: Phelps!

A: Who is the most famous sportsman in the world?

C: Phelps!

Then followed an entire exchange between A and C about P not hearing everyone, until finally, the 1000 or so Russians in attendance all yelled

C:  МАЙКЛ ФЕЛПС!*

And the Phelpanator came out with the rest of his crew, and proceeded to get third in the 200m fly, much to the chagrin of the Russians around me.

Phelps later came out for the 100 IM, still with some fanfare, but far less than the first time. The Russians were on their feet again, cheering for him. They showed enthusiasm throughout the night for their swimmers (Russians love sport), but I didn't see the same kind of enthusiasm as they gave for Phelps. Being the only American in the natatorium, I was very humbled.

In the 100IM, Phelps did his country (and 2-day adopted country) proud. Kenneth To of Australia gave him a run for his money, leading until the breast leg. Phelps really put on the gas during the free to win easily, in :52.19.

Phelps in lane 4, To in 5

Phelps, To and Zhilin (RUS), 1-2-3 in the 100IM

Like I said, the Russians love their sport, and the Russians who usually swim after work on a Tuesday were not to be stopped, and kudos to the Olympic pool center, for letting them continue to swim in the "free" end of the pool.

Now these guys can say "I swam with Michael Phelps."

*Do you really need a translation?

More on CSS

Today I tested my CSS again.  It's been about five weeks since my last (first also) test, which resulted in me having a CSS pace of 1:29. To get that result, I swam the 400 in 5:49 and the 200 in 2:50. That pace (1:29) was hard to hit, especially in my 200 set of the 1000-800-600-400-200 series.  

So today I reswam it. With faster times. My 400 was in 5:48 and my 200 in 2:42. I assumed this meant my CSS pace would speed up, but after punching my times into the calculator, I got a CSS pace of 1:33. Uh, what?

I wrote to the folks at Swim Smooth, and the head coach Paul Newsome himself wrote me back! The math involved in figuring out CSS is 400-200 / T400-T200, where the 400 and 200 swims are in seconds. Sure enough, when I do the math, my time got slower. The point is, by swimming with your CSS, your 400 should improve faster than your sprint speed. My sprint speed increased more than my distance speed, thus the calculator gave me a slower CSS to work with for the next 6 weeks, in hopes that my 400 time would improve more than my sprint speed.

At least, that's how I understood Paul's email. And I think he is right. All these weeks I've been doing this set, I've never made the 200 on time:

1000 at 16:30

800 at 12:54

600 at 9:30

400 at 6:12

200 at 3:02

So now, with a new CSS, this set will look like this:

1000 at 17:10

800 at 13:28

600 at 9:54

400 at 6:28

200 at 3:10

So, that is what I'll swim on Wednesday. 

Inter-island Swim in the Santa Barbara Channel

Been speaking with the newest Santa Barbara Channel Swimming Association board member and have come up with an idea for an interesting swim sometime in my future.  An inter-island swim, stringing together the four northern islands in the Santa Barbara channel.

The idea is to start on the eastern side of San Miguel island, enter the water and swim to Santa Rosa island. Board the boat, after touching dry land of course, and motor to the eastern side of Santa Rosa. I will swim up to the beach and then take off toward Santa Cruz island. There I will repeat the dry land-boat-dry land thing, taking off next toward Anacapa island, where my swim will finish when I touch the beach there.

The total will be around 14 miles. For a swim like that, I will have to prep myself for a swim of about 17-18 miles, using Steve Munatones' rule of training for an actual swim 30% farther than the planned swim. This is because of the route I'll actually swim after tides and other vagaries of OW swimming are taken into account. For this, I'll probably use Steve's 25K training plan in his book Open Water Swimming.

But that's just the swimming prep, which I can handle. The logistics needed on this will be another area I'll have to worry about. I'll have to "land" on a beach six times, then after each landing, swim back out to the boat, get in the boat and stay warm and loose for the next leg. Also, I'll have to figure out how to time this swim. Will the total time be just my swim legs, added together? Or will it be the total time from taking off at San Miguel to landing at Anacapa? That would make it interesting, logistically speaking. I'll have to work on getting into the boat and secured so the boat can start motoring to the next drop off, then I'll have to swim quickly unto the beach so I can start the next leg.

Not to mention finding volunteers for my crew...but I already have three!

Evan tells me he doesn't think anyone has done this sort of swim. So if I can get my butt in gear I might be the first. Of course, it all depends upon my next duty assignment, and for that I have to keep my fingers crossed.

CSS is hard work

If you've read my blog for longer than two weeks, you've seen my posts on critical swim speed, as per the folks at Swim Smooth. Reading their article in H2Open magazine, I came up with the following workout:

1000 at 16:30

800 at 12:54

600 at 9:30

400 at 6:12

200 at 3:02

I've been doing this workout weekly, but without a watch, I've been relying on the pace clock. Our pace clock does a little half-second stutter every minute, which makes it difficult to use. But now with my Timex Ironman, I can set all five intervals and just swim, no longer having to worry about doing pace clock math (that 12:54 set was particularly difficult).

Well, what I learned today was that those intervals are hard.  My CSS pace is 1:29, and I don't think I kept that pace the entire time today. My times, with my actual pace and how much rest I got, below:

1000 on 15:20 (1:32, R 1:10)

800 on 12:19 (1:32, R 0:35)

600 on 9:14 (1:32, R 0:16)

400 on 6:08 (1:32, R 0:04)

200 on 3:22 (1:42, R haha)

Let me just say that those first four intervals didn't feel that consistent while I was swimming them. I felt dead, which is why I pretty much just gave up on the 200. But I seriously had no idea I was so consistent. I literally just did the math. That's pretty nice, as one of the things that the Swim Smooth folks stress is to maintain your pace throughout the set. However, that is :03 slower than my CSS pace. 

So, I will continue to work on this. I'll retest my CSS in another couple weeks and let you dear reader(s) know.

Swim Smooth

Just got in the mail a great little packet of workouts from the folks at Swim Smooth.  The book is made from water-proof paper, so you can bring it to the pool.  Just got it Friday morning and swam the first workout from it on Friday.  Love it!

The book comes in two variants: for those who want to swim a fast 1500m (Olympic distance triathlon swim) and those who want to swim an IronMan swim of 2.4 miles.  Then, you get to choose from three levels, based on your swim speed as measured by SS's critical swim speed test.

I swam a time trial a few weeks back and did better than expected.  My results put me firmly in the level 3 (of 3!) camp, so I ordered the IM level three plan.  The average daily yardage (meter-age, really) is 3100. Session #1 was 3100 long. The main set I liked very much, although I didn't pay close enough attention.  Instead of doing 100 free then 4 x 50 drill/swim, I did 100 free before each of the 50s.  I noticed this after I already swam 600!  Pay attention!

The books are designed for triathletes swimming 3 sessions a week.  One session is a technique emphasis, another is distance and the third is "fresh and fruity," an unfortunate Australian phrase meaning you'll be working on your threshold race pace.  If you only do 3 sessions a week, the book will last you 11 weeks. The 11th week is a taper week.  There are also three OW sessions written up, so you can use them to replace another session during the week.

There is a lot that I like about the book. Like I said, the paper is water-proof, which is helpful. Also, the drills are described with pictures in the back.  Although, one drill in workout #1 isn't in the back of the book (Doggy paddle, but thankfully I bought the Catch Masterclass DVD that demonstrates it).  The workouts are varied enough to keep my interest.  I'll write something more about that when I'm farther in the book.

As I said, I also bought a DVD to improve my catch.  I'm a bit afraid to have someone film me swimming; I think I might be crossing over more than I think, and I'm afraid of seeing myself flailing around like an idiot.  I really should have someone film me. The DVD so far is good (it's very long and I'm not even done with section 1...of 3!), so I'll write a review of it when I'm done viewing it AND when I've tried all the drills in the pool. 

I'd really love to see some of these books specifically for OW swimmers, especially for some set distances, like perhaps 5K and 10K.  I'd buy both.

Will Evan win Ederle?

As far as I can tell, at 11:56am, Sunday, friend-of-the-blog Evan (#20) is in the lead at the Ederle 17.5 mile swim.  Will there be another win in his resume this year?

Can't stop reloading the GPS page at NYC Swim!

Edit: The answer to this post's question is, apparently, YES! Not only that, but he'll set a new record.

Good luck Evan!

Friend of the blog, Evan, from Freshwater Swimmer, is swimming his last marathon swim of an incredibly full OW swimming season this morning, the Ederle Swim, named after the incredible Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel.

Gertrude Ederle crossing the English Channel in 1926

Evan will swim 17.5 miles from Sandy Hook to Manhattan. He's already won the Tampa Bay Marathon Swim (24 miles) and placed 3rd in the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (28.5 miles) this year!

Evan at the finish of Tampa

Well, crap. Just checked the overview page, and apparently the weather is crappy enough that they've pushed the swim to the back-up date, tomorrow, Sunday the 2nd. You can track Evan and 19 of his closest friends, when they finally start, here.

Two years is a long time

I've been asked by people, after I've explained that yes, I purposefully swam 10 kilometers down a river, if I'm going to swim the English Channel, the only channel crossing non-OW swimmers know.  Most often I guffaw, because the thought of swimming that long/far is still unfathomable to me.  But lately, I've been answering a different way.

I don't have two years to devote to it! My job just isn't regular enough that I would know for sure that I've got two years of uninterrupted training ahead of me.  Uninterrupted by deployments, or weird shift work schedules. Hell, for most of my adult life, I've lived no longer than two years in any one place!

But despite most of the people asking me this question being in the same "job" boat as I am, they look at me like I'm growing an extra arm out of my head.  "Two years? Why so long?" 

I'd read somewhere some years ago that you need at least two years of dedicated, regular training, in order to be successful in a channel crossing. Two years is a long time when you have no idea what the future holds, with respect to where you'll be living.  What's more, very few places I can deploy to have swimming pools, and none of the deployment locations have a regular working schedule.  My last deployment, I worked 12-16 hours a day, every day.  When I wasn't working or sleeping, I'd find enough time to hop on an exercise bike and sweat to my iPod tunes.  But swim?  No.

And in the military, you're never quite sure when the next deployment will come your way.  There is no way I'm going to book a charter boat for $3000+ for some period two years hence, only to get a six-month (or longer) deployment during that time.  The English Channel, or any marathon swim of 20+ miles, will have to wait until I'm a civilian again.