10Kmarathonswim

Preliminary results from my open water swim

Preliminary results are up on the website of the Jim McDonnell lake swim.  I don't know where I got 7/11 before.  But now I'm placed 5th of 6, and 60 of 107 total non-wetsuit, 1-mile swimmers.  When my time is combined with the wetsuit competitors, I placed 148/294.  And 17/24 in my age group.  As you can see, many more wore wetsuits than not. 

The nearest I got to fourth place was almost five minutes; some guy named Matt swam it in 26:23.  The winner in my group swam it in 21:45.  Quite fast in my book.

I've got a bit of time to knock off.  Assuming I swam exactly one mile (not a chance), then my average 100 yard time was 1:46.  Way above my last tested race pace of 1:31.  However, with the weird pool I swim in in Moscow (about 17.5 yards per length), and the wavy, zig-zaggy course I swam in Audubon Lake, I was probably somewhere in between those two times.  If I swam perfect and kept to my 1:31, I would have swum the mile in 26:40.  I've got a lot of work to do for the next swim.

Lessons Learned from my First Open Water Swim

Well, it's done.  My first open water swim.  The Jim McDonnell 1-mile lake swim was wonderful.  I managed to squeak out 7th place in my age group (out of 11) and 60th place overall out of 364 total 1-mile swimmers.  I guess that's okay.  I have nothing to compare it to.  Oh, and I think my time was 31:15.  Slower than I expected, but that's one of the lessons learned.

First off, sighting.  I practiced sighting in the pool.  Every few lengths I would lift my head slightly, look at something on the pool deck, turn and breathe, back to stroking.  Well, that's okay, but it did not prepare me for this swim.  The buoys (jpg) were so far off, I couldn't see or find them until I was practically right on them.  I decided early on, perhaps after the first 100 yards, to just trust my cohorts, and follow the other yellow swim caps. 

That worked for a while, but as we thinned out, it became harder.  I averaged a sighting every 9-10 strokes.  I got better as the swim progressed.  In fact, on the last quarter of the mile, I stopped following a woman swimming next to me as she was angling away from the buoy.  I straightened my swimming and think I saved some time on that last quarter.  I really think if there was a GPS hooked up to me, I bet I swam 1.25 miles; not one mile.

Next, bilateral breathing.  All that practice, and I didn't bilateral breathe except for perhaps 30 yards towards the end.  I did get to experience the "fun" of swallowing a bunch of water as I turned to breathe.  Thankfully, I know how to cough underwater without choking, so it barely slowed me down.  The first time it freaked me out, I stopped for a second, realized how stupid that was, and started back to swimming.  The second time I simply continued breathing and coughing underwater til my throat was clear. 

Goggles.  Things I read online suggested I should wear a swim cap, put the goggles on, then put another cap on over that.  The idea is to prevent losing your goggles if you get whacked by someone's arm.  Practically no one did this.  I decided at the start to just wear the swim cap they gave us and put the goggles on over that.  Goggles were no problem.

The swim brought back great memories of the 10K runs my dad would take me to when I was a teen.  I loved the atmosphere, the people, the fun everyone seemed to be having.  And the high after the race and yes, I'll admit it, I loved getting the t-shirts.  This race was exactly the same.  PLUS, they had great post-race food.  Wonderful sandwiches, bananas, sodas, water, and oreo cookies.  Yum.

Next up is the race I mentioned earlier in England.  That one will be 1500 meters.  Cannot wait!

My schedule

This year I plan on swimming 3-4 open water swims.  Currently on the schedule is Sunday's Jim McDonnell 1-mile lake swim in Reston, VA.  Next up after that is a 1500m swim in the UK, about a mile south of Heathrow Airport.  I'll be taking one of my sons with me.  The next one planned, but not yet approved (I need approval from the boss to take 4 days off of work, even though it's over a weekend), is a very interesting swim in Copenhagen.  The swim is 2K and in a canal around the Danish Parliament!  I really hope I get to go to that one.  I will take the other son to that one.

Finally, if everything works out alright, I should be able to swim in the Big Shoulders 2.5K (dare I try the 5K?) in Chicago in September.  But that's far enough away and so many things can come up between now and then.

That's this year.  Long term goals include, no, not the English Channel, but I would love to swim the Donner Pass.  That swim is 2.7 miles at 5933ft in water 65-68 degrees.  Yikes!

Beware the "free swim" lanes

Got another wonderful swim in.  Still 8 bucks for the pleasure, but worth it.  I took it easy after my 5K yesterday.  My OW race is on Sunday, so I'm taking the next two days off.  My shoulders felt very used after yesterday's swim.

I tried out a new pair of goggles today, supposedly good for open water swims.  They are made by Kaiman.  They were okay.  My usual goggles are Speedo Hydrospex.  I'm not sure yet if I'll use the new goggles on Sunday.  That could be dangerous.  I'm used to the speedo's.  I'll probably just stick with what's been working.

Now today, I found two open lanes, and chose the one that was listed as lap swim and not "free swim."  Good choice.  A few minutes after starting, the lifeguards removed the free swim lane line and a gaggle of kids (close to 40) crammed into the two lanes-worth of space, splashing, screaming and throwing their beach balls.  Of course, the kids strayed into my lap lane.  Fortunately, there was an open lane about 5 lanes away from the kids.  There I finished my workout.

I don't fault the kids; they're just having fun.  But I am grumpy as hell when I finally have gotten into a good streamline and my arms are feeling great and I feel "slippery" and fast.  And have to stop.  For a kid that looks at me like I'm inconveniencing him and not the other way around.  My inner old man comes out.  I shake my cane at him and tell him to get the hell out of my yard.

Finally...

Finally got back in the water this week.  Found the old pool where the wife and I used to swim masters, Chinquapin Rec center in Alexandria, VA.  Nice, SCM pool.  Looked huge after my six months of swimming in a 16m-per-length pool.

Did a broken 5K.  Basically, what that entailed was my swimming 2500m, short rest, swim 1250m, then 650m, then 300, then 2 x 150m.  Primarily I worked on bilateral breathing every odd lap.  Plus, the last lap of each set I worked on deck-ups and dolphin entries.  Also, in the last three sets, I worked on sighting.

It felt great.  I have no idea how long it took me, but I don't care.  The swimming high after it made it worth the $8 to swim.  (!!)

In DC

Well, I made it to DC...barely.  I was supposed to leave Moscow on Sunday, but at the gate the agents announced that due to a technical problem, the flight was canceled.  Nice.  Not like United flies out of Moscow more than once daily.  They told all of us sitting there that we had to go back through immigration to get our passports "unstamped" and back to the terminal to get either rerouted or put on a special flight the next day.

Since I live in Moscow, I begged off to Monday's flight.  The agent was very nice, took my name and cell number, then I was on my way...only after I got my checked baggage back.  I took the "speed" train back into Moscow and got back home in about an hour.

The next day was incredibly funny (I only say that now that I'm in DC...).  The agents told us to show up early, at least at 8:30.  I got there at 7:30 (you can never judge Moscow traffic...sometimes the 20-odd miles from home to airport takes an hour, sometimes three and a half hours).  No United agents anywhere and the flight I had been rebooked on (according to the friendly email I received from United) was not on any screens.  I asked at the info desk and they also told me that my flight doesn't exist, and that I should wait for the United agent to come in at 9:00.

Nine!  What?  A few of yesterday's unlucky ones showed up and we all decided to line up at the counters that United was at the previous day (in Moscow, airline companies don't have a permanent counter...you check the screens for your flight and it tells you to go to, say, 70-75.  The next day it might be 98-103).  I was second in line (!) and ready to rumble anyone that got in my way, in true Russian queuing up fashion.

By the time the counter agents finally made it in, the line was significant.  At about 8:45 they announced that they'd be taking care of the passengers who were originally scheduled for the Monday flight, not those of us who were inconvenienced on Sunday...and who, btw, were due to leave a full hour before the regularly scheduled flight.  What?  When pushed, they told us we had to wait for the United representative to come in.

Well she moseyed on in around 9:15.  I told her what the counter agents told us and she flipped.  'Who told you that?  You're not waiting for me.  You're waiting for the Russian government to authorize your flight.'  Oh great.  That could take a while.

In the end, we got taken care of...after the "regular flight" customers were taken care of.  And, as it turned out, our flight took off only 5 minutes before the regular flight.  At the counter I inquired on the price of economy plus.  I'm too cheap to spend $100 plus dollars for more leg room.  Lo and behold, but at the gate, one of my fellow travelers looked at my boarding pass and mentioned "oh, you upgraded too!" 

What a nice surprise.  I think the counter agent was just happy I didn't yell at her (it's not her fault for God's sake) and that I used my pathetic Russian.  So my dear lady out there in Moscow, to you I say Спасибо.

So what's this have to do with swimming a 10K?  Nothing...except that while I'm in DC, I'll be swimming the Jim McDonnell 1-mile lake swim in Reston, VA.  Hopefully, I can find a place in DC with good lap swimming hours.

Apparently, I'm allergic to Moscow

The doctor here tells me that I'm not sick with a cold, but I've got allergies.  Pollen is everywhere, and it hits people here especially hard.  So I'm on some antihistamine now and hope that means back to the pool tomorrow morning, although I think my wife has plans for me in the morning...

Murphy rears his ugly head

As usual, Murphy came out in force today.  I hemmed and hawed for months on writing a blog.  My wife and one of my sons have one, but I just didn't think I had enough to say to warrant the time.  Those who know me are choking on that last sentence.  "You, not enough to say?  You never shut up!"  I can hear you...

But I thought a blog describing my (pathetic) training for a 10K swim would, well, write itself.  After all, the other subjects I love, namely linguistics and beer, I am not fully equipped to write about.  Sure, I've studied a bunch of languages (Cornish, Esperanto, and Middle Egyptian being the most obscure), and I've taken some linguistics classes and read many books and articles, but I am no expert.  The same with beer.  I know how to make beer.  I'm getting better at pairing beer with food.  But by no means could I write about the tastes in beer beyond "Malty," "Hoppy," and "Num-num!"  But a blog describing my own swimming, how I feel (boo-hoo) when I swim, how I do in races...that I can do.

So what does this have to do with Murphy's Law?  Simple.  I woke up this morning with a cold.  Perfect.  That's my luck.  Whenever I get on a good groove, with respect to working out, there's always something.  A business trip to the Russian Far East (Khabarovsk is lovely, actually).  An illness (the rest is welcome, but the work is still there when I return). 

Despite this, I woke up this morning, recognized that I was on the threshold of a snot-filled, itchy-throated next couple of days, and went and swam.  I took it easy, 2400 lame and slow meters.  Swam by time, so that distance could be off by +/- 150 meters (counting laps is not my strong point).  But it felt good.  And will probably be it for the next couple of days, dammit.

The past few weeks

So, in the future, I'll try to write weekly, mostly to update the masses of readers (both of you) with how many meters/yards I've swum, how I've felt, and so on.

But for this entry, I gotta talk about the last few weeks.  They've been good weeks as far as swimming goes.  I'm lucky to be living and working where the pool is literally a couple minutes walk.  I've never been that lucky before.  I've always had to drive to get to the pool.

However, all is not rosy-colored in the land of Rus.  My pool here is about 33.3 meters per lap.  That means three laps per 100.  That means five flip-turns per 100.  That means I'm getting really good at flip-turns, and really bad at counting my laps (which is why I might buy this).

Still, no complaints.  I'm swimming.  A lot.  My goal is always to swim four times per week.  I'm lucky if I get three days in.  Work drags me back, every time.  But for the last four weeks I've managed to get four days per week.  And, gasp, even one week of five days (although one of those days wasn't real swimming).

The week of April 19, I got four days of swimming totaling 14,400 meters, including one 5K day.  The week after that, I swam 16,300 meters.  And in May, I managed 16,100 meters the first week, and then 14,600 meters this past week.

I'm trying to keep my weekly totals to 15-17K.  Last week I swam five days, but one of those days was spent swimming Arizona's postal 500 yard swim.  That day I went to the gym with fembot before attempting my personal best 500.  And Friday of last week I worked on open water technique, something I've never done before.  Laps of sighting and bilateral breathing.  That was a day of only 2100 meters. 

Why a 10K swim?

Why would one want to attempt a 10K swim?  After all, that's a long way to run!  (My sister-in-law would probably disagree with me on that.)  That is, holy crap, over 6 miles.  In water.  With waves.  And jellyfishes.  And flotsam.  And junkie needles (although I don't intend on swimming in NJ).

So why would I aim for a 10K?  Simple, really.  10 kilometers is a dividing line between a long swim and a really long swim.  Plus, it is a new Olympic sport.  (It was previewed in Beijing, and, good God, did those guys swim fast.)  Depending where you look, marathon swims are any swim of 10KM or longer.  There are some long-standing marathon swims out there, like the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim or the Tampa Bay Marathon Swim.  Of course, there are the historical marathon swims, more of a mental challenge than a competition, like swimming the English Channel.

I think the reason the 10K swim is called a marathon swim, is because marathon runners and swimmers with similar physical fitness take about the same amount of time to complete the distance.  The winning man in the 10K marathon swim in Beijing swam the 6.25 miles in 1:51:51.  The winning man in the marathon in Beijing ran the 26.2 miles in 2:06:32. 

But I must admit that I picked 10K for more practical reasons. There are enough 10K swims scheduled during any given year that I have enough swims to pick from.  Additionally, it is a swim that requires me to think about fluid-intake and possibly even food.  I might even have to get a friend to paddle a kayak for me.  For all these reasons, add the even more practical reason that 10K is a nice round number, a nice goal to aim for.  And summer 2011 gives me a little over a year to get ready for it.