10Kmarathonswim

Bring on the outrage!

There is quite a debate going on in the USMS forums.  Apparently, there is a letter in the new USMS Swimmer magazine that has raised the hair on the backs of practically every "forumite" at USMS. (I say "apparently" because it usually takes about 4 weeks for my issue to get to me.)

In the September/October issue of the magazine, there was an article about a former cast-member of the Real World, who happens to be a masters swimmer.  Oh, almost forgot.  He is also gay. 

His sexual orientation was a matter of contention for one Glenn Welsford of South Carolina.  Here's his letter:

Homosexuality is akin to thievery, adultery and other sins that should not be tolerated or accepted as that of society just coming age. Homosexuality destroys lives, individually as well as that of society as a whole. I am glad for the obvious success of Tyler Duckworth in the water but saddened to hear of his sinful homosexual lifestyle choice.

Mr. Welsford is a member of a group who uses religion as an excuse for homophobia, thus making every religious person suspect.

But the forumites, I think, over-reacted.  Many of the responses questioned the editor's choice to actually print the letter.  Most mentioned writing to the editor of the magazine asking her why she printed the letter.

I was alone in my response to the forum thread.  I made a point that the only person who has a "right" to be outraged is Tyler Duckworth himself.  Most of the outrage seemed to me to be fake, but I'm a bit critical of most outrage, so it may have just been me.  Duckworth, as of this writing, has not responded on the forums to the moronic letter writer.  I'm sure he's heard worse. 

I also made the point that since the letter writer signed with his name, that gives us the opportunity to debate him and his idiotic views.  He even told everyone which masters team he swims with, so we can definitely take advantage of that and bring the debate to him!

I'm awaiting the flaming responses to my "insensitivity." 

Great Sunday

Well, I figured out why the pool was closed yesterday.  As one of my FB friends said:  "One word:  POOP!"

Apparently, a kid pooped in the pool.  Gross.  Thankfully, the Russian lifeguards immediately jumped into action and vacuumed up the offending "baby ruth" and cleaned up the pool.  The pool was open today.  And I swam like the wind.  7050 yards.  Boo-yah!  Seems like little to many of you out there, but for me, it is a significant amount.  Four miles!  Oh yeah!

Thank God for the swimp3...

Week in review

Well, this week would have been much more impressive if I could have swum today.  I got my fat butt off the couch after reading one of Evan's posts, intent on doing my weekly long swim.  I thought today I could extend my 6 x 20 minutes (with :10 to :15 rest for drink) to 6 x 20:30.  I know, thirty seconds?  But that adds up to 3:00 and for me, that's almost 200 yards.  And after a few months I'll be up to a 3-hour swim.

But something told me to call the pool first.  And I'm glad I did.  The pool is closed today for cleaning.  Whatever the hell that means to the Russians.  I'm afraid they're just gonna shock the pool with a huge dose of chlorine.  Hopefully, they'll put a guy in the pool and scrub the gunk off the sides. 

So, without my Saturday swim, my yardage is a bit low.  Only 13,300.  Or, 7.55 miles.  Still, a great week for me.  My 60-minute swim felt great.  The wife and I are following the Armstrong Pullup Program [pdf] and I had a great week on the pullup bar.  All in all, I don't feel too bad sitting on the couch. 

And there's always Sunday for my Saturday long-swim!

Watch your butt!

Being fairly new to regular swimming (meaning, 3-5 days a week for months on end), the life of a swim suit, I'm discovering, is not long.  And it should be measured in swim hours, and not days or weeks.  I realized this last week when I attempted to put on my black square-leg trunks, only to find out that the entire butt area was see-through. 

I should have known.  My wonderfully cheap, grab-bag black jammers ended up see-through after they were washed.  This led me to SwimOutlet, where I found the most-awesomest t-shirt. 

I went to SwimOutlet originally because I get their weekly emails, and lo and behold, the other day was the last day of a 40% off of grab bag suits sale.  I managed a name-brand suit for $16.  Awesome.

Pictures to follow of me in that t-shirt in front of St. Basil's.  (Below is me showing off a t-shirt from the most-awesome podcast in the world, Coverville!  Yes, I'm freezing.)

H2Open (Water) magazine is open for business

Many of you (two) readers remember my excitement about this new magazine coming out.  Now you can actually order a subscription online.  They are still working on the electronic subscription, so I'll keep (both of) you apprised. 

What's more, their web presence is live.  They have a blog and an "in memory" link.  Go take a look!

 

USMS One Hour Postal 2011

Today I completed the USMS One Hour postal swim.  My goal from the start was 3500 yards.  I based that on my performance on the 3000 yard postal a month or so ago.  I completed that distance in 49:16.26. 

So, I followed the plan from November:  I did a warm up of 900 yards, comprising 1 x 400 easy, then 5 x 100 medium.  That generally warms up my shoulders and arms.  It certainly worked this time.

3650!  Thirty-six hundred and fifty yards!  My best hour yet.  If I can keep that pace up (not likely anytime soon), I could knock out 7300 yards in two hours (public math...unsure if I got that right).  We'll have to see how I feel this coming Saturday (my usual two-hour day). 

Lack of interest for Moscow-area open water swimming

The picture below is of me getting a water temp before taking a dip in the River Moskva. That's the Russian White House behind my arm.

What you don't see in the picture above is how icy the river is.  Thus, the below.

The semi-cleared lane is the result of my previous day's swim, where I wore an ice-cutter as a hat.

Seriously, though, no one swim in the Moscow river, not even in the summer!  When I asked a Russian lifeguard about open water swims in Moscow, he laughed.  "No one swims in water in Moscow.  It is not clean!"  That's scary.  Even during the summer, the river looks okay to me.  Sure, there is some trash floating in there, but the river is very wide, you could probably avoid most of the trash.  But I don't think the lifeguard was talking about the trash...

That aside, Russians are not afraid of swimming in the cold.  You can search the Internet (or The You Tube, wipper-snapper!) and find videos of crazy Ivans doing polar bear dips.  I saw it in person last March when I was on a tour of St. Petersburg.  What you can barely see in the picture below are the Russians sitting on the ground at the bottom of the stairs.  They have a very small hole cleared in the river in which they'll dip, then jump out, dry off and sit in the sun.  Yes, they are crazy.

Open Water Swimming magazine!!!

H2Open Magazine is coming soon!  Finally, a magazine devoted to the sport that I love. According to the publisher and editor, Simon Griffiths,

Our aim with H2Open Magazine is to inspire you with stories about great
swims and swimmers, to provide you with the information you need to support
your training, and to celebrate the wilder side of swimming. Whether you are
a beginner or national champion, we hope you will find something interesting
and useful to read.

There is a lot of interest in the magazine coming out.  Their offices have been swamped with emails asking about subscribing.  What they passed to me was that issue #1 will come out 10 February.  A one-year subscription, comprising 6 bi-monthly issues and a summer special, will cost you £20 in you live in the UK, and £26 "anywhere else."  Well, Russia is "anywhere else"!!!

This being the teens (what else do you call the years 2011-2019?), the editors are going to offer an online version, as well.  That'll cost you £16.67 plus VAT.  That might be worth it for those of us outside the UK?! 

The first issue will include an article on adapting to cold water (hey, an article for you Rob), how to take advantage of your winter base yardage, and other great articles.  You can subscribe online later this month.  I'll support them...how about you?

 

Is it too late to put something on my Christmas list?

I've used the Swimovate watch for a while, and it's okay.  The display is dying, despite only wearing it in the pool maybe 10 times in the six months I've had it.  But on my two hour Saturday swims, I'll wear it so I don't have to count the laps.

But a few times when I've done smaller sets, I've noticed that the watch doesn't count as many laps as I've done.  And that is for a small set, like 200.  I can count the laps required to do a 200 (6 in my stupid pool).  Yet, the watch will tell me I've only done 4.  (And yes, I have the watch set to my pool being a 33.3 yard lap.)

Finis's Swimsense (shown above) sure looks a lot better.  With the Swimsense, you can do everything the Swimovate does, but more.  It not only tells you your stroke count, distance swum, pace time, distance per stroke...but also lets you upload all of that data into the computer so you can geek it.  The watch has geekometers inside that identify the stroke you're doing, and that's saved also in the computer.  You can break your IM down into the specific strokes.  Sounds awesome.

But I've been bitten by the Swimovate.  I want someone else to buy it first and tell me how it is.  The Finis website doesn't do itself any favors: I clicked on Zoom image, and the zoom tool doesn't even focus into the face of the watch.  That scares me.  200 clams is a lot to spend on a watch you wear an hour or so a day. Now, in Finis's favor, I have their Swimp3 and love it.

Any of my two readers out there tried this yet?

Finding swims

Because of the unpredictability of my job, I cannot schedule swims very far ahead.  I'd love to be able to sign up now for a swim in August, but I just can't.  Hell, I signed up for Chicago's Big Shoulders a month or so out, and a few days later had to cancel due to a change in my work schedule.

I have a little more chance of successfully scheduling a swim around my family's vacation time.  I'm searching now for a swim that will challenge me, has enough entries that I can wait til the last minute to sign up, and is in a location that will interest the family enough that they'll want to vacation there.  So far, that's looking like the UK.

The British Long Distance Swimming Association (BLDSA), if you sign up or "like" their Facebook group, will send you invites to their events.  I recently received invites to 13 swims they'll conduct this year.  There are three whose timing works, and I might be able to fit one of them in.  There is an 8 miler, but I think that may be a bit much for me.  On that same day is a 4 mile swim for "veterans."  Unfortunately, the BLDSA considers a veteran to be 45 or older, so I have to wait two more years.  I'd love if the BDLSA had a 10K during my potential vacation time, but sadly, that's not to be. 

A week after the 8 miler is a 5 miler.  Also a good distance for me.  I still think back to my Cyprus 5K; upon completing, I felt I could go for at least another lap (making a 7.5K).  There is a relay in Coniston for teams of three (Evan? Rob?) for a total of 10.5 miles.  The timing might not work, but it sounds like a lot of fun.  Finally, not for me but perhaps for my two readers, there is a 21-mile overnight swim in Windermere.  Talk about an interesting swim.  Perhaps in the summer of 2012? 

Outside of the BLDSA, there is The Henley Swim.  (What a great name for a swim.)  It's a short swim (2.1K), but starts at 0430 (that's 4:30 am) up the River Thames, covering a regatta course.  Sounds fun, and perhaps I can combine this early morning swim with one of the BLDSA swims. 

And for another exciting swim, there is a short 1.6K swim off the Isle of Man.  It's called the Queenie Festival (no, not an anti-DADT celebration).  It's a celebration of the Sea, and it looks like there will be ample seafood to taste.  All in all, a vacation in the UK might be just what the doctor ordered!