10Kmarathonswim

Beautiful beaches

We've spent this week on the Isle of Lewis, in the city of Stornoway, or Steòrnabhagh in Gaelic (pronounced /Shtorn-uh-vach/ where the /ch/ is like Bach in German).  We rented a car yesterday and drove down to the southern-most tip of the Isle of Harris, an island (pennisula?) south of Lewis.  

On the way down, after getting on Harris, we came across the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen.  And I've lived on the Emerald Coast of Florida!  Pictures, unfortunately, will have to wait until we return to Moscow, but let me just tell you:  bright blue and green water, broad sandy beaches.  I've no idea if the water was cold or not, as we couldn't stop anywhere that was safe (people who have driven on small Scottish roads know what I'm talking about).  

The Callanish Stones...incredible to see

The water here is reputedly warmer than one would expect, but I'm afraid there's been no opportunity to try it out.  It has rained most days, although we've had some sun today.  The rain hasn't ruined the vacation, though, as this first week we all just wanted to veg after a year and a half in the bustle of Moscow.  And we've had plenty of rest this week.  Despite the huge screwing British Airways/FlyBE gave us our "first" day in Scotland.  But that's a story for another time...

Next up: Cornwall.  I'll report from Mevagissey in a few days, hopefully after having swum a bit in the ocean.

 

OW swims on TV!

Oh, to be stationed in the UK!  The food, the beer, the pubs, the swimming!  

The guy who started it all?

There are a great many swims in the UK.  You can find swims all over the island, with the help of many swimming organizations, to include the Outdoor Swimming Society (organizers of my upcoming first marathon swim, the Dart 10K), the British Long Distance Swimming Assocation, among others.  But my favorite lately is the Great Swim people.  And now, they have TV!

I was tipped off to Great Swim TV from Steve Munatones' site.  I thought I would give it a try, but didn't expect such a professional production.  Seriously, this is something I would watch during the Olympics.  Incredibly well done, even with knowledgable commentators, not just recycled pool swimming experts who think they know about OW.  The Great Swim folks got some very informed speakers, not only about their own Brit swimmers, but about important aspects of our sport, like drafting and navigation.  

Everyone who wants to race OW should watch these elite races from the British Gas Great Salford Swim.  Here, in color and live-action, you can see what Evan and his groupies were discussing some time ago about stroke rate differences in pool vs. OW.  I picked one fairly clear (it was raining) one-minute section of Kari-Anne Payne's swim and counted 93 strokes.  93!  Forget about FQS and long, steady pulls.  In OW, stroke rate is king (or queen, in Kari-Anne's case).  

Take the time to watch both the men's and women's elite races.  They last only as long as the winners take to swim it.  These are 1500 meter races, not 10Ks, so you can watch both in the time it takes normal mortals to swim 1500 meters.   

The summer

Not looking good for many OW swims this summer.  I'm dying to do one here in Russia, but only three come up when I search the list, and two of those are too far away.  There is supposedly one right outside Moscow, but I haven't broken the code yet on how to get invited.  I've written to the Russian Swimming Federation and gotten nothing back. 

The last issue of Плавание, the RSF's quarterly magazine, had a calendar, but when I got it, some of the events were already past.  I've also not been able to join the Russian masters team, Черная Каракатица/The Black Sepia, so I don't have that connection either.  I'm afraid I'll leave Moscow next summer having never swum in OW in Russia.

And with the Moscow Air Show coming up this summer, I am way too busy at work to schedule any OW swims before August.  Thus, the Dart 10K the first week of September.  Also just found a Sea of Galilee swim in October, which might be, oh I don't know, Freaking Awesome!  We'll have to see what the schedule looks like at work.

 

I like a lot about living overseas.  But one thing I look forward to when I get back to the good ol' US of A is (a bit more of) a regular schedule.  I think I'll be slightly more successful scheduling OW swims then.