Big Shoulders and the Swim that wasn't

Big Shoulders did not become the swim that I was expecting.  The water temp was 63, the swells were pretty big, and the morning started off miserably cold.  I decided on Friday, when I left my wetsuit at home, that I was going to try this with just a swim suit.

Was it a failure?  Well, no.  I learned a lot.  I learned that 63 is a temperature that I will wear a wetsuit for.  I learned that I need to become a bit stronger to handle the swells.  And I learned that it is OK to raise my hand and stop.  I had a lot on my mind as I entered the water.  I know I was not prepared well.  I made it to the first bouy and came back in.

Next year will be different.  This year, I had 5 OWSs.  2 were events.  Next year, I will be practicing much more often in OWS conditions.  Hopefully, I will get a few rough swims in.

1 week from Big Shoulders

I'm really getting excited for the next 5k in Chi-town!  It's a little more than a week away and I've been able to get some good swims in this week.  Tuesday, I started with a bit of kicking and then swam 3500, alternating breathing each lap.  Time at 2 miles was right around 60 minutes.  Last night, I decided to do another 3500 without worrying about alternating breathing.  First mile was 27 minutes.  Second was 25 minutes.  Total time was 56:09.

I'm going to be happy with another 2 swims up @ 2+ miles before the craziness starts next week. 

1...errr...3.1 down

I jumped in the lake around 7:25 AM on Sunday morning, with about 6 hours of sleep and after having deployed a new web site, to swim my first 5k. Let me say a few things before I discuss the race...


1) When I signed up, I somehow got the idea that this was a 2.4 mile swim from the sign up page.
2) I trained by swimming up to 4,500 yards.


What I learned a week before is that the course was designed for 3.14 miles - or 5000 meters. Yep, I was feeling woefully unprepared. My crazy prior 3 weeks at work didn't help much, and I also tapered off too early, I think.

What I learned during the race was that I could swim the full 5k. I was tired at the start, at the end I felt great!

The first mile was pretty easy, getting into the groove. I had some course issues as I let myself drift off to the side by following others until the first bouy. I got back into it and stayed pretty close to track after that.

I was doing a good time at about the 1.6 mile point. 50 minutes. During the next half mile, I kept running into shallows and weeds. People kept standing up in front of me and I'd work to either maneuver around them or slow down.

After that point (which I thought was the 2 mile point!), I felt a bit cocky and decided to pull hard. Big mistake. We started to have a headwind, kicking up the waves a bit on the lake and adding a good bit of resistance. At about 2 miles (now that I look at it!), I felt like I had enough. I thought about where I was and decided that I would just keep trying for the next bouy. There were points where I couldn't even see the next bouy. I decided to put my head down, relax, and take long strokes. I counted strokes so I didn't get too disheartened by the lack of progress I seemed to be making on the course.

Then the beach finally appeared! Then the last bouy! Then the finish line! It was mine if I could just relax and keep going!

When I finally made it to the point where I had to stand up, I felt like I almost couldn't. I couldn't get enough leg to run it out, but I managed to. The clock was broken, but my watch showed somewhere in the 1:40 range.




I can say I did it. 3.1 down. 3.1 to go. If any of you are at Big Shoulders, I will see you there!

2.4...heh

Race to the Moon turns out to have a 3 mile course.  I've only done one swim at 5,000 yards since I decided to take on this idea.  Times will be interesting and I'm going to be very happy with 1:30.

Chicago, Here I Come

Last weekend I decided to register for Big Shoulders.  This first race of mine has been cursed by work.  I need to work for pretty much 26 of the next 40 hours.  It's gonna be tiring and relieving, which probably isn't the best way to go into a race.

Unfortunately, Big Shoulders is going to give me a challenge from work, as well.  I start of Weds of that week by flying to NY, staying through Friday 7 AM, back to Detroit and then driving to Chicago to be there the evening of the 10th.

At least I have the races to look forward to :)

Breathe out of your right side. No, your other right side.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of another open water swim @ Stoney Creek.  Nice day, mid 80s, in a wet suit.  I had noted that there was a bit more current than my last swim and was looking forward to the challenge.

I started off from the same buoy that I did last time, and breathing out of my right side, which had me facing the open part of the lake and not the beach.  I was fine for a couple of strokes and then the first wave hit.  And the second.  And the third.

I realize it doesn't take a genius to think about this, but you should never breathe on the open side of a lake.

After adjusting my breathing habits, I made my way through about 2k of a swim.  It definitely was more of a challenge, with staying on course and identifying markers.

This week is going to be a crazy week at work, so I'm just hoping to get out for some nice, relaxing swims between now and Saturday.  I'm feeling pretty good for the 5k on the 22nd and have started thinking about signing up for Big Shoulder in September.

Just a little bit more...

16 days until the first race.  My last week was just about where I wanted it, including about 2k in open water.  I wasn't sure about the location I swam at in Stoney Creek, but it sure ended up being a blast.  The water wasn't too rough, and was on the cool side, like I like it.  I did end up wearing the wet suit since I need to get used to it.

Today, I ended up doing a 2.4 mile swim in a pool.  1:15 for today's time.  I was at 51 minutes and change after 3k and kept the last 1500 close to the first two, in terms of average time.  I really didn't think I was going to make it when I started.  After the first mile, I started loosening up and just kept at it.  Somedays, it's all it takes!  I even had a little bit left at the end for some hard pulls, instead of just limping in.

I'm thinking that I will do some more open water this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, and keep it around the 2.5-3k range.  Next week is going to be scary busy at work, and I'm going to need to really press to keep getting to the pool to stay loose.  Sunday the 15th might be my first "normal" day in the water and I don't think I'm going to do much more than 2.5-3k.  Monday the 16th will start the taper down and maybe some sprints.

Big goals lead to small successes

I didn't quite hit my goals last week.  5 days and 15k was a bit.....aggressive.  I got out of the blocks good, but tailed off at the 1/2 way point.  I've decided to set a more realistic 4 days, 10k goal this week.  Today will be the 2nd day, and, hopefully, the 5k mark.

On the good news side, I'm keeping up pretty good on the 15k / month goal that I've set.  July was an easy month for it.  I expect August, with a 5k swim, will be the same.

Two birds, one stone

On Monday, I jumped in the pool after a long weekend off and, somewhere along the way, went from doing a casual 3k to something more insane.  It all started with a harmless 500 yard kick. I've told you how I hate to kick.  Then I jumped into doing some crawl.  I got to a mile and thought why not 2?  I got to 2 and thought why not 4500?

I got to 4500 and thought wow.

The 4500 crawl gave me my first 5000 yard workout.  3+ miles in one session.  It also gave me 250,000+ yards in under 18 months of swimming. I swam it a bit on the slow side - 1:20 for the 4500 - but considering the total swim / kick distance, I'm pretty happy.

I know, for my target, I have 10+ minutes to shave off that time.  I really want 1:05, but I'm going to be ecstatic at 1:10.  Next year's target is already forming in my mind at 1:00 or less.  It's a lot of work, and I'm going to love it all.

Today, I decided to just stretch things out a bit and only did 1700.  This week's goal is 5 or 6 sessions and 15,000 yards, trying to tune up well so I can taper by the time the week of the 21st comes around.  I still have one more tri class this week and should be half way there after tomorrow!

The Serious Work Has Begun

Monday started my serious work to tuning up for the race on 8/21.  Monday I started with 2,700 with 500 kick and 2,200 free, just to stretch things out.  Today was the group workout, focusing on kicking for mostly an hour - still made it to 1,700.  A bunch of the kick was streamline and some was on the back in crunch position.  I ended up doing 200 on the crunch.  It was definitely nice using more of the core.

I got to thinking during all that kicking.  I really have never liked kicking.  It's boring.  It's slow.  It's boring.  I also don't kick very hard during swimming.  Sometimes, I pull only.  Lazy legs, yep.  So I decided to work consciously kicking during my reps.  I did a sub-7 minute 500 today at the end of my workout, which is a nice reward to focus on.

So I've decided that one of the workouts that I need to pull off before the race is kicking 1 mile.  It's gonna be a long workout.  Probably 50 minutes just for the kick.  But, hey, it's another goal.

After recording of today's workout, I found I'm coming up on a personal milestone.  Since March 2009, I have swam 246,000 yards.  I'm coming up on mile marker 150 in this time.  It's not a ton, versus some other people I watch, but it is a telling spot for me.  It definitely is helping to fine tune my focus for 8/21.

Man it feels good to be a swimmer

Hopped in the pool for the first time in a week for my standard triathlon workout.  I was following up from a few things in my last workout re: breathing better on both sides.  A few good exercises and the left side was feeling even better than the normal right!

 Only had time to get a mile in, but it was still a good mile!

Of Toothaches and iPhones

Let me start of by saying that I really need to get in a pool!  Tomorrow will be 1 week and I'm just in need of a good swim!

Last Wednesday, I went to the training session with triathletes.  Only one other student showed up, so I decided to focus a lot on form.  I'm a one-sided breather (right) and have been working for the past 4 months to get better at breathing on both sides.  The Monday before, I had noticed I was reaching a bit to the side when pulling through the water and I wanted to figure out what was going on.

The good news was my instructor found it pretty quick - a combination of head angle (my prior coach was always pushing me to look forward more than down) and arm speed when I was breathing (I was hurrying on my left side compared to my right).

We spent some time during the hour on this and I was feeling really good about it.  To end the set, she wanted us to head to the outdoor pool and do some treading/kick work.  I love swimming outdoors, I don't really care OWS or in a pool.  It's just outside.  So I do what swimmers do when they see a no diving sign - I jump in feet first and sink to the bottom.  And that's when it hits.  Insane pressure around a tooth.

I thought it was really nothing, finished the work out, went home, ate, talked with the wife, went to bed....and woke up at 2 AM with a horrible pain.  It went away with some Tylenol and stayed away until 5 PM (of course, the dentist closed at 5 PM) Thursday.  So I called on Friday, was prescribed antibiotics and pain pills and stayed away from the pool.

Turns out I needed a root canal and had the pleasure of hearing a dentist say "If it were based on the x-rays, I would not have done anything.  But, since you have, pain, we should do something."  Wowza.  He showed me some x-rays for teeth that needed root canals and mine.  I can kinda see what he was saying.  My tooth looked like the rest of my teeth in the x-ray and the others didn't hurt!  Needless to say, it didn't hurt today at all, until...

I got sucked into upgrading my iPhone to 4.0.  The upgrade went fine, believe it or not.  Chugged like a champ and was pretty easy.  I wanted to do this to prep it for my wife, who's taking my old phone and letting me get a 4.  Yep, I consider that lucky :)  So, I get it all set or so I thought.  I forgot to set some options for the synch, changed them, and started the re-synch until my cat pulled the plug from my iPhone.  If you have an iAnything, you know that pulling the plug during a synch is a bad thing to do.  After the triage, my simple upgrade went from 20 minutes to 2 hours.

After my crazy week, I'm ready for a good swim.  Look out Wednesday!  Here I come!

Ooooppps!

I started my swim pretty late last night, getting to the gym about 8:00 PM.  I normally like to be home by 9 after a swim, to get time to eat and relax a bit before heading to bed and starting it all over.  I typically get lazy when I'm on my way to the gym that late and just head home.  I had to push!

So I got to the gym and started swimming.  Most of the time, I don't have a plan when I get in the pool.  I have a few different workouts that I like to try to work in.  I started it off thinking I'd swim a 500 free and kick 500 free for a warm-up and go from there.  So I started.

I got done with my the 500 and thought that I'd just keep going.  I hadn't swam a workout over 2,000 in about 2 weeks and thought it might be good to try for 4,400 using a slow, steady stroke.  My instructor has been pushing all of us to slow our stroke down to conserve energy.  I was also thinking about Aquatic Violence that I read over at Total Immersion.  I noticed, when I was focused on both a long stroke and avoiding Aquatic Violence, that I was seeming to go faster with less effort.  When I wasn't focused on both, I fell into sloppiness, slapping the water and hurrying my stroke.  I felt slower and like I was sinking.

My time for this 4,400 was 1:08:54.  Considerably slower than my other times, which leads to my ooops.  I have to wonder if I have accurately counted my laps on prior swims.  I feel pretty good about last night's count, although I may have actually swam more than 88 laps!  Anyone out there have an automated lap counter?

Yearly Summary:
Swims:  40
Yards:   87,850 (49.9 miles)
Time:     37h6m

9 Questions

Last night was class #1 of my second triathlon swimming class. Training with triathletes who do not normally swim has helped me to focus more on form than on distance - kind of a cool down, stretch, zen/yoga type day. The last class was pretty busy with 15 or so people and the current class is down to 6. Definitely is a bit more focused.

I was the only returning person and have more swimming experience than the others in the class. Ann, the instructor, used that to push me a bit more than the others and was giving me some good technical tips as well as resistance kicking exercises to work on. During the breaks between reps, my new work out pals were asking some questions about my background that I thought I'd share.

1) How long have you been swimming? It's not an easy answer. I was lucky and my parents always had a pool when I was growing up since I was 4. I swam more for fun than for exercise. I swam competitively 2 years in high school, picked it back up in my mid 20s for a couple years and then again 2 years ago last March in a push to lose 30 pounds.

2) How'd the weight loss go? Great! I lost 30 pounds in 6 months and have kept it off in the past 18 months.

3) How much do you swim every week? I try to get into the pool for 3 to 4 workouts per week.

4) If you swim better than the class, why do you go? To stretch out and focus on form. I tend to pull and not kick when I get tired. Ann has really pushed me to strengthen my weaknesses.

5) But, don't you find that the workout isn't as hard in a class that is slower? No. I try to push myself for more laps, especially when kicking, than the rest of the class. I also let people know that is what I am doing, versus not working as hard as they are. I feel it is insulting to the class, the instructor, and myself not to push.

6) What does your normal workout look like? Nothing about me is normal :) I rotate through a few different types of workouts. The distance is typically between 2,000 and 4,500 yards and the time is between 35 and 90 minutes. Some days I do more sprints/intermediate distance and others I will just jump in and start swimming.

7) Don't you get tired of swimming? Some people get in a zone when running. I get in a zone while swimming. I also carry a waterproof mp3 player and headphones.

8) Why not try a triathlon? Two reasons, one of which I don't want to fix. First, I don't own a bike. That's easy to fix. Second, I hate running because I cannot find my zone. I admire people who get in a zone while running. Maybe one day....


9) A waterproof mp3 player?  Yeah, more on that later :)

Welcome to 2.4 Miles!

Welcome to 2.4 Miles, a distance swimming blog from an enthusiastic swimmer.

I didn't start off this year thinking that I would be swimming this much. I started with a simple goal, 15,000 yards each month during 2010. I had become a bit lazy and work had me traveling. My goal was simply to get my butt in gear and get back in shape.

Shortly after the New Year, I was working hard in the pool and met up with some friends. One of my friends told of a goal he had this year to run a sprint triathlon before he turned 50. He hiked a bit, biked a bit, and didn't swim a lick. He had slimmed down by 30 pounds, felt great, and wanted to push himself even more. And it made me think about what I could do if I applied the same approach.

After doing a bit of research, I came across some swim events to push myself between 4,000 and 5,000 yards. A lot of swims recorded themselves as "5k" swims and translated to 2.4 miles (~4,400 yards). A bit more research showed that 2.4 miles is the length of a swim of the Ironman Triathlons. I might not be a triathlete - I really hate running - and I felt that swimming a 2.4 mile event before I turned 40 would be my match goal to my friend.

The event turned out to be The Swim to the Moon in Pickney, Michigan.

For the past two months, I've been increasing my distance swam in each of my workouts, growing up from around 2,000 to 2,800 to 4,000 yards. I've done the 4,400 yards indoors a couple of times in the past month, with my first time at 1:04:00 and my second time just a hair over 0:58:00. I'm so ready to hop in the open water and see this complete!

I'm going to use this blog to share some of my inspirations for this push, my workouts that help me to get there, and my gear that I'm using in this chase for 2010 and beyond. After reaching 2.4 miles once, I can't tell you how much of a thrill it was to complete the distance once, even indoors.