May 24-29

At long last, this post will finally get me caught up. I have 6 weekends of training left before my Channel window opens – and trying to figure out exactly how to use them occupies my thoughts daily.

I imagine I’ll have quite a lot of thoughts in the next 6 weeks; I don’t know how many of them I’ll have time to write down. Or how many I’ll remember – the longer the swim, the less I remember what I was thinking about by the time I’ve gotten dressed, eaten, ridden home, showered, eaten again, and am sitting down at my computer.

But hopefully I’ll have the time and energy to keep posting something. It’s really cool to be able to look back and see what I was doing and thinking… particularly because it changes so rapidly these days.

Fear is the mind killer

… and the sleep inducer.

I don’t have a ton of experience with adrenaline, but you always read about the calmness in the moment… and the after effects.

On Wednesday the 25th, I walked down to the beach for my prescribed 2-hour swim in conditions that could be called “challenging” at best. 

(I did talk to the guards, and they had no concerns about me swimming in the usual area – it would be wavy, but not dangerous.)

So I got ready and headed out into the ocean. And fighting my way through about the 9th gigantic wave (has anyone seen “North Shore” where the kid from Arizona can’t figure out how to get out past the Hawaiian waves?), I suddenly felt my tow float hit my calf.

I had several immediate realizations at that point:

1. The only way it could do that was if it were no longer attached.
2. My phone and key were in the buoy.
3. E was out of town
4. J had texted me that morning to let me know that he had forgotten to take his key with him to school that day.

That was enough to be going on with, and I started scanning the sea for my bright orange float. Unfortunately, I could see a flea’s worth of nothing because the waves were so crazy. I knew that there had been a lifeguard out on a surfboard – I started looking around for him, knowing he’d be easier for me to spot, and that he’d have a better chance of spotting the float.

All very rational, all very methodical, and if there was any rising panic, I fought it down effectively.

And on one of my scans, I saw another guard running out through the rain toward the sea. Following his projected trajectory, I finally saw the buoy, just where the waves met land. I started sprinting towards it, knowing that, in a sea like that one, things at the edge of the water don’t always stay there. The guard and I reached it at almost the same time, and he picked it up and gave it to me. My phone and the plastic bag my key was in were poking out of the hole that had been ripped in the plastic by the force of the waves.

The interesting thing is that, after walking back up to the flat, ordering two new buoys (while still dripping wet), and showering off, I crashed hard. The whole incident couldn’t have lasted more than a couple of minutes, maximum, but I was really exhausted for the rest of that day. Even though I had missed out on 1 hour and 55 minutes of a 2-hour workout. And at no point did I freak out – I managed the situation, and was already thinking of my next steps if necessary.

Perhaps it is reasonable to be exhausted after I thought that the ocean might have taken my phone and keys and left me with nothing but a swimsuit, parka, small tub of vaseline, and my wits.

But it reminded me – Most of my training lacks the adrenaline-fueled panic of those moments, but some of it does include some fear – a lot of the things I’m doing now, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do. I think it’s good to get a reminder – fear does have costs. And a lot of things that we’re afraid of… we don’t need to be.

Seaweed, My Constant Companion

I just want to say – I now have to put my swimsuits on in the shower (for the last few weeks) because so much seaweed falls out of them during the process. Dried, desiccated, and yet somehow still smelly seaweed. After I have rinsed them eternally in the shower after my swims. So. Much. Seaweed. 

Random thoughts

I love the 45/60 climate. Lows in the 40s and highs in the 60s are just perfect for my doesn’t-do-well-in-the-heat physiology. I miss many things in North Carolina, but definitely not the fact that it was already in the 90s in May this week.

I just want to make clear – I do love to walk, run, and bike places. It just nice to have a car for when you don’t want to, or it’s inconvenient/impossible. Or when your kids are getting big enough to eat 40 pounds of food a day. (Yeah, it’s just the kids eating a ton of food. I am innocent.)

OW Videos

Channel Prep

A lot of logistics this week: Trying to figure out travel to practice boat swim, plan for Durley week, for getting cash to Marcus, for volunteering. Making sure that E is bringing back everything I need. (Swim suits, ear drops, hair ties, goggles and straps, cash, vaseline in tubes, reusable food pouches for semi-solid feeds, etc.)

I also ordered more sunscreen and bought more vaseline.

I completely futilely tried to find isopropyl alcohol here – I guess they don’t sell it in England? My ear drops are running very, very low, and it’s a race between E bringing me some and me running out and risking swimmer’s ear. I drew the line at paying £16 for a tiny bottle on Amazon (it’s just rubbing alcohol, for heaven’s sake!) – we’ll see if my frugality comes back to bite me in the ass. 

The [Time Period] in the Water (Tuesday 5/24 – Sunday 5/29)

Summary

Pool Yardage ~ 12,900 M (E away)

OW Yardage ~ 46,500 M (would have had another 3-6000 M if tow float hadn’t broken on Wed)

Total Yardage ~ 59,400 M

OTHER:

 miles of running – 3.5

 miles of walking (plus, you know, a lot more) – usual

 miles riding – 13

Another great week of training. Two five-hour swims on Saturday and Sunday are something I should be feeling pretty good about, I think. If only I weren’t so tired from doing two five-hour swims on Saturday and Sunday 🙂

It’s tough to have perspective when your constant training question has become, “Is it enough?” Luckily, I have some amazing people around me to help me figure that out.

So my official position is – I’m happy with where I’m at 🙂

The Gory Details

Tue May 24 (~6500 M) 2 h; 1 mi run; 2 mi bike; 3K OW – 1 h

Masters (~5200 M) 1 h 30 m

• 200 ez
• 200 IM kick/dril
• 200 breathe every 5 (this destroyed me. I cannot breathe in that pool. I used to worry it was Covid, but it’s been months and it’s always the same)
• 200 IM drill/swim
• 200 w/fins  kick/swim?
• 200 IM swim

• 4x
• 2×25 on :30
• 50 on :50
• All fast with fins. Held :35ish on the 50s. Easily-ish, once my arms and legs got over complaining about going fast.

• 500 w/fins and paddles
• 3×100 IM on 1:40 (skipped the 4th)
• 3×200 w/paddles on 3:00
• 4×75 on 1:00 w/fins
• 3×200 swim on 3:00
• 4×50 back kick/swim on 1:00
• 3×200 w/paddles on 3:00
• 8×25 fast w/fins and paddles breathe every 5
• 300 ez

My neck was still sore from this weekend – I tried to be as neckergnomic as possible. The 200’s on 3:00 felt pretty ez – I was bringing them in on just over 2:50 by the end, feeling not to bad. I felt generally tired – pretty typical for the first swim after rest day.

Lap Swim (~1300 M) 30 m

• Basically, 1300 meters of 75 bk/25 fr, following the group. I needed some chill swimming today.

OW Swim

• 4:50-6 PM
• Watch malfunctioned – I did 5 laps from the lifeguard station to the second groin and back. I’ve been calling that 3K. (The map was OK (mostly) – don’t know it’s problem
• Air temp – 59?
• Water temp – 13?
• Weather – Nice when I got there (though windy), then a storm blew in very suddenly and I was in the driving rain. Still felt OK though).

The game that I played was: easy recovery for the 300ish meters from the guard stand to the 2nd groin. Fast swim against the current and wind for the 300ish meters back. 5x

This was to serve two purposes – toughening up my shoulders to swim against the current and in chop, and learning to swim fast in chop more efficiently. I probably achieved at least one of those today 🙂

I’m a big believer in interval training, so it makes sense to me to use these (almost always windy) evening swims to try to be progressive about training in the waves. Hopefully if I can learn to do it for 8 minutes at a time a bunch of times, I’ll be able to swim through it for a couple of hours without my shoulders completely crapping out. That’s the plan, anyway.

Wed May 25 (~50 Meters) 5 minutes (would have been another 3-6000 meters. In a different universe.)

Well that didn’t go as planned. With E out of town, I had to take A to school instead of swimming with Masters. No worries, I would just swim in the ocean for a couple of hours. When I walked out of my door, the palm trees looked like they were in a hurricane. I checked with my friend Andre the lifeguard for safety issues – he said it would be fine. And there was already a guard in the ocean on a surfboard.

So I geared up and headed out, wondering how I was going to do a “recovery” swim in the abjectly crazy conditions. I needn’t have worried about that – while swimming through about the 12th gigantic wave, trying to get out past the breakers, my tow float was ripped from me. I felt it happen (somehow), and felt down the rope to the end – gone.

My phone and key were in the float, and J had texted me that morning to let me know that he had forgotten his key, so I briefly panicked (as much as I ever do). I looked frantically around, trying to spot my buoy.

I think what I finally saw first was one of the lifeguards running out into the rain and down the beach. Following his projected path, I finally saw the buoy just at the edge of the waves. I sprinted towards it, and the guard and I got there at about the same time. There was a gigantic hole, from which my phone and part of the bag in which I put my key were protruding.

Disaster barely averted.

So I came home and ordered a couple of tow floats.

OW Swim

• 11:30-11:35 AM
• 50 Meters
• Air – 13
• Water – 13
• Wind – Hurricane force if I didn’t know better

So a bit of an unintended rest day today. This is why I try to make every one of my workouts – you never know when the workout isn’t going to make you.

Thur May 26 (~6400 M) 2h; ran 1 mi; biked 2 mi; 2700 M OW – 1 hr

Masters (~5100 M) 1 h 30 m

• 400 – 100 fr / 50 catchup/fingertip drag / 50 kick
• 400 – 100 fr / 50 bk / 50 br
• 400 IM – kick/swim
• 400 – 100 IM/100 fr

• 4x:
• 2×25 kick on :30
• 50 swim on :50
• Fast w/fins (held :35s more easily)

• 3x(100 on 1:20; 50 on 1:20)
• 500 w/fins and paddles ez
• 4x(100 on 1:20; 50 on 1:20)
• 500 w/fins and paddles ez
• 5x(100 on 1:20; 50 on 1:20)
• 300 CD

I held all of the 100s under 1:20 except for one questionable repeat. I got better when I swam smarter (kept stroke long a la Wellbrock) instead of harder. It takes so much focus for me to do that, but I think I am getting better at it.

Lap Swim (~1300 M) 30 m

• 400 w-up
• 4×150 pull/drill/swim (did Florians for the drill – stroke count 16 (SCM)
• 25, 50, 75, 100, 50

OW Swim (~2700 M) 1 hr

• 5-6 PM
• 2700 M
• 64 degree air
• 13 degree water
• Suuuuuuuper windy

This was another I-can’t-breath-cause-water-fills-my-mouth-every-time-I-try. I was less enthusiastic about what good training this is than I as on Tuesday, being more tired.

Almost forgot to include – my borrowed (huge) tow float felt like a parachute behind me. In retrospect, I’m amazed I made as much yardage as I did.

Weight 163 – about 20 pounds more than my lowest weight (let’s call it my “running in the heat weight”). Vs “swimming in the cold weight.” I’m surprised it wasn’t more – My middle is definitely thicker than when I left NC. I wonder if my body has shuffled things around to put insulation where it’s needed.

And yes, I still think it’s crazy to be training harder than I ever have but weigh what I did when I was a sedentary grad student. But on the other hand, I laugh in the face of 14-degree water. Ha! hahaha! Mwahahaha!

Fri May 27 (~6500 OW – 2 h); Ran to get A – 1.5 mi

A lovely swim in the ocean today. The first hour was tough – I was tired and bored and it was one of those days where each lap seems to last an eternity. But conditions were great and I was able to make 5 laps in under an hour, which improved my mood a bit. And I had already told myself that I’d do some easy and mix it up in the second hour, with eyes toward my long swims tomorrow and the next day.

• OW Swim
• 11:40-1:45
• 6500 (my dopey watch doesn’t know it’s butt from a hole in the water), but this is what I’m going with
• Air temp 63
• Water temp – I’m saying 14. It doesn’t actually feel warmer to me, but I also just may be impervious either direction at this point
• Sunny, calm seas. A couple of spots where I had to fight those weird mini-currents, but just enough to make me sprint 50 meters once in a while.

First hour – five laps to the second groin and back. Not hard, not easy. Just a moderate loosen.

My watch was at 59 minutes when I stopped for some chocolate milk. I forgot to look at it again when I started

Second hour – 4x: backstroke to the first groin; ez to the second groin, fast all the way back.

When I looked at my watch after 4 laps, I was at 1 h 50 minutes. So even with all of that ez bk and fr, I was only a couple of minutes behind.

I did a final cool down lap in about 13 minutes (including some double arm bk, br, and really ez swimming to loosen up at the end).

Hopefully I’m ready for the weekend [fingers crossed emoji]

Sat May 28 (17,500 M) 5 h; 4.4 mi ride

It is possible that much of my talent for training like this is tied to my ability to ingest vast amounts of calories, no matter how I feel. I guess it’s nice that that’s finally coming in handy?

OW Swim

• 9 AM – 2 PM
• 17,500 M
• Air – 63 after, not sure where it started, but it felt hot out (haha, England)
• Water – forget to check, but somewhere in the 13-14 range
• A gorgeous calm sea. Oh, for a day like this in the Channel.

5x 1-hour-long laps. I did my full distance while keeping them all under an hour (even the last one that I did as a “loosen” for tomorrow) – that’s a first.

Maybe I shouldn’t celebrate until tomorrow, but I was pretty happy with that. Not much to report – sign of an uneventful swim. The tide did seem to turn between the first and second lap which made a portion I thought would be easy quite hard. Perception rules the day.

Had a great talk with Marcus about my training plan afterward. The expertise here is invaluable!

Sun May 29 (16,750 M) 5 h; 4.4 mi ride

OMG I SWAM WITH CHLOE MCCARDLE!!!!!!! She is the “Queen of the Channel,” having crossed it 44 times. She is so nice and was so much fun to swim with. She only did the first hour, but it was a huge boost to have in the middle of a 10-hour weekend.

Public service announcement: Do not drink chocolate milk during a feed and then lick your goggles for anti-fog purposes. Unless you like looking at the world through brown-tinted glasses. 

OW Swim

• 9 AM – 2 PM
• 17,000 M
• Air temp – started out somewhere in the 50s, ended up low 60s? Demonstrably colder than yesterday, that was the temperature.
• Water temp – I keep forgetting to ask – still 13?

A much choppier, swirlier day. I hoped the fact that the sun wasn’t out would keep me from getting as much sun, but instead I seem to have gotten the sun anyway and been cold besides. A combination of the clouds, wind, cooler temperatures and my own exhaustion made me feel a lot colder today. I got a bit of claw-hand eventually. (I also couldn’t swim as hard without feeling like I was going to hurt myself, so that didn’t help either.)

My watch appeared to start, but when I checked it at an hour it hadn’t recorded anything. So I started it again. Luckily, I know how long my laps are (distance-wise) and I could see the time, so no info really lost.

I’m happy with the weekend. It would have been nice to feel better (and be faster) today, but I did what I set out to do. I’m also wondering how much the swimsuit had to do with it – this is the second time I’ve had a noticeably slower swim in it, and the first time was last week, when I swam better on the SECOND day. Not definitive proof or anything, but this one IS a bit loose and gapes at the front. I have a bunch of new suits to start trying now – we’ll see if I can find any correlation between suit and speed.

Deets: 

First lap (with Chloe!) was around an hour. Wind in our face on the way back, and I worked harder for it than I had to yesterday (especially when Chloe would start doing backstroke 🙂 )

Second lap was OK – I was about on time, but then my feed was kind of long.

Third lap I lost the most time.

Fourth lap I lost less time, but added to my deficit. I was feeling pretty tired by this point, and I really had to pay attention to my technique if I wanted to be able to lift my arms.

Fifth lap I cut about 500 M short (by eye, so who knows). It being the last, I felt pretty OK.