Strawberry Fields Triathlon: The Swim

I've always been a middle of the pack swimmer and this event was no exception. I came in 151st place on the swim, which was right smack in the middle of the pack (53%). Unfortunately my time was much worse than I expected. I went into the event predicting a swim time somewhere around 30 minutes, but my actual time was 40:77. That's over 10 minutes worse than my swim time at my previous Olympic distance event.

It's always hard for me to analyze why certain swims are better or worse than others. On the bike or run, it's usually easy to tell why a particular course is fast or slow (hills, wind, heat, etc) but some of the likely factors for my slow swim include:

• Less swim training time since I've been focusing on the bike this year.
• Course distance could have been wrong. The race director had the swim course reversed on the morning of the race because ocean currents changed direction, so maybe the markers were not placed exactly right when they moved them. (How do they measure that in the water anyway?)
• Ocean currents could have both slowed my forward progress and also moved me off course enough to make me swim a bit farther than intended. Since there's no good reference point out in the ocean, it's always hard for me to tell how bad the currents are. It's not like I can see the bottom of the pool and tell how fast (or slow) I'm moving.

The good news is I was able to get a new PR in spite of the fact that my swim time was 10 minutes slower than I expected it to be. That means I could realistically set a time goal of 2:30 for an Olympic distance race since I know I can finish a 1500m swim in under 30 under the right conditions.

5k Swim results

Well, I did it Sunday morning. I wouldn't say it was fun, but I got through it. I sort of compare it to the difficulty of a 1/2 Marathon for me. Roughly the same amount of time and fatigue.

My wife went with me to the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena, CA. and helped me keep track of my laps and my time which helped a lot.

I swam 100 lengths of the pool, which is 5,000 meters or 3.1 miles. My 1K split times were:

• 1k 19:54
• 2k 21:28
• 3k 22:16
• 4k 21:32
• 5k 21:02

Total -- 1:46:22
At 2.4 miles my time was about 1:19 (this is the Ironman Distance). This time would have put me around 1200 out of 2027 swimmers in the Arizona Ironman race earlier this year. Even my total time of 1:46:22 is well within the IM cutoff time (2:20:00) so that's a good confidence booster too.

I tried to take it nice and easy so I wouldn't burn out. On the second half of the swim I started doing a lot more breast stroke and side stroke to give my shoulders a break. I don't think that will be a great idea on race day because the breast stroke uses my legs a lot more and I don't want to burn out my legs before I get on the bike. I did the whole thing without taking a break for food or water and I didn't feel too hungry of thirsty afterwards, so I'm happy about that since I won't be able to eat or drink on the race course swim.

Overall it was a success and I don't feel sore at all today which is a good sign. I really makes me respect the 10 mile ocean swim my Master's coach is going to do later this month.

5k Swim

This weekend I'm going to try to finish a 5k (3.1 mile) swim.

I wanted to try an organized open water swim, but the majority of them are between 1 to 2 mile swims, and I've already done a 2 mile open water swim, so swimming another 1 or 2 mile open water swim does not fit my desire to push my limits out to the 3 mile mark.

I found a 5k swim down in Long Beach, CA. but they didn't allow wetsuits, and you need to provide your own kayak and paddler which I don't have.

So instead I'm just going to drag myself down to the local long-course (50m) Olympic pool and swim 100 laps (lengths? - I still don't know what to call it).

Wow! Did you see this?

Did you see the 4x100 freestyle relay at the Beijing Olympics last night? If you haven't seen it, stop what you're doing and go to NBCOlympics.com to find it, or click here right now and watch it. It was the most amazing race ever.

Individual and team world records were shattered and the American swimmers made up a lot of ground in the last 100 to win by just .08 of a second ahead of the favored French team. That's the smallest margin of Olympic victory EVER for this event.

Hypoxic Club

The Masters club I've been swimming with has something called the Hypoxic Club Challenge

Porter Valley Masters Hypoxic Club Challenge

To become a member of the Hypoxic Club you have to be able to swim at least one half lap (12 ½ yards) without taking a breath. To reach every stage past this initial step you must complete a consecutive half lap. For example, step one is 12 ½ yards, step two is 25 yards, step three is 37 ½ yards…etc. There is no final goal to reach when attempting Hypoxic Club because you can always try to push yourself that extra yard! As your fitness levels, endurance, and efficiency increase you will be able to extend your distance.

Requirements: For your attempted distance to count the majority of that distance must be swum above the surface.

So this Wednesday, I gave it a shot. I was certain that I could swim at least 50 yards without taking a breath, and thought I might be able to go another half lap if I got a good push off the wall. Well, I was able to go a full 75 yards (3 lengths in the pool) without a breath - giving me the current top position in the challenge. Our coach even sent an email to the club (probably to get some of the better swimmers to join in and take away my top spot).

>>To give everyone who was not present an update on the Hypoxic Club challenge, last night one our newer swimmers raised the bar to a higher level. Jeff attempted and completed 75 yards without breathing, smashing the old record by 25 yards. Great job Jeff!

Masters Swim

I joined a Masters Swim club this week. It's the first time in my life I've ever done any sort of organized swim training. My first swim with the team was on Wednesday. What a butt kicking!

The best thing about it was that I swam pretty hard for a full hour without getting bored at all. Normally the thought of more than 30 minutes in the pool bores me to tears.

I spent the evening in the #2 slow lane, so there's plenty of room for improvement. Coach Dan said I had a good fundamental freestyle stroke, but there were plenty of things he can help me work on to improve my speed and endurance.