Time for another attempt at the qualifying swim

Looks like this is the week to give another shot at a 6 hour qualifying swim at 16C or less water. I have been ramping up some longer swims since Horsetooth in preparation for the swim. I have not ramped up as much as Malta with the knowledge that the real need for training is in the cold water acclimatisation, not the endurance. I was hoping for a nice gentle cooling of the lakes here in Colorado so that I can slowly acclimatise myself to the cold water. I have not been that lucky. The temperature held close to 21C (70F) until mid September. A cold front moved in the weekend of Sept 19th. This combined with a decision by the water board to fill the lakes from colder, higher elevation lakes started dropping the temperature up to 1C (1.8F) a day. Within a week, it dropped 5C (9F). The good news is that it has slowed down due to warmer weather and the lakes are nearly full. It looks like the temperature is dropping about 0.25C(0.5F) a day, at least until the next cold front comes in a couple of days. If I want to get the qualifier in before the water gets too cold, I need to react in a couple days. In a way, it is good mental training for the Channel by having to wait most of September for the proper conditions and then having to react rapidly to get ready.

To react this quickly, I don't have the luxury to schedule a weekend at a lake, get support crew and go. I will match up with some other swimmers planning on doing various qualifiers (for Manhattan Island and English Channel) to swim together to watch each other for safety and witnesses. We will go very early in the morning (somewhere between 1am-4am) to be complete before the work day begins and boat traffic is allowed on the lakes. This will cause most of the swim to be done at night. Again, this is good training for the Channel since there will probably be night swims involved in the Channel crossing. The down side is the air temperature this time of year in Colorado drops to 2C (36F) to 7C(45F) and we will be swimming at the coldest time of the night (sunrise). Combine with the fact that fresh water feels colder then salt water (at the same temperature) makes this a much colder swim then if we could do the swim in salt water, sunny and warmer air temperature. Advice from channel gurus is to train for the worse and hope for the best. It looks like I am heading in this direction. Looking at the bright side, I don't have to worry about sunscreen.

A quick status update on my cold acclimatisation in preparedness for this swim. I was shocked as the water temperature dropped last week that I had lost some of the cold water acclimatisation I had developed last spring. I was shivering at 19C(67F) where I would not have shivered until 17C(63F) by the end of the spring cold water swimming. This made me nervous with the short acclimatisation period I have this fall but the good news is the body is reacting reasonably quickly. I was able to swim at 17C(62F) for 2.5 hours with minor shivers within a week of the temperature starting to drop. This morning, I was feeling very comfortable for at least 15-20 minutes at 16C(61F) before starting to feel cold. I would love about 1-2 more weeks of cold water acclimatisation at the 16-17C range. Unfortunately, I am guessing that we will start another 1C (1.8F)/day temperature drop with the next front due in 3 days. If I want to attempt the 6 hours at a temperature close to 16C, I need to do it now. I also had a great swim last week from a mental perspective when I did the 2.5 hour at 17C(62F). I almost immediately felt cold and wondered how long I would be able to handle the cold. I keep just thinking "hang in there for one more loop" until at 2 hours, I hit some equilibrium where the cold was not weighing on me mentally. This is a huge milestone that I can use mid swim if I start getting cold and start doubting my ability to handle it. If I just hang in there, it will get better.

After this week, the plan is to keep swimming until the water temp drops down to about 10C(50F). After that point, I will be stuck in warm indoor pools and Eliz's Endless pool until the spring time. My guess is that I have about 4 more weeks at the most of open water swimming left in this season. Need to make the most of it!

Horsetooth 10K race

As one of the race directors for the Horsetooth 10K, it has been years since I have thought of actually racing instead of just participating in the event. Usually, I approach the race highly stressed, low on sleep and having to do a lot of physical labor the 24 hours before the race. None of these things make for a good performance. This year was different. I had a more solid base then I have had since 2001 from my ramp up for the Malta Long Distance camp in April. I wondered if I might actually be competitive this year. As the race day approached, the stress level was much lower then normal due mainly to an awesome event committee that were on top of all the issues. Due to some reassignment of tasks, I had considerably less heavy lifting in the 24 hours before the race. The morning of the race, I get up at 3am to inflate buoys and set up the event. Things went remarkably smoothly so that by 5:45am, I am done and wondering what to do next. I wished the organizers of the finish line good luck and headed to the other end of the lake for the start. I was actually able to get to the starting line well in advance and was able to prepare myself in a relaxed fashion instead of the usual high speed skid into the parking lot, unload the canoe, strip and start.

The conditions for the day were nearly optimal. The earlier forecast was for cool and overcast. As we gathered for the start, it was cool but there was not a cloud in the sky. The water was flat and smooth. The temperature of the water had dropped in the last week a few degrees but it was still a pleasant 70F (21C). Shortly after we started, a wind picked up pretty significantly from South/SouthEast. For most of the swimmers, this was a great tail wind. Talking with some of the novice open water swimmers (read pool swimmers), they had trouble with the waves

interfering with the recovery part of the stroke. For the more experienced open water swimmers, we were in heaven as the waves pushed us to the finish. The real issue was with the support canoes and kayaks. They were having trouble keeping close to their swimmers in the wind and waves.

My race strategy was pretty much the same as I have used for years at this race (it was 10th year). Start off slow and then accelerate the last part as the less experienced swimmers started fatiguing. In the past several years, I have been under trained for the event so I would start out the first 4-5 miles at double dog slow pace to conserve my energy. This year I felt stronger so I decided to hold the first 4-5 miles at a strong moderate instead of slow pace. From a feeding perspective, I used the race to practice shortening my feeding speed as training for feeding in the channel. I made a concentrate mixture of Hammer's Perpetuum with hot chocolate mix.

For the start of the Horsetooth 10K, we have the paddlers move about 1000 meters down the course to allow the swimmers to separate a bit before trying to match up. This allows the start to be uncrowded and our usual relaxed start (unlike a traditional triathlon start). As the horn went

off and we headed toward the line of canoes/kayakers, I stayed a little closer to the front of the crowd then I usually did. The eventual winners pulled away quickly but I found myself in roughly the first chase pack. After the first mile or two, I was in somewhere around 8-10th place.

My feeding plan was every 30 minutes. My first feeding was a bit of a bumble but the next couple were pretty good. I had my wife and son (who were paddling for me) time the feeding. I was pretty consistent at about 8 seconds. If I can feed at this speed in the rougher channel waters, I will be ecstatic.

As we passed the halfway mark, I started slowly passing some people. My stroke felt strong and consistent. As I approached the 2.4M race buoy (about 1.2M from the finish), I was starting to mentally get ready to pick up the pace. I had been slowly gaining on the swimmer that eventually placed 5th overall. My arms were beginning to feel fatigued and tight but I still felt I could do a reasonable pick up of pace. I looked over at my canoe as it was close to my next feed. To my surprise, I found my support canoe was upside down. My wife and son were in the water trying to pull the canoe to shore to empty it. A wind generate wave hit the canoe broad side as they had their wieght shifted reaching for my feed and rolled the canoe. I swam over to them to help drag the canoe to shore. In theory, I would be disqualified from winning place for both touching the boat and touching ground but it was a moot point given I was not going to place

anyway. We emptied the water from the canoe and as I pushed them away from shore, I slipped and rolled the canoe again. We dragged it back and repeated the emptying. When all was said and done, I lost about 3-5 minutes and about 7-8 people passed me. The good news is the boat hauling and flipping gave my tired swim muscles a chance to rest. When I hit the water, I was flying. I quickly started passing people back. I had passed about 3-4 people before I ran out of water. I had enough energy to finish the last 20-30 meters butterfly.

My time was a reasonable at 2:31, my second fastest time in the 10 years of doing the event. I know that the wind helped considerably. Some swimmers reported going 5 minutes faster then expected while a slower swimmer reported nearly 30 minutes. My guess is it helped me by 5 minutes which pretty much offset my 3-5 minutes of lost time playing with a capsized boat. What I really liked was that the swim did not fatigue me like past swims had. I definitely could have jumped in and headed back. The endurance training seems to be working. Now I just need to get the cold training started again.

Update with 1 year to go

It has been a while since my last posting. I can blame it a bit on being busy with non-swimming activities and a bit on planned down time from the ramp up for Malta before I begin the year long training cycle towards the English Channel. Whichever, it is getting close to one year to go so time to get my mind back into swimming.

The cold water acclimatisation during the remainder of the spring went well. We lucked out and had a cool, raining spring (unusual for Colorado) which keep the local lakes at a good training temperature for longer then normal this year. I was able to get sub 60F training in until about mid June. When the cool rain stopped, the lakes quickly heated up to the mid 60F to low 70F. At the peak of the spring acclimatisation, I was able to handle 1.5-2 hours in 58F water with limited shivering and 2-3 hours in 60-61F water with limited shivering. Not quite ready for the channel yet but felt I made significant progress for the spring season. Now the goal will be to make these temperatures feel comfortable this fall and push down to being able to handle even colder temperatures as the lakes cool off.

A quick summary of the distractions I had this early summer. Early June, I went with my son's Boy Scout troop for a weeklong mountain biking trip at Moab, Utah. I was nervous about if I would have troubles with my limited bike training (due to swim training), extra weight on the hills and lack of heat acclimatisation. In general, I had nothing to worry about. It was tougher but still doable. The killer day was on Slickrock trail when my son's derailler broke. We swapped bikes and I ran his bike out in 90F heat for about 7 miles with limited water. I was surprised to find I lost a few degrees of cold water acclimatisation from this trip. Shortly after I got back we jumped in a lake at 58F for a little over an hour and I had some cold issues with the water that I had not had for nearly a month. Two weeks after Moab, I did a 188 mile running relay race with 5 teammates in the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. I was nervous and it turned out rightfully so about the limited run training, extra weight and lack of heat acclimatisation. I ended up running about 30 miles in 24 hours and the suffering was glorious (to quote a teammate). I was a good 2 min/mile slower by the end then I usually am at a running race like this. When I returned from this relay, the lakes had warmed up to the upper 60F so I no longer could tell if I had lost significant cold water acclimatisation. The bottom line is I need to avoid distractions like this over the next year. My wife and I have already decided to skip running the New York Marathon this year which was to be my last non-swimming distraction.

Now that I have these distractions past me, I am starting to ramp up the swimming again. I am hitting the lakes 2-3 times a week and the pool 2-3 times. I just did a 3 hour swim yesterday in a local lake at a balmy 72F. I will continue a moderate ramp up to the Horsetooth 10K in August and then a more serious ramp up to another 6 hour attempt at 60F when the local lakes cool off in late September, early October. Meanwhile, I am following the Channel chat site for preparation and attempts that are happening this summer. It is hard to imagine that a year from now I will be one of those going through the final planning stages.

Early Cold Water Acclimatization

After Malta, the focus of this springs training shifted from endurance training to cold water acclimatization.   I planned on taking a mental breather from the long workouts after Malta but I quickly realized I had a relatively short spring season of cold water to use for cold water training before the local lakes warmed up.  From information I had received from the fellow channel swimmers at Malta and followup reading, every season that you do cold water training will make it easier.  I did not want to miss this spring season. 

Shortly after returning from Malta, I caught a "travel cold".  One of those colds that come from sitting on a cramped airplane with limited airflow combined with jetlag lack of sleep.  I was reasonably incapacitated for nearly a week after my return.  Finally, on Saturday I felt good enough to swim again.  Eliz and I headed for a local lake.  I measured 55F (12.5C) in the lake with an air temperature of 42F (5.5C).  It was a bit cooler then the 59F (15C) of Malta.  We hit the water for 30+ minutes.  It felt cold but doable.  We both felt we could have gone a little longer but thought that it was best to work into the colder water swimming slowly.  

The next Thursday, we hit the lake again with a goal to try for an hour.  The temperature was again 55F (12.5C).  We crossed longways across the lake (0.9miles) and back.  When we got back, we checked with each other to see how we felt.  The water felt cold but we both felt our core temperature was still ok.  We headed out along the shore line for a quick out and back to make it to a hour.  As we returned, we did start feeling some of the effects of hypothermia.  In particular, both of us hands started forming the "channel claw", a relatively common cold water long distance swimming occurance.  As the blood flow continues to be limited to the hands plus the drop in temperature in them, the muscles control drops such that the fingers start separating and bending in a manner that looks like your hand is clawing something.  We tried to control the muscles to hold the fingers straight but it was not working.  We finished the swim in slightly over an hour and headed to warm clothes.  I had a solid 40 minutes of shivering but became useful around the house within 75 minutes.  Not bad for our first hour swim at 55F (12.5C).

This morning (Cinco De Mayo), we hit the lake for a third time since Malta.  Since last Thursday, we have had a cold spell with a significant amount of cold rain(as in it was snowing in slightly higher elevations).  The water temperature had dropped to 53F (11.5C).  With the colder water, we decided that the goal would not be to go longer then last time but try to hold the same time.  Also with the colder water, we stayed a little closer to the shore in case we had problems.  We headed out on a course that was about 15 minutes out and then back.  The water definately felt colder but after about 5 minutes, the body seemed to be settling into a comfortable middle ground where we could feel the cold water but the core temperature seemed to be ok.  It ended up being a beautiful morning with the sun rising over the horizon while we were swimming with mirror smooth water.  I finally had some significant time just zoning out and enjoying.  I had not had that feeling yet while swimming in cold water.  It felt great!  After one 30 minute lap, we checked in with each other to make sure we felt ok and headed out for a second lap.  Shortly after we turned around, I started feeling the channel claw forming.  It felt as if I could not grab any water.  I was afraid I was going to slow down so I tried picking up the cadence.   I felt I was holding a reasonable speed but I kept seeing Eliz pull ahead and then slow down.  I was not sure if I was slowing down or if she was speeding up.  With about 100 yards to go, I saw her hesitate for second and then continue to the end.  As we got out, she asked if I felt ok.  I replied that I did but explained my claw issues.  She mentioned that in the last 5 minutes I had slowed down significantly and she was starting to get nervous.  The hesitation I saw was when she thought for a second about stopping me and asking but then realized it would be quicker just to finish the swim and then ask.  She checked my skin color and it was still a healthy pink.  We did not make our full hour, only about 55 minutes but Eliz was nervous enough not try to push to an hour.

This reaction does confuse me.  Obviously I was having some early signs of hypothermia.  The confusing part is I definately felt colder in Malta without the channel claw problems and slowdown.  Also, my recovery from the swim was one of my quickest one.  I had only medium shivers that lasted less then 30 minutes.  This seems to indicate my core temperature did not drop as much as previous swims.  However, I was experience more significant hypothermia issues with the channel claw and the slow down.  At this stage, I am guessing that the core is adapting quicker then the extremities to the cold water which would not be a big surprise.  From discussions with fellow channel swimmers, these symptoms will come later and later in the swim to the point they will not show up in normal training.  I just need to be patient and keep the cold water training up.

Malta Pictures

 
 
 
 

Post Malta update

I returned yesterday from the SwimTrek Long Distance Swim camp in Malta. Those that have followed my blog are probably wondering both what my mental state is as well as what my plans are for the future. The quick and short of it is I am feeling mentally motivated and still plan on making a run for it!!

During the 24 hours after the 6 hour attempt in Gozo was a very helpful for mental recovery. Of course, I started pretty depressed but tried to keep it under control to help the rest of the swimmers celebrate their accomplishments. The next morning we got in the water for a quick fun swim in the cove and finally got out of Xlendi cove to see the white cliffs just out of the cove. I had no trouble doing this and in fact felt a lot more comfortable getting in the cold water then I had in days. This says something about how nervousness and mental issues can throw you off. The comradeship of the fellow swimmers was great and seeing how what looks to be ordinary people doing extra ordinary things was real helpful. By the time I left Gozo to do a quick day of sightseeing on the main island of Malta, I was already starting developing plans on how to strengthen my weaknesses. Bottom line is I found every penny I spent on the trip valuable in teaching me where I was at and what I had to do to be prepared for the English Channel. It was a harsh slap in the face that one does not roll off the couch and hope to swim across the English Channel. It takes a lot of focus, determination and planning to be prepared for it.

Eliz and I talked quite a bit about our learnings and plans during the long slow trip back to the US. It was obvious that we were the least cold acclimated of the swimmers at the camp. All the other swimmers had their events this summer (versus ours next summer) and had at least another year of cold water acclimatisation then we had. We also found out that the Dover season is not that much longer then what we should be able to achieve in Colorado. They officially begin the first weekend in May and we should be able to get in the open water as early as mid May. This made us believe if we push ourselves to hit the open water as soon as possible, we should be able to achieve the same cold water acclimatisation this year as the weekend Dover swimmers did last year.

There are a couple of updates on the 6 hour qualifying swim status. Eliz's swim will count so she does not necessarily have to do another. However, she quickly come to the realization that she will need to do more to prepare for the Channel crossing so it was generally a moot point if it counted or not. We plan on doing more 6 hour swims in the next year where one of them will count as my qualifying swim. My goal is to work toward cold water acclimatisation this spring to fall and aim to do my official qualifying swim this fall in a fresh water lake in Colorado once the temperature in the lake drops far enough (mid-September). Worse case scenario might be a return to Malta next spring but with another year of cold water training under my belt.

Malta Day 5

April 15, 2009

We meet for breakfast at 7:15 with the bus departing at 8am. The hope is that we start swimming before 9am. The boat takes us just out of the Harbor to start the swim. The plan is to swim to the next cove west of the harbor then start circling in the cove if the cove is Jelly free. We over achieve and hit the water at 8:50am in the best weather we have had all week (very light winds, sunny and warm) The water feels cold but not as cold as when I jumped in yesterday afternoon. I hope this is a good sign. Eliz warned me that she was going to back the pace down to make it to 6 hours. I had more concerns about warmth so I took off at a solid pace. We needed to stay close to each of other since we were sharing a boat so I would periodically do a flip turn and swim back to her. By the end of the first hour, I lost feeling in my feet (which I had not had up till now) and I started shivering. I had my feed and the warmth felt great. For the next 5 minutes, I felt human again and then the shivering started again. I hung in there for another hour fighting the demons and unfortunately focusing on the fact I had 5 more hours to go. At the 2 hour mark, I got out, defeated and depressed. I had a solid shiver fit but not as bad as the previous days. Obviously, I got psyched out. The damage had been done, no qualify swim for me today. I helped with the feeds for a while. At the 4 hour 30 minute feed, I got back in to pace Eliz. Her pace was much slower then earlier in the swim. I realized if I keep that pace up, I would get very cold pretty quickly. I thought about it and realized that being able to swim the rest of the hour in a half was not as important as keeping Eliz company. I hung in there with her for an hour fighting the cold off before I got out knowing she could make it the last half hour. All the rest of the swimmers including Eliz made it to the 6 hour mark and there was much celebrating.

Quick analysis of what happened. Obviously I got psyched out and did not have the mental strength to hold in there for longer (until I was more medically hypothermic). I find this interesting since I tend to have reasonably strong mental strength. Talking with Eliz, she also had the shivers at about the 1.5 hour mark and yet she held in there to the end (tough woman). Could my mental strength have an "Achilles Heel" with the cold or is there another reason? Second, the last two days my cold tolerance was not building but quite opposite, it was weakening. One of the guides hinted he had a theory on this but I have not had a chance to talk with him about it. I am fighting demons wondering if my DNA will allow me to gain the cold tolerance. There seems to be a lot of examples around of people that seem to be the wrong genetics for cold but are able to develop it. One of our guides is an ex 1:20 half marathoner, 2:50 marathoner then took up Channel swimming. It took him 5-6 years of attempts to be successful but he was. Am I the classic American (in the Brits viewpoint) that is not patient enough? Do I want to put aside a large portion of my life (athletics and family) for that long a period for this goal? Obviously, a lot of demons are in my head and I have some serious belly button staring time in front of me.

On a side depressing note (for Eliz), in a discussion after the swim today, it came up that the qualifying swim might need to be within 12 months of your channel attempt. If this is the case, her heroics will be for naught and she also will have to make another attempt at 6 hours. We did discuss this and she pointed out that that if our training and cold water adaptation does not make the 6 hours easier, her motivation to do it again (and consequently the Channel) is pretty low. She also has some belly button staring to do.