It is now 3 weeks to Malta SwimTrek Long Distance Swim camp where I will be attempting a 6 hour qualifying swim in hopefully 60F water. A fellow blogger, Julie Galloway, is heading to Malta this weekend for her camp and 6 hour swim. I am looking forward to her reports and hints.
The distance training has gone well. Eliz and I did just short of 6 hours (5:50) three weeks ago and a 6 hour swim this past Sunday, both in a way to warm pool at 83F (34C). I am estimating that we covered about 23,000 yards (~13 miles) in the 6 hours with approximately 15 minutes of non-swimming time due to feeding breaks and bio breaks. Even though we held a pretty slow pace, we were able to pick it up the last 1/2 hour. Eliz thoroughly smoked me during this pick up, a hint of what our relative times will be in the longer swims. For an endurance viewpoint, I feel we are ready for a 6 hour open water swim given we have done a 6 hour training swim in a pool. Beyond that enters the fear issue.
There are two main fears eating at my psyche now. The first is expected. How will we do when we hit the colder water in Malta? Our training so far has been in pool temperatures from 81F to 84F. The local lakes in the foothills of Colorado have been bouncing from frozen to 37F (3C) and I am typing this while looking at 6" of snow on the ground. I have been trying cold showers to prepare but there seems to be differences in opinion on the effectiveness of this. The bottom line is that we will just have to do our best once we get to Malta.
The second fear was one that I was not expecting to fight. I have been amazed with how little overuse injuries have occurred as we have ramped up the swims. I would like to believe it was due to intelligent ramp up but it probably has more to do with luck. After the really long swims, there is longer term fatigue (three days to a week) with some stiffness but nothing that hasn't gone away. On Wednesday this week, I hit the water for a short one hour recovery (meaning slow) swim. I had a tightness in my mid-back, nothing unusual after a long weekend swim. After about 15 minutes of warm up, the tightness was still there so I stopped to stretch it. During the stretch, there was a sharp spasm in that location. The pain was reasonably intense and did not go away. I decided to stop the stretch and see if could swim it out. I quickly determined it was not and I could not complete a full stroke. Here I was, three weeks from Malta and could not swim across the pool. Minor panic set in but I squelched it. I decided I had done enough damage and got out of the pool. The next 24 hours was pretty painful but it seems to be calming down now, about 36 hours later. The injury feels more like a muscle related instead of a tendon so I am hoping for quicker recovery. The next week or so will determine if I make the trip to Malta. Sigh...that is the risk on the longer events, be it running, biking, swimming or any sports where you take the body past what they are normally made to do. Why we do what we do is to see how far we can push ourselves and sometimes we find out the hard way. I just hope my lesson does not keep me from completing the swim camp.
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