Labor Day Swim 2019- Fort Worden State Park

Every year my friend group and I get away for Labor Day. I've always tried to build a swim into this adventure.  This year was no different.

After last year's experience, leading a strong friend into harsh waters, I was very cautious with where we were going to swim this year.  I scoped out a lake, that ended up having toxic algae, so it was a no go. Then I found a city park, but the beach didn't slope down enough to swim.  In the end I found my way to the Fort Worden State Park.

The beach was ideal for swimming. The drop off is fairly steep, so you can be near shore and in plenty of water to swim. The swim area is mildly protected by the curve of the shoreline out to the light house point. And the temperature, though mildly colder than Alki, was warm enough. The red area on the map below is where I swam. You can see the protection the point gives.

Two of my friends took out an inflatable dingy, in the same water, and tooled around for a while while I swam.  The 10 year old "dunked" but found it too cold to swim.  As you can see, I was all smiles before the swim.

I was able to go for about 40 min. The currents were fascinating, pushing me towards the dock when I was near the dock and towards the lighthouse when I was near the lighthouse. It ended up feeling like I was always fighting the current.

After, I spent time on the beach shooting the breeze with my friends, a great way to cap off a swim!

GPS data from swim

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I got a new to me GPS system to track swims.  I'll do a full review of it in the future, when I've used it a bit more, but here's the data from this week's swim and a little about why it is interesting. (really, when is data not interesting?)

First, the GPS provides a map of the swim, with a heat map for pace.

The swim was a simple out-and-back to the third staircase. I was just shy of 800m with 16 "laps" of 50m each (the last one was 47m).

I like seeing how straight my swim was, and where I turned around (a bit past the third stairs). I would like to be able to zoom in a bit more. Which the ap doesn't seem to have the ability to do.

Now the more interesting stats:

That's my pace (in yellow) and my stroke rate (in pink).  Even if you can't read the numbers, you can draw a few conclusions about my swim.  The biggest one is current.  Knowing I turned around half way through (out and back swim) you can see what the current did to my pace. Sloooooowed it down!!  And, to compensate, about 100 m later, I picked up my stroke rate.  I must have realized I was going slower, or just wanted to finish.

I find the very high stroke rate for the first 100 m also very interesting.  That must be a response to the cold and wanting to just MOVE to warm up.  I don't think I realized it was that dramatic. I will want to see if that data is repeated in future swims.

I was having such a good time out there, that my 32 min earned me the "last swimmer" out there award this week.  Here's a shot a friend got before I got out.

Awakening the dolphin

Last night I went to an amazing panel discussion on women in open water swimming. It was, appropriately, called "Awakening the Dolphin Within".

Four of my incredibly talented and accomplished swim buddies served on a panel to discuss everything from training plans to how to pee while swimming. It was sponsored by Guila of Say Yes To Life swims.

The super cool aspect of this panel was that, even though I know these women, swim with them, and rewarm with them over donuts on a regular basis, I learned a ton and was inspired by their stories.

They spoke of training plans.  The hours they put in.  For an English Channel crossing, Melissa trained 35 hours a week. That's a full time job! Learning to understand what pain was "back off" pain and what pain was "suck it up cupcake" pain was important. From this I can take away two things.  One, I never want to swim the English Channel (this is not news). And two, I can learn when to push through pain.  I'd been reflecting on this question even prior to the panel. My sprained ankle back in September left me in a boot for 10 days, and with severe atrophy of muscles and weakening of my ankles and knees after.  I'm in physical therapy now to correct the issues. I've realized that I tend to respond to any pain with 100% rest.  I plan to talk to my physical therapist about when I should be doing active rest, or even pushing against the pain.

They spoke of bodily functions and swimming.  One of my most viewed pages in this blog is the one about peeing in the pool. I didn't realize, until this panel, that some folks struggle to pee while swimming. This has never been an issue for me.  There was also a discussion of #2 and of menstruation and sea life.  I did learn that it is better to have people see you poo than to get pulled for stomach cramps. AND blood and pee are the same to sea life, so if you can pee while swimming, you shouldn't sweat your period.

They spoke of the ways that swimming helps with depression.  I don't want to tell someone else's story about this topic. I do agree that sometimes, the water is the only place that the world make sense.  Major stresses can be solved by a good swim.

For me there wasn't a call to action, so much as a pointing out of how lazy I sometimes am about my workouts. If I were to push a bit harder, what could I accomplish?  This has especially been on my mind this week because I did a mile in the pool on Tuesday.  It took me about 8 min longer than I expected.  This is a huge slowdown.  And I want to get back to the speed I believe I can swim-- or even faster.  To do so, I'll need to work harder.  To swim faster you have to swim faster. It may be time to kick back into "training" mode.

I'm glad I spent my evening with these lovely and accomplished ladies. It woke up my dolphin!

I'll post the video when it is available.

Viadoom Swim/Walk

Usually I swim with the Notorious Alki Swimmers for my weekend swim.  As the name implies, we swim at Alki beach. Seattle is now, in the midst of "Viadoom" while, for three weeks, the Alaska Way Viaduct is closed and the replacement tunnel is not yet open.  I'll skip the politics of this in this forum, but suffice it to say, the impact on traffic, city wide, is anticipated to be significant.

I usually take the viaduct to Alki (or home) and so planned to meet up with a few north-end swimmers at Golden Gardens instead.  Three of us showed up on a beautiful, sunny, flat day.  The water was clear, and the sun was out. I almost worried about sunburn!

Golden Gardens is known for having a bit of a current as you swim around the point. I'd done it many times before and, although I'd felt the current, it had never been an issue.  Until this time.

I also have a new toy (I'll post on that soon) that is a GPS and gives me real-time auditory feedback on my pace. This ended up being very helpful, and a great safety tool, in this situation.

As I got used to the temperature, and started getting into my pace, the GPS was telling me that my "laps", which I'd set to 50 meters, were about 1:09 to 1:25.  I knew this was fast for me, but since I usually swim in a yards pool, it was hard to track how fast.  The swim was easy. I was watching the beautiful sand and sea floor. I had a goal of about a  mile, but after 650, the other two swimmers were coming back, so I turned around with them.

The next lap jumped from 1:20 to 2:20 then to 4:20. I wasn't sure, since the GPS is new to me, if this was a sign of the current, or of the GPS malfunctioning. You can see the change in pace around lap 11 here:

Either way, I decided that it was safer to start swimming towards shore, so I'd be closer in if I needed to bail.  This was a good idea.  It took me minutes to get near shore. And then, the current was pushing me so hard that my slowest 50 m was over 5 min! I got close it to shore and started to walk, in shoulder deep water, to see if I could get free from the current.  I couldn't.  But I tried for a few min.  I realized I was making no progress, so I got out, and walked back to my gear. My friends met me half way back with my shoes and towel. You can see my route here:

Notice that the color of the line is an indication of pace.  The green is faster than the blue. The darker the blue, the slower I was going.  Basically, from the turn around spot, I dramatically slowed down.

What did I learn from all this?  

First, swimming with friends is a good idea, I knew they were watching out for me and aware of where I was.  

Second, the GPS ended up being a real safety device. I wasn't sure I'd like the every 50 m updates, but in this case, it highlighted for me much quicker than I would have noticed alone, that my pace had dropped dramatically. 

Third, the habit of swimming parallel to shore is a smart one. I knew if I couldn't break the current, I would be able to turn around and swim across and with it to shore. Another safe choice.

Finally, once again, I got into an uncomfortable situation and got myself out of it safely.  As I push my limits swimming, I need to also balance that with swimming safely. This was a good test of my response intuition and I'm proud of how I responded. I never felt unsafe. I was confident the whole time that I knew what to do.  That was a good learning experience.

And really finally, there is no shame in walking.  I don't regret it. And I still think of this as a fabulous swim. Every swim teaches me something new.  This one was about current, and planning.

New Year Swim- 2019

People like to spend New Year's day doing something fun, unusual, or signficant.  New Year's 2000 (Y2K-- remember when we worried about that?) I started a 5 mile run at midnight. The motto was "Y2K can keep computers from running, but it can't keep us from running", but probably phrased in a catchier way.

As has become my habit, this year was started with a wonderful swim at Alki with the Notorious Alki Swimmers.  We had large turnout. Bigger than a usual weekend swim.

This is my fourth winter swimming at Alki. I have made wonderful friends along the way.

I'm not one to make resolutions. I gave up the diet mindset years ago. And in general I eat healthy and am not one to overspend. I also have realized that setting mile goals for a year can lead to injury.

At the same time, my goal from however many years ago, when I started this blog, was only accomplished when I joined a community.  This year, if I make it to spring, it will be accomplished four-fold.

Thank you to this wonderful community for helping me get there. And Happy 2019 to all!