Park to Park 2017

I've been doing Park to Park for years.  It was the first big goal open water swim I did when I was getting into swimming.  And it is a staple in my summer calendar. The course is fun, straight across Lake Washington, from one city park to another. I do the "classic" one way course.

Last year, the conditions were awful.  Worse waves then I typically see in Puget Sound.  My time was long- 1:14 for the 1.4 ish miles of the swim.

This year I didn't think much about the swim. I joined at the last moment possible. I didn't do any special training other than skipping the long swim I usually do the day before.

I joined up with some of my friends from the Notorious Alki Swimmers.  I love these folks.  They are strong, powerful, funny, smart people. I'm always excited to see them and am so glad they have become friends.

My goal for this swim was pretty much "fun and finish."  I have been working on my freestyle (crawl) and thought I'd try to add more free into the swim.  To achieve that goal, I was wearing my motion sickness wrist bands.

The swim was chip timed. This is also new in the last few years. It means they KNOW that everyone who entered the water also got out.  It also means we get to take a "prison chic" photo. (that's me with the aqua sock on!)

The swim has moved to a mass start in recent years, away from the wave start in the past, with slow waves going first.  The advantage of this is that slower swimmers don't have the constant experience of being passed by faster swimmers, and the mental head-game that brings. The downside is that it means that the mass start is chaotic, and one has to try to seed themselves appropriately.

 The mass start looks like this:

A challenge for me at the start can be going out too fast and therefore loosing breath control, hyperventilating and having to work hard to calm down. As I've become more experienced at these events I've gotten better at seeding myself, and at knowing I need to swim my own event. Sometimes a warm up that helps to get over the cold shock can help, but this time I decided the water was warm enough to not need that.  I was right.

I started near the rear, figuring I could avoid the "washing machine" feeling at the beginning, and that passing people later would feel good. I started out with free, and quickly realized that was a mistake. I needed to warm up and get a rhythm in breast, then could switch over. Part of how I knew it was a mistake is that I couldn't focus on anything except swimming. I wasn't able to sing a song, or work on bi-lateral breathing. I was just swimming, and expending a lot of energy. So I switched back to breast for a while.

The course had large numbered buoys to show the way. They started at 5 and worked their way down to 1, so you always had a sense of where you were.  I actually found this a bit annoying. It took away some of the challenge of an OWS. I like having to pay attention and sight.

Once I got my rhythm, I tried to increase my percent of free. I set a goal of doing only free from buoy 4 to buoy 3.  During this time I did watch a rescue, so did a few strokes of breast for that.  There was a swimmer hanging onto a kayak.  The kayaker had their paddle up in the air to signal for a boat. The paddle boarder nearby also raised her paddle. But for some reason the boat didn't come.  So the paddle boarder went and got the motor boat. Which, once they got the boat's attention, came quickly and got the swimmer out of the water. I was a bit distressed by how long it took, however.

I did make it to buoy 3 with only free-- except for the time to watch and make sure the other swimmer was safe. It is very hard to tread water and take a selfie when you want a specific background, but some how I was able to commemorate the occasion.

The buoys counted down pretty quickly. My shoulder got a bit tired of the free, so I switched back and forth with more regularity after that one long push.  I never got to the "I need to finish now" point. I felt strong.  The finish came up pretty quickly.  I was still surrounded by swimmers. I never got that "i'm alone on the course" feeling.

They used a bright light (seen in the photo above) to make finding the finish easier.  It helped, but again, took some of the fun out of the adventure.

After the swim I met back up with my friends and we all compared notes. Everyone had a great time, and was happy. The food was OK, bagels etc and the Greek yogurt folks were there giving out some AMAZING yogurt! I got the bus back to the cars, and chatted with a friend the whole way. 

When I got home, I checked my time. 1:07. A whole 7 minutes faster than last  year!! That's about 13% faster!

Change of Stroke

I'm a breast-stroker.  I get seasick easily, and breaststroke lets me look at a fixed point in the distance every stroke. That keeps me stable and less sick. I typically like to sit in the front seat of a car and near a window on a boat for the same reason.

During Swim Defiance, my kayaker commented that I was a lot faster when I'd do freestyle instead of breaststroke. So I've been trying to add some additional free into each workout.

This weekend, during my usual Alki swim, I decided to add in a significant amount of free. There is a group of swimmers I start with as we do head-up breaststroke and get used to the water. Then they switch over to free and leave me in the dust.

This week I was able to keep up with them with comfort.  On the way back the boat wakes picked up so I had to switch back to breast.  It makes me think if I could switch strokes more permanently, I could potentially be a more solid middle of the pack swimmer.

The plan is to work on sea-sickness prevention!

I should have known...

I should have known this wasn't going to be a great swim when I got to the lake and saw white caps.  But I was determined. I'd rested my shoulder this weekend because it was sore from tumbling class, and I really wanted to swim.

I should have known it wasn't going to be a great swim when my goggles strap broke. I'd left my spare pair at home, trying to streamline what I carry with me.  I was able to make do with the stump of the strap, but they didn't fit quite right.

I should have known it wasn't going to be a great swim when my Vibrams started irritating my toe with the missing nail.  The nail is growing back slowly.

I should have known it wasn't going to be a great swim when I kept getting hit in the head by my swim safety buoy.  Usually it floats behind me and I don't even know it's there.  Today the wind kept blowing it at me and it got in my way.

I should have known it wasn't going to be a great swim when the waves started making me sick.  I swam north, as I usually do, with the wind coming from the south east, the waves crossed me in a way that made me ill.

But then I turned around.  Into the waves.  And swam back.  And suddenly, it was a great swim.

35 min. Water temp- 64* Air temp- 62*

Flip, Rebecca, Flip!

I've swum twice since I last posted. They just weren't profound, so no blog about them....

Tonight I had my first gymnastics class.  I'm taking "adult tumbling" from the School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts. The class is an hour of tumbling and an hour of trampoline.  We worked on headstands, handstands, forward rolls and cartwheels. Then we went on the trampoline and I did sit jumps and half turns.  I will be SORE tomorrow, but it was awesome.

The one sort of swimming related thing is that I got HORRIBLY motion sick from the forward rolls.  I got a bit motion sick on the last swim as well.  So its time to work on systemic solutions.  The wrist bands worked on my train trip last month. Ginger seems to work as well (though I don't know about eating during class). One friend suggested ear plugs for swimming, but that won't make a difference for tumbling. A classmate tonight said she takes a Dramamine an hour before class.

For the next few weeks I'm going to try various interventions both when I swim and when I roll, and see what happens.

Oh, and for the record, part of why I'm taking this class is to learn to do a cartwheel before my 40th birthday-- in 11 months.

Motion Sickness and a blister.

Beautiful Seattle summer weekend day. High expected to reach the low 70s. Water temperatures in the mid 60s. Perfect for swimming!

And boating.

The motor boaters were out in full force. And the wakes were large and coming from multiple angles.

My goal was a mile swim. I'd used Map My Run to get some distances from the swim beach, and the dog park swim beach was about half a mile. So I decided to swim until I saw dogs.

As I started out, the wakes came across me from the side-- from 3:00. Then at an angle, from 1:30. The two sets of wakes crossed. Some wakes were large enough to break near me, rather than on shore. And I got hit with my first round of motion sickness. Since I didn't have any official remedy with me I had to try what I could. Breast stroke helps, as I can keep my head up and look at the horizon. Side stroke, when the waves were coming form 3:00 helped, probably because I could see them coming and anticipate them. Otherwise, head-down crawl left me sick.

A few months ago I took a long train ride to California. Before I left, I bought some motion sickness wrist bands. I didn't want Dramamine for a 20 hour ride, and am fairly prone to motion sickness. The bands were amazing. Although they hurt a bit after 10 hours or so (so I took them off to sleep) I didn't have ANY motion sickness. I specifically bought plastic ones so I could wear them to kayak, I'll have to try them for swimming.

I've been told ear-plugs help with motion sickness too- so they will be another "remedy" I will try.

As I said in a recent post, I hate the stone beach I enter and exit from. Again on this swim I wore my Lizard shoes. However, this time they wore a horrible blister on my toe. The blister broke open, and is still quite sore. I need to come up with a different footwear solution, or a different beach.

Water Temp: 66 Air Temp: 71 Time in Water: 50 min