English Channel Qualifier, Lake Zoar, CT, 14 Miles
November 4, 2001
Today is a surprise. The weather looks to be holding, so Liz and I are going to try for a 6-hour swim. Liz has been sick, however, with a cold and phenomena. So, we'll see how far she makes it. We will swim north to the Shepaug Dam and then south to the Stevenson Dam.
We started a bit late as we had to drop the boat at Joel's and then drive Mike Krein's truck down to the Stevenson Dam. We got in the water about 1/2 hour late at 10:30, which means we will finish somewhere around 4:30, or almost dark. Mike was in the two-person kayak and we towed Liz's kayak in case we needed it. We also used it as a baggage holder so Mike would be comfortable in his kayak.
We swam up past the little island north of Joel’s to the dam and stayed in the relatively warm waters. The temperature varied between 57° and 58°. We went back to the island and then back up to the dam and turned around for the final time and headed south. At that point Liz knew she was not healthy enough to swim for 6 hours. She got out, warmed up and got in her kayak to help with the swim. I headed down the 10-mile course after 1 hour and 25 minutes of swimming near Joel's and the Shepaug dam.
We swam past the slalom course, which had already been removed because most of the skiers had pulled the boats out of the water. We did one sprint from the steel bridge to the train trestle. It was as fast as normal, but my stroke felt short and stroke count felt high. We continued to swim making nice and steady progress. My speed was approximately 2 1/4 MPH, even with stops of over 2 minutes and some breaststroke just to talk. I got into a rhythm on doing 105 arm pulls, changing each side every 5th, 3rd and 7th strokes. One of the things I do to pass the time is to note as I am swimming when every 3rd or 5th or 7th arm is the same when one breathes on the other count. I was always wondering if there was a number that was the same for all three. Of course my “razor-like” mind remembered simple math and the lowest common denominator was 105. Therefore, to keep everything the same, I would do 105 strokes, twice, 5th, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 5th, 3rd, 5th, and 7th. This would put me close to 1/2 hour. It is a good pattern and I will try to use it in all of my long distance and tether swims between now and the Channel.
Often either Mike or Liz would go ahead to scout. We wanted to make sure the water temperature didn't drop too much so I would at least swim in between 57º and 58º water. At the halfway point, we stopped to talk to a couple who were out water skiing. They were both in wet suits. I was thinking how crazy it was for them to be water skiing at this time of year, but then I realized I was in the water with no wet suit and minimal Vaseline and lanolin, just enough to keep from chaffing but not enough to keep me warm. They told us that after the next bend, we were at the halfway point. We continued to follow bends in the river and points where we could get in and out if the need arose.
At the halfway point, the water was quite shallow and I could have walked in the muck. I had to head to the deeper part, but it was also shady as the sun, which was not very high to begin with, had started to sink in the west. The air temperature continued to drop as we swam through the afternoon. The hills surrounding Lake Zoar are quite high. I lost the sun at the 4 hour 30 minute mark. There was plenty of sun, but it was on the hills on the eastern side of the Lake.
We came to a long straight stretch where I did my breathing pattern through twice. We were informed that the dam was around the two more bends. When we got around them, we were at the very tip of an area that could see the Stevenson Dam. We were still over an hour away by swimming but less than 15 minutes before the 6 hour mark. If it was not getting dark, I would have swum down to the dam were we left Mike's car. We found a suitable beach and I got out at 6:01.29.
I estimate that I swam well over 12 miles and probably 13. The water temperature ranged from a high of 58° to a low of 56.4°. The air temperature and wind were perfect. While I only had waves from a few water skiers and some pleasure craft, the water was smooth as glass. It was fresh and not salt water so I did not have the benefit of buoyancy. There was little to no current as well, which both helps and hurts a swimmer. Overall, today was a good day for a qualifier in November.
Without the patience of Mike and Liz as well as my wife, who knows I am addicted to swimming, I would not have made GU, hot tea with sugar and peanut butter and jelly sandwiched helped as well.
TOTAL 20,800 mtrs