Inaugural 25K Open Water Swimming Championships

Saturday, July 19, 2008

The big day is finally here.  I have trained fairly hard for this. I have even trained in hot water, an unexpected surprise. I wish it were different and the water was cooler, but we shall see. There are three people in my age group, Jim McConnica and a person by the name of Dan Heton, a fairly good college swimmer at the college and not the NCAA Division 1 level.

I will not beat McConnica, so I should take second. I will be very disappointed if I lose to a person who says that he is only doing 25,000 yards a week and has never done more than 3K or 5K swims.  I have not taken this swim lightly, but there is always more one can do.

Morris Reservoir – Fresh Water – Open Water – 44 other masters swimmers

1 X 25,000                                                                                                      25,000 mtrs

                                                            TOTAL                                              25,000 mtrs

Comments

I thought I did okay. The water was worse than expected as there was no relief from the heat. There were spots where it was cooler, and then it would get even hotter. We did not wear our swim caps after the first 400 or so.  There was a clock and I thought my splits were 1:25s for 3 and 1:30s for 2 as I didn’t stare at the clock as I went by; here are my actual splits:

So, my splits were not as even as I hoped. I switched from 30 minutes to 25 minutes or so in terms of feedings as I was very tired.

For the entire swim, I changed sides breathing every 7th arm. It also helped me count as three cycles of 20 would get me to about 36 minutes. I could adjust from there. However, towards the end, I was down to two full cycles.

During the first loop the thumb, pointing and middle fingers were a bit numb, but that went away. My shoulders were fine, but the lower back was very tight. I didn’t get any Advil until the 3^rd length but by then the damage was done At some breaks, not enough, I did some flip turns to loosen up the back. However, the eggbeater kick was getting to me. The muscles in the groin cramped as well as the muscles on top of the leg, if lying down, were cramping as well. It was a sure sign that I did not drink enough, but I thought I was while swimming.

The course was a 5K loop that we did five times. During the first loop I almost missed two of the buoys. I saw one and my kayaker saw the other and pointed his paddle to where I had to go. On the fourth loop I almost missed again, I just happened to see it as I was breathing to my right. The kayaker, a different one, didn’t know we had to keep all buoys on our left except the first one.

For the first three 5Ks I was able to keep the stroke count up. During the last two, some breaststroke crept into the swims. That certainly affected the timing, probably by 15 to 20 seconds on the last circuit.

We did not see a lot of wild life. We did see a hawk once, but the reservoir was very built up compared to Zoar or Lillinonah.  The houses were nice on the lake and affordable compared to the East.

At the end, I did pass someone who was in real trouble. I don’t know if it was her last length and she stopped, or it was her 4^th length and she stopped, but she stopped and I passed her easily, twice, as I stopped for water after I caught her during the last quarter of the last circuit.

It took a long time to get the systems going after the swim. Having read about issues such as this on the Channel Swimmers web site, I was concerned as I was swimming. I was very concerned when I was cramping up. I did not pee until after the race. I was met at the end by Marcia Cleveland. I went over to the weeds where I finally peed. I did about 25 yards or butterfly twice after I swam, that helped the arms immensely.

The goal was to break 7:30, which I did. I had a dream of going 1:25s as a secondary goal, and I was at that for the first 1/2 of the swim. But, as the swim progressed, I lost 2 minutes, 1:30, 1:30 and 1:30 per round trip. Not too bad, but if I had held the first split, as which I think I can do if the open water is cooler and, I don’t have to fly to and from CA the week before the swim, I would have broken 7 hours. That is the goal for next time, under 1:24 per 5K, average.

I will do it again, when held.