Marathon Math

32 miles (the length of Lake George) = 56,320 yards = 1,126.4 laps in a standard 50 yard pool.  

The most commonly accepted estimate for a mile in a pool is 36 laps, or 1800 yards (A real mile is 1,760 yards).  So, 32 pool miles = 57,600 yards.  That is 1,280 yards more than real miles!  (Wow- I should be ready for anything, right?)

Sometimes I can swim 50 yards in 50 seconds.  That is 2 miles an hour.  

In a magical world, I could maintain that to swim 32 miles in 16 hours.  

Reality check:

540 laps (15 pool miles) took me about 10:14.  

The first two miles took me 1:12, the last two took me 1:27.  

If all 32 miles are at a rate of 2 miles every hour and a half, I can expect to swim for 24 hours.  

A portion of each mile will likely be spent slowing down or stopping as briefly as possible for food and/or water, as well as adjusting goggles, maybe replacing a nose clip, changing swim caps, or rubbing on more Destine. Whether I add 15 seconds or 2 minutes of non-swim time to my miles, I could add anywhere from 8 minutes to more than an hour of in-water time to my swim time.  Then, there are variables like the course from start to finish, wind, and other boat traffic.  

I am not the fastest open water swimmer by any stretch, and I’m ok with that.  I do hope to get faster as I train, but i also love swimming long distances, and right now, my priority is adding my ability to continuously swim for hours.  Since January, I have increased my long swims from just a few miles to fairly steady 8-13 mile swims.  Doing a 15 mile swim the day after a 10 mile swim was challenging, and I was a bit slower for a few weeks after.  Between now and July and August, I think it is much more reasonable that I will be able to double or triple the number of consecutive miles I manage, rather than cut my mile times by 1/3.  Dropping my mile time from 38 to 35 minutes, with the occasional 34 minute mile is reasonable, so while I may incorporate sprints into my workouts, my overriding focus is on gaining the power to swim the distance.  

I will get there. . . 

Mid-Course Correction- Ish

Ok, I was a bit late to the pool this morning and someone ELSE was already in Lane 2 (the one without the jet with warmer water at one end, and the one close enough for me to usually see the pace clock). Lane 3 was nice enough, even with the disturbing cloud of warm from the jet, so on I slogged. Yes, slogged. I took a short break after about a half mile to have a small snack, and chat with an incoming lap swimmer. Jill is nice, and good to have in a nearby lane.  She also appreciates long swims in open water.

The Lane 2 girl was motoring along in a way that made me work to keep up, which was good, even when my breakfast expired. (Waaaa.) I scanned my lap counter to see that, yes, I was slogging along. Back to laps, and after a short while, I stopped to look at my lap counter and saw 8. Huh? I had gone over 20. Oops-- I hadn't clicked out of Review, and instead of logging new laps, when I hit the lap counter button, it just reviewed the times of finished laps. So maybe I had done 3/4 of a mile? Well, that was what I decided to go with. Reset, start at zero. Move on.

So, my first complete mile took just over 38 minutes. Yikes. Nothing hurt, I wasn’t tired, I just wasn’t peppy- even with company nearby. I tried to look at it as an experiment with snacking and hydrating. Blah. Then the sun seemed to come out— at least, it looked brighter out the windows than it had. I started to think of contingency plans. My original plan of 8 miles was not feeling like it was in the cards (or lanes). It’s Sunday. I was going to be back in the pool in the morning. I had a wee girl home from school, and a few other things to do. I’d finish a bit more and head out.

Lane 2 girl was gone! Not long gone, so I moved my stuff to the end of that lane, got out, and ducked into the locker room to say hi. I also wanted to let her know how helpful she had been with her steady pace for her long workout. I’ll take all the motivation I can get! She was pleased. It’s nice when people in the pool are nice. I got back in, finished enough to feel fairly sure I had done three whole miles, and figured I’d stay later tomorrow.

I went and got a haircut, picked up a few things at the grocery store, picked up some paint chips to consider for my house, and headed home. It rained on and off on the drive home, but it stopped in time for me to do gardening and for my wee girl to play with her friends outside. The weeds have been thinned, a few plants moved to places they should enjoy more, and the compost piles are well turned. Given the rainy forecast, cutting short a sloggy swim in favor of other activities (that were actually active) was not a bad thing.

Since Friday afternoon, I have swum 9 miles. I may get 5 in tomorrow, and a few may be fast because I’ll be coaching Wendy, who is a powerhouse triathlete. Not a bad weekend. I feel on-track for my Lake George Solo swim. Fortunately, today was not the usual swim day in the pool. One of my goals for the Solo is to see how far I can go. I have to want to go. Turning training into dreaded drudgery is not going to be productive. I took a little more time between laps to visit with other swimmers, rest and let myself cool down so the water felt fresh again, and mainly have a happy time at the pool. Happy is good.  

I have a lot more training to do, and some of it will be hard, and some of it may make me sore for a few days, but I’m doing this because I want to. And when someone asked me last week why I want to do the solo swim, my first response was, “Because I can.” I’m sure of it. I have a plan- it is fluid, but I think that all things considered, a swim plan sort of needs to be fluid, eh? I need to continue building strength & endurance, try to pick up a bit of speed where I can, and continue to test what foods are most compatible before and during a swim.  

But I also have other things to do- teach swimming lessons, hike up Mt. Defiance, garden, go to the library and playground with my daughter, get my house painted, work, finish knitting a pair of socks, and finding someone willing to pilot a boat for me.  

If the idea of sitting in a boat moving at my swim speed for about 24 hours appeals to you, please get in touch. If you think of anyone you believe may groove on that, pass on my request! It is called a solo swim, but I really can’t do it alone.  

Getting A Bit Of My Own Back

When my Hague 10K swim turned into a 7.5K swim, I was very upset with myself for several reasons, but my main problem was that I lost my focus.  Live and learn.  

Missing the mark that day was hard, but it prompted me to continue to train.  I had been considering Sharkfest Boston Harbor, and finally registered for it.  I found a campground that was close enough for packing up the morning of the race, and I headed off on adventure.  

I am so glad I went to Boston.  Finding the campsite took forever, but was great once I arrived.  Finding the race venue the next morning was tricky, but I got there in plenty of time to hunt down a Starbucks for bagels, a banana, and chocolate milk.  I stashed my belongings in a secure location and waited to take a ferry to the starting point across the harbor.   

It was a cool September day, but warming in the sunshine.  All around me, people were getting into wetsuits!  Someone said the water was around 68F, which is warmer than the ocean I had been in a few weeks prior, and about what Lake George was at the time.  I wasn’t worried, but I saw fewer swimsuits as time went on.  I started to wonder how many in my age group would be wearing wetsuits.  Awards are given for both wetsuit and non-wetsuit swimmers, and it was looking like I might just stand a chance at placing in my age group!  

Jumping off a dock into chilly water isn’t my preferred way to get wet, but it’s what we had to do, and after the initial surprise of the chill, I found my bearings, and headed off past a few moored sailboats.  My goggles needed frequent attention, which was a bit frustrating, but I felt solid in the water, and kept a strong pace throughout.  Once I was able to discern the finish area, I was able to dig up a burst of energy to finish with power.  

Redemption.  

Finishing felt great.  Wearing the shirt that says “I Swam Boston Harbor” is a treat.  Getting an award for finishing third in my age for non-wetsuit swimmers was the frosting on the Boston Cream doughnut.  I was much happier ending the open water season on a positive note.  

Not everyone swimming that weekend had a good event.  

While the skies were clear in Boston, the Lake George Marathon Swim Event in upstate New York was facing a brutal weather forecast.  Due to start at 4:00pm, many solo swimmers, relay teams, kayakers, and boats set out into some of the worst wind sweeping up the lake that anyone could remember.  Chop grew into waves, boats were pushed too close and too far from swimmers, and after about 6 hours, the whole event was called off.  After months of training, and swimmers traveling from all over, the timing couldn’t have been worse.  

Upon my return to New York from Boston, I started tracking the progress of the pods of swimmers and support boats until no data was updated any longer.  A few days later, one relay team still in the area took advantage of a shift in the weather to give it a try, and they were successful.  

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to swim Lake George.  And the more I thought about it, the more confident I became that I could do it.  I wasn't sure how, but I had a few ideas.  Reading about Diane Struble, the first person to swim a documented solo of Lake George, it occurred to me that she likely did not have access to winter swimming pools.  Maybe if I worked on increasing my time spent in motion, I could be ready for distance swims longer than what I had done before.  I walked.  I ran.  I started hiking up Mt. Defiance, sometimes once, sometimes twice.  I used some weights, I did range of motion exercises, and I researched.  

I swam in Lake George for the last time in 2016 on October 21.  I swam about two miles in water under 60F.  A few of my late season swims had been in about 55F, and I was able to tolerate the initial chill long enough to get a quarter mile behind me.  After that, I felt good.  

Really.  

Surprisingly.  

I was going to hold that thought until spring, when I could once again work on getting used to functioning in cold water, so I’d know I was ready for any cold pockets the lake might throw at me on a mid-summer night.  

For information about the swims in Hague in August:

http://www.lakegeorgeswim.com

To learn about the documented solo swims of Lake George:

http://db.marathonswimmers.org/events/lake-george/

To find a Sharkfest swim that sounds cool to you:

http://sharkfestswim.com