Egypt swimming

Christmas week was brutal! Lots of travel and seeing the sights. Had
no swimming even though was on the Nile at one point for a couple of
days. Asked to swim out in the Nile but was told about the crocs put
there. So that did not go over well!
However got over to the Red Sea in a resort town called Hurgadha.
Have a 55m at it's longest part freezing cold pool all to myself! It
is 17c and always training ground! Go out twice a day in the pool and
usually once in the red sea at blistering 20c for salt training for
Perth. The best part about the training here is about a 300m lazy
river! I swim against it for kicks and it is a great trainer wish I
ha one back home! Some points it must kick up to about 4kph!
Will post pics when I get back to home base!
Happy New Year!

I got my invitation to Lake Zurich Marathon Swim!

Last evening I got my email from Sri Chinmoy Marathon Swim committee and I have been invited to the Lake Zurich Marathon Swim!  Training all summer is now a GO!  No other information but that is good enough for me!

Also squared our boat deposit out with our English Channel Swim!

We will be going with Eric Hartley and Pathfinder Charters!

During my sick days - I studied...

While I was sick I watched and read as much as I could on fixing my stroke and kick.

Here are some good video's that I have played a million times.  The video are both a critique of the great Ian Thorpe.



The second video gives you a great demostration of HIGH ELBOW.





During yesterday's warm up and cool down, I worked on HIGH ELBOW.   What a world of difference both with breathing and stability in the water.  I look to use this in the future!

Been out of the Water!

Last weekend I started to feel a bit rough after the freezing of extermities.  I stayed out of the water Monday and went to practice with the sharks.  That was a bad move, we were doing 400m reps and I almost died, could not breath, felt as though I had a lead brick in my ass.  Got through it and the rest of practice.  I went home and just wanted to eat and go to bed.  The next day all hell broke loose and did not go to work.  Long story short, I just got back into the water last night for some kick work but felt great.  Lots of mucous, hehe, but I got through it with no issues.  Tonight however is going to be the ass kicker!

First Case of Hypothermia

Swam on Saturday morning at 6C/42F. 

Did 1.4k of the perimeter of the lake and 550m of the buoys with a wetsuit!  Can not tell you how cold my hands and feet after this swim.  They throbbed at first and quickly after that there was absolutely NO FEELING AT ALL!

I wanted to get  a quick dip in without a wetsuit just so I can acclimate to the cold.  I went to do a 100m but as always in this situation I want to push myself to the limit.  I was able to get a 550m and about 100m.  I was fine getting out but 15 minutes later, I was shaking uncontrollable, slurring, and talking gibberish.  Took me about 45 minutes to warm up.

Next time I am going to do a before and after temperture of my core body to actually see how much my core body temp dropped.

8 Weeks and Over 200 Miles

In the last eight weeks, I have swam 206 miles or 288 kilometers!  So far I am on track to hitting my goals of 15 miles or 25 kilometers per week by the end of the month.  I have 11 more weeks of training til Rottnest Channel Swim with each week getting harder and longer.  The only set back was a quick cold that I came down with over the weekend.  Was forced to call out of practice yesterday.  I don't see tonights practice going very well though, still a lil congested :(

Kicking is it...

I been getting slaughtered in the fast lane when it comes to kicking.  Been trying so hard to figure out what is wrong.  The first two weeks with the team I noticed that my pulls are right with the fastest swimmers but when it comes to kick, I go back to the end of the line.  So we been talking about it and the others have been helping me out with my kick.  So now on my own training days all I do is KICK.  Last night did 2.5k kick and 15 mins tread kick.  Needless to say, my legs are sore!