I finally did my first real training swim in SoCal with my training buddy and friend Carol Hayden. I’m usually gone on the weekends but we swim together on the weekdays in Laguna Beach and are about the same speed. I’ve drafted off of her a couple of times although usually because she’s swam directly into my line and we agreed that’s not technically cheating. 😉 I’ve only drafted off of her on purpose once which was when I wanted to work on my bilateral breathing and not have to worry about keeping up with anyone. Anyway, it’s great that we’re both swimming Anacapa a week apart so our training schedules are pretty much the same. Okay, she has hers planned out and I’m winging it, but still..we need to have our butts in gear at about the same date!
Shaw’s Cove with my fellow mermaid Carol Hayden.
Oh yeah and I had just sprained my left ankle 2 days before in the Catalina Channel. Well I was going to have it elevated (sort of, above/at/below level of heart while swimming) and resting (sort of, body weight off of it) and iced (sort of, water colder than air) and compressed (sort of, water pressure around it) so this was good for it, right? I’ll ask for forgiveness from my podiatrist later if I misinterpreted the whole RICE definition. 😉
We met up at Shaw’s Cove for a 10.5 miles swim starting at about 6 AM. I’m glad that I was meeting up with her since I was tired on the way there and thought about bailing. Hard to bail when you’re meeting someone though! I was trying out a new major addition to my feeds of organic baby food pouches since I could have different flavors, none involve chewing, and I’d still get nutrients. I’m not hungry during the first feed so I had picked a light one of green beans for the first feeding. I stuffed a few baby food pouches in my top, my bag of pasta tubes in the bottom and my crack bottle in its usual spot. Carol and I had our swimmer’s safety buoys for visibility and also to hold some more feeds in it. I couldn’t figure out how to open up the baby food pouches so just ripped it open with my teeth. I’m glad Carol didn’t have a camera since I ended up with green beans all over my face. Hey, it worked though. 🙂
My 2-year-old nephew and I have similar diets.
We swam from Shaw’s to Abalone Point and then back south to Cress Street back to Shaw’s Cove running into fellow pod members like Peter Hayden, Scott Zornig, Lynn Kubasek, Stephanie Havelka, etc. along the way as some were swimming out at Shaw’s and others from Oak Street for their own swims. Once back at Shaw’s we got out to restock our buoys with more feeds and water. I’m really happy with the baby food pouches as I got enough fuel from them and it’s better than having the choices only be “pasta or fig newtons or protein balls” since I get a different flavor baby food each time.
By now there were other people out on Shaw’s Cove which I’d never seen it except in the early morning when it’s just my pod and some locals with their dogs (or a bunch of divers). It was odd to see it with a sea of beach umbrellas and families playing in the surf. I wonder if anyone was wondering who the two nutcases were with water bottles stuffed in the back of our suits. We were ditching the safety buoys for the last part of the swim though which was awesome with not having something dragging behind you. We headed up to Emerald Bay and back to Shaw’s with the last leg going to be up to Seal Rock and back. When we got to Seal Rock on the last bit, I saw something that looked like Ray Kilz to my left. Sure enough, it was Ray! Unknown to Carol and mye, he and Peter had been monitoring our progress the entire time from different points along the shore and knew we were on our last leg so they jumped in to join us. We never saw Peter out there until after we got back into shore after swimming 16.65 kilometers.
16.65 KM of pure swimming bliss!
Great training swim and I’m so glad that I got to do it with Carol. She’s been a great friend and confidant and I always look forward to swimming with her! Even though we did 10.5 miles, it didn’t feel that far or long. Peter said that I looked strong in the water up to the end which I take as a HUGE compliment as I really admire Peter (and he’s super fast). I’m fortunate to have Peter as my official observer on my swim and looking forward to seeing him on the boat then.
Kelley's Swimming Blog 