Santa Cruz Beach Swim!

I'm visiting my parents in Northern California this week, and unfortunately they're not really close to any natural body of water good for swimming.  I brought all my swim gear up before I really figured out a place to swim at in hopes the conditions would be good.  I tried out swimming at the 24 Hour Fitness near their house but it was crowded, had some bizarre rule about only one person swimming per lane (it's two in a pool of the same size/divisions at my home 24 Hour Fitness...), and my ears hurt after swimming in the chlorine (leaky earplugs...)  So I was determined to make the ocean swim happen while I was up here.  I did more internet searches, and the most feasible place (distance, water quality, predicted surf conditions), it seemed, was Santa Cruz Main Beach.

Front of Boardwalk

The only way to Santa Cruz from my parents' house was the harrowing Route 17, which is part freeway, part really really scary two-lane mountain road with some pretty tight turns and a narrow space between your lane and a concrete divider and/or into trees.

I made it in one piece about 45 minutes later and parked at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk main parking (6 dollars since it was "off season" and they had limited operation of the rides/attractions.)  From the parking, it was only a short walk to the Beach.

Nice, glassy, non wavy water! <3 (But danged cold!)

I had previously checked the Surfline reports about the wave conditions so I knew it would be somewhat calm conditions, and that was what I found when I arrived.   The swim area was marked off with buoys that looked like a reasonable distance from the beach.  I stood and watched the surf for awhile (since I had never swam here before) and finally decided it was safe to swim.  I decided to go out four buoys and back.

HOLY COW it was COLD.  Surfline said it was about 51 degrees, which is about 10 degrees colder than I'm used to, but my wetsuit was 5/4/5 so it was okay for this temperature.  I had to jump up and down in the water for a couple of minutes before heading out for the swim.

Surface chop was minimal, but there was a notable current going against me and the cold was a bit demoralizing.  I was somewhat afraid of hypothermia (hey, I never swam in this temperature before!) so I decided to do the multiplication table in my head while I stroked.  That actually staved off the boredom and the compulsive sighting and really helped me finish the swim.  It was only .91 miles, but I couldn't wait to get out of the water and get something to eat.  I was hungry XD

Overall and excellent place to swim, as long as water temperatures allow in the off-season.  In the summer season, be prepared to pay full price for the parking!

Practice Practice!

I've been regularly swimming at Corona del Mar State Beach and I've been slowly improving.  Last Saturday I did a 1.06 mile swim (new distance PR!) which is two laps of the outer buoys at the beach.  I was BEAT the next day.  The difference in swimming and running is that usually I feel tired after a long run but after a long swim I feel fine for a couple of hours but then I gotta take a nap!  I think I need to look into my post workout fueling plan to see if there's a deficiency there.

Yesterday was a rest day for me, so I contented myself researching how to swim out from under large waves. Unfortunately I managed to freak myself out a bit watching the video of Mark Foo's last surf O_o  This master surfer died from an 18 foot wave.  I'm not about to go try to swim under some 18 foot waves, but I still remember the early days swimming in Huntington Beach getting rolled and spun every which way and goggles flying!  I need to start practicing controlled dives or something so I don't panic when swimming out from under waves...

Of course I couldn't go to bed on the note of watching some water tragedy, so I looked around youtube for some instructions on strokes so I can feel less like trashing around in the water and more like swimming.  I found a bunch of lessons from Terry Laughlin's Total Immersion Swimming and it seemed to me that I could not possibly swim faster when using a slower stroke and limp wrist held not at water level, but since I wasn't going that fast by myself anyway (and tiring myself out very often trying to stroke faster and harder), I thought I would give it a shot .  So I spent about an hour studying the videos and various lectures he gave and gave it a shot!

At first I thought I was going slower than usual, and definitely had to redo how I do my breathing since the strokes were less frequent.  However, I did notice I was moving towards targets faster, and require less breaks overall.  Also, I made less mistakes veering off course than usual.  When I got back on the beach and checked my watch, I improved my time from my best time (last Sunday) by nearly four minutes a mile!  I swam over 100 more yards with with nearly 100 less strokes for the entire way (stroke efficiency improvement!)  Overall still quite slow, but I'm happy that with a bit of studying I was able to improve so much in the span of two days!  One downside is that I managed to strain my left wrist a bit (only noticed it when I was taking off my wetsuit)  but it's feeling a lot better already so I hope it's just minor pain.

I bit the bullet and registered for the Huntington Beach Pier Swim on June 9th!  I'm intimidated because it is a no wetsuit swim!  O__O  I'm sure I can do the half mile swim, but I'm not sure how I'll fare with just a swimsuit.  I'm hoping that the water temps will be at least 65 so I don't die XD  Oh man!  I've been spoiled by a wetsuit!  

I'm also going to visit my parents in Northern California (San Jose area) next week for a week and change and there are NO good places to swim outside within a 30 mile radius!  I have to trek to Pleasanton or Santa Cruz or Live Oak to get some swimming in (yes, I know there exists Half Moon Bay, but there's NO WAY I'm swimming there.  Apparently it's cold and the waves are insane!)  So I think I'll just have to rely on some pool workouts to tide me over until I come back.