Going Channel Legal!

Until fairly recently, I was not familiar with all the details swimming the English Channel entailed, besides that it's a really long and probably cold swim.  It is a swim rich in tradition, including what a challenger could wear while trying to complete the swim.  One of the rules is that you cannot wear a wetsuit.  You cannot wear anything that helps with buoyancy or reduces drag by anything but negligible amounts (textile materials, not over shoulder or below the knees.) 

I have the Huntington Beach Pier Swim coming up this Saturday, and it is not wetsuit legal.  Up until last Thursday I did not have experience swimming in the ocean with no wetsuit on.  Frolic around the waves, sure, but legit swim, no.  Since last Thursday the weather was so nice (76 degrees Fahrenheit, yeah!)  and I know it was going to be a group swim, I decided to try it out.

Right away I noticed it was a little bit harder staying afloat, either while waiting at a buoy or trying to fix your goggles with both hands.  I also seem to be going a lot slower, and every cold patch of water was harder on the body, but not unbearable.  When I checked the data on my watch, sure enough, I was swimming pretty poorly compared by my previous training sessions.  I chalked this to being out of shape from lack of swim practice for about a week.  Today I tried again to swim "channel legal", and I was having difficulties with my goggles (I found out later that the strap was slightly ripped and I positioned it poorly) and I had to abandon the second half of my swim since I was going very slow due to the goggles and it was nearly impossible for me to tread water hard enough with just my legs to properly fix them.  This was enormously discouraging.  I got out of the water and just shivered all the way until I got to the sporting goods store. 

I don't seem to be getting any better as of late in the swim, and I really can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong.  Maybe my technique is all wrong, I'm just not going hard enough, or I'm still out of shape?  I thought I would at least see some weekly progress considering how slow I'm going right now O_O It was a lot easier to see what was the matter when I run.  I can check myself in the mirror, it's obvious to me when I'm going a good pace for my distance, and I know if I'm under trained.  With swimming, it's all still a mystery.

Having recently spent all of my sporting budget on a new roadbike for the triathlon, I'm all out of money to hire a trainer for swimming.  I'll stick it out for at least another month and then see if I need to hire a professional coach to analyze what is the matter with my swim.

Hoping I will do okay at the Huntington Beach Pier Swim this weekend!  Surely I'll be the last one to finish my race, but it should be fun anyway!  It's been awhile since I've taken on my foe, the Huntington Beach Pier! X3

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. 

New Swim Location: Corona Del Mar State Park Beach

 Saturday I joined up with The OC Triathlete Training Meetup Group in Corona Del Mar State Park for their Saturday morning swim. 

First off: Parking is easy on Ocean Blvd at 8:30 in the morning, a total plus in my book.  There is the matter of a quite steep bit of stairs (about, three stories worth of stairs) leading from Ocean Blvd down to the beach, but if you were planning on swimming for an hour, this should not be an issue.  If you really don't want to hike up and down those stairs, there is beach level parking at the state park for $15.00.  Incidentally, this is also an excellent place to run as it is part of the OC Marathon course and there are some easy hills for hill practice.

The weather was beautiful, and the under half-mile long beach was populated by mostly other swimmers in wetsuits and a couple of people staking out prime spots for later in the day.  

There are two rows of buoys lining the waters, the first set closest to the beach marks off the swim area, and the second row is to mark of the "no wake" area, so boats can (and do) come into the area between the two buoys to fish (and sometimes there are rowing boat team practice!) so you need to be aware of this if you want to swim around the second row of buoys.

There is a jetty and major rock formations around some parts of the beach, most of them are along the edge of the beach but there is the one that is right in the water directly outwards from the second lifeguard tower.  You should obviously stay away from swimming anywhere near the rocks and jetty since the waves can get pretty aggressive depending on water conditions. 

9am rolled around and the other swimmers of the meetup swam out to the first buoy and I joined them.  Honestly I was kind of concerned about even swimming as far out as the first buoy.  The group organizer asked everyone which route they wanted to take: The inside buoys or the outside buoys.  I muttered something about just swimming in and out from the beach to the buoy but one of the "inside buoys" swimmers encouraged me to try to swim to the next inside buoy and that we'll take a break there, so I joined three other swimmers in the inside course. 

Everyone on the inside course waited for the rest of the group to arrive before continuing to the next buoy.  They were really nice about asking how I was doing and probably eyeballing me to see if I was starting to struggle.  (I actually did not notice if there were lifeguards on the beach at that hour, though.)  I had my reservations, but everything went better than expected and I was quite comfortable swimming through all the inside buoys and back to the beach.  The 9am water conditions was quite calm.  I did get knocked down by one wave standing around at the beginning, but once out closer to the buoys the water was quite calm.  Water temps still required a wetsuit for me, but I was quite comfortable and knowing there were other people around (not necessary to rescue me, but to talk me through a trouble spot if needed) also helped me get over my mental hurdle of swimming through the waters.  Overall, that was the longest continuous time I've been in the water without grabbing the wall or touching the bottom. 

I was done in a half an hour, but the rest of the swimmers returned (after two laps of the outer buoys!) in just under an hour and quickly prepared for a bike ride (it is the OC Triathlete Training Meetup Group.  Apparently there was a run before the swim, too!) 

I would definitely recommend swimming with the OC Triathlete Training Meetup Group again!  As for the Corona Del Mar State Park Beach, I would also recommend it for the easy parking (at least in the morning, parking gets a little more scarce after the morning hours and probably be even tougher in the Summer) and mostly moderate waves.  Open waters can be calm to slightly rough (definitely rougher today when I went at 11:30am) but that's good practice, too.  The beach is patrolled by lifeguards in tower 2 (center of beach) during certain hours, so you can check with them to get definite hours.  Overall, this has moved to my number one swim spot for this season :3

New Open Swim Area: Belmont Shore, Long Beach

I was in the Long Beach area last week and drove by this cool open-water swimming spot where you can get a pretty good workout without getting bashed by ocean waves (which still happens to me, goggles and wetsuits still doesn't change the whimsy of open-water waves.)  :D I was very excited by the prospect of somewhat calm waters without the skin irritating chlorine.  Plus this looked a lot more like the conditions of the Ironman Oceanside race!

I went home and checked out some reviews of the spot, and it seems that the area is pretty tame, like a salt water pool. There is a bit of a current, but it looked like a pretty good location to practice swimming to gain endurance.  This past Sunday I went again (since I was in the neighborhood) to scout in out in person, and I saw a lone swimmer practicing in the waters in a wetsuit.  I snapped some shots of the water conditions.

The waters looked pretty decent, and the swim area is clearly marked by buoys, which would be great to keep track of progress and also make it easier to sight.  I don't know how deep the water is at the buoys (and I didn't want to interrupt the swimmer on site), but it doesn't look that far from the walkable parts and the water is so calm I can probably just float back.

When I showed my friends the pictures, they said that they used to play there when they were little.  Okay, plus one on the easier to swim in conditions, HOWEVER, there are no life guards, and there's not always someone swimming there at any given time, so that's kind of a downside.

On the other hand, there's such a long straight away that's uninterrupted by waves that looks awesome to swim in :D  the sand is not muddy by the shore, and did I mention no waves?

The biggest downside is that the place is half an hour from my apartment, so I'd have to stew in my swimsuit for that long, in traffic on the 405 before I can get to a shower.  I guess I could try taking a shower at the 24hourfitness before heading home... :/

But look at the water!  So little waves!  I can't wait for the weekend when I get to try to swim in this.  I hope the rain holds off so the water quality allows for the swim :3

Ouch >_<

It rained most of last week, but I still wanted to swim, so I decided to have a swim techniques focus week of working out in the pool of my local gym.  I researched the size of the pool (inconclusive, so I decided it was 22 yards long since that's as short as I can set my watch for lap swim) water temperatures, parking situation, and I went for some pool workouts. 

During the actual swims it was pretty nice.  The pool was a great temperature, and there were no waves to put me under, so I could concentrate on breathing on the left side of my body during the swim (my weaker side) ,and because of the indoor conditions I could stand to swim more than half an hour so I got some really nice cardio workouts.  The only problem I had was my skin got really really dry and irritated.  It wasn't so bad I needed to see a doctor, I just lathered on the lotion and scrubbed extra hard during showers to get the chlorine off of me. 

On the afternoon after my second (early morning) pool swim, I realized I got a UTI (urinary tract infection).

FRACK! 

Oh it hurt.  It was a Friday night, and I had invited my boyfriend to come over to hang out (for our 1 month anniversary, no less!) and I cooked him dinner.  I tried to drink an enormous amount of water (hey, that worked once!) to flush out whatever the problem was, but it kept getting worse and worse, and I didn't want to say anything since I was embarrassed at the ill-timed onset of the symptoms.  Finally at 8:30PM I decided I had to go to the doctors, but urgent care told me they were closing soon so they told me to come back tomorrow morning at 8am.

So commenced the 11 and a half hours of HELL.

I will only mention that I got so frustrated at the pain and discomfort (I wasn't going to die, I know, but it felt like torture to me) that I actually started crying... harder than at the 20 mile mark of my marathons (which was only a couple of sniffles, people!)... in front of my poor boyfriend... on our 1 month anniversary...

Moral of the story: DO NOT WAIT to go see the doctor.  Do it as soon as reasonably possible if you know you know you have the symptoms of a UTI.  You can find those on the Internet easily enough so I won't go through them, but if you've ever had one before, you'll know.

So I finally talked to the doctor the next morning and found out that this sort of thing is actually pretty common when people start swimming in pools during the summer.  She gave me some great advice about tips for keeping healthy when swimming.  Skin gets irritated at chlorine (which does kill bacteria but it takes awhile, which is much longer than the time it'll take for the bacteria to get a hold of your urinary tract!), which makes it easier for the bacteria from your own skin which is now washed off and hanging out on your wet swimsuit to get back on you and infect the newly irritated skin around the opening of your urethra and later in the day or the next day you're not feeling so hot!

Second moral of the story: Those signs at the pool saying take a shower immediately before you swim, do not ignore them.  You want to get as much of those germs off of you before you take a dip so they don't wash off onto your suit.  And the shower after your swim is to get any bacteria (from you or other swimmers) off of you as soon as possible.  I waited to get home before I took a shower (I was too lazy to pack a shower bag and the gym was only 15 minutes away, but no more!) 

Third moral of the story:  Stay hydrated!  Especially important during long swim workouts in heated pools since you get dehydrated without realizing it!  Staying hydrated will make it easier for your skin to stay moist and less flaky when it gets exposed to chlorine.  Hydrate before and after swims and during if you're doing a long session.

Bonus tip: You can try to take cranberry supplements since apparently that makes it harder for the germs to get a hold of the wall of your urinary tract, just make sure you read the supplement labels and consult  your physician first!  You can also take cranberry juice but make sure it's 100% juice and 100% cranberry juice.  Juice cocktails, concentrates, and mixes do not have enough cranberry content and will just end up giving you calories and sugars you do not need for not so much return.  Read the labels carefully!  In an entire juice aisle at multiple markets and all of them had only one juice that was 100% cranberry juice. 

Doctor actually said I could go back to the pool any time, but I'm going to let things settle down (or at least finish my antibiotics) before going back for more pool time.  Since it's nice and sunny this week, I think I'll hit the beach this week instead :3

Ironman 70.3 Oceanside

Two Saturdays ago I went to the Ironman 70.3 Oceanside competition to check out how competitors prepared and set up their kits at the competition.  Actually being there and seeing the setup made it much easier to understand the three color bag system, the transition areas, random tips like wearing socks before the swim when walking around and ideas on what to wear and how to wear it for each part of the competition.

The swim part of the competition sure looked cold!  Competition started in waves with the Pro Men and Pro Women groups first, then what appears to be age groups ordered by how fast they're expected to go.  I'm kind of concerned about this since I would be in a very fast women's group, but I'm probably going to be quite quite slow.  On the up side, they tell you what time to come back to line up for your start group, so once you set up your bike, you can wander around until it is your scheduled time to start!

Another plus on the swim portion is that the swim course is entirely in a harbor, so none of the brutal Oceanside waves are smacking the competitors around.  I walked the half mile up the swim course and saw that there were plenty of lifeguards and race officials standing by to make sure all rules are being followed and no one drowns.  Awesome.

After watching the swim part, I walked along the beach and admired how rocky the beach was and how lucky I was to live next to a beach with much less intimidating waves.  I would not want to swim in that ocean with the 6 ft waves D:!  I picked up a cute small rock as a memento and decided I would bring it back next year when I came to compete.

Before I left the T1 area I checked out what people's bikes looked like and how they loaded the equipment.  Now I know what the bikes have to be so light, they have a picnic basket full of hydration and nutrition!!  I tried imaging myself pedaling with all those goodies up hills and on a windy course.  I'd better work out those calves.

I made my way back to the finish line and I was delighted to find that I could just muk around the actual finish line since no one was actually there yet XD  I walked on the carpet and took some pictures before heading out to the T2 area.

I stationed myself at the run out of the T2 area in hopes of seeing how people did their transitions, but I was there when the Pro Men and Pro Women were making their way through, and their stations were near the Bike In area so I could not see how they did their transitions at all, so I just saw them start the runs instead.

I took a short break to find a bathroom (yay! Indoor facilities!) and strolled to the finish line, now peppered with some people, and hung out with a retired gentleman vacationing from New York who came to also watch no one in particular.  We chatting about endurance events and I told him how I wanted to do this next year.  He said he and his wife vacation in Oceanside every year and he hopes to see me next year!

I watched the pros finish (with some deserved showboating!) and then went back to T2 to check out the delivery of the T1 wetsuit bags and the morning warmup bags being delivered from the T1 area to T2 for easy pickup after the race.  Now all that colored bag business made sense!  This will make it so much easier to figure out next year!

I was also able to see some of the last folks biking in do their transitions, so that was kind of informative.  I saw how they layered their outfits so I've gotten some new ideas of what to wear during competition.

All in all I had a lot of fun and good ideas watching the event this year.  I also purchased some cute Ironman goods for me to wear while training!  Ironman Oceanside 2013, here I come!  (But first, mastering that swim!)