Pond, Pool, and Suck II

I love Thursdays because the weekend starts for me when I leave the Greenwood Center sometimes around noon. Today, my wife treated me to lunch at the Park Ave Cafe. After that I went home and Luvie and Jeff and I took a nap. Those babies love to nap.

I made it to the pond and got in the water about 3:30. The water on the warm end was 72. It just keeps rising, but that is about to change. we are in for some much colder weather and next week will be the test, the proving time. Next week I will know if I am still a cold water sissy or not. Anyway, I did three plus laps today for 2.41 miles (3,877.69 meters). The water felt good. I think I am acclimating a little.

I made it to the grandkids and then to DSU where I did

1,000
4 X 250 pull @ 4:00 decline 1-4
50 easy
4 X 75 hard @ 1:10/25 easy @ 1:00
50 easy
4 X 250 @  4:00
2 X 250 easy
300 as 25/25 back kick swim with fins
Total: 4,300 yards = 3,930 meters
Total for day = 7,807.89 meters

Swim the Suck Part II

After supper, Penny and Martin both gave presentations. I found the two fascinating but wished they each had more time. I also wish we could have had some question and answer, though we did a little of that with Martin. I am curious about Penny’s dry land training. I know she does some because I’ve read to that effect on Facebook and on her blog, but I’m interested in some details. For one thing, I want to know if those guns of hers are natural or the result of hard work. She has bigger biceps than I do. Well, I suppose almost everyone has bigger biceps than I do. But I would love to sit down with her and pick her brains on the details of her training both in and out of the water.

Forrest fed me at forty-five minutes then I noticed a woman swimming to my right. When she breathed to her left, she looked like Penny. That fired me up through the roof. I was thinking, it doesn’t get any better than this. I am swimming beside one of the greatest swimmers in the world. Eventually I couldn’t take it anymore and pulled my head up.

“Who is that?” I yelled at her pilot.

“My name is Charlotte,” the paddler responded.

I took a couple of more strokes then pulled up again.

“I mean the swimmer,” I shouted back.

“Her name is Nancy,” the pilot answered.

 Awe shucks, I thought. I shouldn’t have asked. Turns out, Penny Palfrey finished about a Tennessee County and a half ahead of me. How could I have been so delusional to think I could swim beside her? But it was a great thrill while it lasted, and I felt like the champion of the world when I believed I was swimming beside a world-class athlete.

Somewhere about this time, Forrest told me I was ahead of Martin. What?!? That made me really put it in gear, as if I weren’t already swimming hard enough. I didn’t even take time to ask him how he knew this. I even had some suspicions he may have been lying to me. But there would be time for questions later. Now was the time to swim, and I fought for every second. Turns out that Martin climbed into a motorboat at around three-miles. When Forrest asked his pilot what happened, she replied that, “He just said he needed a beer and got out.” Barut was right: “Martin is fat and drinks too much beer.”

Not long after this, I noticed my miles were slowing down. I didn’t know for sure at the time, but the cut current was catching us plus my early torrid pace was taking a terrible toll. When I realized I wasn’t swimming as fast, I tried to force the pace back up which only resulted in my rear deltoids feeling like they had been bitten off my a dog. I could swim a moderate pace with no issues. In fact, I felt like I could swim that pace all day long, and I did exactly that last June in my Chicot Challenge when I swam for eight hours and twenty-four minutes. But when I tried to push, tried to reel in a swimmer ahead of me, my deltoids screamed in protest.

I’m guessing now that in addition to a bone headed start, I didn’t do enough pace work. Last year, besides a more sane swimming strategy, I did lots of 100s on everything from 2:30- to 1:55. Anything 2:00 and below is fast for me in a long course pool. Next year, I plan to go back to that and try some longer intervals also. I need to learn to hold pace when fatigued. And I know which muscles will get the most attention in my back yard gym over the next year.

It wasn’t too long after I noticed my miles slowing that I lost my ability to run the numbers in my head. That always happens, on land or on water, if I am really going hard. Then my Garmin vibrated and a few minutes later it vibrated again. This confused me and I essentially became lost at that point. I really didn’t know how far I had been because I didn’t trust the watch. I don’t know if it lost and regained the satellite signal or what but I knew that it had malfunctioned, something very rare for that instrument, and I couldn’t make sense of things anymore.  

I did notice the Pot House, the place of the post swim party, and I remembered being told that it is approximately half way. Forrest, who also was wearing a Garmin GPS watch, told me then that his Garmin showed 5.26 miles. The Garmin under my cap had buzzed six or seven times so I wasn’t sure what to think.

Since I didn’t know what to think, I didn’t think and just swam. After another hour or so, we came to a place in the river I recognized. There is this huge bolder out a little way into the channel and when I saw it I knew that we were getting close. Then we came to another area, I don’t know what to call it, I think it’s the water outlet for Raccoon Mountain which is about a mile from the finish. But when I looked down the long straight away, I couldn’t spot the red buoy that was supposed to mark the finish. Eventually when the buoy did come into view, it seemed to keep moving downstream. It was discouraging to see it and never seem to draw any closer. After the swim, I heard another swimmer, Jeff Williams from Newburgh, Indiana, say the same thing.

Finally, I did start drawing closer and at some point after glancing at the Garmin on my wrist, I realized I was not going to break last year’s time. Still, it was a great satisfaction finally to touch that big red buoy, and know it was over, all the training and planning and dreaming had come to a resolution, a conclusion.   

Unlike last year, the water was a few degrees warmer, but the day was much cooler. Someone had started a fire, which felt really good to stand beside, and there was also a changing tent this year so we were able to get into dry clothes after being wet for almost five hours. In fact, I was on my way to the changing tent when Robin Bond called my name. I was surprised but not shocked to see Randy coming in so soon. He improved much over the past year. He was as happy as a dead pig in the sunshine until he saw me and knew that once again, Zane Hodge was the Fattie-ASS  Champion of the World, not him.  

When Randy got out of the water and finally quit weeping, we stood around the fire and talked to Victoria Rian for a while. She won the race last year and was fourth this year a few seconds ahead of Penny Palfrey even. In other words, she’s a major swimmer. We found out that she did MIMS (Manhattan Island Marathon Swim) this year and she trains up to 70,000 meters per week. Do what??? My all-time record is 42,000 and that pretty much wiped me out for a couple of weeks. She also swims outdoors, in Indiana, until the water temperature dips below 50 degrees. Dude, she is one bad chick.  

After watching almost everyone come in, Forrest and I ran to the Pot House four-and-a-half miles away for the post-race party. There we ate food and heard tales of Martin, who was inside, drinking everyone under the table. In my mind, once more I heard Barut Strel say,“Martin is fat and drinks too much beer.” Then some red-eyed, slurry-speeched swimmer stumbled out of the house and said, “Don’t go in there. Martin finished the beer and is working on the wine.”

Shortly after that, Forrest and I hitched a ride to the Suck Creek Boat Ramp where we got the truck and made our way back to the Delta Queen. We bathed, napped, and then went out to eat. We walked to a restaurant which is not difficult to do in Chattanooga because they are everywhere. When the ticket came, my son Forrest picked it up.

“Let me have it,” I protested.

“No Dad. I’ve got it.”

Wow. That had never happened before.

I learned a lot on this trip. Among other things, I found out that:

1.   Martin Strel is fat and drinks too much beer.

2.   Martin Strel is just as wild and crazy and he is presented in Big River Man.

3.   Despite all my training, ten-miles is still a long way on water.

4.   Sane pacing is important in an endurance swim.

5.   Pace work is needful to swim fast and far at the same time.

6.   Randal Beets is rapidly improving as a swimmer and if I am to beat him again next year, I’ll have to train harder than ever.

7.   My son, Forrest, is growing up and I am very proud of him.

I hope we get to do this again next year. I hope then to cut some time off my swim. I hope also to beat Randal Beets in 2013. I suppose that is another thing I’ve learned. Long swims give me hope.