WEEK 17 Wednesday

Wednesday's are lovely...school starts later so I can get in an extra 500 yards. And Spring is here so it's light in the mornings. Life is good. I wish the same could be said for my stupid knee. It still hurts! It's been seven weeks and I still limp, it still swells after every workout and is sore if I do anything. I am bummed. I don't know if I should sign up for knee surgery or tough it out until after my swim. It's not so painful that I can't workout, but it is always there, a nagging ache, and sometimes pain. I have another doctor's appointment in two weeks, so I guess I will decide by then. But I hate having this worry hanging over my head, and it's annoying that I can't walk normally or for long distances. It's making me cranky all the time which is a drag too.
I have been bringing Gatorade to the pool in the mornings and I like having something to drink during the work out. It's not exactly "feeding" practice, but I like it anyway. This weekend I will swim some coves and feed after every mile or so. I plan to see how long I can stay in the cold water to make sure that I am ready for Point Bonita on the 27th. I still need to find a kayaker to pilot me too.
Maybe I can persuade Jorge to come for this event. We would have to find a Kayak since non-club members can't use club boats...
I haven't fit in a club/weight workout this week. Coco needs me to pick her up everyday after school now that Katharine isn't there to bring her home. I don't know how to get it all done. I have been neglecting the dog, the laundry, the house, and I am still only getting in 18,500K a week. This is not a lot of yardage. I need to more than double this by the time I leave for Spain.
Oh how did my happy welcome Spring post go down hill so fast into the depths of I'm not doing enough... I'll try to make up some yardage this weekend! Then I will feel better.
I signed up for a "stroke doctor" for next Monday too. He videos you swimming and then gives you stroke/technique advice. It should be fun and hopefully informational.

WEEK 17 and counting...

I finally made it back to the Bay this weekend. Truth be told, I was nervous. And it was cold. I have definitely lost some of my acclimatization, but I will get it back. I wasn't so cold in the water while I was swimming, but I was cold for a long time afterwards. Saturday I swam the "test" swim from Anita Rock back to the club. It was a glorious day, blue skies, puffy white clouds, blue water and only four swimmers. I swam with Chaz who is a good match for me and we swam some zigzags to let the other two catch up from time to time. I touched the AR (Anita Rock) buoy, the "X" buoy and the "too far out buoy" and Allen took pictures all the way along. I felt lucky and playful and happy to be frolicking in the Bay. Then Sunday, I piloted for the other 57 swimmers to have their fun. So I had to kayak from the club to Anita Rock (about 2.5 miles) against a light flood. It was more work than I had bargained for, but good for my upper back muscles (lats? maybe?). Then after every one was in and eating breakfast I went out and swam to Fort Mason and back against the flood. It was only an hour and the water temperature was 54.6 degrees, but I have been away from the Bay for three weeks so I can't expect to jump back in for two hours right away. Unfortunately the most challenging swim of the winter season is in two weeks, Point Bonita. I hope I am ready for three hours in the cold...
After this morning's workout in the pool, where I added an extra 200 yards, my arms are dead. If I had to garden or paint I wouldn't be able to. I can lift them, but I can't do anything sustained. I hope that this is a symptom of getting stronger.
I am happy to be back in the Bay, I look forward to Allen's pictures. I'll post them when I get them.

WEEK 18 continued...

Life is good...this morning's workout was fun. We swam 10 x 100's on the 1:50. I know this is slow, but I was happy to be consistent. Each one was between 1:29 (the first one) and 1:34 (seven, eight and nine) and the last one was 1:32. I focused on trying to be smooth and efficient. Compare this to Monday's workout when we swam 500, 400, 300, 200, 100 and the hundreds in the five hundred were 1:40 and sloppy. Every time I get in the water I concentrate on the feeling of moving through it. Somehow this never gets boring. There are so many variables that can be done in so many different ways. It takes real skill, which I have yet to acquire, but it is fascinating in the hunt. My arms are tired as I sit here at work. It feels like I am growing new muscles. I hope it's true .

WEEK 18 cont...

I bought my plane ticket to Spain!!! This is exciting and expensive ($1400).
And I have been going to the gym (and PT for the knee) to get my shoulders and my core stronger. These feel like very positive steps. I have also arranged a "swim lesson" with a fabulous open water swimmer in Napa that everyone at the South End Rowing Club recommends for this Saturday. I have still been "doggin" my workouts in the pool though. I am still coughing a lot at night so my sleep is interrupted. I am tired; but I just can't see how I would get better any faster by not swimming. And I would go crazy with worry that I wouldn't make my plan goals if I stayed out of the water any longer. Every one I talk to says that this cold/cough is lingering for about 6 weeks so I hope to be better soon.
This weekend the club swim is short, Anita Rock, so I have volunteered to kayak/pilot and will swim on my own in and out of the cove after. I've been three weekends away from the bay so I may find that I do not have 2+ hours in me, but the bay is warming up so I hope to be fine. I am slated to swim two hours both days in the bay and I need to because there is a Point Bonita swim on March 27th and I have to be ready for that one. I have never swum from Pt. Bonita back to the club (under the Golden Gate Bridge) because every time it has been scheduled, we have had bad weather and fog so it gets cancelled or shortened.
I have new pictures from Tahoe and from other people swimming Gibraltar but I keep forgetting to post them Maybe this reminder will help :-)
I have been busy with my moonlighting gig. One of the ways I am paying for this crazy swim it to be the Registrar for the local club soccer team. It is about four weeks of chaos, sprinkled with a few extra days of headache, but it nets me about $3,000 and I need the funds. I have plans :-)
Stick with me, I'm going places!

Week 18

Wow I need to get going...WEEK 18? I spent Saturday in Tahoe swimming 250 yards in 39 degree water. Kinda crazy, kinda fun, but maybe not enough fun to do it again. The entry into the water is over slippery rocks which is tough, and once you commit and put your head in, the cold sucks all of the air out of your lungs and the cold water compresses them so that, in your panic, you can't seem to take a breath. As my friend Bryce says, "I have to keep reminding myself to breath out because the cold makes you keep sucking in air when there is no room left". The way out was miserable; I tried backstroke, breaststroke and stopping, but could not get a breath. My goggles fogged up and I found myself swimming into one of the support boats. Once I stopped to avoid it I realized that I was quite far off course. I'm sure they were worried that I was hypothermic and delusional, but I was just slow witted from the cold. I found the buoy, and made it around. The swim back was not bad at all. It was almost, almost a normal swim. I found my rhythm and my stroke and even could breath every once in a while. But by then my hands and feet were on fire. Then it's back over the slippery, sharp rocks again with your frozen feet not responding, it was a show of 'grace and beauty' and bright red bodies flopping out of the water to the cheers of an unbelieving crowd. All in all a ridiculous experience. About 50 men and women went into the water, but only about 25 made the distance. For me, I know it was the coldest that I have ever been, because it was the first time that I my teeth chattered and that I shivered. It is a weird event because the swimmers are the entertainment for the bar crowd. It is "Winter Fest" and the Polar Bear Swim at Garwoods is one of the events around the lake. The best part of the weekend was that we were a group of South End friends celebrating our crazy love of cold water swimming.
I would like to get back on track, this sidestep in my trajectory didn't seem worth the missed training in the Bay. I want to do some long swims, NOW. I know I will. I have a "plan" and it is moving steadily forward, but I am frustrated. Time seems to move both too slowly and too fast. And I am still coughing enough to make people uncomfortable around me and to interrupt my sleep every night. That is getting old. I know that I will be less cranky once I start sleeping through the night again.

I joined a gym last week which is a good thing. I am planning on going there twice a week to work on strength training and maybe one "spin class" if I can make the schedule work. I am surprised that I don't feel very fit even though I swim six days a week. I used to run as well, and that somehow made me feel a bit more in shape and stronger. But the running is off for a while so I need to use the bike and the weights. I know that I can do the Gibraltar swim, but I seem to want something more out of all of this training than just that. I am feeling a little lost at the moment, a bit off kilter and rudderless, but these feeling usually pass. And I haven't swum in the Bay for over three weekends (and the two weeks in between) so I know that I will be rejuvenated and recommitted once I get back to the Bay.
I hope to be in a better mood the next time I sit down to say hi.

Week 19 YEAH!

I am so happy. I swam this morning and am high from it. It is surprising just how good a bit of exercise can make me feel. I am also happy because I went to see my knee surgeon and we decided against immediate surgery. YEAH!
He said that I would improve with surgery, but that it wasn't mandatory, and that I would get better either way. It might not prove to be true, but he said that I could easily wait until after my Gibraltar swim if I still need it. I will be in some pain either way so why take the chance of making things worse? I know that I can swim as is and PT is making progress. So I am thrilled. I may not be allowed to run for a long time, but I can swim and bike and that will be good enough for now.

I have been reading inspirational quotes from the channel group and would like to poach a few for my blog:

"I have never understood why "hard work" is supposed to be pitiable.... You get tired, of course, often in despair, but the struggle, the challenge, the feeling of being extended as you never thought you could be, is fulfilling and deeply, deeply satisfying." Rumer Godden (1907-1998), English writer

"Prepare for the worst - Hope for the best. You are entering the unknown and pushing the limits." Michael Oram

These ideas seem so powerful. I especially love the confusion about "hard work". That has always stymied me too. Hard work is just that, work. And it feels good, especially when it's over. I did run a marathon once and think I may have missed the last two miles...I ran (jogged/walked) them, but I wasn't there for them. I was lying down on the warm asphalt breathing quietly, in my mind at least. But my body did pass over the finish line so I must have made it. I don't know if I can swim "unconsciously" but I bet it's been done.
I plan to train hard enough so that I won't need to swim unconsciously, but I hope that if it's still safe, my pilot will let me just keep going until I'm done.
Today is a good day.

WEEK 19

Week 20 was a bust. I was sick and out of the water for ten days. That is the longest stretch without swimming since having babies (my youngest is 14). So I was pretty low.
But today is a new day, and a new week, and a "recovery week" so I am in the water, not pushing myself and trying to get back to my program.
It felt wonderful to dive into the pool this morning. The water actually felt soft. It was unusually warm too which was a lovely way to start over. I did feel like I had forgotten how to swim, but it came back to me. I received so much support and reminders to "take it easy" and to "listen to my body" from every one that I have been introduced to in the Channel Chat room. It has done wonders for my feeling of well being. Normally I would have been fretting and worrying that I had blown my training and that I had to swim even if I was coughing up a lung. But so many swimmers told me that they had had to stay out for several weeks and that they were stronger for the rest etc...
I am choosing to believe them, and to remember that I still have 19 weeks to work.
I am getting a bit impatient. Now I want to be doing some long swims and to feel like I am getting stronger. But I need to stick to my plan and increase steadily.
This weekend is an odd one. I am going to Lake Tahoe for a Polar Bear Swim with many South End friends. The water should be around 39 degrees (very cold) and the distance is only about 250 yards which is ridiculously short and yet quite daunting at that temperature. I swam this "race" last year and felt like my swimming was not swimming but "not drowning" instead. I couldn't understand why the safety people weren't pulling me out. I didn't feel like I took one legitimate stroke, but it must have looked different from above the water. My body refused to work in the normal way. It will be fun to see if this year is better.
I had hoped to ski "The Great Race" on the next day (Cross Country 30 K), but my knee has put any hopes of that to rest.
Today I see the surgeon and will find out his recommendation.
Wish me luck...