"I left my heart in San Francisco"
Here is a picture taken from the 2nd tallest building in San Francisco. If you follow the diagonal street cutting to the upper left you will see it ends at a protected cove. The cove is Aquatic Park. It is where I train and where the Swim Around the Rock will begin. In the distance is Alcatraz.
The official web page for the swim indicates the distance is 3.25 miles. However, this assumes no current and true course swimming. If you add 10% to the distance for current and off true swimming, the actual mileage is about 4 miles. That is the equivalent of 70 football fields or 280 lengths in a 25 yard swimming pool.
I can make that distance in the pool today. It would take me about 2 hours. However, swimming that distance 50 degree water is another beast entirely. My longest bay swim thus far is 60 minutes. After 60 minutes in the bay, my arms and shoulders ache, my limbs and face are numb and my swim pace is starting to slow.
My goal this weekend is to increase my time in the bay to 90 minutes. This is important to me because one week from Sunday is the 3 mile open water qualifying swim. I expect my qualifying swim to take about 90 minutes. I’d like to know, going into the qualifier, how my body will react to that much exposure.
I’ll post again Saturday night with results of my 90 minute swim attempt.
