Iron-April 2009 Athletes

Click your name to enter your webpage and record your progress.

Good luck!

1 Kevin & Mimi Haugh
2 Dave Landa
3 Lisa & Brant Haugh
4 Tim Erenberger
5 Kenneth Schwartzman
6 Phil Seabrease
7 Larry Low
8 Victor Shum
9 Elaine Shum
10 Lorie Laird
11 Pauline Falstrom
12 Yoko Kasai
13 Nobu Takahashi
14 Mitch & Marnabelle
15 Tom McGraw
16 Frances Yang
17 John Griffiths
18 Peter Cross
19 Mark McKee
20 Sunny McKee
21 Jim Wirth
22 Jon Nakamura
23 Rebecca Tilley
24 Bill Hogan
25 Shannon Moore
26 Jason from Sacramento
27 Doug Cameron
28 Bob Morelli
29 Vince
30 Micah Dirksen
31 Jamie Lin
32 Kaori
33 Team Stefan
34 Alex Sigal
35 Rick Graves
36 Ron Scrivani
37 Bob Conover
38 Tom Hoffman
39 Fred Morales
40 Jeanette
41 Team David & Jill
42 Ted Tiles
43 Patrick Wagstrom

Ted Tiles 1st Athlete to Complete Iron April 2009!

Finish date April 10. AMAZING!!!

Training is. . .

I stopped by the Nike store in San Francisco for some Iron-April gear and found this 'blog-worthy' tee shirt. Speaking of shirts. . . I'm searching out folks who might be interested in helping me design a finisher shirt for Iron-April. Let me know if you have have any ideas.

Iron-April 2009 starts in 2 days!!!

Iron-April 2009 (Invitation to 2nd timers)

“Swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, run 26.2 miles. . . brag for the rest of your life”
- John Collins (founder of the Ironman triathlon)

Are you ready to take on Iron-April 2009?

This email is only going out to the athletes that completed Iron-April 2008. First, let me congratulate you again on your accomplishment last year. You made the commitment, massaged your schedules, trained hard, shared your stories, finished strong, and inspired other athletes.

It is time to make that commitment again, but the challenge will be more difficult this year for 2nd timers. . .

There will be no mile sharing for athletes who participated in Iron-April 2008. You can still team up and report team miles, but your mileage at midnight on April 30th, 2009 will be your final mileage for the event.

Newbies for this season will still be able to participate in mile sharing.

You all know the event, but here it is in a nutshell –

1. www.kevinhaugh.blogspot.com (go here on April 1st to report your miles)
2. click your name to view your webpage
3. click ‘comment’ to report your training
4. please provide a weekly summary for me and I’ll post weekly recaps
5. my email address is kevin.haugh@gmail.com

Good luck!!!

You’ll be receiving an updated full event description later today. Please forward the email to anyone interested in giving it a go. I’d love to see some new athletes participate in Iron-April 2009.

Kev.

Polar Bear Success!!!

Our typical 6 a.m. swim group of 4-6 swimmers more than doubled in size this morning on the Vernal Equinox.

14 swimmers waded into the water at 6:30. The water was a balmy 54 degrees. Some folks had already completed the Polar Bear Challenge (40 miles of swimming in S.F. bay without a wetsuit during winter). I was in the anxious group with one more mile to go.

With 39 miles under my belt this winter, you would think getting in would be pretty casual. Well, it isn't and I think that is one of the things I really enjoy about bay swimming - the mental challenge. I've jumped out of an airplane at 13,000 feet and it wasn't as hard as it is getting into the bay each morning. 5 minutes into the swim, it does get easier though. The feel of the water, the lights of the city, the comraderie of swimming with and relying on good friends. It is a wonderful way to start the day.

Our swim this morning was spectacular. When we hit the beach the sun was just beginning to rise. We all cheered and headed into the unsually crowed club. After rewarming in the saunas, we lingered for coffee, doughnuts, and juice provided by Nobu and Jason. We recalled swims in hail, water temps in the mid 40s, sea lions, sunrises and sunsets. I was really proud of everyone in my group that completed Polar Bear 2008/2009.

I'm sleeping in tomorrow. I may sleep in all next week. Such satisfaction from such a random thing, why question it?

* * *

Post script - I found this article in SFGATE.com. Good to see some press on our crazy event. I swam that Sunday but seemed to have missed the party. Maybe next year.

Leah Garchik

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

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The Vernal Equinox is Friday, and this past weekend members of the Dolphin Club hung out there in an effort to rack up swimming "40 miles between solstices" and, thus, to achieve Winter Polar Bear status. Would-be Bears stayed for hours (even days), dipping into the bay to swim and then emerging for hot soup - minestrone with pistou, roughing it Northern California style - to warm themselves.

On Saturday night, with miles to go before fulfilling the requirement, 25 or so of the swimmers put on pajamas for a sleepover at the club, reports Kate Coleman. They swam at midnight and watched "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," rented just for the occasion.

1 More Mile To Go!

I'm feeling 100% now after a week of swimming. I got 1.5 miles in on Sunday (tough swim with a sore neck), 2 more miles Monday (neck felt much better), and 1.5 miles in yesterday (strong swim). The water temperature is up to 54 now. It is tough to imagine the 48 degree days of January and February.

If all goes well, tomorrow morning should be 40 miles! We are celebrating with coffee and doughnuts after the swim. I'm pretty sure everyone in our 6 a.m. swim group (6-8 swimmers) will complete the 2008 - 2009 Polar Bear tomorrow. It was a really tough season. I started thinking "I'll easily hit 50 miles this year." As it turns out, I'll be so happy just to get my 40 in tomorrow.

I really excited about our 'last' swim tomorrow and very grateful to only have to swim 1 mile tomorrow to finish it up.

Friday the 13th

Well, nothing is easy and there are no guarantees.

I thought at 34 miles Polar Bear success was assured, but one bad week and the goal again at risk.

Our whole family battled the flu all week. I missed a week of swimming. I planned on making it up this weekend. Then, while commuting home Friday afternoon, I got rear ended on the bay bridge. Bummer. I woke this morning super stiff from the accident. Man, I just got my shoulders and neck clear of the ache of the flu and now I can't turn my head without pain.

6 miles to go and 7 days to get 'er done.

7.25 Miles in Under 4 Hours!!!

Ted and I met at the club just before 7 a.m. Saturday morning. The air temperature was 54 and the water was a balmy 52. Our goal was to swim as many miles as we could in one day.

I suggested that we swim a mile, rewarm, and repeat until we called it 'quits'.

Ted thought we should swim two miles at a time. Ted has two daughters who are about the same age as my two boys. He convinced me to accept his approach by comparing the swim to driving on a family vacation. He said, "its always best to cover as many miles as possible at the start of the ride."

The first swim chilled us to the bone. We completed the 2-mile course in exactly 1 hour. We refueled with pop tarts, hot tea, and sports drink. The sauna was set at 200 degrees, but I was so cold I had to check the thermostat to see if it was working. While reflecting on the first swim, Ted winced in pain and quickly exited the sauna. He had a tooth ache and the heat of the sauna triggered searing pain. Ted went back into the showers to rewarm. As I shook and shivered, alone in the sauna, I reconsidered our approach. . . surely 1-mile loops would surely be better for maintaining our stamina. . .

After being out of the water for 50 minutes we toed the bay again. This time Ted and I were to follow Jason and his swim group around the cove. I mentioned to Ted that I thought a 1-mile loop might be more sensible. He smiled and replied, "I'm the type of guy that carries 8 bags of groceries from the car, just so I can make one trip." Standing waist deep in 52 degree water, the analogy was just goofy enough to make sense. We followed Jason's swim group around the cove and continued on for another mile.

We completed our 2nd 2-mile swim in 1:05 minutes.

This time we refueled with oatmeal, sports drink, tangerines. Jason and his group were dressed and out the door by the time we hobbled back into the locker room. I noticed Jason had left on my locker which read "Go for it Kevin!". I smiled and headed into the sauna.

An hour later, we were back on the beach shivering and trying to derive an original swim course. It seemed we had covered every inch of the cove the during the previous 4 miles. During this swim we encountered two giant sea lions. This was our first encounter with seal lions in six months. It seemed fitting to see them on our 'big day'. One was at the opening of the cove; it was just cruising by. The other swam right up to us like a friendly neighborhood dog. We completed this 2-miler in 1:07.

6 miles down. . . lunch time!

We hit 'In-n-Out Burger' at around one o'clock. It was pure heaven!

During lunch we agreed to one more dip before calling it a day. The final swim measured 1.25 miles. It was obvious that fatigue had set in. It took us 45 minutes to complete the course. The last few strokes to the beach seemed to take forever. When the water was shallow enough to stand, we rose out of the water, shook hands, and made our way back into the warmth of the club.

In total, we were in the water for 3:57 and covered a distance of 7.25 miles. It was an incredible experience. I enjoyed hanging out with Ted and was glad to bank some miles for my Polar Bear Challenge. I also feel I gained more insight about endurance swimming. Although the cold had its effect, the limiting factor during our swim seemed to be muscular conditioning. Swim technique likely had something to do with it, but our shoulders were in agony by mile 6. Based on this experience, I've decided to spend more time in the gym and periodically attempt longer swim days like this one to increase my endurance.

It was an epic day. Thanks Ted!!!