March 23rd swim report - 90 minutes!

With some difficulty I managed to last 90 minutes in the bay this morning. I was joined by a new swimmer I met on the beach on two weeks before. His name is Nobu and he is training for the swim leg of the Wildflower triathlon. I'm in the lead here with Nobu following close behind.

We tried to swim the break wall which is the wall to the right of aquatic park (you can see the wall is the picture above and on the map on the bottom of the page). We made it within about 20 yards of the end of the wall and got caught in a strong current. We struggled for about 10 minutes before floating back to the mouth of aquatic park. The swim time at this point was about 45 minutes.

As we approached the beach we witnessed no less than 50 wetsuit clad team in training folks wade into the water. It was nice to have the company, it made our training swim seem more 'normal'. Each of the team in training life guards jokingly commented on my lack of a wetsuit. I told them we were only in for a short swim.

At 60 minutes Nobu got out. Moments later I got really cold. I still had 25 minutes to go to reach my goal. I tried to sprint to warm up but it didn't help much. My mind was clear, but my body was giving in. I swam close to the beach to be safe. At 85 minutes, I basically swam in and sat out the remaining 5 minutes in the water to condition myself to the cold. My swim was a success, but I am left wondering if conditioning will delay the effects of the cold long enough to allow me to complete my actual swim (2+ hours). On the bright side, one month ago 30 minutes was my maximum time in the bay without a wetsuit.

Thanks for a great swim Nobu!

Distance, time and temperature. . .

"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.

The Last Day of Winter

Today, the last day of winter, my alarm rang out at 4:45. At 5:45 I was standing outside the Dolphin swim club waiting for my friend and colleague Jon Nakamura. With daylight savings, it felt more like midnight than morning. If it weren’t for the glow sticks we attached to our goggles, we would have lost each other on the beach. We joined two other swimmers and waded into the blackness of the bay at 6 sharp. I swim in the bay on a regular basis, but this was my first “night swim”.

The shock of the cold water, not being able to distinguish the surface of the water verses the black sky and the urgency of trying to get in quickly and keep up with the other three swimmers put me into semi-panic mode. However, Jon swam at my side the entire time and that put me somewhat at ease. 10 minutes into the swim my limbs and face went numb and I started to get into my rhythm in the bay. 20 minutes into the swim we stopped at the mouth of Aquatic Park to check out the lights of a cruise ship. As we neared the end of our 1-mile, 30 minute swim I turned onto my back and was in awe of the star filled sky. Floating in the black waters of the bay it was almost like being in space.

Hot shower and sauna later, I felt human again!

Thanks for the swim invite Jon! It was an unforgettable experience for me.

Here is the link to the Dolphin Club, check it out!

http://www.dolphinclub.org/

Kobold v. the Rock!

During one of my training swims, I had the crazy idea to contact the Kobold Watch Company and ask their support of my swim. I was surprised to receive a response from Michael Kobold, founder and president of Kobold Watch Company!

Kobold has since supplied me with a new custom titanium Soarway chronograph sports watch. It is absolutely stunning! Its beauty is deceiving, Kobold is known for producing superior quality watches capable of withstanding extreme conditions. Kobold watches have been to top of the world and the depths of the ocean. I assure you I will put this baby to the test wearing it on each of my bay swims as well as the Swim Around the Rock.

After the event, I will (tearfully) return the watch to Michael Kobold and it will be placed in the Kobold museum. Here is an ‘out of the box’ picture of my Kobold watch. From now on, only training pictures will be posted!



Check out the Kobold web page, it is really cool!

http://koboldwatch.com

Good times, past Alcatraz swims

There is a certain "mystique" about swimming Alcatraz. That is why I initially signed up for the Alcatraz Invitational 6 years ago. Since then I have swam Alcatraz 5 times. Along the way I got my brother, brother-in-law and wife to do the swim too. Each swim was beautiful, difficult, cold and exhilarating. One swim in particular was absolutely hilarious (more on this later). Here is a picture of me (back when I was smart enought to wear a wetsuit) and my son Brant at the bay on a beauty of a day.

Swim Around The Rock!

On May 26th, 2007 I will participate an elite long distance swim event which begins on the shores of San Francisco, goes out to and around Alcatraz island, then back to San Francisco. I will attempt the swim without a wetsuit. The course map is posted below.

Here is a link to the event webpage http://www.waterworldswim.com/sar/.

Iron-April 2008 Athletes

Athlete List

1 Kevin Haugh
2 Dave Landa
3 Lisa 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 Team "Hula Girls"
13 Yoko Kasai
14 Nobu Takahashi
15 Mitch Moghadassi
16 Tom McGraw
17 Jason Prodoehl
18 Frances Yang
19 John Griffiths
20 Peter Cross
21 Mark McKee
22 Sunny McKee
23 Jim Wirth
24 Jon Nakamura
25 Rebecca Tilley
26 Bill Hogan
27 Shannon Moore
28 Team Kobold Watch Co.
29 Jason from Sacramento
30 Doug Cameron
31 Bob Morelli
32 Vince
33 Micah Dirksen
34 Team Jamie Lin
35 Kaori
36 Team Stefan