12 Miles (my longest swim for this year)

It's done. Now I can come "down the ladder" for the rest of this year. Yesterday, with the company of training partners Heather and Ruthy (each doing 10K) I made it through that 12-mile swim. Tired from work and workouts, I really wanted to put it off a week and do the swim when I had more energy. That didn't work out with the Labor Day weekend coming up, so I decided to do some mental conditioning. To swim the channel, you must train yourself to continue swimming even when you are feeling desperate and miserable. My swim yesterday gave me some excellent practice doing that. From the first stroke, I could tell it would be a fight just to finish - never mind quality. A BIG thank you to Heather and Ruthy for swimming alongside me with your positive vibes!

I'm okay today - went to the noon Masters session at the JCC just to "stretch it out" and ended up swimming a good workout. Go figure?!?!

For the rest of this year, my long swims will be 8 - 10 miles at the most!

Carol, Anne and Sal

Carol Sing and I celebrated Sally Minty-Gravett's successful Catalina Channel swim (9 hours 51 minutes!) with her at dinner in the village of La Jolla. Cheers to Sally and may the festivities continue!

10 Miles!!!

The pain in my lats and shoulders has subsided enough for me to sit down at my computer and write about yesterday's 10 mile swim. With the help of training partners Carol, Heather, Gavin and Ruthy, each accompanying me for a lap or two across our bay, I crossed the 10-mile hurdle. The sun was out and the sea temperature hovered in the low 70's. We all agreed it was hard to call this "training". The first two laps went by easily; the ocean was smooth as glass. During the third lap, the wind began to pick up and miles 7 - 10 were done in the usual afternoon wind chop with a swell building. Those last two laps really hurt - we were swimming straight into the wind and swell each time we made our way back to the Cove from the Shores. As they say..."Train for the worst and hope for the best."

Next long training swim is August 27th - 12 miles....stay tuned.