Posted in: Training

SwimTrekking with the Best

15.Oct.09   |  posted by: steve munatones  |   filed under: Training   |  

What an opportunity for an open water swimming enthusiast!!!

SwimTrek, the world's largest, most successful and most global open water swimming tour operator, is expanding and looking for experienced, personable and responsible swimming guides for the upcoming 2010 season between May and November.

SwimTrek guides must be experienced in the open water with have the ability to assist with the planning and running of all arrangements throughout the duration of the tour. Guides must obtain their beach lifeguard, first aid, powerboat and food hygiene qualifications with a swim teaching/coaching qualification considered to be a plus. SwimTrek is looking for individuals with a flexible, responsible and dynamic attitude combined with an outgoing personality and a commitment to work throughout the season.

If interested, e-mail your swimming-related CV to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or here at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Lovely Lakes in North America for Open Water Swimmers

4.Oct.09   |  posted by: steve munatones  |   filed under: Training   |  

Forbes Traveler Magazine described the following best lakes in North America.

It is interesting to note that while Forbes chose warm areas in describing its sexiest beaches, it generally selected cooler areas for its best lakes.

The top 10:

1. Lake Tahoe in California and Nevada
2. Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada
3. Crater Lake in Oregon
4. Rainy Lake in Minnesota and Canada
5. Lake Champlain in Vermont, New York and Quebec
6. Lake O'Hara in British Columbia, Canada
7. Lake Patzcuaro in Michoacan, Mexico
8. Holland Lake in Montana
9. Caddo Lake in Texas and Louisiana
10. Lake Powell in Arizona and Utah

World’s Sexiest Beaches For Open Water Swimmers

4.Oct.09   |  posted by: steve munatones  |   filed under: Training   |  

Forbes Traveler Magazine described the following 25 beaches as the sexiest beaches in the world.

Forbes defined sexiness as the raw energy and natural scenic beauty of beaches in addition to the sassiness and beauty of the people who frequent these beaches.


1. Byron Bay in New South Wales in Australia
2. Eleuthera in The Bahamas
3. Macaroni Beach on Mustique in Saint Vincent & the Grenadines
4. Saline Beach in Saint-Barthélemy
5. Shoal Bay in Anguilla
6. Tahiti Beach in Saint-Tropez in France.
7. Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil
8. Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil
9. Joaquina Beach in Florianópolis in Brazil
10. Placencia in Belize
11. Xpu-ha Beach in Tulum in Yucatán in Mexico
12. Lover's Beach, Cabo San Lucas, Baja Peninsula, Mexico
13. Monterosso al Mare, Cinque Terre, Italy
14. Playa d'en Bossa, Ibiza, Spain
15. Pula Beach, Sardinia, Italy
16. Red Beach, Santorini, Greece
17. Sveti Stefan, Montenegro
18. Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives
19. Natadola Beach, Fiji
20. Phang Nga Bay, Phuket, Thailand
21. Dreamland Beach in Bali in Indonesia
22. Sunset Beach on Oahu in Hawaii
23. Ka'anapali Beach on Maui in Hawaii
24. South Beach in Miami in Florida
25. La Jolla Cove in San Diego in California.

Photo of Pula Beach in Sardinia, Italy by Robert Garvey.

Developing Young Open Water Swimmers

2.Oct.09   |  posted by: steve munatones  |   filed under: Training   |  

The October issue of Swimming World Magazine includes an article about developing young swimmers with examples from renowned American coaches like Sid Cassidy and Siga Rose of Mission Viejo Nadadores.

Photo shows Siga motivating her young swimmers from Mission Viejo.

Going a Long Way in a Short Time - British Open Water Olympic Planning

1.Oct.09   |  posted by: steve munatones  |   filed under: Training   |  

Among the nominations for the Top Ten Open Water Swimming Moments in History, Britain’s success in the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in Beijing was among the nominations. With 2 silver medals and a bronze in the Olympic 10K, British swimmers took 50% of the total available medals - poetic justice for the country with the English Channel.

British Swimming’s Open Water Performance Manager Mark Perry believes the subsequent public enthusiasm and support shown towards open water, from both the swimming community and the general public, will be a major factor in its continued success.

While Beijing was an obvious success based on the medals won by Keri-Anne Payne, Cassandra Patten (shown above) and David Davies (shown swimming to the left), Perry knows it will take an even greater effort to build on those results.

"We’ve come a long way in a relatively short time and achieved some wonderful results,” said Perry. “This is a testament to all who’ve been involved in the open water program and journey to Beijing, but in reality this is just the start – there’s still so much more to be done and work towards."

"The success we saw in Beijing has drawn a great deal of attention to open water swimming from many coaches, athletes, the media and the public as a whole. It’s created a very positive attitude towards the discipline and sets us up perfectly in terms of preparations for London 2012. Britain has done a great job in terms of open water swimming, but the rest of the world will undoubtedly catch up. We’ve got a lot of momentum currently and that can only help to grow the sport in this country."

With long-term planning and vision, Perry was asked to take a relatively unappreciated aquatic discipline to a sport that would be competitive on the Olympic stage.

"I identified changes that needed to be made. I saw the competition, other strong nations and got very excited about it and what marathon swimming had to offer. When I first got involved and took on the sport it was in need of modernization. We knew we had really good swimmers out there with lots of young talent coming through the ranks. The first thing we did was to try to recruit these top swimmers and brought on board Keri-Anne Payne, Cassie Patten and David Davies immediately. We want to make the most of the new-found interest now and extend this even further, encourage more athletes to explore the possibility of marathon swimming and to provide them with the right opportunities at the right time."

Perry prefers to look at who is swimming the 800 meter and 1500 meter freestyle events and think about what they would be like at 10K. British Swimming tries to help its teams give every distance swimmer in Britain the opportunity to swim an appropriate open water event. This vision resulted in each of Olympic open water swimming also swimming pool events in Beijing - with 2 of them finaling: Cassandra in the 800 freestyle and David in the 1500 freestyle. Keri-Anne swam not completely tapered for the 200 and 400 individual medleys in Beijing, but was ready for the 10K. Her coach Sean Kelly said, "[Keri-Anne] had the much bigger medal chance here [in the Olympic 10K]."

"A large part of the focus of the program is to work from the grass roots up," explained Perry. "It involves meeting the different regions throughout Britain and liaising with those working with young talent, not only coaches but those working in the background. All involved in swimming need to drive this initiative forward. Before Beijing and the fantastic British performances, when I was on the pool deck at major meets, I used to get asked about boats and binoculars. Now the coaches are asking me how they and their swimmers can get involved. The shift in attitude towards the sport has been a massive one. There’s a lot of interest now from swimmers and coaches alike and the challenge we face now is facilitating that throughout 2009."

"[Open water swimming] used to be seen as a separate entity, sometimes a completely different sport, but I want to change all of that,” said the visionary Perry. “It’s an integral part of the World Class Events Programme and there’s no bigger testament to this than the results from 2008. All medalists came from a impressive pool background and together with our knowledge, experience and commitment to open water swimming, it’s transition into the world class programme has been seamless."

"The priority of the work we do is in looking after the athletes and making sure they have all the resources they need. It’s also about working very closely with their coaches. This has created a great rapport which provides a very close-knit team when we compete. The aim isn’t to create specialists in open water swimming, but rather to keep swimmers excelling in both open water and pool-based competitions."

Very wisely, Perry works closely with Development Coach Chris Martin to identify open water opportunities, but the priority is not short-term results oriented. With incredible foresight and patience, the focus is on giving the British athletes the right experience to lead to winning medals at the Olympics.

"This year we’ll be taking our athletes and giving them experience and exposure at international level. We’ll be highlighting talent and working with them to develop themselves,” said Perry. “The event in Britain has come a long way in a short space of time, but our strategy going forward will focus on developing technique and gaining experience. Leading into 2008, [Keri-Anne and Cassandra] were fairly experienced. They had a good track record and experiences of international events. They didn’t always go to events to win. It was about swimming the race, gaining more experience and creating a better understanding of the event. Before the Beijing Olympics, David Davies (shown to left) had very little experience and therefore his plan was to stay out in front and out of trouble. There wasn’t a British directive to go out in both races from the front, it fell down to the athletes and how the race developed."

Perry believes results in Beijing were even more impressive when you appreciate, unlike other countries, Britain has only June through August in which to compete in open water due to its climate.

"Our aim is to be a world leader in terms of open water racing. More races and events will go towards building experience and knowledge. It’s about being able to react to certain situations and the best way of managing this is through experience," said Perry.

"2012 is our next big event, but we have World Championships in open water every year. Other than that it’s a learning curve we’ll go through to be up there at the very top in time for London. We need to develop our race plans and this will require more events and opportunities on the calendar. The race plan is a massive element of open water swimming. It’s all important."

"Training for the open water and the pool-based events should be the same. We’ve been very successful with our swimmers following pool-focused training regimes. The only additional training requirement they’ve undergone is in the tactics of the race and this is something that comes from exposure to competition."

In summary: impressive planning, admirable vision, great execution.

Photo of David Davies by the Telegraph and Cameron Spencer of Getty Images AsiaPac.

Open Water Swimming Kaizen

1.Oct.09   |  posted by: steve munatones  |   filed under: Training   |  

KAIZEN = Japanese for 'continuous improvement' is a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement throughout all aspects of life.

Despite being the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim bronze medalist, Cassandra Patten, and her silver medalist teammate, David Davies (shown on left), continue to look for improvement as they heads towards the first FINA 10KM Marathon Swimming World Cup in Brazil this weekend.


The British team, including standout Daniel Fogg, is led by Mark Perry, British Swimming Open Water Performance Manager. "The event is really going to be about different aims for the different athletes," wisely observed Perry. "Davies and Fogg are still quite inexperienced when it comes to open water swimming and I think the more exposure they have the better. For Patten this meet is more about building on her experience. She already has a good knowledge of the sport and I just want her to have another opportunity to test out her tactics."


"We will be taking part in a number of these events and the athletes will be testing out different tactics in different races. With open water swimming, tactics need to be planned on the day of the race. We all need to be able to think on our feet."

With a long-term vision aimed at culminating at the 2012 London Olympics, Perry’s has a unique strategy for the Brazilian 10K race, "If we come away from this event with medals, then that would great, however it is not our main focus for the competition. I want the athletes to learn from these races and this will prepare them for future internationals."

Quotes provided by the Plymouth Herald.

Tough Tower 26 Workouts by Gerry Rodrigues

1.Oct.09   |  posted by: steve munatones  |   filed under: Training   |  

Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Disneyland, Los Angeles Lakers, the Academy Awards...Los Angeles is known for many things, but the open water swimming workouts in Santa Monica have created a growing buzz among local open water swimmers.

The workout, held at Tower 26 in Santa Monica Beach, just south of the Santa Monica Pier, is a vigorous Open Water Training and Transitions workout where the coach drills open water swimmers, triathletes and multi-sports endurance athletes over 70-90 minutes of specific open water drills, sprints and aerobic work in the ocean.

Gerry Rodgrigues is the head coach and organizer of the group and its workout. The workout is a qualitative and targeted beach workout that gets short-distance open water swimmers and triathletes what they need to be fully prepared to race...fast and well. Like a well-managed workout in the pool, Gerry breaks up the large group into smaller groups and creates a motivating environment as he hands out pearls of wisdom to the athletes and subgroups who compete around turn buoys and in-and-out of the surf.

We once observed the famously successful American football coach Pete Carroll's practices at USC which are very focused, competitive and an efficient use of every athlete's time and capabilities. If there is a Pete Carroll in open water swimming, our best guess is that it is Gerry Rodgrigues at Tower 26.

Hard-core Open Water Swimming Coach

1.Oct.09   |  posted by: steve munatones  |   filed under: Training   |  

Gerry Rodrigues is one serious open water swimming coach.

Before his ocean practices at 6:00 am in Santa Monica at Tower 26, he sends his athletes a pre-workout report. Here is one example:

"We are expecting pristine conditions as it is forecasted to be sunny, warm water at 70-72˚F, low tide and little wind. With these conditions, all speeds and levels can attend once you can swim about 600 yards non-stop."

"Bring your water bottles as Prolong Energy, the Ultimate Endurance Fuel, will be pouring samples for you."

"Tomorrow's workout will be moderate intensive. We'll be working on buoy turns: positioning and approach into the turn, sighting the buoy, strategy when approaching buoy turns, how to turn and exiting the turn. There's just been too much 'soft peddling' at the buoy turn as I observed from Wednesday's speed circuit workout with people stopping or just hanging out at the turn."

"As usual we'll run several circuits with two buoys in organized groupings after the structured warm-up."

"Friday's forecast is 1-2 feet surf with fair conditions every 12 seconds, south-southwest surf direction, tide is coming off a 5:00 am low tide, rising to high tide by 11:15 am (i.e., LESS swimming because the water is LOWER on the beach), wind speed is 3-4 knot NNW (i.e., mild wind conditions, so it should be similar to Wednesday's speed circuit, with a bit lower tide)."

When a Gator Becomes a Mermaid

29.Sep.09   |  posted by: steve munatones  |   filed under: Training   |  

Eney Jones, a former top swimmer at the University of Florida (Gators) and over 20-time finalist at the USA Swimming national pool championships, is a classic crossover athlete.

Not only did she win her age-group at the 200-, 400- and 1500-meter freestyles at the 2008 US Masters Swimming national championships, but she also swam on a top Maui Channel Swim relay, won the Aumakua Swim in Maui, got third in the Waikiki Roughwater Swim and won the 2008 FINA World Masters Swimming Championship 5K in Perth, Australia.

The personable and ever-energetic Eney now lives in the Rocky Mountains, far from the oceans where she is most comfortable, but she continues to offer open water swimming instruction.

Click here for more information.

Don’t Go Out Too Far at These Beaches

28.Sep.09   |  posted by: steve munatones  |   filed under: Training   |  

Forbes Traveler Magazine had an article on beaches with sharks. The beaches include Kosi Bay in South Africa, Shark Alley in Gansbaai, South Africa, Brisbane in Australia, California's Bolinas Beach, Florida's New Smyrna Beach, Umhlanga Rocks, KwaZulu Natal in South Africa, Oahu's North Shore, Brazil's Recife, Kahana on west Maui and West End on Grand Bahama Island.

According to Forbes Traveler Magazine, "...of the more than 400 shark species in the world, only about 30 types are known to have attacked humans. And only three have a reputation for the highest number of “unprovoked” attacks: great whites, tiger sharks, and bull sharks (the last, known as Zambezi sharks in South Africa, have earned a particularly bad reputation for their mix of aggression and ability to swim upstream into shallow freshwater rivers and inlets)."

Photo by Bruce Coleman, Inc.

America’s Top Beaches

23.Sep.09   |  posted by: steve munatones  |   filed under: Training   |  

Where are some absolutely wonderful places to swim?

Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman, Director
of Florida International University’s Laboratory for Coastal Research, better known as Dr. Beach, announced his 19th annual Top 10 Beaches in America. The list includes:


1. Hanalei Bay, Kauai, Hawaii
2. Siesta Beach, Sarasota, Florida
3. Coopers Beach, Southampton, New York
4. Coronado Beach, San Diego, California
5. Hamoa Beach, Maui, Hawaii
6. Main Beach, East Hampton, New York
7. Cape Hatteras, Outer Banks, North Carolina
8. Cape Florida State Park, Key Biscayne, Florida
9. Coast Guard Beach, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
10. Beachwalker Park, Kiawah Island, South Carolina

Hanalei Bay, a spectacular beach on Kauai, is deservingly ranked number one. Open water swimmers can enjoy the two-mile stretch of palm tree-lined shoreline with a backdrop of waterfalls and mountain peaks. The crescent-shaped beach, which is generally flat and calm due to the protective outer reef, is a great place to practice navigational sighting.

Because Hanalei Bay is crescent-shaped, swimming straight can be difficult because you can be easily drawn to swimming along the gorgeous shoreline. But, swimming along the shoreline is not the quickest way to swim from point A to point B.

So you can get double benefit: swimming in America's top beach while practicing navigational sighting by picking a point off in the distance and trying to swim as straight as possible to that point.

As Dr. Beach says, "Beaches are the number one recreational destination for Americans. These sandy playgrounds that line our coasts are the most extensive natural parks in the country. Nothing restores the body and soul like a stay at the beach."

Cold-Water Preparation: Nature or Nuture?

17.Sep.09   |  posted by: steve munatones  |   filed under: Training   |  

It’s cold outside. The water is also cold – freezing cold in many locations. Throughout the winter months, there are a large and growing number of Polar Bear Swims around the world. The swims range from Hawaii (Maui Polar Bear Fin Swim) to Finland (Finnish Winter Swimming Championships).

What is the best way to prepare for these cold-water swims? It reminds us of the nature vs. nurture debate. Modifying this classic debate for our sport, is an open water swimmer’s innate qualities (e.g., body fat percentage, natural ability to withstand cold water, mental toughness, ability to push oneself) more important than the swimmer’s personal experiences (e.g., amount of training and acclimatization to cold water) when determining one’s ability to swim well in cold water?

One 25-year-old former pool swimmer of slender build (170 cm, 54.4 kg or 5'-7", 120 lbs.), Laurin Weisenthal, is one example that nurture certainly plays a very important role in cold-water swimming performance.

The background of this nature vs. nurture debate is the Dolphin Club's annual Polar Bear Challenge in San Francisco. The competitors attempt to swim 64K (40 miles) between December 21st to March 21st when the air ranges between 4° and 10°C (40° - 50°F) and the water is between 8.3°-10.6°C (47° - 51°F).

Records for the Polar Bear Challenge include (1) the shortest number of days to 40 miles, (2) the shortest total elapsed time to complete 40 miles (including rest and re-warming periods), and (3) the total number of miles completed. The swims take place in Aquatic Park, a protected cove influenced by tidal currents.

The total elapsed time competitions are unique in that they subject the swimmer to multiple repetitive periods of hypothermia and re-warming throughout the course of several days. In laboratory rats, repetitive cold water swim stress, with intermittent re-warming periods, produced what psychologists call 'learned helplessness' and 'behavioral despair'.

The repetitive chilling and re-warming cycles produce unique psychological challenges beyond the obvious physical challenges. Many (if not most) people in our open water swimming community who do cold water swims agree they are quite happy to warm up and they do not relish the thought of quickly re-entering the water for another cold-water swim on the same day.

The existing record for the "Fastest 40" was set by Daniel Considine in March 2008. Daniel completed the 64K Polar Bear Challenge in 3 days, 12 hours and 43 minutes (84 hours and 43 minutes).

Daniel's record was broken in the last week of 2008 by Laurin who completed 65K (40.5 miles) in a total time of 2 days, 12 hours (60 hours flat). Laurin swam 14.5 miles (23.3K) in five segments in 11 hours in 10.3°C (50.6°F) water on Day 1, 11.5 miles (18.5K) in five segments in 10 hours in 10.0°C (50°F) on Day 2, and 14.5 miles (23.3K) in six segments in 12 hours in 9.8°C (49.6°F) water on Day 3.

Laurin, who was coached and escorted by veteran Reuben Hechanova, explained her preparation, "I had been swimming in Aquatic Park since September, about 2.5-3 miles 2 or 3 times a week. The Sunday before the Polar Bear Challenge started, I wanted to see how my body would react, so I did 3 x 2-mile swims in 52°F (11°C) water in Aquatic Park, resting and re-warming similar to what I was going to do during the actual Challenge. After that, I decided it wasn't so bad, so I figured I'd just go for it!"

Laurin emerged from San Francisco Bay after each swim segment with moderate to severe subjective hypothermia according to her father who is a physician. Her re-warming routine consisted of 20 minutes in a shower (cold, then warm, then hot) while she consumed a portion of a baked potato, warmed Clif Bar electrolyte drinks, and 100 calorie GU energy gels. She then spent 20 minutes in a sauna. Dressed in boots, a swim parka, and a ski cap, she then rested for an additional 20 to 40 minutes at room temperature before preparing for the next water entry and swim.





Video clips of Laurin’s swims are here.

So it is nature or nurture? A combination perhaps?

Winning World-class Workouts

16.Sep.09   |  posted by: steve munatones  |   filed under: Training   |  

We had the opportunity to ask many of the world's best pool and open water swimmers what their most difficult practice was before the RCP Tiburon Mile this year. They gave us some insight into the incredible amount of hard work these young athletes do in order to become world-class. Here is a sampling of their workouts (all in 50-meter pool unless indicated):

Olympian and world 5K champion Melissa Gorman: 3000 + 2000 + 1000 @ 1:10 pace

Waikiki Roughwater Swim champion Luane Rowe: 10 x 800, descend 1-5

Olympic gold medalist and MythBuster Nathan Adrian: annual 24,000-yard practice on New Year's Day. "We did all kinds of stuff that took 6-7 hours total."

Olympic gold medalist Caroline Burckle: 20 x 400 every other 400 fast

World 25K champion Brendan Capell: 21 x 500 alternating 1 @ 6:10 + 1 @ 6:00 + 1 @ 5:50

World 5K and 10K champion Vladimir Dyatchin: 10 x 2500 @ 1:10 pace per 100-meter interval

World 5K and 10K silver medalist Ekaterina Seliverstova (shown above): 6 x 2000 @ 1:13 pace per 100 meters + 10 x 1000

World championship swimmer Eva Fabian: 50 x 100 @ 1:10 in 25-yard pool + 1-hour for time (did 5700 yards). Other tough workout was 2000 (descend each 500) + 3 x 500 + 2 x 100 + 2000 (descend each 500) + 3 x 500 + 2 x 100 + 2000 (descend each 500) + 3 x 500 + 2 x 100

Pan American Games medalist and RCP Tiburon Mile founder Bob Placak: 10 x 500 with last 500-yard swim at 4:33

2-time Waikiki Roughwater Swim champion and world 25K silver medalist Trent Grimsey: 15 x 500 @ 5:40, descend 1-3 (last set of 3 was 5:12, 5:10, 5:05)

Olympic gold medalist Ous Mellouli: 100 x 100, "done in high school in France on a crazy interval"

All-American J.K. Koehler: 30 x 1000 @ 11:30 interval (in a 25-yard pool) that "took 7 hours by myself, but I did it again in college with some teammates"

Olympian and world 5K bronze medalist Chloe Sutton: 30 x 100 @ 1:15 averaging 1:05-1:06 per 100 meters

RCP Tiburon Mile champion Kane Radford: 10,000 swim for time

These practices remind us of the tough workouts that 7-time world professional marathon swimming champion Paul Asmuth did at Mission Viejo Nadadores under coach Mark Schubert and the famously tough individual medley workouts that Olympic silver medalist Allison Wagner used to do.

Photo of Ekaterina Seliverstova by Daylife Publishers.

Endless Training at Home

12.Sep.09   |  posted by: steve munatones  |   filed under: Training   |  

Scott "The Yesdoc" Richards, MD, a member of the exclusive Triple Crown Club, trains in an Endless Pool. We asked him why:

10Kswimmer: Why do you train in the Endless Pools Swimming Machine when you live in San Diego, a beautiful city that is abundant with open water swimmers and ocean shorelines?

Scott: I train in an Endless Pool due to my personal and professional commitments coupled with the lack of 50 meter pools in the north county of San Diego. I am a single parent and physician (outpatient with a 40 hour work week) and couldn't make the time to drive daily to a pool, do a workout with masters, as I had responsibilities and this would have been exhausting for my lifestyle and take away from my family. I love to go to La Jolla Cove on the weekends, but for weekday training, the Endless Pool was perfect. I did a test swim in one in about 2003 and was impressed. Subsequently, I researched the different types and found a contractor who had experience with them and by 2004 I took the "plunge" (pardon the pun), and invested the money and it has been worth it 100 times over. With being a single parent, it gave to me the ability to get up at 4:00 - 4:15 am, stretch and then begin a workout by 5 am, allowed me to be out by 7:00 - 7:30 am with 5 miles done and still get breakfast for the kid˚s and get them to school. The ability to train on-a-moments notice is a great feature. And the current is adjustable and allowed me to simulate open water much better than an 80˚F (26.6˚C) degree pool as I keep the temperature in the winter at 62-62˚F (16-17˚C)and in the summer no warmer than the mid 70's˚F (23˚C). I'd also swim in the evening while the kids were dong homework and could add an extra 4-5K without too much interference for my family.

10Kswimmer: Is it tough to train alone in the Endless Pool?

Scott: One has to be personally motivated as I trained with no coach. The Endless Pool necessitates having a very self-motivated person. I can't stress this enough. I just love to swim and with the use of personal workouts that I began to develop, I just really had fun.

I also have the 45˚ angle mirror on the front bottom so I would constantly see where I was entering my stroke and my underwater technique.

10Kswimmer: Do you have any special methodologies when training in the Endless Pool?

Scott: The use of a pace clock, coupled with the adjustable current, is really good for understanding speeds and stroke-per-minute counts that are used in marathon swims. I began to feel what 62˚F (16-17˚C), 66˚F (18.8˚C), 70˚F (21˚C) and such would feel like. I began to know what rpm's were what stroke counts and as I got more efficient and stronger, I used less strokes at the same speed. John York of the Catalina Channel Swimming Federation said I had one of the most consistent stroke counts for the entire Catalina Channel swim he had seen in years. I really attribute that to training in the Endless Pool.

10Kswimmer: What is your swimming background?

Scott: I had been a competitive swimmer from ages 8-22 and then masters swimmer from ages 26-38, but I was really tired of the heavy interpersonal competitiveness that was happening at masters swimming, especially when triathelets would swim and try to beat the old fat guys. The you-against-the-elements was what drew me into the marathon swims. At my age (now 49) the goal is to get to the other side. I know that if I had attempted the swims in my 20's, I would have put so much more pressure to have world-class times.

10Kswimmer: Can you tell us how many hours you trained in the Endless Pool?

Scott: When I was in training for the marathon swims, I had a Monday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday schedule for the Endless Pool and at least one day on the weekend would be in the ocean at least 2-3 times a month. If I didn't make the ocean, I would use the Endless Pool for long swims on Saturday with Sunday being a shorter workout.

Note that the Endless Pool automatically shuts off after 31 minutes and 45 seconds. Therefore, I did sets based on the 30-31 minute length with no more than 1-2 minutes of rest in between. Each morning would start with a warm up that was 31 minutes and 30 seconds long (15:45 at an easy pace, 10:30 on a faster pace and 5:15 at "ocean speed"). Based on what I learned my speed was, this would be about 2,300 yards as I can hold 1:15-1:20 for 100 yards on a regular basis. 1:20 pace for 30 minutes is 2,250 yards. So my yardage is approximate during the workouts between 5-7:30 am. On Monday, I would front load the week with at leat 14,000 yards and the most I ever did on a Monday was a 21,000 yard day over three separate workouts.

10Kswimmer: What was a typical training week?

Scott: A typical week in the Endless Pool would be as follows:

Monday between 5:00-7:15 am
31:30 Warm up
31:30 Swim at pretty fast pace
3 x 10 minutes descend on 10:30
31:30 swim pace (5-4-3-2-1 set). The 5-4-3-2-1 set is 5 minutes easy, 10 seconds rest, then 4 minutes faster, 10 seconds rest, 3 minutes faster, etc. till the 1-minute swim is all out. I did this to simulate the end of the Channel requiring that extra gear to break through the tide.
10' swim down

Wednesday between 8:30-9:45 am
31:30 warm up
31:30 pad/pull - 10 x 3' on 3:15 pace
4 x 7:30 on 8' pull
10 x 2:30 swim on 3 minutes, desceding by 2's with the last 2 at max heart rate
3' easy

Thursday between 5:00-6:50 am
31:30 warm up
31:30 with zoomers
10 x 3 on 3:10 desc
5-4-3-2-1 set
5' easy swim down

Friday between 5:00-7:00 am
31:30 warm up
6 x 5' on 5:15 pull
5-4-3-2-1 set
31:30 pace swim
1' easy

Saturday/Sunday (if not in the ocean)
31:30 warm up
2 x 15' pull on 15:30 - 2nd faster pace than first
3 x 10' swim with zoomers on 10:20 descending each with faster speed on pool 5-4-3-2-1 set

Monday afternoon
15' easy
10 x 6' swim descend on 6:15
5-4-3-2-1 set
5' swim down

I usually averaged 14-18K on Monday. Occasionally, I'd add an extra swim on Thursday evening that would be more of a "sprint" or backstroke to give the arms a different feel. This would add an extra 3-4K per week.

Weekday average was about 35-40K yards. Then on Saturday, I would go to La Jolla Cove and swim at least 2-3 hours which would be about 10-12K and on Sunday an easy endless swim of 3-4K.

The total weekly yardage averaged 45,000-60,000 and I would vary this depending on how my shoulders would feel.

I also use my Swimman MP3 player when I train so I can listen to music, books and even medical journals when I train. This allows my training to be another of my multi-task times. I have taken education days and spent 6 hours in La Jolla listen to medical lectures and get home and send in the test answers. It's been neat to learn and train at the same time.

10Kswimmer: What were your times and dates for your Manhattan Island, the English Channel and Catalina Channel swims?

Scott: Manhattan was in June 2006 in a time of 8 hours 8 minutes. Catalina was in September 2006 in a time of 10 hours 39 minutes. The English Channel was in 2007; the full story is on my blog.

10Kswimmer: What is your medical specialty? What do your patients think of your open water swimming accomplishments?

Scott: I am a board certified psychiatrist with also being clinical/research fellowship trained in mood and Eating Disorders (anorexia/bulimia). Since an article about me in 2007, a number of patient's were amazed and my family has put up my England map course on my wall. I was initially uncomfortable with this, but it has been a big positive as some will say, "You walk the talk of self control and hard work."

Training Solo in the Open Water

11.Sep.09   |  posted by: steve munatones  |   filed under: Training   |  (2) comments

Michał Skrodzki, who competed in the Baltic Open Water Championships in Ustka, Poland last month, asked a training question on what can be done to train alone in the open water to improve his speed. Our recommendations are as follows:

Swim parallel to shore as you warm-up easy freestyle (for 10-20 minutes). Then do a set of easy-medium-hard-sprint swims. For example, swim at an easy pace for 200 arm strokes, swim at a medium pace for 150 arm strokes, swim at a hard pace for 100 arm strokes and then finish with 50 sprint strokes. You can repeat that pattern or do other patterns for the next 30-60 minutes.

If you can swim between two landmarks (such as lifeguard towers or buildings or piers), you can swim easy in one direction and swim fast in the other direction.

Use a waterproof watch to time yourself.

If there are no landmarks, then you can swim easy for 10 minutes in one direction and then swim hard for 9.5 minutes in the other direction. Hopefully, the distance will be the same.

The key is to constantly push yourself so you increase your heart rate throughout your long open water swims, and learn how to quickly shift gears in the open water so you can respond to surges by your competitors, instead of simply swimming at an easy pace for long distances.