Oak Street Continued

I got to swim last Saturday with my wonderful neighbor, Patsee Ober and the amazing channel swimmer Christopher Roberts!
http://catalinaswim.myphotoalbum.com/
http://geekindeep.blogspot.com/
I got to kayak for him last August and he is such an inspiration.
I will have to blow off Catalina this year unless some kind of miracle occurs. I know I can do it. I feel so ready after February but I am too fiscally conservative to take it out on credit. I need to find a job. Next year I may feel differently? Maybe later in the season I may have a change of heart.
We will swim tomorrow morning at Oak Street again! 8am!
:)

Oak Street!!!

This shouldn't be such a big deal...I moved to Oak Street in March. I have yet to do a swim off of my "home beach". This morning I will be swimming with my neighbor, Patsee and maybe a few Nova swimming friends (I posted it on the Nova blog) and on my Facebook. I am so excited!!!
More later...

Okay then...

Ugh!
Still looking for work...
But I want to think I am still training for this thing! Catalina...
I am but I am not sure how I will foot the bill. It may end up being next year and I can deal with that.
I took the CCSF Observers Training course last Sunday; got my CPR certification; met some Channel Swimming icons! Anne Cleveland (oldest person to do do a double English Channel) Rendy Lynn Opedyke (swam Manhattan Island, English Channel and Catalina Channel in a 34 day time span), Carol Sing (oldest woman to swim Catalina at 55, but she is doing it again this year at 67!!!)
I will do it some day, I know!
Today I did a short (2 mile) training swim at Corona Del Mar. The water is a delightful 64F with variations. I got to swim with Jim Fitzpatrick (English Channel. Catalina Channel and first ever Catalina to Orange County swim).

HAPPY Spring!

I miss the FFC swim schedule. It kept my mind off of not having a job, moving, and a variety of other things that I get obsessed about. My skin does NOT miss the FFC though and feels like it is back to "normal" with the once-a-day swim schedule. I am really pleased that my shoulders don't hurt at all too! I have swam only 37 miles so far this month - a little over 10% of last month.
I was afraid I had lost my cold water acclimation with all the warm-pool swims and weight loss but I've done two ocean swims with friends this month in 56F water. I was surprised that it wasn't that bad at all!
It is hard to get motivated to swim in the ocean on my own for some reason. I NEED to check out my new local beach at the end of Oak Street, but I get consumed by the online job search...and Facebook....and speaking of Facebook, I will have two FB friends from the East out to swim, maybe on Saturday and definitely on Sunday, in Laguna Beach!
The local dive site says that the water has warmed to 57F.
Tomorrow I will swim at Corona Del Mar with the Tri guys in the evening.

360...a perfectly round number

So I had friends say "why not 365 for the days in a year"...because that is not constant! (leap years?)

Degrees in a circle feels solid.

I showed up to Nova workout this morning and said I only have 14,250 yards to go and Mike said...okay over there. 14,000 yards. READY, GO! He was just kidding but we got a good pyramid set in with 4500 and I did a 50 warm down. I left to get FOOD and then hit the 24 hour fitness at Ocean Ranch.

I split the lane circle swimming with a good swimmer and an older aqua-robics lady. It worked out suprisingly well and I chatted with the swimmer a bit in the middle. The aqua-robics lady, her mom...was scheduled to have heart surgery later this week. We chatted about how agressive and mean non-swimmers who take up swimming can be. It was a pleasant interlude. The last few thousand yards were tough and the sun felt harsh. My skin really hurts.

I was happy to finish it out though and did a "gratitude 100 IM" to the gods at the end.

I had a message when I was done from Jay Sagen at Coastline Community College. I will be in an art show in March and he needed me to get my work over there. Good thing it was a short day! An image of my work will be on the mailer too! Cool!

Marching on!

I'm not like this in real life

The February Fitness Challenge is almost over. This evening started out super-crowded and suddenly I noticed I was the only one in the pool...for a very long time. The Friday guard was not sad to see me go that is for sure!
I have suffered aches, pains, cuts, rashes, burns, and general oddness just to break my 50-54W age group record. My last year's mark was 240.1. The record for my new age group was 262 miles...I am at 351.9 miles now. 8.1 more miles and I will call it finished. 360 miles sounds good. A mile for every degree in a circle.
I saw Jim Fitzpatrick (the alltime record holder for this event) at the beginning of this swim in the far lanes at the LBHS pool (never seen him in chlorine before) and then remembered him saying at the outset of his Catalina to OC swim: "I'm not like this in real life". I thought that was the height of absurdity then, but I think I get a sense of this now, because I am not like this in real life.
But I have the keys to my new place now so time to move soon!

People I get to swim with

How cool that I got to share a lane with Pat Sparkuhl the other day. He is a local mixed media artist who I am fond of:
http://www.patsparkuhl.com/
I also saw Marlo Bartels (wow he is tall). He is a local tile artist and his works are easily recognizable all over Laguna Beach:
http://www.marlobartels.com/
I also ran into David-who-paints-backdrops-at-the-Pageant-Of-The-Masters. His stroke has improved alot over the last year!
Community pools are interesting. There is such a huge mix of swimming styles and abilities. I think I have gotten spoiled swimming with Masters Swimmers who (mostly) have a clean style and have lane etiquette thing down. today I shared a lane with the "Human Tsunami"; his jerky, spasmodic stroke created a gigantic chop and caused me to alter my breathing to the other side and I tried to consider it faux-open-water training. Later on in the day, I got stuck in a aftershave slick. You know those guys that have some thick smelling 70's fragrance slathered all over (Brut, anyone?), and usually have some big bling chain to top it off. In the water, up your nose that smell is just nasty. I also had one of those "Lane Joggers" next to me. The ones in the floaty belts, positioned upright, flailing their legs about as if they might go somewhere soon.
I ended the day as the last lap swimmer between 2 lanes of waterpolo kids. This meant occasional balls in my lane and sometimes a dozen or more tangles of ten-year-olds swimming beneath me like animate seaweed.
I am at 336.39 miles (592,050 yards) with 2 days left to go in the February Fitness Challenge. This has been tough and my skin hurts.
I need to go get some food now!