Yesterday, Lynn & I swam Lake Maitland from Ft. Maitland to just beyond the point of Isle of Sicily. It was a 2.2 mile round trip. My goal was to make sure that the recipe and sequence of fuel (Ensure) and fluids (NUUN - an electrolyte water additive) worked. In previous distance training swims I've always stopped to re-hydrate and sometimes have a snack. The time penalty is just fine for a training swim. Alas, I'm interested in getting faster. (Last year I dropped ~ 10 minutes off of the previous year's time, down to 1:32 from 1:43.) (See the end of the email to donate.)
So yesterday was the four Fs: fuel, fluid, form, & focus. And, quite frankly, we did well on those measurement criteria. However there are many things beyond our control that we have to adjust to. Yesterday's obstacle was winds out of the north northwest at about 25 mph. Did you know you can estimate wind speeds by observing a standard size flag (3 ft X 5 ft)? Use the bottom seam as an angle indicator then use that angle divided by 4 to derive the wind speed. (Thanks US Army Sniper School for that dandy little fact.) This works for speeds up to ~25 mph.
So thanks to that nice house on the south side of the inlet for flying their flag yesterday.
The trip out of Ft Maitland was fast and fun! The wind was at our backs and the waves added a bit of ooomph. You've figured out that our trip back was a tad problematic. It took a lot more effort for both Lynn & her kayak and me to fight the waves on the way back. I tacked a bit to the right to hit the waves head on (literally). This required changing my breathing and varying my stroke cadence to sync up with the wind driven waves. As a side note, form & focus worked well too since I was properly fueled & had the right fluids. (Swimming takes a surprising amount of concentration...) For some reason few folks were on the lake so Lynn & I had few distractions.
Two more short training swims @ Lucky's on Tuesday & Thursday, then off to St Pete for the 2019 Tampa Bay Frogman swim! (This year the oldest grandson is coming with us to the start of the race. I suspect his photography hobby will produce over 200 starting line photos and likely the same at the finish line.)
Thank you for your support and most especially thank you for supporting the Navy SEAL Foundation!
Donate here: https://tinyurl/TBFS2019
So yesterday was the four Fs: fuel, fluid, form, & focus. And, quite frankly, we did well on those measurement criteria. However there are many things beyond our control that we have to adjust to. Yesterday's obstacle was winds out of the north northwest at about 25 mph. Did you know you can estimate wind speeds by observing a standard size flag (3 ft X 5 ft)? Use the bottom seam as an angle indicator then use that angle divided by 4 to derive the wind speed. (Thanks US Army Sniper School for that dandy little fact.) This works for speeds up to ~25 mph.
So thanks to that nice house on the south side of the inlet for flying their flag yesterday.
The trip out of Ft Maitland was fast and fun! The wind was at our backs and the waves added a bit of ooomph. You've figured out that our trip back was a tad problematic. It took a lot more effort for both Lynn & her kayak and me to fight the waves on the way back. I tacked a bit to the right to hit the waves head on (literally). This required changing my breathing and varying my stroke cadence to sync up with the wind driven waves. As a side note, form & focus worked well too since I was properly fueled & had the right fluids. (Swimming takes a surprising amount of concentration...) For some reason few folks were on the lake so Lynn & I had few distractions.
Two more short training swims @ Lucky's on Tuesday & Thursday, then off to St Pete for the 2019 Tampa Bay Frogman swim! (This year the oldest grandson is coming with us to the start of the race. I suspect his photography hobby will produce over 200 starting line photos and likely the same at the finish line.)
Thank you for your support and most especially thank you for supporting the Navy SEAL Foundation!
Donate here: https://tinyurl/TBFS2019
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