2019 Open Water Swims

I thought you might find it interesting to see the data on my Open Water Swims during 2019.  I have 46 of them (so far)--at least my Garmin has recorded that many.  I probably have done 3-4 more but either my watch died, I didn't start it properly or in one case, recorded it as a run for some reason.

In any event, here is the raw data:

Lot's of info here (sorry bout that).  But basically, I did my first OWS on June 1st, just a couple of days after returning from Bolivia.  My yardage ranged from about 1,500 yards to over 6,000, when I swam across our lake in Minnesota.

Let mer explain the color coding.  Firstly, I had 5 swims down in Avalon that were assisted to varying degrees by a tidal current.  In the charts that follow, I exclude them from the averages and trend line analyses.  The other 41 swims were all neutral from a current perspective.  These have colors that represent my progress vs. objectives I set for myself at the beginning of the year:

Pace (per 100 yards):

Red: 1:43 and higher (about a 72 minute IM pace)

Yellow: 1:40-1:42 (70-72 minutes)

Green: 1:39 or better

My slowest was 1:53/100 and my best was 1:30/100. (26% variation)

Distance per Stroke in Meters (DPS):

Red: below 1.60 meters/stroke

Yellow: 1.60-1.65

Grey: 1.66-1.69

Light Green: 1.70-1.74

Green: 1.75 and above

My worst was 1.49 and my best 1.82 (22% variation)

Strokes per Minute (SPM):

Red: 30 or less (note this is 60 spm if you count both hands)

Yellow: 31 or 32

Green: 33 and up

My worst was 29 and my best was 35 (21% variation)

Basically, my objective was to try to swim 1.75 meters/stroke at a rate of 33 spm or an average pace of 1:35/100 yards (66:40 IM pacer, which is my PR back at IMFL in 2007).  I was actually only able to do both of these just once, on 10/1 when my pace hit my best at 1:30/100.

This chart shows the average progression by month:

Basically, I didn't make a lot of progress on my pace until September and October when I really began to go after my swimming (after focusing on the bike for most of the summer).  Strangely enough, all the improvement seems to have come from my cadence (spm) as my stroke length really didn't improve much despite my attempts to make it longer.  I'm not sure how to interpret this but you can see it clearly in the charts below:

In any event, I'm pleased with the progress, especially given my limited investment in swim training this summer.  I feel good about my swim and don't anticipate any issues at IMAZ in November.

Onward and Upward!

Major Update: The Year to Date and the next seven weeks before IMAZ!

My apologies for being radio silent over the last 7 weeks or so.  This lack of communication should not be interpreted as a lack of progress on the fitness front--in fact, quite the contrary!  I'm going to step back a bit and review the YTD, and then talk about the 7 remaining weeks till IMAZ.  Sorry for the length of this, but this is intended to be a fairly comprehensive update about my training efforts and initial thoughts about IMAZ prospects.  Here we go:

The YTD: Overview

To put 2019 training in context, please look at this first chart of my weekly training time (in hours/week) this year so far:

A number of observations:

1. There are several distinct phases or training blocks during this year's training.  Firstly, the first 4+ months of the year were principally devoted to getting ready to climb in Bolivia in the 2nd half of May.  For each of the three sports, this meant something different during this phase and I'll get into each of them below.  But the main point is that the first part of the year I was focused on getting ready for a successful mountaineering expedition to Bolivia with Anders, which we did achieve, ultimately culminating in summiting Huaya Potosi (19,974 feet) together at the end of May.

2.  Upon returning from Bolivia, just after Memorial Day weekend, I began my build for IM Barcelona, which was our "A" race on 10/6/19.   The principal part of this early IM build phase was what we labelled, "Bike Monster".  I'll get into that in more detail in the Bike section below.

3. In the middle of July I suffered a mild, Grade I shoulder separation in a bike crash and just 11 days later, Anders (my racing partner for this IM) fractured his collarbone at IM70.3 Santa Rosa.  This significantly impacted both his and my training.

4.  We shifted our "A" race, after Anders' crash, to IMAZ (11/24).  This was 8 weeks later than IM Barcelona.  This was a great call and I think we will both be ready to have a great race, but it meant a significant adjustment in training plans for both of us.  For me, I've found through the years (and 14 IM races) that I can handle about 14-16 weeks of serious hard-core IM training before I begin to break-down.  Now I had 8 more unplanned weeks on top of 8 I had in front of me--this on top of the 8 I had in the bank.  I wasn't quite sure how to react to this but my body intervened and I experienced some over-training symptoms in August.  As a result, I backed off a lot over two separate 3 and 6 day periods and rebounded to a good equilibrium.

5. Over the last 5-6 weeks I've once again entered a serious, progressive IM build--this time focused on IMAZ.  The nature of this build differs by sport which I will detail below, but I seem to be building well for my big race 7 weeks from now.

6. Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that this chart clearly shows the HUGE commitment I've made to training this year.  I've rarely been below 20 hours/week--that's a lot for anyone and its especially a lot for a 62 YO has-been with a bad knee!  The week before last was my highest time commitment post Bolivia, which means it was my biggest Tri-specific week this year.

The Swim

The chart below shows my swim yards/week for the year to date:

 Observations for the swim:

1. Pre-Bolivia, I was just "going through the motions".  That is, I was in the pool enough to get my feel for the water, but wasn't focused on building IM swim fitness.  I wanted to save that until post our climbing exhibition in Bolivia in May.

2. Post Bolivia, I began my (first) IM swim build, which was going great (got up to 10,000+/week) until my shoulder separation.  I had to take about 9 days off from swimming as a result.

3. Ironically, Anders' injury got me going again as I went to Santa Monica for 10 days to help him and given time constraints, focused on swimming (love the SMCC pool!) and running.

4. Since then I've been in a very solid second IM swim build block.  Couple of highlights:

-in late August I swam over 6,000 yards across our Lake in Minnesota at about a 72 minute IM pace.  This is nearly 50% further than an IM swim and clearly demonstrated that I had fully recovered from my bike crash:

-Recently, on 10/1,  I had a breakthrough (of sorts) swim TT, where I hit 1:30/100 yards (63 minute IM pace) for 2,400 yards:

5. The week before last I did 14,000+ yards and I hit 44,000+ yards for October--both high-water marks for the last three years.  I feel very good about the status of my swim with 7 weeks to go!

6. Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that like both of the above two swims, the majority of my post Bolivia swims have been in the open water.   I think this will serve me well come race day.  Indeed, this week I'm in SH swimming and the water temp is now about 62 degrees--which is a bit tough but is about what I'll see on race morning....

The Bike

Here is what the same chart looks like for my bike:

Observations:

1. The pre-Bolivia period up through mid-May, my bike took second seat to my hiking/climbing/running as I focused on getting ready for Bolivia.  Most of this riding was indoors and frequently on Zwift.

2.  In Bolivia,  Anders first proposed the idea of a "Bike Monster" (primary focus on the bike--big miles) for my prime training strategy.  I agreed and during this period I primarily focused on biking and once I came up to speed during June was routinely averaging over 50 miles/day.  I was also frequently putting in over 20 hours/week on the bike.  Essentially all of this riding was out-doors and almost exclusively on my TT bike.  As a result, I feel very comfortable on the TT bike and am about as "aero-adapted" as I'm likely to ever be.  This is a major development for me as I haven't really been able to stay aero for the great majority of an IM since 2011--I think I can do so in Arizona come November.

3. In mid-July I had my bike crash (see in post below) and then 11 days later Anders had his far worse crash.  The net result was a big pullback while I was in Santa Monica.  In retrospect, this was very helpful as I was able to accelerate my swim recovery and I began pushing my run more.

4. I bounced around a bit for 6 weeks or so trying to refocus on IMAZ.  Over the past month or so, I've been finding a nice medium where I can maintain my bike fitness and increaser my emphasis on the swim and run..

5. During this time I've done 8 rides of at least 100 miles.  In September I was finally able to go sub 5 hours for a century ride:

6. Going forward I have 5 more hardcore weeks.  I'd like to do around 280-300 miles/week.  I'd like to do 2-3 more centuries.  I'm also trying to introduce more intensity, albeit over shorter distances.  I'd like to average 20mph (5:36 bike split) at IMAZ and I feel like I've (at least so far) given myself a good chance to do that.

The Run (and walk, hike, trek and climb)

1.  You can see the huge volume leading up to and including Bolivia.  The 5 smaller spikes are trips to Shenandoah and the Great Saunter.  The volume for the Bolivia climbs is considerably exaggerated as I credit high altitude climbing at the rate of 4 miles/hour.

2.  Upon returning from Bolivia most of what you see is running, although I mix in some walking/hiking every now and then.

3. Since my overtraining bout, I've been building my run pretty well.  Last week I ran 24 miles and walked 6.  I had two runs of 10 and 11 miles.  This week I hope to run 12 and 13 miles for these two "long runs".  I'm practicing the Galloway method and running for 8:30 and then walking 1:30 for each 10 minute cycle.  I'm slow, but I can at least go sub 12--up to 11 miles anyways.

4. My run will be a challenge but if I can get off the bike with enough in the tank then I think I have a good chance of hitting my 14 min/mile goal (6:06 marathon).

Looking ahead 7 weeks

If I can achieve the above then I'd turn in a low 13 hour IM--which I'd be very satisfied with (well, thrilled to be honest) and in the XC world might very well punch my ticket to Kona.

The next 5 weeks are my focus now.  If I can hit my training plans and arrive on 11/10, 2 weeks before the race healthy and ready to go then I will achieve my objective for this period.  To that end, I've got a week in the middle (starting 10/18) where I take it easy for 6-7 days just to be cautious.

I'm optimistic and feel very fit.  I like where I'm at and the plan forward.  With any luck, we might be able to pull this one off!

The "Bike Monster" returns

Back on the East Coast the last two weeks after flying out to LA to help Anders post bike crash.  I've jumped back into my IM build and specifically my "Bike Monster" (20+ hours/week on the bike) training strategy.

In the first week back (Tuesday the 6th to Monday the 12th), I ended up putting in 417 miles on my bike including a 5:04:54 century ride (19.7mph/164 watts NP/160 watts AP), which is my best this year and very close to going sub 5 hours.  Very encouraging.

The last two weeks look like this (my traditional Sunday as the last day of the week):

TIME           SWIM             BIKE            RUN
23:16             9.8k            328(18:23)         10
25:45             7.0              359(20:17)         15

We are just under 100 days out from IMAZ, which we have now officially transferred to.  Since I have an extra 49 days to train, I'm currently looking at tweaking my approach on the bike (I really like the idea of periodic, full-on 100+ mile time trials like the 5:04 I did last Monday, but I'm not sure I can handle that each week, plus 350+ miles on the bike and building up my swim and run).  More on this as it evolves.

In any event, I'm well positioned for the 11/24 race!

Onward and upward!

Big Update: Crashes, Surgery, Training, Racing Milestone, Change of Plans......

Sorry for the lengthy period off radio silence.  Lots has been going on over the two months that we've been back from Bolivia.  This post will hopefully bring you up to speed on where things are at!

1. Crashes/Surgery/IM plan changes

The biggest news, I guess, is the bike crashes that Anders and I suffered.  Mine not so bad, his of more consequence.

On July 16th I was at 58 miles into a 100 mile ride, rolling into a WaWa parking lot to refill my water bottles, and I had one hand on my aerobars when I hit a bump and went down hard on my left shoulder and hip.  I wasn't going very fast so minor road rash.  My shoulder sustained a Grade 1 Separation, which wasn't too bad.  My hip got a big hematoma, which finally, after about 3 weeks is slowly going away.  My TT bike's front-end got messed up but I was able to ride it home (bars pointed crooked) with my left arm resting on my right, due to shoulder pain.  Bike is repaired and after two weeks, I was able to start swimming again.  Run and bike only modestly impacted.  I was lucky (and dumb for crashing).

Anders, was not so lucky.  He was at mile 42 on the bike ride at Santa Rosa70.3 on 7/27 when someone dropped a water bottle right in front of him while he had one hand on his aerobars and was moving about 25 mph (he was having a great race having swum sub 33 and was on a 2:20 bike leg when he went down).  He went down hard hitting his shoulder, hip and head.  Thankfully, the helmet did its job but the impact fractured his collarbone.  I flew out to LA a week ago (I'm heading home tomorrow) to help and he had what appears to be a successful surgery to put it back together again last Tuesday.

He should be fine in the long run, but will have a 8-week or so recovery processes.  He can go on walks now, will be able to do light riding on the trainer next week and probably can begin jogging in 3-4 weeks.  Swimming will come last.

Not surprisingly, this means Barcelona is out for him, and given that I am likely to pull out of that race as well.  We are evaluating whether or not he can get ready for IM Arizona in late November, and if so, we will both probably make that our IM target for 2019.

Obviously, this is a real bummer given how fit he already was but he has adjusted to the new reality and focused on the comeback.  Bad injury for sure, but could have been a lot worse, so we are thankful it wasn't!

2. Training Update

Anders and I spent some time in Bolivia talking about my training approach for Barcelona (now probably Arizona) and decided on what we called the "Bike Monster" strategy.  Essentially, I'd build my 2019 IM build around my bike training and specifically, I'd build up to 20+ hours/week on my bike with one 100+ mile ride/time trial each week.  The swim and run would be more "fit in" around that foundation.  For the swim, my plan was to get to 40-50k yards per month by July and try to build my run up enough that I could run the half marathon at IMAC70.3 in September.  We believe that this will give me a good chance a qualifying for Kona--I'll share more on that plan when we get closer to race time.

Prior to the events of the the last couple of weeks I was executing well against this strategy.  Here are the 8 weeks (ending on 7/28) post Bolivia bike stats:

Week          Time       Distance     Average Speed      Long Ride Distance    Long Ride Speed

1                 17:22         287                 16.5mph                    58                             16.5mph
2                 18:47         304                 16.2                           86                             16.4
3                 21:06         350                 16.6                           84                             16.9
4                 20:21         336                 16.5                           91                             16.7
5                 19:16         338                 17.5                          100                            17.2
6                 21:15         383                 18.0                          100                            19.3
7                 21:01         371                 17.7                          101                            18.6
8                 15:35         269                 17.3                           74                             17.7

You can clearly see the nice fitness build as by week 6 I was doing 19+ mph for my long ride (the 18.6 in week 7 was the ride I crashed on).  Since my goal for my IM this year is to do 20+mph (5:36 split or better), I'm basically pretty much already there as with race wheels/tires and an aero helmet and tri-suit, I'll probably be at least 1mph faster.  so this has been a big success.

I started building my swim in July and was on my way to 40k+ when I had to take two weeks off for the shoulder problem.  I've started swimming again out here in Santa Monica and will ramp up quickly--no worries.  I'm also now staring to build up my run/hike volume.  Here are what the last two months look like:

                   Time (hrs)         Swim (k yds)         Bike (miles)        Run (miles)

June           103                           21                         1,385                     46
July            106                           23                         1,444                     70


3.  50th Age Group win!

I raced at the Belleplain Super sprint triathlon in June and won my Age Group for the 50th time.  this was a really low key short triathlon and I won my Age Group by nearly 20 minutes.  I finished 6th overall.  I also recored a 8:36/mile run leg so not so bad for me given my knee....

Onward and Upward!

Bolivia 2019: Successful trip--here's the recap!

Sorry for the late blog update.  We've been back from Bolivia for about a week now--thankful to be back to the land of safe to eat food (staying healthy "gut-wise" is a challenge in 

Bolivia)!  Our expedition was a blast and quite successful.  Let me update you with some of the highlights.

We landed on 5/17 in La Paz (airport is over 13,000 feet) and spent a few nights/days there in the beginning and in between summits.  It was very hard to adjust to the altitude--as we essentially came straight from sea level.  Everyone felt a little out of sorts and I basically slept at most 1-2 hours over the first three days.  

Here are some pics from the city:

The city sits in a big valley, surrounded by several Andean mountains near by:

This is a view of the "Witch's Market":

La Paz street scenes:

Here is some of our team (l to r): Andrew, Geoff, Eric (guide), Anders and Andy (guide).  Missing is Rick and our Bolivian guide: Javier....

We first left La Paz and went north to the Peruvian border and acclimatized on Isla del Sol, a beautiful little village/island on Lake Titicaca.  This is home to about 3,000 souls who live a simple, agrarian life (no cars!).  We had several beautiful, easy hikes (4-5 hours):

The "road" to our Ecolodge--we had to climb about 600 vertical from the lake to get there (not easy at 13,000+):

Eric leading the way:

Truly stunning vistas!

Pretty flowers along the way:

Hiking scenes:

Anders and I hanging at the "Lodge":

The team hanging on the shores of Lake Titicaca.  Being competitive guys, before long we had a skipping stone contest and a "who can hit the buoy way out there with a stone first" contest.  (Which btw, I won...):

Javier and I ending a great day!

We left Isla del Sol and travelled through Copacabana and eventually made our way to the Condoriri valley.  Here, the 8 of us successfully climbed Tarija (17,241 feet/5,255 meters) and then the team, without Javier/myself also climbed nearby Pequeño Alpamayo (17,618 feet/5,370 meters).  After discussing with Eric, I elected to just sumit the first peak as I was the slowpoke on the team and we were worried about getting stuck high up on the glacier with a storm coming in.

No worries on my part as it was an awesome day for sure.  Tarija had a very technical section (for me) that involved about 10-15 foot/8 inch wide ice bridge with hundreds of feet of exposure on both sides followed by a 60+% ice wall that I climbed with my front points and ice axes.  Exciting but scary for sure--especially coming back down, which I did backwards--no style points there!

The climb to Pequeño Alpamayo was very rewarding for Anders and the rest of the team and involved some class 4 rock scrambling and a 60%, multiple pitch Neve section.  All told, it took me about 9 hours and the rest of the team about 11.5 hours:

Leaving Isla--the increasingly old man and the sea:

Copacabana pictures:

You'd definitely pay the price to eat any of this....

Heading towards the Condoriri base camp...

Hiking in the valley....

The Condoriri Valley--amazing!!!! (Yes, it does look like this!)

 Anders on the approach climb to Tarija, through the glacier, as the sun is rising:

 The C Boys (again).  The steep climb to the summit of Tarija is behind us....

Might be a little hard to figure this one out.  This is a screen shot from my Go Pro and I'm on the final summit ice wall climb.  You can see one of my crampons front pointing and the world of course looks sideways as you ascend.  Ice axes above....several hundred feet of exposure below...My heart was in my throat!

 On the summit of Tarija! Pequeño Alpamayo behind me.

Behind me is Huyana Potosi (3 days later we would be on top of it....)

Javier and I on the summit of Tarija:

 A view towards neighboring Pequeno Alpamayo:

 Anders and team on final approach to the summit of Alpamayo (summit is behind the spur they are on here):

Javier and I heading back to base camp:

Tent life...

The night of the Tarija summit, despite being ever so careful, I came down with a bit of a stomach bug, which I dealt with via Cipro and Imodium for two days.  This plus the altitude ( I wasn't really able to sleep the first three nights) left me a bit out of sorts for pretty much the entirety of the trip (not really that unusual given how high we were right from the start).

Heading back to the trailhead the next day....

After summiting on Wednesday the 22nd (5 days after landing), we travelled to Huyana Potosi--only about 20 miles as the crow flies, but it took us 4 hours as we had to return almost all the way to La Paz, in route. We slept in a "Refugio" at the trailhead that night as we treated Thursday the 23rd as a bit of a rest day.  The next morning, we climbed about a 2 hour trail (+1,500 feet) to another Refugio this one wasn't and nice and had no working bathrooms).  Here we "slept" (not really) and woke up a 1am on Saturday the 25th and then Andy, Anders and I departed a little before two am.

Huyana Potosi is a 19,974 foot/6,088 meter peak that requires about 6+ miles of glacier climbing and some 3,200 feet of net vertical ascent (and about 4,700 feet of descent back to the trail head).  It's really big.

The first 3-4 hours were filled with beautiful climbing.  After a challenging rock scramble, that had several fixed lines, we climbed up a 30-40 degree glacier.  We could see the lights of La Paz below.  However, as we neared the cruz of the climb (60 degree, +700 foot headwall) the wind really picked up and I became very cold.  I had trouble regulating my core temp and was wondering if it made sense for me to try to tackle the icy/steep headwall.  We were above 19,000 feet at this point and I was no doubt impacted by that as well.

However, my rope/team mates, Andy and Anders, came to my rescue and helped me get some warmer clothes on--this is harder than it sounds on a glacier at altitude (I went to 5 layers including my big 850 loft down puffy).  This helped a lot, as well as all the encouragement they gave me.  I had to move slowly and rest from time to time, but after about 2 hours of zig-zagging up the super steep wall, we finally reached the summit (joining Eric, Geoff and Andrew).  This was an extremely satisfying peak to bag.  I had to dig really deep.  The exposure was sobering.  It turns out, this is the highest peak that Anders and I have stood on at the same time (we both climbed Aconcagua before, but summited a year apart).  HP is the second highest mountain I have climbed and Anders' 4th highest (although, he has obviously spent a lot of time higher than this in the Himal).

Truly great and epic day (took 11+ hours in total):

These are not climber graves (thankfully) but rather those of miners--this is a region where that was big in days long past.  HP is the big peak in the 2nd picture:

Here we go again!

Anders, early on summit morning, with La Paz in the distance:

On the head wall--side stepping required....

Eric offers congrats as I reach the summit! Andy and Andrew behind...

Anders on the summit:

We did it together--truly a  magical experience!  We brought a picture of the family to the summit as well!

It was hard to beat that experience and we didn't.  We returned to La Paz and rested there next day, Sunday, the 26th.  During the afternoon, we even went to a local English Pub and a pint and fish and chips.  I was toast after one beer.  That night, Anders and I stayed in and had room service while the rest of the team went out for pizza.  This turned out to be the wrong call as they all got very sick (Andy and Geoff seemed ok) and ended up throwing up for there next 3-4 days (Cipro to the rescue).

We drove the 6 hours to Sajama on Monday, but the winds were ripping (50+ mph) and forecasted to stay strong.  With most of the team being really sick (Rick stayed back in La Paz) it was a no brainer to pull the plug (even healthy, the conditions were not safe to climb in) and drive back to La Paz.  We returned around 8pm and with Judy's help back in the states, woke up at 12:45am for an early morning departure.  We had a safe trip back including a nice breakfast together in Lima, Peru before we split apart.

Tremendous trip!  Memories for a lifetime....and a final look at Sajama--which we left for others to climb!  

A special thanks to Andy and Anders for helping me through there HP climb--I could not have done it without my teammates!