The week following my 5 hour swim, my right shoulder decided to have an attitude problem (again).  This shoulder thing is getting to be pretty reliable – every few months, I hit a groove in my training, and BAM!  I’m abruptly forced to take a week or two out of the water until one or both of my shoulders are happy again.

As any athlete will confess, when we are prevented from participating in the sport that we love, we tend to get a little…cranky.  And maybe a touch more emo than usual.  Sure, we cross train and rehab and all that.  But every day, the positive attitude erodes a smidge.  A little over a week into my 2 week aquatic suspension, I was going into chlorine and salt withdrawls, and it wasn’t pretty.  An intervention was required, stat.

Hola, Ensenada!

Neal and I hopped a plan to San Diego, picked up a Mustang convertible, and drove down 150 miles of beautiful Mexican coastline to the tiny town of La Bufadora.  We set up camp in a tiny clearing on the edge of a cliff looking out on the beautiful Pacific ocean, grabbed some fins, and scrambled down the cliff to the water.  I pretended to be a mermaid (no arm strokes allowed!) as we swam along the rocky coast, waving at fishermen and exploring kelp beds and inlets.

After another quick dive the next morning, we hopped back in the Mustang and drove up to visit my family in Huntington Beach.

• For those of you who have never done this before, be forewarned:  crossing into Mexico takes seconds.  Crossing back to the US takes about 2 hours.  Be prepared for this barely mobile parking lot with fresh local fruit, lots of water, a functional air conditioner, and a good sense of humor.

The next day, I decided to test my shoulder.  We spent morning swimming around the island channels in my childhood neighborhood, marveling at the beautiful waterfront homes. Neal, my dad, and I all swam, and my mom accompanied us on her waveski.  It was a blast!  The water was deliciously warm, the sun was shining, and it took me about an hour and a half to swim what would normally take me about 45 minutes because I kept popping my head up to look around and chat.  I was just enjoying being in the water on such a lovely day with people I love.

I came back from the 3 day vacation refreshed, upbeat, and mentally in a much better place.  Sometimes you just need to escape to realize that really, you can deal with it.  And you will get back.

If you’re patient.  And believe.

Due to the demands of his job and a significant sleep debt, Keith couldn’t make the swim this morning, so I was on my own.  Well, sort of…I have the most amazing parents ever, and both were on hand to offer substantial support today.  I’m a lucky girl!  My father rocked the piloting scene, and my mom got up early to drive…and later ended up rescuing us!

Despite getting up at 6:30am, we got a late start on the swim this morning due to a series of unforeseen delays.  All along the coast, heavy fog blanketed the ocean and the beach, reaching up to enshroud PCH as well.  We almost called off the swim due to concerns over visibility, but ultimately decided to go for it.  I headed out from Newport Beach at 9am, intending to swim as long and as far as I could with the hope of attaining 10 miles.  The water in Newport was incredibly beautiful; clear, slate blue-green, tranquil.  I felt strong, my dad was doing an awesome job of piloting me, and I gained confidence that I could make it the full 10.

As we crossed into Huntington Beach an hour later, the water abruptly changed from clear and glassy to murky brown-green and choppy.  Rather than burn off the fog, the sun was out enough to create an even worse haze over the water.  It was at thispoint that my hip flexors started to really flare up.  I otherwise felt okay, so I had some GU and we kept going.  Half an hour later, though, I started to get very cold, and the water grew extremely choppy.  With my hip flexors searing, the chill seeping through my body, and the conditions getting worse, I was having trouble with my stroke.  My dad gave me some words of encouragement, and I decided to stick it out as long as I could.

2 hours into the swim, however, I went from feeling cold and stiff to my teeth chattering as I took a breath.  I felt like knives were digging into my hips.  My dad was having trouble navigating the kayak in the chop.  And from 400 meters out in the water, we couldn’t see the beach at all.  I physically reached a point where I couldn’t keep going, so 6.8 miles north of our starting point in Newport, we went in.

Well.  I may have been out of the water, but I was shaking uncontrollably, each tremor sending stabs of pain through my hips.  And our van with hot water, towels, and dry clothes was at home.  Enter – Mom to the rescue!  We called and she showed up within 10 minutes. Salvation!

I didn’t make it 10 miles today.  But I learned a lot from this attempt, and from the past four days in general. I can’t be too upset with how my training weekend in SoCal went…6 miles on Thursday, 10,000 yards on Friday, 4 miles on Saturday, and now nearly 7 miles today.  That’s a much higher volume than I’ve done yet in my Channel training!  And while I didn’t meet all the goals I set for myself at the start, I realize now that they were probably somewhat ambitious given my training volume up until this point.

I’ll be back in Huntington Beach in about a month.  And I’ll try again to finish a 10 mile swim then (the water in SF is too cold right now for this).  Eventually, I’ll get to the point where 10 miles isn’t such a big deal.

Eventually. I was initially down on myself for not pushing through today.  However, I have a wonderful family and great friends who helped me realize that I’m actually doing okay.  Thanks so much to all of you – I could never do this alone, and I am so grateful for all of your help and support!!

Well, I finally made it home yesterday after 10 hours of freeway parking lots, repeated NPR broadcasts, and prodigious quantities of caffeine, just in time to say hi to the fam, down some food, and pretty much pass out.

This morning, my dad and I loaded up our ancient Toyota van at 6am to trek down to the Huntington Beach Pier to meet Keith for our first training swim of the weekend.

The sky was dark and stormy, but beyond the surfer-inhabited break, the conditions were beautiful for swimming.  The water temperature hovered around 60 degrees, and the surface was smooth and glassy with a slight current to the north.  Keith and I pulled on our caps, stripped down, and dolphined out through the waves to start our swim.

We turned right at the end of the pier and headed North, cruising to warm up.  The water was so beautiful that I could see the reflection of Keith’s stroke on the surface when I breathed.  The sky to the south was dark with storm clouds, but to the north the sun peeked through, framing the clouds in pink, blue, and orange light.  A light rain settled over us as we completed the first mile, lasting only about 10 minutes.

An hour into the swim, my dad valiantly fought through the surf in an ocean kayak to pilot us for the middle of the swim and deliver nutrition in the form of GU, GU2O, and Gatorade.  However, we learned some lessons this morning:

1. Storage location of feeding supplies is key:  when placed in the main compartment of the kayak, the majority of our stuff was lost somewhere at the very front as a result of the rise and dip from fighting through the surf.  It was impossible for my father to reach, so no GU, and no GU2O.
2. Gatorade and salt water DO NOT MIX!!!  It was awful, magnifying the salt in my mouth when I started to swim again.  Ugh, never again.

The lack of nutrition caused me to reconsider the duration of our swim – 2.5 hours in cold water with no food seemed like a bad idea.  However, Keith and I weren’t ready to quit yet, so we headed past the pier to the South this time.  We picked up the pace, flying across the surface of the turquoise water.  Keith got slightly ahead of me, but I managed to stretch out my stroke and keep up.  The 60 water felt wonderful, and it was so nice to swim without the splayed hands I normally get in the 55 degree SF bay!

90 minutes into the swim, my dad stopped us – the storm was rapidly approaching from the south, darkening the sky even more.  We deciced that instead of heading toward the storm, it might be a good idea to turn around and head back; besides, both of us were suffering extreme hip flexor discomfort.  We agreed to keep swimming for another half hour to reach the 2 hour mark, and then head in.

By the time we rounded the pier to finish, I was really feeling the effects from the lack of nutrition.  I was a lot colder now than I would have expected, my body was exhausted, and my legs were cramping.  The waves were even bigger as we swam in, and it required a lot of focus to time the swells, dodge the fishing lines from people fishing off the pier, and avoid getting creamed by a territorial surfer.  2 hours and 10 minutes after we set out, we staggered back up the beach, shivering but very satisfied with our training session.

Huge shout out to my father for all of his support this morning!  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I am so excited to be going home to Southern California tomorrow!  Assuming I survive the 7 hour drive, and don’t go insane from grid-lock LAX traffic-induced stress, my Thanksgiving holiday weekend is going to be chock full of family, friends, turkey…and training!  I’ve got a tough schedule planned, and I’m especially stoked because my childhood friend Keith will be joining me as my training partner!

We grew up competing with one another:  from seeing who could get the fastest time on 12 x 400 IMs descend when we were 12, to racing pier swims every summer with Huntington City Junior Lifeguards, to dragging each other into crazy-long coastal run-swim-runs through high school, Keith and I have always shared a love for challenging ourselves.  We’re also both a little, shall we say, over-zealous…I managed tear my rotator cuff through overuse at the age of 13, the same year Keith decided to do the Mega Colossus with a broken foot.

These days, Keith has become a force on the triathlon scene (though current injuries have interrupted his running and cycling training – go figure), and has nearly reached the U.S. Nationals level with his pool swimming.  He still loves open water swimming, and is considering the Catalina Channel swim this summer.  The dude’s a stud.

Unlike the good old pre-pubescent days of yore, Keith can pretty much demolish me in a race of any distance.  However, I’m looking forward to having someone to pace me, and to the challenge of keeping up with him on our swims!

The water temperature off the Huntington Beach coast has been ranging between 60 and 62 degrees, which will hopefully feel warm to me after the SF Bay.  Here’s the plan for the long weekend:

Thursday Morning:  2.5 hr swim at Huntington City Beach (approximately 8 miles)

Friday Afternoon: 2 – 3 hr pool training (aiming for 10,000 yards)

Friday Night: 1 hr swim in Huntington Harbor (approximately 3 miles)

Saturday Morning: 2 hr swim from Newport Beach to Huntington Beach (between 5-6 miles)

Saturday Afternoon: 2 hr medicine ball, core, and lifting program

Sunday Morning: 3.5 hr swim from Huntington Beach Pier to Seal Beach Pier (approximately 10 miles)

There’s a chance of rain throughout the weekend, which would make life miserable for our pilots.  As such, we do have backup courses planned, so rain or shine, we’ll just keep swimming!

It’s going to be awesome…stay tuned for updates on how it all goes!