This is my ode to Gu. When I’m on long training swims, GU energy gels are the easiest way for me to gulp down calories without wasting a whole lot of time.  Similarly, GU2O, their sports drink, is perfect for maintaining electrolytes, and if it’s warm makes for a glorious treat when my body is engulfed by cold water.

Gu has this new product called Chomps.  These little babies are 180 calorie packs of gummy-like energy bursts.  They taste nice, and have the consistency of those fruit snacks you used to take to school as a kid.  Major plus when you roll out of bed at 5:15am for a 5:30 workout and haven’t eaten for 6-8 hours. With GU gels, you can just gulp and go!

The only way they could be any more perfect would be the addition of caffeine to the Chomps ingredients list. Let me know if you see those around.

Today was a bit rough.

Keith and I met at 7:30am to start what we intended would be a 6 mile swim along Belmont Shore in Long Beach.  From the Los Alamitos Bay Breakwater to the Belmont Pier is 2 miles, and we planned to swim 3 or 4 lengths of this course.  I was armed and ready with GU safely stored in my suit, vaseline lathered along my straps, and my ankle securely taped.

We started at 8am in good spirits, with my parents and Keith’s fiance, Aleah, walking along the beach with us.  The water was a little chillier than Thursday, around 59 degrees, which in and of itself wasn’t an issue.  The water quality, however, was pretty gross.  Within seconds we were both coated in brown algae that made our skin slippery and turned the water a murky brownish-orange.  Debris and trash floated by as we swam into the sun.  And the smell…well, I’m on my fourth round of soaking my suit (it’s been 8 hours now!) and it still reeks.

We cruised the first mile, then Keith picked up the pace.  I managed to keep up for the next mile, but then started to struggle.  I was really feeling my 10,000 yards from last night, especially in my triceps.  I downed some GU, hoping it would give me a boost, but as I swam on, the combination of the cold, the fatigue, and the smell started to make me feel kind of sick.  I told Keith to go on ahead while I tried to fight through.  I spent the fourth mile doing the swimming equivalent of limping, and when I got back to the breakwater, decided enough was enough.  Keith, feeling slightly out of it himself, concurred.

At first, I was really disappointed in myself for not being able to make my body do what I wanted it to.  Keith, though, helped me to realize that this is the point of training:  to build, to get stronger, to condition ourselves to swimming longer.  He also reminded me that it doesn’t happen right away.

“Being an endurance athlete for the last 5 years I’ve learned a thing or two,” he told me, “and one major thing is that I don’t know a whole lot. Endurance sports are an odd animal and take years to master – hence the reason so many 50+ men AND women can whoop all the youngsters.”

Wise kid, that one!  He’s right…while I know a ton about competitive pool swimming, I know very little about marathon swimming. Especially how much my body can handle, how it reacts to increases in training volume, and what I need to do to recover and take care of myself.

I decided to cut myself some slack…and spend the rest of today resting.  I’m still going to go for the 10 mile swim I had planned for tomorrow.  I figure I’ll give it a shot – and if something happens to prevent me from finishing it, I”ll just try it again in a few weeks.  ☺

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!