Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Kamakura rough water swim report

Last year I did my first open water swim ever in Kamakura. Swam 3 (3.2) kilometers in the ocean without much training in me. Wore a wetsuit but forgot to lubricate my body: the result: terrible. You can read about it in my report from July 2009.

This year a once again ventured to the rough waters in Kamakura to take part in the 3 km event. My goal was simple, to swim much faster than last year.
To avoid any gear problems, a simple solution: no wetsuit, just my swimsuit and googles.

I did swim faster and placed higher.
Finished 20th out of 230 with a time of 49.30 (last year 58 minutes)
Was it really faster though??
This year due to the strong currents and waves the races was shortened to 2.5 km.
My original plan of breaking 50 minutes changed into breaking 40 ... but once in the water I realized it would be impossible to do.

We swam parallel to the shore, with waves breaking next to us.
Every stroke was difficult and changing my style did not help. Every time I got into a good pace a wave would roll me over and force me to come to a total stop.
Looking at my watch was totally useless ... I could not keep a constant pace and I had no idea what distance I was covering. A bit of a nightmare

The ending though was pretty exciting and made the race a good one after all.
Stepped into the shore in 22nd place with a 50 meter run to the goal. Place 21st was 5 meters ahead and 20th some 15 meters ahead. The 3 of us tired and cramped. But the runners in me said "you have to win this little race ... you have 50 meters to go ... he has 35 ... but you are probably 10 times faster RRRUUUUNNN!!!"
And I flew, caught the 21st place and with 10 meters to go managed to sneak through and beep my wrist chip before the other guy ending in 20th. Collapsed on the finish line with cramped muscles knocking out some of the crowd .... epic finish.

.... and to my surprise 22nd place was my good friend Tahara-san. I had been looking for him the entire swim. Impossible to find though ... but we ended up racing each other at the end. What a coincidence.
20th, 21st and 22nd place were all given the same time of 49.30

Thursday, July 8, 2010

June training: still not where I want to be

Swimming keeps improving but my running is as low as ever. Ended the month with a shocking 17.04 for a 5km time trial. Will have to put in a lot of work in the next 3 months if I want to be sub 16 again this fall.

June

1. Swim 2500 meters
2. Rest
3. Rest
4. Jog 10 km
5. Rest
6. Swim 2000 meters
7. Rest
8. 6 km tempo - Total 15 km
3.32 - 3.25 - 3.22 - 3.26 - 3.32 - 3.23
9. Jog 13 km
10. Swim 2500 meters
11. Jog 15 km
12. Rest
13. Rest
14. Swim 2500 meters
15. Jog 13 km
16. Jog 15 km @ 4.10 pace
17. Rest
18. Swim 3000 meters (1500 meter time trial)
19. Jog 6 km
20. Saiko road race 10.5 km - 39.09
Total: 19 km
21. Jog 13 km
22. Jog 15 km
23. Jog 15 km
24. Rest
25. Rest
26. Rest
27. Swim 1700 meters
28. Rest
29. Jog 15 km
30. 5 km time trial - 17.04
3.24 - 3.25 - 3.27 - 3.27 - 3.20
Total 13 km

Total Run: 177 km
Total Swim: 14,200 meters