March Update in April

Start of the Fort Point->Pt. Bonita Swim

 March has come and gone really quickly! I have had several solid swims that are building my confidence and helped me to shed my second cap (silicone), so now I am just down to my trusty ol' yellow latex. As per channel rules I can only wear one cap, so I could technically just wear one silicone cap but those never have seemed to work for me, they tend to slip off of my head during swims longer than 1 hour, I think I sweat too much? and they give me headaches...so i dont they are not worth the extra bit of warmth.

On March 7, I did a RT (round-trip) Anita Rock Swim with the Sunrisers. It was designated as a "nutcracker" swim, named for its level of difficulty. I had done a 1 hr 55min swim in late February and followed pretty much the same course, so I felt pretty confident doing this swim. The leg out to Anita Rock took the bulk of the time about 50 mins as we were swimming against a fairly strong flood. Once we got to Anita Rock, I chugged some water mixed with a Gu powder. I like that particular mix because it isn't too sweet but still gives me lots of electrolytes. Drinking midway through gave me a nice burst of energy and started to power on back to the club. I made it back to the club in far less time, because I felt like I wanted to kick it up a little bit speed-wise. Once back inside Aquatic Park I decided to give myself a little cool down. Overall we were looking at about 1 hour and 43 mins in the water, which I was quite happy with.

The following weekend I had a chance to do another adventurous swim, this time taking place outside of Golden Gate Bridge. The plan is to swim from Fort Point in the eastward direction and ending up at Point Bonita.


We were greeted with a phenomenal sunrise and boarded the boat in the sunshine. The ride out to the gate was a bit bumpy, which meant that we might encounter some wind once we were outside the bridge. Once we jumped it seemed like it took forever to arrive at the bridge and make the right hand turn underneath the bridge. I knew that once I made that turn I would have to keep my head down and keep moving because it was going to get choppy. I didn't spend too much time gazing up at the bridge...but no matter how many times I have made a crossing underneath that bridge I am always in awe of its beauty. After getting past the bridge, I found myself at Pt. Bonita in far less time than I had imagined. I stayed in the water for another 45 mins just swimming and playing around in order to get some extra time in.

I now possess a shillelgh to use to hit mean seals. 

In honor of St. Paddy's Day, the club hosts a Coughlan beach swim where we all raced for the honor of winning the shillelagh. In case you dont know what a shillelagh is...i have attached a link to wikipedia for further information. Right before jump time a few of the guys at the club suggested that I join them for a roundtrip Coughlan swim. I decided it would be a nice way to warm up for the race portion and started off early in order to arrive in enough time to start with everyone else. Once I had already committed to this I had a brief moment of panic when I remembered that last time that I did a RT Coughlan I had a really rough swim. I got a headache from the cold and started panicking and basically lost it mentally halfway through the swim. I ended up finishing, but I really doubted myself and was really hard on myself afterwards. I have made a lot of mental progress since then, but it was a scary moment. A huge part of training for the channel is the mental component and this experience scared me because I felt like I wasn't where I should be and that I shouldn't have been having those struggles.  Someone once told me that people who are successful never ever doubt themselves. I have been thinking about that lately and realized that isn't always true. It's okay for me to question myself, and it will likely happen during bigger swims, but I have to get into the practice of hearing those thoughts and honoring my feelings (whatever they may be at the time) but not letting them hold me back. I want to be sure that I am always authentic with myself and I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. I believe that it is really important that people know that all athletes have doubts and moments or periods of struggle do not ultimately mean that you will not be a success in the end.

I ended up finishing the swim first overall, and had a quick time of 20:30, but i did a few cool down laps to get my time in the water up a bit. This swim restored some of my faith because I was able to do well during a swim that previously had given me a lot of trouble. So March meant a bunch of great swims but also meant that the Mindy Project had it's season finale..so although I am sad about that I am looking forward to a bunch of great swims in April including some Alcatraz time and some time south of the Bay bridge! Stay tuned for some updates on things that actually happened in April :)

24 Hour Relay

As it turns out blogging is kind of hard....trying to be more consistent but really can't make any grand promises at this point. I won't leave you hanging when things get more exciting, but right now I am in a pretty solid rhythm of morning sunriser swims 2-3times a week alternated with 2 hour pool sessions. Things are starting to heat up though! Both the temperature of the water AND my training plans!

The hat that we all signed for Suzie

On February 7-8, 2015, I was part of a very *interesting* event. About 40 swimmers gathered together in Aquatic Park to participate in a 24 hour swimming relay. Think Relay for Life, except it was swimming in the SF Bay. This was the second year of the swim and it was organized by the passionate Suzie Dods.

So for 24 hours, one member of your team had to be in the water swimming. I was on a team with four other people: Alex, Cristian, Jon and Silvia and we named ourselves "Team Ronco-Five EZ payments" (after the tv infomercials, I cant quite remember how we ended up landing on that name). So once you were done, you tagged out one of your teammates and pretty much sprinted to the sauna.





I did my best to capture a photo of every hour, but sometimes it got a little messy when I was in the water. They are mostly just selfies of me eating pizza...which is not actually an ideal food to eat in between legs of a swimming relay, but damn was it good.

First wave of swimmers getting ready to enter the water

Let the games begin!

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 




My mother and brother were kind enough to come support me with food and kayaking. In order to imagine what this event was like, just think of the longest swim meet that you have ever been to compressed into one day. Some wiser people, had practiced doing double or triple dips to prepare their bodies for the re-exposure. Although it hadn't occurred to me to try that, my body did great at responding to the repeated dips in the cold. After the swim was over on Sunday I found that I was actually quite warm, as it appeared that my body was preparing itself to re-enter the cold, which definitely gave me confidence moving forward. Overall it was completely exhilarating, but going to work on Monday sure was difficult.

THE TEAM: Alex, Silvia, Cristian, Me and Jon

A sneaky shot of me sleepin'

Here is a sweet video created by someone who is far more technologically advanced than I. Warning: it may make you feel sea sick...if you dont like wavy motions.

Happy 2015!!!

Started off the New Year right with the annual South End NYD Alcatraz!
It was a difficult swim due to some challenging tides and choppy water, but over 120 swimmers made it in to Aquatic Park. Our efforts attracted some local media attention, and the following article  "Only the Bold Swim in the Cold" is up on NBC Bay Area.

I got first place for the South End Rowing Club and was greeted with some Jameson and Hot cocoa. I am looking forward to an exciting year of swimming. This is the year that I will get across the English Channel!! and be part of the less than 500 woman who have made successful crossings!

Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2015!!

Edit: Here is some more media coverage and some cool photos of our choppy swim!!

A quick pre-New Years video

 I had forgotten to include this link last time I posted, but it is a short movie that someone made of our Thanksgiving Alcatraz from the air! Just click on the link to view. Its pretty neat, especially if you are unfamiliar with what Alcatraz looks like.

Holiday Cheer!

Merry thanksgivmas!

By our little arbolito, missing one of my brothers though

So I am trying to combine several holidays into one post (oops).

As a nod to thanksgiving, I just want to take a moment to reflect on some of the things that I am so very thankful for.  I am so grateful that I have so many supportive people in my life, all of whom have made training possible. To all of my teammates (past and present); thank you for being some of the best company to train with. You all inspire(d) me daily and make it fun to work hard. I miss you all of you who are not swimming with me right now. To all of my friends; many of you are teammates too, but even those of you who aren’t swimmers are still such an important part of my swimming life (although you may not know that). Thanks for eating lots of food with me and generally putting up with me. I appreciate all of the moments we’ve shared, the good the bad and the ugly. To my coaches; I thank you for all the guidance you have given me both in and out of the water. Also I want to acknowledge all of the work that you have put into making me a better swimmer, turns out coaching is hard, as I figured out recently when trying to coach myself. To my family; couldn’t thank you all enough, above all for supporting my goals wholeheartedly and giving so much of your own time to help me get time in the water. Certainly not an exhaustive list of things that I am thankful for, but its always great to keep those things in mind to help motivate me on days when training gets tuff.

One of my oldest swimming buds!! Thanks Katie

Just a mini coach montage

Recently I have been doing some smaller swims with the South End. I have been spending a lot of time adventuring in the wee hours of the morning. A few times I have seen phosphorescence in the water, which is pretty amazing. It One morning I started feeling little fish poking my arms and feet and then one accidentally ended up my suit. I think both the little herring and I were a little bit startled, but it got away free.

On the 11/05/14, I had the joy of jumping off one of the Fort Mason piers as the start of my swim. I walked over to the piers with some of the other lady sunrisers and then took the leap. I am generally vary of piers and didn’t feel great about the height when I got to the edge, but clearly I survived the leap. I really don’t understand how my diving friends do flips off of high things (looking at you Emma Falley and Allison Miller).

All the ladies (minus the photographer) before the big jump. 

Realizing that its really high....

Well I made it off the pier alive.

I was the first overall finisher in the South End’s Anita Rock swim, which came as a total surprise. I was swimming by myself for the most of it, and just assumed that I was behind several other people. The Thanksgiving Day alcatraz was a perfect swim, sunny, warm and flat! It was the first alcatraz I have done since the last time I have trained, although I know that I will be quickly doing many more swims. It was a great day to feel thankful for the opportunity to train in the bay.

Last Sunday, 12/14/14 was the New Years Day Alcatraz Qualifier. During the winter the water temperature begins to drop fairly rapidly, so it is important to be cautious when dropping large groups of swimmers off at alcatraz. The qualifier itself was pretty warm, about 57 degrees, but we shall see how much the temperature drops over the next week. We did an inside-outside lap around the breakwater and then a full cove. The recent rain has been washing a lot of debris into the water so I ran into a plastic bag (icky) and some other floating surprises. This morning I did a round-trip Coughlan Beach swim. We went 2.5 miles and stayed in the water for about 1hr and 20 mins. We just missed a light sprinkling of rain, even though it can be exciting to swim in a drizzle.

A view of the rock from the top deck of the South End

Coming up soon I have the New Years Day alcatraz. I am also beginning to solidify some of my longer swims for the spring time, which is exciting because I’ve got a couple of surprise swims up my sleeve.

As the water gets colder and the days get shorter it is increasingly difficult to jump in the water in the dark. I have found myself doubting my abilities the most during those beginning minutes of swimming. It has taken a lot of mental energy to keep myself going, but luckily the distraction of hitting seaweed or looking out for boat traffic helps to jolt me back into a more positive mindframe. Believing in one’s own ability to withstand the cold is super important to staying warm, so any time you are awake early in the morning I’d appreciate any warm fuzzy vibes, because I need all the warmth that I can get! I’m not sure if its just because I have aged or that I am busy trying to figure out what “i’m supposed to be doing with my life” (haha post-grad) but things certainly feel differently this time around, both in terms of how I feel in the water and how training is going. Training is definitely more difficult, but I am trying to take each day in stride and stay honest with myself, while also being kind. Sometimes it seems  that I am just kind of bobbing generally forward with my training progression while other times the trajectory seems more pointed. I have been spending a lot of time in the pool working on efficiency rather than trying to pile on the yards in a sloppy manner. And when I am in the bay, I’m just trying to have fun.

I am still working on tshirt ideas/production, hoping to get something figured out after the new year (once all of my MFA applications have been submitted :)).

Thank you for all the love thus far, Wishing you happy and healthy holidays!!

Holiday card from the Dolores Huerta House!

Alumni and SERC Tri!

Hey all-

I know it's been awhile, but last weekend I was away at Grinnell College Swimming and Diving Alumni weekend! It was great to see all my buddies and meet some of the new team as well.

Charles Benson Bear called me up because he missed all of us!

The Randall Relays went swimmingly, complete with some silly relays and dives. Fellow alum Cy Mistry '11 held down the fort for Alums everywhere, narrowly touching out a current team-member in a 50 breaststroke swim-off. Grace Gallagher '14 wowed us all with her amazing no google-no cap leg of an 8x25 relay. I also heard that Erin Hurley learned how to make it rain. 

I came home with a sweet sweater!

The highlight of the evening was winning the sweater pictured above, during the auction. There were tons of great items, including a pillow stuffed with hair collected from the men's locker room shower drains (icky). 

Getting fancy with my prospie spawn Maddy Pesch '16 for the alumni dinner and auction. 

Our prospie family! Emily Twedell '15 (to my immediate left) was my first prospie ever!!

View of Main Hall (my first-yr dorm) from the Fairgrounds

Grace, Sara, Sam, Kristina and I after a nice brunch at Choung Garden (haha). 

After the conclusion of alumni weekend, I headed back up to Chicago with some friends to catch my flight back home. We had a nice drive, but were sure to stop by Ben's house in IA city to say hello.

The following weekend...On October 25th, I had the opportunity to represent for the South End Rowing Club and compete in the annual SE vs Dolphin Club Triathlon.

As you can see, the Dolphin Club and South End (right) are very close to eachother. 

This competition is a hotly anticipated event during the year, and each club tries to bring out as many members as possible.

Advertisement for the big day!

I was a little nervous because I had never done that exact swim and I was hoping to place in the top 20 (in order to get more points)

 The swim from Coughlin Beach to the Club is a little technical, because you want to be able to grab the current to push you faster, but you also want angle into the shore at the appropriate time so that you are not having to fight the tide on your finish (which will slow ya down).  The tricker part of the swim sighting-wise is from Fort Mason to the opening of Aquatic Park, but luckily I have done that route many times, so it wasn't too difficult.

We had a beach start, which can be intimidating for a number of reasons, but on our start the surf was dumping right on the beach and jostling the support boats around. After breaking past the surf it was a battle to find your space in the crowd. I like to break away as quickly as possible, and might have gone out a little further than necessary, but I like to have as much open water to myself! I think my line was pretty good and was able to stroll past a few DC girls on my way to the finish line. I managed to nag 16th place, which I was pretty happy about. I am not sure how long it took me, but I was racing hard from start to finish.

In the end, it turned out that we lost the plaque this year...:( so there were a multitude of feelings, but I was most happy about being able to participate. It was really great to find myself back in the midst of a spirited, dedicated, supportive team (especially after my weekend of visiting with past teammates). I am so excited to see what the next year brings with my time at SERC.

I am going to leave you with a mental health fact from Mental Heath. gov to keep in mind for this week....

Myth: Mental health problems don't affect me.

Fact: Mental health problems are actually very common. In 2011, about:

• One in five American adults experienced a mental health issue
• One in 10 young people experienced a period of major depression
• One in 20 Americans lived with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. It accounts for the loss of more than 38,000 American lives each year, more than double the number of lives lost to homicide. 

Have a great week! More soon...

Also, right before our jump time I met a guy who had been bitten by a seal. He showed me his scars. It was freaky. Im still not sure if he was just trying psych me out, either way, it didnt work.