Geek in Deep

2010 Update

2010-08-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

In December 2009, I started a project with Cloud Peak Energy, the Powder River Basin coal mining spin off of global mining giant, Rio Tinto. The Gillette, Wyoming based company was not an easy commute from Southern Utah. After 5-6 hours of flying puddle jumpers and waiting in airports, time for working out was severly limited on Mondays and Fridays. During the week however, running tread mills at the hotel was about the only option when temperatures dipped as low as -27°F (-33°C). In April, 2 things helped jump start workouts: 1) a new consultant, Scott DeLong, joined the team. He had triathlon aspirations and inspired me to up the intensity. 2) Gillette opened a new state-of-the-art recreational center.

The new Campbell County Recreation Center after a May snow storm

For a couple of months, I was able to swim, ride stationary bike, and run track a few times a week. Those occassional workouts did not offset the 6 months of high calorie food and inconsistent exercise, but it felt good to once again have the dull muscle ache that come from a challenging run or set.

When the project ended in June, I decided it was time to obtain some much needed stability for me and my family. I joined an up-and-coming consulting firm, Slalom Consulting in June and returned to Orange County, CA.

I am looking forward to re-joining the fantastic swimming and triathlon community here in Orange County and getting back on track physically. The consultant diet and lack of exercise time means that I have a few pounds to lose. The next several months could be a commercial for a weight loss product. My weight loss plan: exercise and sensible diet. It has been scientifically proven that eating fewer calories than you burn causes you to lose weight. :) With a little weight training, I expect to build some muscle mass too.

Runs in Albuquerque

2009-12-01T20:27:00.001-08:00

Spent the Thanksgiving weekend with family in Albuquerque, NM. Did a couple of runs around the Albuquerque Academy. My younger brother set a good pace that had me running faster than I cared to on the uphill, but pride forced me to continue. I was grateful for a good run.

Returned to Dixie today and did a short 3 mile run along the Virgin River with the accompanying pull-ups, push-ups, and situps.

Ride and Run in Dixie

2009-11-07T21:25:00.000-08:00

Had to limit my workout to 3 hours today so I did an abbreviated 30 mile bike ride from Bloomington Park with the Color Country Cycling Club. I rode with them up through Kayenta and then headed back to Bloomington instead of going to Veyo. Did a quick transition and ran a couple of miles. It has been a while since I did the bike to run transition and I forgot what prolonged riding does to your running legs. I need to practice that more- I can't imagine what a 112 mile ride will do to my marathon legs. Finished it up with a push-up, pull-up and sit-up routine.

October Part 2

2009-11-06T22:53:00.000-08:00

Several multi-state trips, cold weather, and irregular schedules have meant that my exercise schedule encountered some serious obstacles to consistency. 3-6 miles jogs a couple of times a week have been the workouts during the past couple of weeks. Praying for some more schedule stability in the coming weeks!

Mid October

2009-10-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

Did 4 runs of 4-6 miles during the week and a 30 mile road ride on Saturday after taking the kids hiking in the Santa Clara River Gorge to look at the Indian petroglyphs.

Fall is here

2009-10-11T00:04:00.000-07:00

Did a nice 3-5 mile run nearly every day this week- admittedly a little later than normal as pre-dawn temperatures here dipped into the 40s. I mixed it up with the regular core strength exercises of push-ups, pull-ups and sit-ups. Gotta admit, I've missed Orange County weather this past week. I'll be back there next week.

On Saturday, spent the morning doing a 60 mile bike ride from Bloomington to Veyo and back with the Southern Utah Triathlon Club. They made me push myself a little harder than normal and also realize I've got to do some intense hill work to get ready for the Ironman in May.

Good news this week: Lynn Kubasek, a fantastic kayaker for my Catalina swim, bagged her own solo swim across the channel on Wednesday. Congrats, Lynn! I received my Abu Dhabi Tri Club jersey. Thanks Chris! I also enjoyed watching the Kona Ironman Championships- inspiring.

Sad news: I hadn't posted it before, but the Abu Dhabi jersey reminded of the great folks I worked out with there in the Middle East. Coach Mark Pringle, a fantastic coach full of spunk and positive energy, finally died of the injuries he sustained in a hit and run accident there in the capital. Unfortunately, Abu Dhabi is a less desirable place to be with him no longer there. LINK

Workouts This Week

2009-10-03T20:58:00.000-07:00

I was up late Sunday night and early Monday studying for an exam. After passing the 4 and 1/2 hour exam...I figured my body would survive a day without a cardio workout.

On Tuesday I did my loop around Bloomington with an extra intensive bout of situps, pullups and pushups that left me with a nice soreness for a couple of days.

This week, I finally got in a workout with Lynne Lund, the local swimming legend and found the legend was deserved. She was great and quickly picked apart my stroke and gave me a number of helpful technique helps. While St. George may not have the huge master swimming programs found in Southern California- its hard to get that kind of personal attention there either. I'm looking to get my 100 meters down in the mid 50 secs in the coming months.

On Saturday, I took off at 7:30 in cold and finished up after noon. Did 58 to 59 miles up to Veyo and down the 18 behind the St. George Marathon to Snow Canyon and back. I had to stop a few times due to police and race officials who wanted to make sure I didn't interfere with the tail end of the race. I believe it is the longest distance ride I've done- need to get the average speed up.

Week of Sept. 21st- Travel and Workouts

2009-09-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, ran with the family to a family function in Las Vegas and decided to continue down the 1-15 to California to get some of our stuff still stored there and take the kids to Disneyland the following day. After a morning of lifting items around our storage unit and an afternoon with Mickey, we returned to Utah late late Monday night. I was a little wiped out on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, I did a 3 mile jog, on Thursday did 6 miles. On Thursday night I drove to Denver. On Friday morning I did 3 miles at almost 5,600 ft. elevation in Golden, CO and was able to return to Utah late that night.

Saturday morning I rode my bike 20 miles up to Sand Hollow Reservoir from Bloomington to watch the end of the Kokopelli Triathlon being held there. I was bummed I couldn't race it, but I wasn't sure I was going to make it back to Utah in time for the race and missed the registration. I rode back at a quick pace to get in a 40+ mile bike ride.

Next week, it is about finding a good schedule to build distance and practice all 3 disciplines.

Thursday through Saturday

2009-09-20T06:57:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night did a fast mile swim followed by 14 mile bike at Sand Hollow.

Thursday did a nice 3 mile jog

Friday morning was another 1 mile swim in Sand Hollow Reservoir followed by 3 mile jog and sit-ups, push-ups, and pull-ups.

Saturday morning, after one of the worst night's sleep of my life, I woke early from a campout with my son in the mountains about St. George to do a series of open water swim races at Sand Hollow Reservoir. Did the Kau Wela 1 mile race in a wet suit. In the warm water, the constriction of the suit caused me to have "can't catch my breath" claustrophobia reaction. (Most triathletes know what I'm talking about.) After a fast start, I heated up too fast and couldn't slow my breathing or heart rate. I lost the lead and couldn't recover my stroke/stamina until the last 1/5 of the mile. The winner smoked everyone, but I did catch up to a group of 3 swimmers all vying for the silver medal at the finish and beat out one of them for 4th place. I did the 1/2 mile without a wetsuit knowing that I'd be slower, but I'd feel more comfortable. I finished 3rd. I then did the 400m race without a wetsuit as well and took 2nd.

Wednesdays Workouts

2009-09-16T22:05:00.000-07:00

Did a 3 mile jog in the morning with push-ups and sit-ups and then another 3 miles walking with my wife. In the evening, I did a mile swim in Sand Hollow Reservoir with the Southern Utah Triathlon Club followed by a 14 mile bike ride. Not a lot of distance, but the intensity of each was more than usual...now I need to keep the intensity while increasing the distances.

Looking for a morning USMS group

2009-09-15T07:15:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a serious swim workout in weeks, so I hit the Summit Athletic Club's 5am workout...only to find I was the only one there. I did 3K+. I really need to find a good swimming workout group in St. George. I talked with a youth coach at Summit who mentioned he was planning something. I hope it happens, but if you live in St. George and are interested...contact me.

Ideally I like to be doing 5,000 yard workouts between 5:30 and 7:00 am with 100 yards on 1:20 intervals 3 to 5 times a week. Initially, it could be 3,000 yards on 1:30s.

Monday Workout - upcoming local races

2009-09-14T07:40:00.001-07:00

Did 6 mile run and sit-ups, push-ups, and pull-ups.

Signed up for the inaugural KAU WELA 1 mile open water Swim Competition next Saturday in Sand Hollow Reservoir here in St. George. I hope to do the Kokopelli Triathlon the following Saturday, assuming no clashes with other family plans.

Saturday Ride

2009-09-12T22:43:00.000-07:00

Did the loop from Bloomington up through Gunlock and back down route 19 for a total of 56 miles. I did it between 11:30am and 3pm in 100+ degree heat, but I kept well hydrated and it was a nice ride. I did have a concerned motorist offer me a lift at the bottom of the hill between Gunlock and Veyo. The steepness of the hill and the heat of the day made him comment that it was "dangerous", but I declined. Though I feel that I'm no worse for the wear, I did do the climbs slower than I'd like to- I need to speed them up and then get in a second loop in the coming weeks to mirror the Ironman distance.

Short Workouts and Zions...again!

2009-09-08T12:53:00.000-07:00

Did a couple of short jogs and laps in the pool at Sand Hollow Aquatic Center the first week of September, but with 2 family birthdays and an aborted trip to California, schedules were too erratic for meaningful distances.

On Monday (Labor Day), I finally got back out to Sand Hollow Reservoir for a abbreviated triathlon workout of swimming and biking. I had to keep it short because I promised to take the kids to Zion's Narrows and a flat ensured that it would be. I spent the remainder of the day hiking several miles up and down the canyon with my 2 oldest.

On Tuesday morning, I did 2 laps of the 3 mile Bloomington loop run with push-ups, pull-ups and situps at the end of each 3 mile loop.

Zions National Park - Mystery Canyon

2009-08-31T23:46:00.000-07:00

I had an opportunity today to hike Mystery Canyon in Zions and I couldn't pass it up. What fun. 7 hours down slot canyons with friends and a good amount of rope work.

Going down "Death Gulch" to the canyon bottom.

Rappelling down a 120 foot wall into a cool pool.

Rappelling down Mystery Falls into Zion's Narrows and the Virgin River.

Time for some new Shoes

2009-08-29T23:46:00.001-07:00

Workouts yesterday and today just consisted of running. I did a short 3 mile run on Friday and a 12 miler on Saturday. My feet were blistered and bloody after the 12 miler. I was a bit surprised. Time for some better shoes. Unfortunately, the last time I went to a running specialty shop, I was professionally fit, spent over $100, and the result? I couldn't run more than a mile without getting a blister in the shoes that felt big for my feet.

My knees and and feet are hoping for a recommendation.

Update

2009-08-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

Workouts Update:

Did a couple of short pool workouts and a few jogs both in St. George and in Aliso Viejo during the past week. Looking to "up" my mileage significantly so that I'm doing more than Ironman distances every week.

Gate of Tears Swim Update:
A few weeks ago I did get additional news about the water conditions in the channel. Man-eating white tip sharks are an issue and strong winds can really make things difficult. I found a great product, SHARKSHIELD that may be a solution. I talked with a distributor of the product here on the US West Coast and it is very promising.

Recent contact with the Yemeni tourism board has continued, but we still have not identified a charter boat. I am holding out hope, but concerns about pirates and the affects of a Shiite insurgency in Northern Yemen has cast a shadow over the planning effort. I don't expect to make much progress during Ramadan, but perhaps in September will get some forward movement again.

Wednesday Workout

2009-08-19T20:29:00.000-07:00

Did 23 miles on the bike at dusk from Bloomington, through Santa Clara and Ivins up to Tuacahn Parkway and back down Bluff St. to the Virgin River trail and back to Bloomington. Though I had a bright flasher on, going 45 mph and being unable to see the cracks and obstacles in the pavement was not safe. Thrilling, but dangerous. Next time I'll have to leave a little sooner.

Now I'm going to get in a 6-9 mile jog before hitting the sack. I have to be in LA tomorrow afternoon so I need to get a good night's sleep.

Tuesday Early Morning

2009-08-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

Joined the Summit Athletic Club crew for the 5am work out. Did 2,600m with the group & did another 2,400m to get in a full 5k.

Monday Jog

2009-08-17T22:44:00.001-07:00

The Southern Utah Tri Club has been doing 18 and 19 mile runs on some recent Saturday mornings. Though I think it is more for those doing the St. George Marathon on October 3rd, I should be able to do it, but I'm not sure I'm there yet. I'd better get there fast if I have any hope of doing an Ironman a few months from now. So after Family Home Evening and the kids were asleep, I ran around the Bloomington Country Club twice. It felt pretty good and I kept a sub- 9 minute pace for the whole 6 miles. I'll do 9 miles next time and 12 the time after that. I'd like to get that to a sub 8 minute speed and keep that for an entire marathon before the end of January. If my calculations are accurate, a Boston qualifying time for a guy my age is a 7:26 to 7:38 per mile. Any suggestions on a good December/January marathon?

Half of an Ironman

2009-08-15T15:35:00.000-07:00

A sore throat a few days before the Alcatraz Race was held at bay with high vitamin C doses, but a couple of days following the swim, an upper respitory tract infection and a crazy travel schedule kept me from working out for almost 2 weeks. For a guy who never gets sick, this was a real pain.

I eased back into a couple of 3k swims followed by 3 mile runs, but a crazy travel schedule the past week (I went between Southern Utah and the LA area 3 times in 8 days- mostly late night drives.) once again kept me from anything but small jogs until today.

In honor of the many Southern Utah Triathlon Club members participating in the Utah Half today, I rode 1/2 of St. George Ironman (1 loop of the 2 loop course). The 55 miles started in Bloomington and went up to Veyo via Santa Clara and Gunlock and down the 18 back to St. George and Bloomington. The mid ninety degree desert weather was nice. For those not familiar with Utah's Red Rock country, you can click on the map to get a sense of where these places are.

Tragedy and Triumph Among Friends

2009-08-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

First the tragedy:

With Coach Pringle at Raha International School - April 2009

While I was in Abu Dhabi, I worked out as often as I could with Coach Mark Pringle. He was so incredibly optimistic and full of energy, it was contagious. Sadly, complications from an injury he sustained while riding with the Abu Dhabi Tri Club at the end of last month make the possibility of his survival slim. It is a great loss for all of the many people that were touched by his passion for swimming and triathlons and especially his family.

Here are some recent articles on the situation:

Road Accident Leave Triathlete in Coma
How did triathlete get injured?

Now the Triumph:

Me and Jen before jumping in at Doctor's Cove, September 2008

Jen Schumacher, who was one of my escort swimmers during my Catalina crossing, bagged her own Catalina crossing yesterday. She finish the swim in an incredible 9 hours. Congratulations Jen!

Here is her blog with the details:
http://www.jenschumacher.com/

Here is a clip on KTLA about the swim:
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-channel-swim,0,7717321.story

Swim Around the Rock

2009-07-18T22:52:00.000-07:00

Start of the Swim Around the Rock Race.

At about 11am I finally did it. After about 2 hours of swimming, I completed the swim from the shores of San Francisco, around Alcatraz, and back in nothing but a swimsuit, cap and googles.

Receiving a medal after completing the swim.

The flood tide was even stronger than expected and it swept me about 1/4-1/2 of mile east of the island on the way out despite my efforts to aim to the west. It also caused me to be swim several hundred meters to the west as I neared the beach. But all told- it was a fun swim in comfortably cool temperatures (62 degrees warming to high sixties in some pockets near shore).

My family was there to see me off and my sister and her family were there to see me arrive.

With the family after cleaning up. Alcatraz can be seen in the background.

Thanks also to the wonderful support kayakers and other swimmers who helped spur me on through some of the rough waters in the channel.

Travel to Alcatraz

2009-07-17T23:09:00.000-07:00

Well, after a trip to Utah County, Park City, Salt Lake City, and Reno/Sparks...I finally arrived in San Francisco this evening. I picked up my cap and shirt at the Sports Basement for the Swim Around the Rock (Alcatraz) race tomorrow morning.

http://www.waterworldswim.com/SAR/information.html

I got the run down on the swim from a swimmer who swam the "test swim" this morning. The water temps a relatively warm 62 degrees. Currents are a little tricky near Alcatraz, but generally should not be a huge factor. The race starts around 8:30 tomorrow morning at the Aquatic park near the end of Van Ness Street. I'm not worried about wildlife or the distance...my only concern is that it has been a few months since I swam 90-100 minutes in the cold, but I should be fine as I have always performed well in temperatures even into the low 50s.

Now just need to get some sleep...

Hiking and Swimming in Color Country - Swim Around Alcatraz

2009-07-15T09:03:00.001-07:00

On Saturday I opted for some time with the kids and tried to make a workout out of it too. I wanted to hike to the top of Signal Peak, the 10,300 foot mountain overlooking St. George. It became more of a workout than I anticipated when my 9 year old decided she was spent after only a quarter of the distance and I had to carry her 80 pounds on my back. We decided to find a nice lookout and turnaround. We'll see if it helps my biking. :)

On Sunday, I finalized travel arrangments to the Bay Area for the Swim Around the Rock, the annual race around Alcatraz Island. I'm excited to be one of 20 or so participants to brave the 60 degree water in this 3.25 mile race.
http://www.waterworldswim.com/SAR/information.html

I did 6K swim at Summit Athletic Club on Tuesday morning.

Brick Workout at Sand Hollow

2009-07-10T10:48:00.001-07:00

Met up with 8 Southern Utah Tri Club members at Sand Hollow Reservoir at 6am. I had broken out in red bumps after Monday's swim due to the "swimmer's itch" parasite in the lake so I decided to try my wetsuit this time. Unfortunately I discovered that storing your wetsuit in 120+ degree heat for a few months allows the rubber to melt together. It took a good ten minutes to pull it apart and it had a number of rips and holes in the neoprene by the time I unfolded it enough to stretch it on...bummer. I did a 1.25 mile swim and did seem to avoid the itch this time.

Six of us continued on to do a nearly 40 mile bike ride. We went around the reservoir and through the farm country to Hurricane, through Hurricane to La Verkin and finally into Toquerville. We climbed some good hills out of Toquerville to the I-15 and then came down the frontage road through Leeds and Harrisburg to Quail Creek Reservoir and then back to the 9 and back up to Sand Hollow. I'm in serious need of hill work, but I was nearly able to keep up with leaders, Jamie and Rob. I was grateful for a couple of hydration stops.

Finally we did a run. I jogged 2 miles back from the reservoir towards the 9, turned around, and jogged up to the western edge of the dam and ran along it back to the parking lot for 5.5 miles.

Nice 45 mile workout morning. Now I just need to keep upping the distance so I can do the St. George Ironman's 140.6 miles next May.

Early Morning Swim and Ride in St. George

2009-07-09T18:19:00.000-07:00

I woke at 4:30am this morning to join the swim workout at Summit Athletic Club at 5am. The pool was very nice and kept at a comfortable (cool) temperature. The workout was a nice 2500 and I threw in a few extra laps to get to 3K.

I came back, grabbed a quick bowl of oatmeal and hit the road on the bicycle. I went from Bloomington the whole length of the trail that ran on the north side of the Virgin River through St. George to Washington. I climbed up to the Washington Community Center and then under the I-15 and back into town on Highland Dr., through town and back to Bloomington along the Virgin River trail. It was a fun 22+ miles and relatively easy 400 foot elevation gain.

Tomorrow is a full brick workout at Sand Hollow with a number of the St. George Tri Club who are training for the Utah Half Ironman next week...1+ mile swim, 40 mile bike, and 8 mile run. That is Olympic plus distance...a good get back in shape tri for me.

Exploring St. George on Bicycle

2009-07-08T10:05:00.000-07:00

Last night I dropped by the Green Valley Country Club and did about a mile of laps in the pool after visiting some fun historic sites with the family including Brigham Young's Winter home and Jacob Hamblin home. The tour guide was awesome and shared some incredible stories about this Mormon Missionary to the Indians.

This morning I decided I needed to get another bike in so I did 20 miles around St. George. I started in Bloomington and did a loop around Sun River towards the AZ border. Came back and took the Virgin River trail to River Road. Grabbed a trial membership at Summit Athletic Club and headed back down River Road through Bloomington Hills to the condo. There are some beautiful trials along the river which I highly recommend if you are in Southern Utah.

Running in Dixie

2009-07-07T07:02:00.001-07:00

I was up at 4:30am so I could do a 5am coached swim that I had heard about, only problem was that I wasn't sure where it was at. I did discover it wasn't at either the Washington Recreation Center or the Sand Hollow Aquatic Center. So I hung out in Washington and did the 6am run with the St. George Tri Club. We did about 6 miles starting from the Washington Recreation Center and running up to the Golf Course and back. Great group of folks to run with and lots of great information about the events and workouts here in Southern Utah.

Thursday I'll be a little smarter and head to the Summit Athletic Club at 5am. It is nice this area has so many great places to workout.

Swimming in Sand Hollow

2009-07-06T07:22:00.000-07:00

Did a 6am swim with the St. George Tri Club (Rob, James and Jamie) in Sand Hollow Reservoir. The reservoir will be the site of the St. George Ironman swim. Apparently the reservoir currently has "swimmer's itch", a parasite that can causing rashing. Supposedly it was isolated to a shallow part of the lake, while we were swimming in the deeper area near the boat ramp. It was a nice mile-mile and a half swim...I dried off fast and I'm hoping that did the trick to avoid rashing.

July 4th Workout - Bicycle to Veyo

2009-07-04T23:33:00.000-07:00

I had my bike reassembled last night after the long trip from Abu Dhabi and decided to break it in. The family had plans to drive to Cedar City for brunch and I asked them to pick me up in Veyo on the way so I could ride part of the St. George Ironman course. I rode the 32 miles and climbed 2000 ft. from Bloomington to Veyo via St. George, Santa Clara, Ivins, the Shivwits Indian Reservation, and Gunlock. I was pretty bushed. Unfortunately that is just 1/4 of the route of the Ironman. I've got some work to do.

I came home and did a 3 mile run around the Bloomington Country Club before calling it a day.

Great BBQ and fireworks with the family in the evening.

Southern Utah

2009-07-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

Flew back from the Middle East on Wednesday and went back to St. George where the family is visiting my in-laws. I think we'll rent a place here for the summer until we determine where we'll be long term. The possibility of remaining in Abu Dhabi is looking rather bleak after my original employer decided to shut down their Middle East operations and a couple of alternative job opportunities didn't pan out.

If you know someone looking for an experienced Management Consultant and project manager, direct them here for my resume and background:
http://www.christopherroberts.info/

Training: Did a 5 mile jog along the Virgin River this morning and mapped out the St. George Ironman bike route. [Details] I think I'll try it out tomorrow morning before the Gunlock Rodeo where the family is planning to meet for a steak and potato BBQ before the July 4th fireworks.

The Next Big Swim:
Also, I have been in contact with the helpful folks at the Yemen Tourism Agency as I plan the Gate of Tears swim. What a beautiful country! Click here to see more about this cool country and area: http://www.yementourism.com/. The information about the country has only increased my desire to go there. Apparently Al Quaeda strongholds are mainly in the northern and eastern hill country. Though the coast is a hotbed of Somali pirates, I'll be swimming some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world where there are navy escorts. Though the Djibouti charter teams aren't interested on account of the pelagic Tiger sharks- I am still hoping it can be negotiated safely with the right precautions. After all, the Catalina channel is the location of dozens of great white sightings every year, but 159 people have successfully crossed it.

Back at Raha International School

2009-06-28T03:41:00.001-07:00

Did the 5:30am swim at Raha International school on Sunday morning.I did a nice 3k. Coach Mark Pringle is back in Australia so Bill led the set. Nice to have high 70s water temps instead of 90s!

Travelling

2009-06-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

Today was my first workout in the Persian Gulf in almost 2 months. We did 2.5 miles in the ocean and I followed up with a one loop jog. I'm back in Abu Dhabi for a week on business. I got to see my wonderful Abu Dhabi Tri Club mates and experience what it feels like to swim in 90 degree water and run in 107 degree weather again.

After leaving Abu Dhabi at the beginning of May, I returned to Orange County. While I was "home", I did a final workout with Novaquatics at the Soka, a couple of open water swims in Laguna Beach.

Much of my time in recent weeks has been spent doing business development work, volunteering, and spending time with family. The company that I was working for in the UAE closed its doors so we are officially in transition. Luckily I've had a number of leads in both the US and UAE and I'm happy to spent some extra time with the family after a couple of years of extensive travelling. So what did we do as a family? We packed the house, and travelled to Sedona, AZ, Albuquerque, NM, Flagstaff, AZ, The Grand Canyon, and St. George, Utah.

If all goes well, I'll have a new project in Abu Dhabi and we'll get the whole family over here soon so we can make an impact on both the business world and continue training for a 2010 Ironman and Gates of Tears swim.

Workouts in Abu Dhabi

2009-05-03T22:38:00.000-07:00

During my stay in Abu Dhabi during the last couple of weeks of April, I was able to do the Swimming and Triathlon workouts at Raha International School with Coach Mark Pringle. On Tuesday evening, a couple of us swimmers lost our cookies. Luckily I didn't lose my lunch until a couple of seconds after I finished the last set. Kind of embarassing. I didn't feel it coming and I don't know what it was...probably just 100 degree weather and a warm pool.

On Thursdays, Mark has us swim 200m and then run 1k for time. Also doing push-ups, sit-up, leg-lifts and dips between 50 sprints. It was a great workout and highlighted the need for additional strength training.

On Saturday, the Abu Dhabi Tri Club met up at the beach at Mangrove Village for 800m time trials. We did an initial swim for time. Based on our finishing time, we did it again, staggered so we would all finish at almost the same time. It was quite fun and quite a crowd! I think we had 25 people out.

I followed up with a nice 20k ride around the between the bridges area of Abu Dhabi with a few tri club folks. I popped a tire 3 feet from my car upon returning. Apparently a piece of gravel had become lodged between the rim and tire. I lucked out that it didn't pop any sooner. I have to replace the time when I return to Abu Dhabi. I flew back to Orange County on Saturday morning, May 2nd.

Back in the Middle East

2009-04-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

I flew out of LAX on Sunday arrived back in the United Arab Emirates Monday night. On Tuesday morning, I did a workout with Coach Mark Pringle at the Raha International School. I did a 300, 200, and 100 Time Trials in the 25 meter pool. Did a short 2K workout.

It's time to get serious about training again for my next marathon swim. I'm hoping it can be a human "first". I am still trying to work out whether it will be Strait of Hormuz (30 miles Iran to Oman) or Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, aka the Gate of Tears (17 miles Yemen to Djibouti). Politics and safety, not the swim, are the biggest challenge. Thorny relations between Iran and the US make the Strait of Hormuz tricky while pirates and Al-Quaeda add another dimension to the Gate of Tears swim. Both locations involve swimming through heavy shipping lanes. I like to think that a quest for athletic achievement will be able to transcend politics.

This morning, I did another 5 mile run from my apartment on the Corniche around the UAE flagpole.

UCI Workout

2009-04-17T17:47:00.000-07:00

Did the 9:30am workout with the University of California at Irvine Masters (UCI). My good friend Ahelee has taken a coaching position there and I did a try-out swim.

It was set up long course (50m) and we did a 3km+ batch of sets. It was the first good pool workout since last November at Al Raha International School with Mark Pringle. I am excited to get back into regular pool workouts, which I hope to do- starting next week when I return to Abu Dhabi.

Swimming at Corona Del Mar

2009-04-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

Well, after 2 weeks of being out of the water, I was back in California and found out that some old pals have been swimming on Thursday nights at Corona Del Mar beach in Newport. They are the record holders for longest distance swam in the US Master Swimming "Go The Distance" challenge in February. Lynn Kubasek swam over 436 miles and Jim Fitpatrick swam a few miles more. Not bad.

I joined them for a brisk 40 minute/ mile and half swim. The water temperature was 57 degrees (14 for my non-US friends) so the extra 10 pounds of padding I've accumulated in recent weeks was nice to have. It was the first swim in the Pacific Ocean since I swam the Catalina Channel in September.

It's not a flattering picture...but then looking into the sun after an hour of swimming hard to ward off hypothermia isn't exactly the setup for an "America's Next Top Model" photo shoot. :)

Camel Races

2009-04-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

The past several weeks have been a bit crazy...visits from friends, camel races,

and a trip back to the US have prevented me from attending the regular Saturday tri-club workouts. However, I have been able to do an occasional 5 mile run from my apartment near the Corniche around the world largest freestanding flagpole next to Marina Mall and back. I look forward to some workouts back in So. California this coming week. I thought this clip of some Saturday morning camel races might be interesting to those unfamiliar with this fun regional sport.

Abu Dhabi Striders

2009-03-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

Did my first interval training with the Abu Dhabi Striders. It was a nice 7-8K run. We did 2K+ warm-up then a 400m and 1K. Repeated 3 times. We then jogged back 1-2K.

I did it with a co-worker, Jeff Patrasso. The competition got us both working out harder than I think we would have otherwise.

After the workout had some time to get some dinner and found out that I missed both Glenn Close and Tony Blair who were across the street at the Emirates Palace Hotel this past week.

Saturday Workout

2009-03-21T02:11:00.001-07:00

I rode 6km from my apartment to the beach. At the beach I met up with 4 other Abu Dhabi Tri Club members. We did a 2.4k swim, followed by a 24k bike, and a 3k run. The group was a bit smaller than normal as most of the club was in Dubai yesterday for the Mina Mile and decided to just do a long bike ride today. ADTC member Martin Hodge won his age group at the Mina Mile...congrats Martin!

During the bike and run, I got a chance to learn more about the nice people I work out with. I am convinced that swimmers/triathletes are the nicest people in the world. I can say that with confidence because they are literally from all over the world: England, Germany, Palestine, Scotland, Australia, the USA.... I got to share the run with Moataz, a Palestinian from Gaza told me about his incredible comeback from an injury in 2007. Great stories, great workout, great weather.

Next week we're going to start the swim a little earlier as the sun is starting to make the latter half of our workout quite warm. It is frequently 90+ degrees now in Abu Dhabi. We'll see how the upcoming Andrea Bocelli and Cold Play concerts affect next week's workout as well. We are essentially doing laps around the Emirates Palace's parking lot for concerts.

St. George Ironman

2009-03-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday night I got an email announcing the inaugural St. George Ironman.

I followed the link and signed up right away. Ironman races sell out fast, sometimes in just hours-especially full Ironmans held in the USA and Canada.

I'm still excited to see a full Ironman back in one of my favorite cities, a city where I used to live. I have a lot of my relatives there too.

Look for Christopher Roberts to complete 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, and 26.2 miles of running on May 1, 2010.

Bike Training and Yacht Show in Abu Dhabi

2009-03-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

On March 9th I arrived in Dubai after spending 14 hours on a non-stop Emirates flight from LAX. (BTW, If you have to fly halfway around the world non-stop, Emirates is a nice way to do it.) Among my luggage was a box containing my road bike. On Thursday night I ran to Tamreen Sports Abu Dhabi (aka the CANNONDALE shop across from the cannon on Airport Road (2nd) and Khalifa Street (3rd)). They were great. They assembled and tuned the bike for a reasonable price. They had a few accessories that I needed as well: the quick release axles that weren't packed with my bike (EDGE Mechanics- that's where those extra axles came from sitting there in the assembly area ;), an emergency pump, CO2 cartridges, and reflectors.

The shop's 2 Emirati owners were really nice. They stayed open for almost an extra hour to help me get set up. During our chat, I found out that they had attended school at UCI and UC Riverside so they knew the Orange County rides. It is a small world. It was a nice, albeit scary ride home in the dark. Cars in Abu Dhabi drive fast and aren't used to sharing the road with bicycles.

On Saturday, I rode the bike to Ladies Beach, did a 4k swim with the Abu Dhabi Tri Club, followed it up with a 6K jog, and then rode back. My first "brick" workout in months. The distances weren't anything to write home about, but it was nice to be doing all 3 again.

After getting home and doing some chores, I visited the Abu Dhabi Yacht Show. It was fun to see the miniture cruise ships, but purchasing multi-million dollar boats is still a little out of my price range. The Kuwaiti, Qatari and Abu Dhabi Royal families present probably found it more relevant. The Rolls Royce display on the shore was another nice diversion.

Back in the States

2009-03-04T10:13:00.000-08:00

Got back to Southern California on Saturday afternoon and I was anxious to get the heart pumping on Monday morning. I did the 5:45am workout at Soka with Novaquatics. Coach Kaitlin called the set of descending 200s, 150s and 100s with a double yardage at the end of each set. The workout was under 3,000 yards, but it was faster than I've gone in a while.

My old poolmates Bill and Emily made me realize that how much a lack of good interval training since July had affected my speed and endurance in the pool. My shoulders are still a little sore 2 days later.

On Tuesday morning Shane Fishbein and I did a ride to Santiago Canyon and back. My tire felt flat, but I discovered it was my legs, not the tires. Shane graciously slowed his pace to accommodate my out-of-shape bike legs. My bum is still hurting today.

Bottom line: it doesn't take long for muscles to atrophy and weight to reappear. Though a year ago I did the California Ironman and in September I swam the Catalina channel, the last 5 months of 1 or 2 light workout sessions a week have left me in less than ideal shape. I'm taking my bike back to Abu Dhabi and getting serious again.

Saturday Swim and Exercise in Abu Dhabi

2009-02-21T20:10:00.000-08:00

Did a 4km swim at Mangrove Village Beach, which is a nice beach across from the Moussaffah indudustrial area. I was then invited by Jeremy Hughes', a Brit Abu Dhabi Tri Club (ADTC) member who lives in the neighborhood, over for a nice breakfast of sausages and bacon. He had a great place and nice family. The kids with the dogs made me really miss my own kids. The breakfast was especially nice as pork products are a rare treat here in the Middle East, since they are forbidden by the Muslim religion.

Martin Hodge, a great Scottish swimmer and ADTC member, gave me a lift home to my flat near the Abu Dhabi Corniche. Above is a view of the beach and Corniche from the roof of the building.

I then checked out the excercise room in my apartment complex. It was the first time I had actually used it. It has a beautiful view of the Abu Dhabi Corniche and skyline. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority Building and the Hilton Towers, 2 iconic buildings of the city, can be seen through the window. It was nice to do some treadmill time and weightlifting.

Saturday Constitutional

2009-01-31T22:45:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, most of the Abu Dhabi Tri Club was recovering from Friday's Dubai Half Ironman, so just three of us went out for the swim. We went to the first breakwater and then did a loop around a massive 3 mast sailboat anchored offshore. The Eos had a British crew and undisclosed passengers. A swim mate discovered it was the largest sailboat in the world, owned by Barry Diller. The total swim was a bit less than 2 miles. After we got back, I did a couple of loops around the roads by the beach and Emirates Palace Hotel for about 3 miles. My once a week workouts have caused my fitness levels to really drop in the last 4 months.

Workouts in the Middle East

2009-01-21T11:39:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted to this blog in months because I figured I need to do my Catalina write up before anything else. Well, I've written it, but it is pages long and needs a rework- so I'll post it when I can. In the meantime I've missed posting about swims in the Persian Gulf, runs along the Corniche, and workouts with people from all over the world as part of the Abu Dhabi Tri Club.

I'll leave this post with a note that I have been living in Abu Dhabi, UAE since the end of September 2008. My workouts have been once or twice a week and it's amazing how quickly the fitness level goes without more frequent exercise. I do enjoy Saturday morning swims at "Ladies Beach" here. I have been trying to find someone who can help me get permission to swim the Strait of Hormuz. (Anyone out there have some Iranian swimming friends?)

Post Catalina Publicity

2008-09-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

There were a few links to the Catalina to California swim in the swimming press over the following days. I was very flattered...here are some of them:

http://www.10kswimmer.com/2008/09/documentation-of-channel-crossing_27.html
http://www.swimmmingworld.tv/ (picture of the day)

Catalina Swim Pictures Posted

2008-09-22T18:09:00.000-07:00

Between 4 cameras with 3 different time zone stamps, it was a little tough putting all the pictures in sequential order. It's getting close. Here's the link:

http://catalinaswim.myphotoalbum.com/

With time being in short supply as I prepare to leave the country, my complete write-up will probably have to wait until my upcoming plane trip to Abu Dhabi. Ahelee's comment on the swim though summed it up pretty well, though she has me blushing a little bit.

Catalina Swim Success

2008-09-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

At almost exactly 3pm, I became the 157th person to cross the Catalina Channel in nothing but a swimsuit, cap and googles. In challenging conditions that one Catalina Channel Swimming Federation observer noted were the worse that ever produced a successful swim, it took almost 14 hours and many extra miles to land on a beach that had never been used as a landing spot before.

The volunteer crew of Jim Fitzpatrick, Ahelee Osborn, John Steed, Jen Schumacher, Lynn Kubasek, Ron Roberts, Jordon Roberts, Jan Roberts and David Clark was incredible! While fighting horrible motion sickness, they stayed up for most of the night (since I started at 1am) and missed their entire Friday to paddle kayaks, be escort swimmers, mix sports drinks, and cheer me on as currents, cold water, winds, and large swells at times meant almost an hour of aggressive swimming that produced no forward progression.

The swim though, is dedicated to my biggest support and love of my life, my wife, Ellie.

Glad its over! I will post pictures and a more complete write-up after I've had some time to recover.

Last Swim Before Catalina

2008-09-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the last time I will be in the water before I jump into the Pacific ocean Thursday night for the 21 mile swim from Catalina Island to the California mainland. I had a lot going through my head with politics, work, family, and the swim. The 50 minutes of lap swimming during the masters workout at the Deerfield High School Pool went quickly. The 3,000+ yards felt good and slowly my worries and paranoia melted into the peace that always comes from the repetitive sound of sloshing water.

Thursday night plans are about final. We are meeting at a restaurant in Long Beach at 6:30pm, boarding the boat at 7:30, and aim to launch into the channel by 8:30. We will start the swim from Catalina at around midnight and arrive on the Palos Verdes pennisula between 10-11am on Friday morning...

Saturday's Ocean Time

2008-09-13T22:55:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning, I met up with a group of Orange County open water swimmers for a swim from Corona Del Mar to Crystal Cove, about 3 miles. We carpooled from the Crystal Cove parking lot to CDM and were in the water at 7am. The swells were big, but the surface was glassy and we made the trip in about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Water temps have been holding just shy of 70 degrees and visibility remains a murky 5-10 feet. It was a great "short" swim to keep ready for this coming Thursday's swim. Thanks to all the swimmers, especially Jen Schumacher who will be a pace swimmer for me on Thursday, who did a nice pacing practice for the last mile!

I returned to the Pacific at 7:30 pm for a brief ocean kayak with Lynn Kubasek who besides being a pace swimmer for my Catalina swim, has graciously offered a couple of sea kayaks for the trip. We put in at Laguna Main beach in the dark after rolling the boats down to the beach from the house where they were stored. On the way out, a large wave caught us both a little less-than-pefectly pointed into the surf and we were flipped unceremoniously over and into the sand before being steamrolled by the kayaks. Wet, but determined, we timed the next sets a little better and got beyond the surf line and spent 20 minutes confirming they were ready for 10 hours in the Catalina Channel. The moon came out a few minutes into the paddle and it was so bright I thought we were being spotlighted by a vehicle from shore. We turned around and in the big surf coming in, the waves decided to have some fun with Lynn again, upsetting the kayak and pulling the headlamp from her head. We chased the glow in the surf for a few minutes in hopes of recovering it, but it disappeared. That is the second time in as many weeks that the waves at Laguna Main Beach have decided to keep a souvenir as we exited the ocean. Lynn, thanks for all of your help today!

I also want to give a special thanks to my family- especially Ellie for all of her understanding and support.

Swimming in Lake Michigan

2008-09-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

Both Jim Fitzpatrick and I are here in the Chicago area on business this week, so we decided to meet up for a swim in Lake Michigan this morning at the Ohio Street Beach. I left Deerfield at 6:10am and made my way downtown in a little over 30 minutes. Unfortunatley, after failing to find a place to park, accidently getting on Lake Shore Drive going north for a few miles, and making my way back to Ohio St., I finally just had the car valeted at the "W" hotel so I wouldn't leave Jim wondering where I was.

After taking the tunnel under Lake Shore drive, I found Jim right on the shore. We were about the only folks out. We saw one other swimmer and Jim said someone had just got out. The wind was blowing (in Chicago?!) and the water was choppy, but the sun was warm and the water a nice 68-70 degrees. We swam north along the buoys past the breakwater and back with the Chicago skyline to the west and sunrise to the east. After an hour and 15 minutes and 2 and a quarter miles, we parted.

Our next meet up? In one week at the dock in San Pedro on our way to Catalina!

8 Hour Training Swim

2008-09-06T23:04:00.000-07:00

My last big training swim before Catalina happened this morning. 8 hours from the strand in Dana Point. After 16 miles I was still feeling good and that is a big confidence builder for September 18th.

I met up with Jim Fitzpatrick and Lynn Kubasek at 7am at the Strand parking lot and we headed down the steps to a fog enveloped beach. After sticking bottles of sports drink in our suits, we headed out into fairly large waves and very murky water and determined to stay within sight of shore so we wouldn't get lost. It wasn't too fun- being that close to shore in big swells and chop made for a lot of bouncing around in a lot of kelp that scratched me up and irritated my nipples- I wish I had a rash guard. I'll admit with foggy goggles and the foggy air- I had a hard time even seeing Lynn and Jim swimming right next to me. We lost sight of the shore at one point and got pointed out to sea in the fog- not good. We were able to stop and use the sound of the waves to guide us back.

Lynn left us after the first 2 hour shift as we switched out our "crack bottles". Jen Schumacher then joined us for the second 2 hours as the fog was lifting. We were able to get out of the kelp forests for the latter part of the swim. Jen's friends came out on kayaks for the last 30 mins and commented on a couple of dolphins swimming along side me and Jim.

The 3rd 2 hours was an uneventful one. Jim and I swam alone up to the point north of Salt Creek beach and back for the third time. The water visibility for some reason improved from 5 feet to 10-15 briefly. The fog thickened briefly just before burning off completely.

During the last 2 hours, we were accompanied by Tory in a kayak, which was nice practice. The sun was bright and I got a bit of a sunburn on my back.

As we finished hour 8 a little after 3pm, we met Dave Galli on the beach. I had a good, but brief conversation with him before Dave headed out with just Jim for hours 9 and 10.

In the end, I only had a little bit of "raisin tongue", sunburn, and some chaffing on the front of my neck. The sea life was friendly and the shoulders held up. Gu Gels on the hour, 8 oz of Cytomax every 30 minutes, and 1/2 a Powerbar every 2 hours seemed to keep me well fueled.

A HUGE thanks to all the people who accompanied Jim and I on the swim. The most thanks goes to my wife Ellie, who ran kids to 3 soccer games today while being 5 1/2 months pregnant on her birthday weekend. She was supportive beyond belief of this swim I needed to complete 12 days before my Catalina Crossing. Guys, they don't make them any better than that! Mom, I promise I'll make it up to her. :)

COHO Masters Workout

2008-09-04T22:33:00.000-07:00

I joined the Deerfield COHO masters and coach, Jeff Summy, for a 9-10pm workout at Deerfield High School. It was my first coached pool workout in weeks and only the 3rd pool workout since my thumb was broken in early June. It consisted of a 600 yd warm-up of swimming, kicking and pulling. Then we did 6 x 50 yds descending before doing 10 x 200 yds on 2:50. Finally we did 400 yd warm down for 3300 yards (2 miles).

Finding a Pool in Chicago After Labor Day!

2008-09-03T22:41:00.000-07:00

Flew back to Chicago late Monday night and couldn't find a 50m pool for Tuesday morning. I did find a 25 yard outdoor pool at the Midtown Athletic Club in Bannockburn online during the day. It is conveniently located about midway between my work and hotel and had been recommended by some folks who I swam with at Deerfield's Mitchell pool during the summer. I checked the facilities out Tuesday night and determined to give their 1 day free membership a try today.

After work I was able to start swimming at 7:35pm and was able to go until a few minutes before 10pm, a good 2 and 1/4 hours. It was tough to get used to the warm water and short 25 yard distance after swimming in open water or cooler 50 yard pools since June, but I settled into my "groove" after about 2000 yards and was able to log 8-9,000 yards (4.5 to 5 miles) for the night.

Labor Day Swim in Laguna

2008-09-01T11:42:00.000-07:00

Met up with Jim Fitzpatrick a little after 7 for the first 2 1/2 hours of his 8 hour training swim. Though the water was a bit choppy and visibility was 10-12 feet, the swim felt fantastic. We swam north to 3 Arch Bay and then back south past Laguna main beach about a 1/2 mile. We met up with Jen Schumacher after the first 2 hours. While coming in at the end, my attempt to body surf a late breaking wave ended in a flip over and lost googles- bummer. Probably swam 5 miles.

For anyone wondering about the tongue from Saturday- the eye and tongue were back to normal in a couple of hours. My shoulders felt a little fatigue, but no chaffing or impingement issues. I am feeling very good about a 10-12 hour swim.

A good friend of the family, Jane Posner, sent me a link to an OC Register article about Greg Farrier's Catalina swim a few weeks ago. Congrats again Greg! We'll have to get together for a swim soon!
Here is the link for those interested to get a feel for the swim:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/farrier-water-says-2119459-channel-catalina

6 hours in Sea Water = Raisin Tongue

2008-08-30T19:25:00.001-07:00

This morning Jim Fitzpatrick and I met up at The Strands a little after 7am for a 6 hour swim. We hit the water at 7:20 after stuffing bottles of sports drink and Gu gels in our swimming trunks. The water was a little murky so we only had visibility of about 10 feet. The water was almost glassy and its temperature was mostly high 60s with patches of low 70s and low 60s. We swam north for an hour to 1000 Steps Beach before turning around and heading back with the current. We did a short loop in front of the Strands before hitting the beach again where we switched up our bottles, got new gels, and joined with Jen Schumacher for another 2 and 1/2 hours. After completing that swim, Jen had to head out, but Jim and I loaded up with our 3rd "crack bottle" to finish our last hour. We only had time to go past Ritz Point, across Salt Creek Beach Park and back. We came up the beach a little after 1:30 with 6 hours and 12 miles of swimming under our belt.

The salt water that had entered my left google had not only caused some irritation during the swim, but a small infection and swelling as well. My tongue felt wierd and looked like a raisin...but my hands looked fine!

Thanks Jim and Jen and family for a great swim!

Swimming in the Dark Again

2008-08-28T19:15:00.001-07:00

After work I went to the Mitchell pool to get in a swim. Getting into the water at 6:20pm meant that I only had an hour and 40 minutes before the pool closed. I determined to make the best of it and by 7:30, I was surprised by how dark it had become. For the last 30 minutes, I watched the pool, which has no lights, get darker and darker. When I got out at 8, it was dark, but I had been able to swim well over 3 1/2 miles.

Running Through Highland Park, IL

2008-08-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

In a day break between marathon pool swims, I joined a friend and colleague from work, Andrew Fraser for a jog right after work. We jogged 6 miles through Highland Park (Ferris Beuller's hometown) to Lake Michigan and then back through the Golf Courses to Deerfield. All told, we ran almost exactly 12 miles in a little under 2 hours. I haven't done a long run for months, so I expect my knees will be sore tomorrow.

Upping the Ante

2008-08-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, conversations with Jim Fitzpatrick and Lynn Kubasek convinced me that I need to up the yardage during the week. After flying into Chicago late on Sunday night, Monday morning 5am (3am Orange County time) didn't happen. I determined to make up for it today. This morning I did an hour and a half at Mitchell Pool in Deerfield (over 6,000 yards). After work I was able to get in another hour and 15 mins and over 5,000 yards). All told: 6.25 miles.

Corona Del Mar 1 Mile Race and Training

2008-08-23T15:09:00.000-07:00

After getting back from Chicago late Friday night, my original plans to get in a couple of hours of swimming before the Newport Beach Lifeguard Association's annual Don Burns 1 mile swim were a little foiled. I did do a nice 15 minute swim before registering for the event. At the race I saw a good contingent of Nova swimmers including Jen Schumacher and Coach Ahelee, who shared some of the excitement from Dave Galli's channel swim yesterday.

The race started at 10am and I followed the breakwater and some other swimmers at the start until I realized that I was way wide of the first buoy. After I made the turn south, I made the same mistake on buoy 2. I decided I needed to start buoy-spotting myself unless I wanted to turn the mile and change race into a 1.5 mile effort. I rounded the last 2 buoys a little closer. I had energy to spare and kicked up the pace to finish the race strong. I finished with an unofficial 23:52 and 74th overall (out of 300+).

At the finish line, I ran into Jim Fitzpatrick, who also shared some details of Dave's Catalina swim before we headed out for a 2+ hour training swim in the bay. The sun came out halfway through the swim and 15-20 foot visibility and high 60s water made for a great swimming. Jim's advice and coaching both during and after the swim was invaluable. We made some plans for coming weeks- including a swim during the week in Lake Michigan when we are both in Chicago. Thanks Jim!

Congrats Dave!

2008-08-22T23:50:00.000-07:00

I had a hard time going to sleep last night knowing my training buddy, Dave Galli, was on his way to Catalina. I checked the Nova blogs as soon as I woke up at 5am CDT and found out he was off to a great start. Coach Ahelee sent me a text at 5:30 (3:30PDT) with additional updates- he was doing great. I decided to swim with him "in spirit" and did a quick 2 miles at the Deerfield pool, before heading off to work. At work, I was able to exchange a few more texts with Ahelee and check the blog. Then I got the word- he finished! An awesome time of 10 hours 35 minutes. I called my wife and announced to co-workers, but I don't know if they appreciated it as much I did. I so wish I could have been there in person to see you in. Hopefully I'll catch you at CDM in the morning to congratulate you in person. For now...Congratulations Dave- you are the man!!!!

Chicago Running - Channel Heros

2008-08-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

Another tough morning with the 5am alarm...I decided to give the shoulder a little rest and I ran to the pool and back (6 miles). I carried 5 lb hand weights for the first and last 3/4 of a mile doing butterfly motions to work the shoulders. I probably looked pretty dorky running along Lake-Cook Road and the suburbs of Deerfield, but hey...it's not how you look, but how you feel...and I felt hot and sweaty. :)

On the swimming front: I read Emily Evan's (rosewaterswim.blogspot.com) account of her successful Catalina swim last week and her advice-it has me stoked. The help from successful open water swimmers here in the county like Jim Fitzpatrick, Greg Farrier, and Ahelee Osborn is also great. I am looking forward to swimming with them on Saturday.

...but the biggest news- my training buddy for the past 8 months, Dave Galli (swimthechannel.com), is doing his Catalina swim tomorrow night. I am so excited for him. Work permitting, I am going to see if I can't grab an earlier flight and either be there with him for the swim or see him arrive in Palos Verdes.

Tuesday Morning ... tired

2008-08-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

After 12 hours of driving over the weekend to Iowa and back, I slept through my 5am alarms on Monday morning. I was determined not to miss Tuesday. As my multiple alarms went off on Tuesday morning, one after another: my alarm clock, wristwatch, Treo, and computer...I had to get up- despite how tired I was.

On the way out the door I commented to my wife, "It is crazy to get up at 5am to swim in the dark... but it is even crazier to attempt to swim with Catalina Channel without more training."

I swam for an hour and a half at the Mitchell Pool in Deerfield and logged about 5500 yards. My right shoulder did start to hurt a little after an hour. With 1 month to go...I am a little concerned. Until my swim last month, I had never had any shoulder pain. I would prefer to do the Catalina swim without being "doped up" on a lot of Aleve and Motrin for shoulder pain.

Friday in Chicagoland

2008-08-15T17:51:00.000-07:00

I did 3 miles in Deerfield's Mitchell Pool on Friday morning after missing Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Staying up too late to watch Olympic Swimming has me inspired, but sleep deprived. The right shoulder is feeling funny- but not painful- so I'm hoping its nothing.

I sent off my boat deposit, updated friends, and notified the Catalina Channel Swimming Federation about my September 18th swim date. I am looking forward to nailing down swim logistics this coming week. This weekend I'll be travelling to Keokuk, Iowa and Nauvoo, IL this weekend- so no swimming again until Monday morning. Hopefully the rest will be good for the shoulder.

Back in Chicagoland

2008-08-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

After flying back late Sunday night, I missed my Monday morning swim. I did however confirm my Catalina swim date during the day. On September 18th, 2008, I'll be heading out to Catalina to swim back 21 miles to California. I expect to be around the 150th person to accomplish the swim- 1 of 8 or 9 this year.

Watching Olympic swimming was also a worthy distraction both before and after work on Monday. I am still in awe of Jason Lezak's anchor swim on the 4 x 100 free relay. It was arguably the best swim ever, even with Phelps dominating performances. Jason, a fellow Novaquatics swimmer, has the whole program beaming with pride.

Though I was dead tired when the 5am alarm went off on Tuesday morning, I had to get back in the pool. I did 5000+ yards in the Mitchell Pool in Deerfield before heading off to work.

Back in the Pacific and A Tenative Catalina Channel Swim Date

2008-08-09T17:15:00.001-07:00

This morning I met up with Jim Fitzpatrick at 7am at Laguna Main Beach. We did a mile while waiting for Dave to finish up an appointment in Laguan Niguel. Dave joined us and we did a 2 mile swim from Main beach north to Crescent Beach and back. We did another half mile before Dave had to take off. Jim and I did one more Crescent Beach and back for a total of almost 7 miles and about 4 hours of swimming. Jim had another 2 hours on his agenda, but I needed to get back home for lunch with the family.

Right after I showered up at home, I got a call from John Pittman, the captain of the Outrider. He had a cancellation on September 18-19th. If schedules permit (to be confirmed Monday), I'll make my Catalina swim almost one month after my original plan, just a week or two before I head to Abu Dhabi.

Friday in Deerfield

2008-08-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

5am alarm came too early, but I got to the Mitchell pool for a 1 1/2 hour swim. Worked on my stroke and did a leisurely pace:
1000 warm up
1000 w/ fins
1000 w/ fins and paddles
1000 w/ paddles and pull buoy
500 swim
5 x 100 on 1:20 (keeping a 1:10 or better pace)
600 warm down w/a 50 no-breather
=3 miles (5,320 "real yards")

Thursday in Deerfield, IL

2008-08-07T17:38:00.000-07:00

Another 5am cab ride to Mitchell pool in Deerfield where I stuck to the 90 minute routine: 6 "1000s" in the 47.5 yard pool. I broke them up by doing the 1st swim, 2nd w/fins, 3rd w/fins and paddles, 4th paddles and pull buoy, 5th w/fins, 6th swim.
=5,700 true yards

Keeping In Shape in Chicagoland

2008-08-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Chicago late Sunday night after flying over some nice thunderstorms on the plains. After a brief sleep and good first day of work at my new company, I decided to get in a few miles of jogging before dinner on Monday night. I did a couple of loops around the Chicago Bulls old training center in Deerfield next to the hotel I was staying. After dinner, the thunderstorms caught up to me in Deerfield with an incredible lightning display. The storm also knocked out power to over 500,000 people, destroyed a few homes, and caused some flooding in the area. It also made swimming Tuesday morning an impossibility.

On Wednesday however, I found the Mitchell pool here in Deerfield and used the 5:30am lap swim to do the following set:
1,000 warmup
200 kick w/fins
1,000 swim with fins
1,000 swim with paddles
1,000 swim with fins
1,700 swim
=5,900 total

I met some nice masters swimmers during practice (are there any other kind?) who explained that the reason the 50m pool was so fast was because it was actually 47.5 yards. I guess my 5,900m was more like 5,600 yards. :(

Weekend Workouts

2008-08-02T20:14:00.000-07:00

On Friday morning I got up at 5:00, excited to do a Novaquatics workout at Soka University. Unfortunately, I could barely lift my right arm again. My back, which I had thrown out slightly on Wednesday while moving furniture in Utah, was really hurting again too making getting out of bed a painful exercise. How old am I?! I knew it would be a painful workout, if it was possible at all, and I could be risking more serious injury. Crap! I crawled in bed for another few minutes of sleep before a scheduled follow-up appointment with Dr. Ip, my hand surgeon, in Huntington Beach at 9am.

At the appointment, Dr Ip was pleased with the results. I took off the splint and after he asked me to touch my thumb to the bottom of my pinky, I found it would not move. He indicated that I'd need a couple of months of physical therapy to be able to fully bend my thumb again. He also gave me a "thumbs up" to getting back on the bike.

I was starting to come to grips that my body wasn't immortal or 19. It needed better rest and healing time. I had to reassess all the old sayings that were keeping me going: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" and "If it was easy, everyone would do it." and "No pain, no gain." Maybe, I need to let my body recuperate, postpone some plans, ease back in a little more slowly, and then I'll be better prepared for success.

On Saturday morning, I was feeling better so I did a short road bike (about 7 miles) and limited the climbing to Wood Canyon Drive in Aliso Viejo. I met up with Dave Galli and Jim Fitzpatrick at San Clemente pier at 3pm for an ocean swim. Jim admitted that he had some shoulder injuries during his past training, which had limited him for a couple of months. Dave, who is a physical therapist, diagnosed my shoulder as an impingement. That was good news, as it is easily treated. I limited my swim to a short 2.5 to 3 mile swim up the coast and back, breathing on my least favored side most of the time. Though visibility was lousy (3 ft) and the afternoon chop led to plenty of sea water swallowing, I finished feeling strong and without any shoulder pain or chaffing. Dave and Jim continued down the coast on their plans to knock out double that mileage.

Swimming at Dusk with Sea Lions

2008-07-31T20:22:00.000-07:00

I got back from Utah late Wednesday night and so I was aching to get back in the water. Dave Galli was looking to do a 2 hour training swim at Corona Del Mar (CDM) at 5pm on Thursday night, so I told him I was in. CDM is a nice protected cove with a low sandy beach and even some buoys that rope off the swimming area from the boats and kelp. After a week of staying up late to watch Discovery Channel's Shark Week, I probably would have opted out of any other beach at dusk.

When I arrived at the beach, Jim Fitzpatrick and Dave were at the life guard stand shedding their outer layers and spitting on their googles. I quickly did the same and we headed to the beach. Since we were going out unaccompanied by kayakers, we tucked our water bottles in the back of our suits. Jim noted these were real "crack bottles". Instead of swimming laps around the bay, he suggested we just swim south for an hour and then turn around. I know the area from previous swims and I'm not a huge fan. Even on clear days, the large off-shore reef along Crystal Cove and the kelp beds just south of CDM provide lots of habitat for marine life, which I like when I'm snorkeling, but not when I'm swimming. The water was a murky 5 feet visibility and had the standard afternoon chop with some big swells. I didn't protest and so we started swimming.

After a mile, I looked down to see a spotted gray sea lion staring up at me. He swam along underneath me and Dave for 20-30 feet and the swam off. Soon he came around for a second pass. When he came zooming up from the depths on a 3rd pass, I'll admit for a split-second I was thinking shark ambush. After another 1/2 mile of swimming I saw both Dave's white cap and Jim's yellow cap on my left so I was confused when I saw a black cap to my right. I pulled my head up and saw a big black seal head bobbing on the surface checking us out. I put my head back in the water, only to see a sea lion underneath looking up again. Man, I was thinking, lots of shark food. After seeing another seal, I wondered what was so interesting about us...then I remembered I was wearing mirrored goggles. I had just read that shiny things attract the interest of sea predators- they look like fish scales. I swam on, but the swim wasn't feeling as fun as a minute earlier.

After another few hundred yards and another sea lion encounter, I tapped Dave on the shoulder and suggested we return to the cove and finish our 2 hour swim there. Jim noted we were 9 minutes shy of an hour, but agreed. So at quarter of a mile past the first Crystal Cove parking lot, we turned around. We swam back (without sea lions), did a loop around the cove, and swam into the beach after 2 hours of swimming. My right shoulder was a little sore for the relatively short swim and I scratched all of the scabs from last Saturday's chaffing off, but it was great to be back in the Ocean. I'll be back Saturday- but I'll be staying in the cove after 5pm.

After Swim Recovery in Utah

2008-07-28T23:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't realize it until a few hours after last Saturday's swim, but I got pretty "injured" during the 9 miles swimming off Newport. Apparently my lateral breathing caused the skin on my neck, both shoulders and chin to rub together to the point that severe chaffing occured.

I have had some nasty chaffing when wearing a wetsuit, so I am always sure to "Glide" up (apply lubricant) before swims when wearing one. Apparently the folds of skin on my neck and the whiskers on my chin can do some real damage too. See the damage shots taken on Monday night, a full 2 1/2 days later. Warm showers have been painful since I returned Saturday afternoon. For future swims, I know where I need to grease up!

My right shoulder has mostly recovered so I spent the morning swimming with the kids at the Green Valley Spa. I also did a few hundred yards of lap swimming. We took a trip here to St. George, UT on Saturday night to help my in-laws move. Lifting heavy furniture and boxes on Sunday so my in-laws could have both their needed items and a place to sleep Sunday night proved good therapy for muscle soreness.

9 Miles at CDM and Crystal Cove

2008-07-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

Had a wonderful 9 mile swim this morning in near perfect So. Cal conditions.

A little after 7am, Dave Galli, Jen Shumacher, and I put into the surf at Corona Del Mar beach in Newport. Scott and "Defro" accompanied us on paddleboard and kayak respectively. We swam south a mile to "Flat Rock" and turned around. Water temp was perfect, wind was almost non-existant and skies were clear. The water visibility was an usually clear 30-40 feet. It allowed us to see the reefs, kelp, sea plants, girabaldi and top smelt swimming among us for most of the morning.

At 8am we arrived back at the beach and met up with Jim Fitzpatrick who accompanied us for an hour and 45 minutes south through Crystal Cove state park. Just shy of the Laguna Beach city line, we turned around and headed back. Dave and Jen were smoking fast and Jim and I brough up the rear not far behind. Coming back, my pace slowed- but I think I kept my form up better than previous swims. Though visibility decreased, we had the wind and current at our back going north. Some drafting off Jim helped me stay with the group until mile 8. The last mile I fell off and my shoulders started feeling like lead. Landed back at CDM after 9 miles of swimming. Dave had put some distance on all of us and he was ready to do 2-6 miles more, so they turned around and started swimming again- incredible. I had to head home before Dave and Defro returned from their extra mileage trip.

Dave is going to have a great Catalina crossing time (easily under 10 hours). I need to hit the weights, but I still expect a 12-14 hour crossing time. I called some boat captains yesterday to see what dates might be available in early September. It will be nice to nail down the new date.

I'm heading to St. George, UT this weekend, so beyond the thanks to Dave, Scott, Defro, Jen and Jim, I need to give a special thanks to my family who let me take 5 hours out of a hectic morning to do this swim. Thanks for understanding Ellie and kids- I love you!

Friday Morning back in Aliso Viejo

2008-07-25T09:13:00.001-07:00

I got to bed late after checking out the satellite tracking of Greg Farrier's Catalina Channel swim attempt. He had just left the coast of the island when I hit the sack. When I awoke at 5:40, he looked to be over halfway there and at the time of this post, he is only a 1 1/2 miles from Point Vicente. Here is a link to his tracking:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?&glId=0phE3rZ4ngA0ZkmnpB1iLAqDIYcFmGcv6

I ran to Soka University where Coach Ahelee was calling the set:
400m warm-up
2 x 100m kick
Something else?
4 x 150 swim, 50 kick
6 x 100m FAST w/fins, 50m fast kick w/fins
200m cool down

It was great to be back in the "home pool" with familiar faces. Tomorrow it is a long swim in the Pacific with Dave Galli starting from Corona Del Mar.

Last Day in Denver

2008-07-24T09:06:00.000-07:00

Thursday was my last day working in Denver and I finished it up with a quick swim with the Highland Ranch Masters Triathlon group. Coach Susan Williams coached it. As usual, it was a fun set:
350 warm-up
1 x 200 swim
1 x 100 pull
1 x 200 swim
1 x 100 kick
1 x 200 swim
1 x 100 pull

Repeat 4 times:
4 x 50 on :55, :50, :45, :40

1 x 500 pull, every 5th length fast
1x 250
200 warm-down

I jumped out a little early to meet some great friends from work for breakfast before the our morning meetings.

July in the Mile High

2008-07-23T06:53:00.000-07:00

I got some good sleep last night, so the 5am alarm wasn't as intrusive as usual. I spent some time getting caught up on email and the news, so I didn't head off to Highlands Ranch for a workout until 5:45. I shared the lap swim lane with Rob, one of the quickest swimmers there in the Masters program, but did an easy 45 minute swim. I figured I'd get a good workout in the evening at the Cherry Creek Reservoir 2 mile race. The set was:
1 x 500 warm up
1 x 200 kick with fins
1 x 100 kick
5 x 200 pull gear on 2:45
5 x 100 on 1:20
200 warm down
= 2,500 yards

Regular Morning Workout with HRM & Open Water at Grant Ranch

2008-07-22T10:28:00.001-07:00

This morning I did the regular 5:45am morning workout with the Highlands Ranch Masters Triathlete group, though I decided to join them midway through the first set. It is the first time I've done the regular workout (instead of the lap swimming lane) since the surgery. I tried to keep pace with Joe Torres, a good swimmer who I was pretty evenly matched up with before the injury. The competition forced me to turn up the effort, which felt good. I guess Coach Susan Williams is just coaching Thursdays now, so we self-coached the following set:

1 x 200 warm-up
Repeated several times:
2 x 100 kicks on 1:55
3 x 100 swims on 1:30/1:25
Repeated 2 times:
2 x 75 (25 Fast, 50 Easy) on 1:10
2 x 75 (50 Fast, 25 Easy) on 1:10
2 x 75 Fast on 1:10
1 x 200 Pull
200 warmdown
= about 3,000 yards

After work, I ran to Grant Ranch and did some open water swimming in Bowles Reservoir. With Matt Beck and Pete Alfino keeping a watchful eye on the folks swimming in the glassy water, I did a 1500m warm-up, a 1500m with paddles, and another 500m with paddles and fins before time was called. Adding those 3500m to my morning swim, I had almost 4 miles (7,000 yards) under my belt for the day, I was hungry. So I ate a buffalo. :)

Open Water Swimming at Chatfield Reservoir

2008-07-21T19:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't worked out on Mondays much this year because travel to Denver from Orange County on Monday mornings requires me to get up at 3am to catch the first plane out of LAX. After a day at the client, I'm usually bushed.

Since this is my last week in Denver, I decided I had to get in a swim at the famous gravel pond at Chatfield Reservior tonight. After work I went straight to the lake and changed into my swimsuit. There was quite a crowd on the Northern beach and 30-50 swimmers in the water. As I threw my towel and sandals under a bush, something stung me...red ants! I flicked a couple off me and headed quickly for the water. After checking in with the COMSA observer, I did two laps of the pond for just shy of 4,000 meters of nice open water swimming.

Newport Pier to Pier Race

2008-07-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

Dave had sent me a message Thursday night that his grandfather had passed away and he had to head back to Ohio this weekend. Looks like he'll have one more angel looking after him during his swims. Look forward to swimming with you when you return, bud! My condolences and safe travels.

Well, both procrastination and trying to figure out family travel plans to Newport for the Annual Pier to Pier race resulted in me not leaving the house until 40 minutes before the 10am start. Tough traffic on Balboa Island resulted in me getting to the beach at 9:55am. I put money in the meter and a surgical glove on my splinted left hand. I registered quickly, stripped off my clothes, wrapped my wallet and cell phone in my towel (no time to take them back to lock them in my truck!), laid my stuff under the Lifeguard stand and stepped up behind the group of contestants. Standing 50 yards to the right of Balboa Pier, I almost immediately heard the starter remind everyone to put their googles on and seconds later, he hit the start beep.

I ran down the beach and saw a nice head-high set breaking right near the shore. It made for a quick start to swimming as we all dived under the large wave. The surgical glove quickly filled with water and it felt like I was swimming with a water balloon instead of a left hand. After 1/4 mile, the glove started coming off my hand and created a nice drag with every stroke. I stopped, ripped it off and stuffed it into my swimsuit. I then continued with my splint exposed, which held up fine for the rest of the race.

At approximately 3/4 of a mile I noticed that I was all alone in the water. The leaders were well ahead, but I was surprised that there weren't a few more folks of my speed around. I started looking above the swells and spotted the mile buoy about a hundred yards further out to sea. I had been swimming into shore! The sea was pretty choppy and combined with the big swells, it was tough keeping the buoys in sight. As I rounded the half way point, I noticed a few other swimmers nearby and started to exert a little more effort. At 1.5 miles, I almost had another wave break on me. I again noticed that I was alone. I worried about that because it wasn't because I was so much faster that I was passing others. I swam with my head up for a while before catching glimpse of the next buoy and other swimmers. I found that I had once again veered towards the shore 50-100 yards after I found the last buoy.

I made another course correction and found myself with a half dozen swimmers. I turned up the juice a little more and hoped I'd be lucky enough to catch a nice set of waves on the way in. Unfortunately, the trip in to the shore was almost entirely on my own effort and I finished 97th (out of 300?) in 48:09. I felt I could have turned around and swam back without much fatigue, but instead of doing that, I broke into a nice jog back to Balboa Pier so hoping my stuff would still be there and I could get my truck before the meter ran out, which luckily I did.

I don't know where I'll be in a month, but today I felt great. I know I could have done it even faster and longer, so hopefully next week with Dave back, me off work, we'll start pushing the double digit mile distances.

Practicing with Novaquatics Again!

2008-07-18T18:44:00.000-07:00

After arriving back in California late Thursday evening and enjoying my own bed, I got up Friday morning and did a 3 mile jog in Aliso Viejo. I attended to some work calls and errands before grabbing the noon Novaquatics workout in Irvine Wollett Aquatics Center. Coach Mike Collins called the set:

1 x 400m warm-up (50 free/50 dolphin kick)
3 x 50m descending
1 x 150 sprint

Repeated 6 times:
1 x 50 easy
1 x 150 sprint

Some splint malfunctions caused me to miss a couple of laps, but it was a quick fun workout on the day before the Newport Beach Pier to Pier race tomorrow morning. I swam the practice next to Coach Ahelee who had some nice, encouraging words and I got some got some good stroke pointers from Mike. After practice I ran to doctor and had the splint cut down and repaired.

Getting Back into Swimming Shape in Denver

2008-07-16T07:37:00.000-07:00

The 5am alarm was tough this morning, but I am determined to start and keep up the daily swimming so I can quickly build my yardage up again. There is still some soreness in my pects and shoulders that really has me bugged. I guess I'm not 20 anymore!

I decided to do my own abbreviated workout again in the lap lane of the Highland Ranch Rec. Center.

500 warm-up
300 kick
200 with pull-buoy
10 x 100 on 1:25
1 x 50
1 x 100 kick/stretch drill
1 x 150 kick/stretch drill w/fins
1 x 200 with pull buoy
1 x 200 with fins
1 x 200 cool-down
=2,900 yards

My plan is to hit the "gravel pond" near the Chatfield Reservior for a mile or 2 of open water swimming after work today.

UPDATE:
While getting the necessary forms for a Chatfield swim, I discovered the Aquaman race series at Cherry Creek Reservoir on Wednesday nights @ 6:15pm. There are races of .5, 1, 1.5, & 2 miles. I left work promptly and made it to registration with 10-15 minutes to spare. I did the 2 mile race with a moderate pace, finishing in 48:47. While I was certainly far from great form and had to stop a couple of time to fix my thumb splint, I settled into an easy-to-maintain rhythm after the first half mile and finished fairly strong.

Swimming at 6,000 feet...again!

2008-07-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

I worked out with the Highlands Ranch Masters at their 5:45am practice. It was the first time in 6 weeks. Since I wanted to ease back into things, I used the lap swimming lane to do the following set:
500 warm-up
12 x 100 on 1:30
3 x 100 kick on 2:00
3 x 100 kick w/fins on 1:30
Pyramid (50,100,150,200,200,150,100,50)
200 warm down
= 3,500 yards

My right shoulder and right pects were sore- I wonder if I did something to it on Saturday. Doing a mile swim race as your re-introduction to the water after 5 weeks may not have been real smart. I may have strained something.

I want to quickly build my distance to over 5,000 yards a day in the next few practices and then find a way to do 7,000 to 10,000 yards a day during the week. I am moving to Abu Dhabi, UAE in the fall and want to re-schedule my Catalina swim for September, if at all possible. I'd also like to be capable of being a good pace swimmer for Dave in August.

Back in the Water!!

2008-07-12T17:17:00.000-07:00

Against medical advice, I raced the Seal Beach Roughwater 1-Mile swim today. I got to the beach at about 6:45am with my suit on underneath, googles and cap in my bag, and waterproof dressings for my incision...just in case. When Dave and Scott showed up and had encouraging words after looking at the healing cut, I decided the 1 mile couldn't do it too much harm while wearing the splint and waterproof dressing.
While Dave headed off for the 3 miler at 8:00, I got a chance to chat with Lynne Cox, arguably the most accomplished open water swimmer on the planet. Her book, Swimming to Antartica, was a great read and inspiration to me last fall as I began planning for Catalina. She was so nice! She said she had heard of me(?!) Perhaps the Catalina Swimming Federation has a list of the attempts for the season?

Dave had a great swim and then lined up with me for the mile too. It felt great to be back in the water, though I almost immediately felt the effects of not using my swimming muscles for 5 weeks. Dave held back a bit and we finished the race together. It was a great help to have him next to me to keep me paced. I finished 4th in my age group and 31st overall. Thanks Dave and Scott!
I know that August 21st is out for a Catalina to California swim, but with some serious training, I may still be able to make my swim before the summer's out. Labor Day?

Friday- Cast Off!

2008-07-11T21:34:00.000-07:00

Eventful day. Got up in beautiful Orange County, CA this morning after the Thursday evening flight back from Denver. I decided to do one of my old fun runs- the Laguna Canyon Ridge trail that runs a little over 2 miles from Aliso Viejo to the Top of the World in Laguna Beach. After the 4 mile run, I showered and headed to Huntington Beach to have a post-surgery follow-up appointment with Dr. Ip. The cast was removed and I saw some bloody butterfly bandages covering a 2 1/2 inch incision. Kinda nasty, but it was nice to get the cast off. He trimmed the exposed stitches and then told me that I should wait another 5 days before putting the incision in sea water- or risk infection and another surgery. That means tomorrow's Seal Beach Roughwater will be a spectator event for me....argh!

Next big news- I ran to Costa Mesa to do an ultrasound with Ellie. We are now expecting...GIRL #3! Wow! I don't know if I can handle 3 girls. I guess the money, messes, and drama will just be a little more involved in the Roberts house. Though Sam, my oldest, definitely didn't want another boy, he would prefer the addition was a canine.

Finally, I got fit with a waterproof splint in Newport. I'm ready to swim when the incision heals a little more. I am feeling like I need to do the Catalina swim this summer, no matter what- even if I have to delay the swim a few weeks as I may not get the chance again for a couple of years. I am moving to Abu Dhabi at the end of the year to work with a software company that is supporting the large development companies there in the UAE. I understand that swimming is big in the Middle East, but its a long trip to California. It will make it a little easier to do the English Channel in 2009 or 2010 though! Dave, let me know if you want to join me!

Wednesday's Workout in Denver

2008-07-09T22:09:00.000-07:00

Ran 5.5 miles on a sub 8:00/mile pace. Did 100 situps and 100+ reps on the heavy duty pull cords- enough to feel fatigue set in. Felt Great. So much for a dry cast...

Ready to Swim Again

2008-07-08T21:22:00.000-07:00

Stuck in a cast since my surgery, it has now been almost a month out of the water and it is the peak of the open water season. I've gained 10 pounds. My kids have tauntingly spent a lot of time in the water during our desert states vacation over the past 2 weeks. In around 100 degree weather in Sedona, Scottsdale, Albuquerque, Denver and St. George (4th of July!) the pool was a great place to be. I've been dying.

I'll be getting my cast off this Friday and I'll get back in the water by racing the 5K and 1 mile at the Seal Beach Roughwater Swim on Saturday.

This morning I did a 3.5 mile jog, sit-ups, and cord pulls and I've got plans to double all the repeats and distances tomorrow.

The Surgery

2008-06-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

After very little sleep Wednesday night, Ellie drove me from Sedona to Phoenix where I caught a rather uneventful flight home to Orange County. My father-in-law picked me up and I tinkered around at home for an hour or so before going to the surgery. The procedure was to be done in the Orthopedic Surgery Center, which is just off PCH near Fashion Island in Newport- not a bad neighborhood. When my time came, I was called out of the waiting area and instructed to strip to my underwear and put on the oh-so-fashionable hospital gown. I then took my place on a rolling bed so they could take my vitals and stick some IVs in me.

For those who don't know me, I have an irrational reaction to things touching me in areas where large veins can be found- my wrists, inside my elbows, inner thighs...you get the picture. It causes me to get cold, clammy, and deathly pale. My blood pressure drops too. When applying the rubber band tourniquet to my right arm before inserting the IV, I got clammy and pale and the nurse called another nurse over to "distract me". Unless the distraction was going remove the feeling of a tight rubberband, mid-arm, stopping blood from flowing to my hand, it wasn't going to work. However the nurse was quick and the IV was in the back of my hand & tourniquet removed before I did someting embarassing- like pass out.

Next came the blood pressure cuff. After 7 failed attempts to register a blood pressure, it came back extremely low. The nurse joked that despite the low reading, my talking proved I was still alive and apparently after talking with the doctor and anesthesiologist, I was alive enough for surgery. They started rolling me to the operating room a few minutes later and the anesthesiologist took a position behind me as we entered the room. I felt suddenly tired and asked the doctor if I was going to be "going black" soon. He said "No, just something to relax you." I wondered what that was that about as I could feel my consciousness leaving me. The last thing I remember was moving from the rolling bed to the operating table and knowing that the "tired, fuzzy feeling" I felt meant that I was going to be unconscious in seconds.

I came to about 45 minutes after they rolled me out of the pre-op area. It was nice to be awake, but I felt like I was waking after a long, long nap and wanted another 20 minutes. They let me rest for about that long or longer before a nurse gave me a drink and helped me get dressed. It was a little wierd having someone put on my socks, put on my shirt and help me buckle my pants. But with a new cast and bandage on my hand, I wasn't going to get myself ready in any reasonable amount of time. Dr. Ip told me that the ligament was torn and they were able to repair it. Good news! They then had me sign some discharge papers and rolled me out the side door in a wheelchair where my father-in-law was waiting at the curb in my truck.

After fasting 18 hours, I was hungry so we stopped for a burger on the way home. My mouth was so dry that I choked on the fries, despite drinking almost 32 oz. of lemonade. I couldn't generate spit for almost 24 hours- what a wierd, uncomfortable feeling! I always took the saliva part of chewing and swallowing for granted- not anymore. I slept off and on for most of the next 14 hours with just a mild sting and decent throb in my hand before rushing back to the airport for the flight back to Phoenix.

At the time of this posting, it has now been 5 days since the surgery. The pain is completely gone and aside from a few Motrin Saturday and Sunday during our drives to Albuquerque and Denver, the recovery has been drug free. I am anxious to get the cast off and start some serious exercise again. Dining out with family and long hours in the car with snacks has made the pleats in my pants tight. :)

Pre-Surgery Workout

2008-06-25T22:50:00.000-07:00

I had a family vacation already planned for this week in Sedona, Arizona, so I'll be flying back to Newport for 24 hours on Thursday to go under the knife.

Since anything I might do to mess my hand up will be corrected during surgery and the cuts from my mountain biking accident being mostly healed, I decided on Wednesday that I ought to take advantage of the water for the last time in a few weeks. I did some swimming in Oak Creek, which caused a little throbbing in the hand, so I decided to just put on my thumb brace and do some cliff jumping and diving. Man, I've missed the water...

Friday Run & Surgical Opinion

2008-06-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

After being in Denver during the first 4 days of the week, I headed back home on Thursday evening. On Friday morning I woke at 6am to a georgeous Southern California day. Without the usual early summer morning cloud cover (aka June Gloom), it promised to be a scorcher of a day. I decided to take advantage of the morning cool to do a run. I ran from my home to Soka University and then down the Canyon View neighborhood to the Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park. At the Canyon floor I ran into my old hometown friends: rabbits, lizards, a coyote and hawk. I followed the trail and the stream up to Canyon View park and back home. It was a fun 7 mile jog in among the wild sycamores, coastal oaks, and animals as well as master planned and landscaped Orange County.

I then showered up and headed up to Huntington Beach for a Surgical consult on my hand. While the scans weren't conclusive, it was likely that the ligament would not heal correctly without surgery. An immediate surgery to reconnect the bone fracture at the connection point of the ligament would help avoid the need for more extensive ligament grafting in a couple of months. I scheduled the first available surgery- Thursday of the next week.

After surgery, I'll be in a splint for 2 months. After the sutures heal in 2 weeks however, Doctor Ip said I could swim again- if I have a waterproof splint made. Unfortunately, being out of the water for a month means I'll be probably be physically unprepared for Catalina on August 21st.

Injury Update 2

2008-06-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

The official results are in on the thumb injury. My optimism has been tempered. The injury is a Goalkeepers Thumb, a fracture of the bone where one of my thumb ligaments attaches. Surgery and physical therapy is advised to ensure full, non-painful use of the thumb in the future. A small black thumb stabilizer I've been wearing since Saturday afternoon has prevented the thumb from causing me much pain, but it isn't a long term solution. I have a full doctor's consultation scheduled on Thursday. We'll determine at that time what the injury means in terms of the Catalina swim, but in all likelihood, the injury will require a minor surgery and some PT which will make an August swim impossible.

It seems silly that such a small injury could have such a dramatic effect on my training and plans, but I can't change it now. "It is what it is" and I'll just deal with the consequences, which hopefully won't preclude the Catalina swim, but it may mean changing plans to an English Channel or Persian Gulf swim in 2009!

Injury Update

2008-06-17T05:43:00.000-07:00

After the Tuesday evening crash, I was pretty hurtin' for a few days. My Catalina Channel swim training pal, David Galli, pulled some strings and got me an appointment to see Dr. Cavallo, the doctor he works with in Newport, on Friday morning. The doc determined that the ligament in my hand was either torn, popped or strained and needed an MRI. I was able to schedule the MRI later that day. The preliminary results indicate a ligament strain. That is good news. It means I'll be in a splint for a couple of weeks instead of requiring surgery followed by a month or two in a split.

Additionally, the doc noted that with all of the open scrapes and cuts, swimming was out for a week. He prescribed some anti-bacterial ointment to help keep things infection free. At the time of writing, the thumb is still splinted, but the cuts are healing quickly and some weekend swimming is looking likely.

With any water activity over the weekend introducing the risk of infection and/or slower healing, the Huntington Beach pier swim on Saturday was out of the picture. I headed to the beach to support Dave and the other Novas. The Novas had some great performances. Coach Ahelee finished top in her age group. Christina took the women's first prize and fellow Soka swimmer, Roger Andellin, was a top 10 finisher. Dave was a top finisher as well- in 2 heats! Congrats team!

Getting Bitten and Heading to the Hospital

2008-06-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

Well, its true. It finally happened. I had a good chunk of flesh taken out of me and had to get some medical attention afterwards. No, it wasn't a shark- it was the Mt. Falcon trial near Morrison, CO. Instead of saying the trial bit me, it is probably more accurate to say I ate it.

After getting off work on Tuesday evening and making a few phone calls, I followed my googled directions to the Mt. Falcon, a trail recommended by Ken Brumm, another consultant on my project and moutain biker from here in Denver. It turned out to be only 10-15 minutes from where I am working in Littleton. I quickly changed into my biking gear, donned my helmet and pulled my bike out of the back of my rented SUV. I figured I had a couple of hours before dark and a 4 mile ride should be easy doing despite a 2,000 ft elevation gain. The going was tougher than I had anticipated as I didn't have clip-ins and it is the first time I've ridden anything technical in almost a year. However, the views of Denver and the Rocky Mountain peaks to the west were incredible.

Click on the pict below to see the skyline of Denver from Mt. Falcon. Wow!
Coming down, I was having a blast. I begin to think I was finally getting the hang of it: bouncing over rocks and flying off the trail breaks that divert the runoff. I was going 20-25 mph on the bumpy singletrack. A half mile from the trailhead I got a couple of bumps in rapid succession and hit the wrong (front) brake after landing with my front wheel twisted in an attempt to correct a trajectory that would send me off the trail. The bike responded by turning even more, digging in the front wheel, and stopping rather abruptly. I did not.

I caught the initial impact with my left gloved hand and left knee. I tried to lessen the impact with a roll, but instead of rolling, my twist only caused my right hip and arm to dig into the gravel with my full weight behind it and skid along the dirt and gravel trail for 10 feet. Can you say no wind? Can you say hamburger?

Embarrassed and wind knocked out, I scrambled to get off the trail and rested in the weeds on the right of the trail in a relatively flat section of the route. Though covered in blood and dust, I told the biker following me by about 20 seconds who inquired how I was that I was fine- "just got the wind knocked out of me". After a few more questions, he was satisfied I was going to be OK and continued down. Afterwhich, I picked up my unhurt bike and continued down much more cautiously.

The rapidly coagulating blood mixed with dirt and gravel from the trail made nice black and red patches on legs, arms and left hand. As I got into my hot car with cold blowing AC, the sting finally hit. Ouch! I decided to find a clinic where perhaps a nurse could help me dig the gravel and dirt out of my arm and knee and get some antibiotics to prevent infection. A call to a project buddy, Todd Pittman, who had the unfortunate opportunity to use a local clinic a few weeks before revealed that after 8pm, my only option was a hospital.

The nice folks at the Adventist Hospital in Littleton cleaned my wounds, x-rayed my hand, splinted my thumb, and sent me back to my hotel. They also advised me to stay out of the water for few days until the wounds had stopped bleeding and oozing. Probably good advice. I guess my plans for Chatfield reservior this evening are not going to materialize.

(After cleaning off the blood and dust, it looks like I could be healed enough for Saturday's ocean swim, but if you click on the arm you can see what my "cleaned hamburger" looks like. I'm going to spare you the unbandaged knee.)

Saturday Morning at WAC

2008-06-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

It was nice to be able to sleep in until 7am before heading off to Wollett Aquatic Center (aka WAC) in Irvine for the Nova workout. Coach Michael Collins called the set:

1 x 300 warmup
1 x 300 (Free, Back by 50s)
3 x 100 (Free, Back by 25s)
6 x 50 (Free, Back by 25s)
5 x broken 600s specifically:

5 x 100 on 1:25, 1 x 100 on 1:20
4 x 100 on 1:35, 1 x 200 on 2:40
3 x 100 on 1:45, 1 x 300 on 4:00
2 x 100 on 1:55, 1 x 400 on 5:20
1 x 100 on 2:00, 1 x 500 on 6:40

2 x 150 on 2:00
2 x 100 kick on 2:00
200 warmdown
=4,900 yards

Swimming in the Dark at San Clemente

2008-06-06T23:09:00.000-07:00

This morning I got up to do the 5:45am practice at Soka University with Coach Ahelee. She gave a good 2500m set of drills and sprints with fins. She will be staying with Novaquatics and Dave and I couldn't be happier.

The real story of the day is the story of the night. At 9pm, Dave, Ahelee, Carolyn, Brian, Scott and I met up at the San Clemente Pier, put on glow sticks and red flashing divers lights and did a 2 mile swim up the coast in the dark. Since the Catalina swim will be done 75% in the dark (we'll start at 11:30pm and should end at 9-10am), we wanted to get used to swimming in those conditions. I'll confess, I was a little nervous all day. Though I figured it would be fine, I still wondered how the marine life would respond to our lights. I had heard that lights attract fish. Adding to the concern was the fact that in the past several days there had been some agressive great white behavior 2-3 miles to the north at Doheny and 20 miles to the south in Oceanside and Carlsbad. (See reports here.)

A small sliver moon was out, the sky was clear, nice shoulder high waves were hitting the beach, and the wind was almost non-existant as we entered the surf. The water was a nice mid-sixties. The heavier waves forced us to start stroking soon after we went in since we had to duck under the large ones. As we started to swim north, something hit me in the back. I though Scott or Brian had thrown something at me, so I looked up. They seemed to be paddling along, so I kept swimming. Next I hit some kelp. I had no warning since it was dark, but I knew kelp was harmless and determined not to panic. Next I noticed how my arms were creating blue glowing bubble clouds- apparently the red tide was going to produce some nice bioluminenance light shows as we stroked and kicked in the dark. It was quite surreal. Then a fish hit my arm.

It was a small bait fish...no need to panic.

More strokes, then a small fish hit me in the cap. Again, I determined not to think about why bait fish break the surface. For the next mile, I got hit in the chest, arms, hands, head, shoulders and face by the flying fish. A few times the fish jumped out of the water, landed on my back and flopped their way down my back and legs before re-entering the sea. Dave was having a similar experience and the Scott and Brian were watching hundreds of these small fish jump out of the water all around us and dive back into the ocean leaving blue luminescent trails in the water.

After the 8 or 9th time getting hit by the fish, I settled into nice long strokes and had a wonderful 2 mile swim. While we all kept feelling the fish hit us, we watched the strange glow of our bubbles and kept an eye on the headlamps and glow sticks worn by our paddlers, Scott and Brian. We also kept close proximity to the flashing red diver lights mounted on the goggle straps of the other swimmers. It was a wonderful swim. As we returned to the pier, we followed the bright strobe light Carolyn was holding for us on the shore. I caught a wave that propelled me at great speed the last 100 yards. Nice body surf ride to end a great swim.

Fun, Surreal, Wild experience. Looking forward to Catalina!

Thanks Ellie for giving me the evening off to do this after being gone for a week. Thanks Dave, Ahelee, Brian and Scott! That is an experience you don't have on your own!

Swimming in the Rain

2008-06-05T07:55:00.000-07:00

I tried to get some extra shut-eye on Wednesday morning, so this morning after a very unappreciated 5am alarm and very wet trip from my hotel to Highlands Ranch in heavy rain, I started my workout at 5:45 inside. Coach Susan Williams moved us outdoors when the lightning/thunder was not deemed a threat and the rain had lightened up.

I felt a little short of breath and I had some fatigue in my back and arm muscles after only a few hundred yards. It has me concerned. I expected at this point in my training AND after a day of rest that it would take 5-6,000 yards to get me feeling fatigued at normal pacing. Maybe it is the altitude or perhaps a lack of sleep. Whatever the reason, I'm going to work on hitting the sack early enough to get 7 hours of sleep every night versus the 5 I'm acustomed to.

The workout:
1 x 200 warmup

1 x 300 pull
1 x 100 kick

Pyramid consisting of: 25,50,75,100,125 and back down 125,100...
Going up, first 25 yards of each distance drill
Coming down, first 25 yards of each distance FAST

10 x 200 (3 on 2:40, 2 on 2:30, 3 on 2:40 pull, 2 on 2:30 fins)
1 x 100 easy

Repeat twice:
100 kick
8 x 25 on :30 (3 Fast, 1 Easy, 3 fast, 1 Easy)

1 x 200 warmdown
= 4,250 yards

Tuesday Morning Mile High Workout

2008-06-03T08:03:00.001-07:00

After flying back to Colorado on Monday, I was ready another good pool workout Tuesday morning. Kylie, a local pro triathlete, gave the set this morning.

1 x 200 swim
1 x 150 with pull buoy only
1 x 100 kick

8 x 100 (1-4 descending on 1:30, 4-8 90% on 1:25)
10 x 50 (1-4 first 12.5 FAST, 5-7 first 25 FAST, 8-9 first 37.5 FAST, 10 FAST) on :50

Repeat 2 times:
2 x 150 (first 50 FAST, 100 pace) on 2:20
2 x 100 (first 25 FAST, 100 pace) on 2:00
2 x 100 (1500m pace) on 1:20

1 x 100 kick
6 x 75 pull on 1:00
1 x 200 warmdown

=4,000 yards

Saturday's Swim Up the Coast

2008-05-31T16:00:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning I met up with Dave and the dedicated paddle crew of Brian, Scott and Doctor Jack for a swim up the Pacific Coast. We started the swim at Corona Del Mar, swam north for 2 hours past the Newport Harbor breakwater, Balboa pier, Newport Pier, and then the next 2 breakwaters and put into shore after 4.5 miles. The water temperatures were in the low 60s, a few degrees colder than our southbound swim a few weeks ago.

Click to view the video of our swim past Balboa Pier

I felt pretty good until the Newport Pier, then my stroke started breaking down. It was tough keeping it together for the next 1/2 mile. Though the water temps weren't an issue and I felt like I had several hours in me still, I know my pace was dropping off significantly. These last 2 long swims have made glaringly clear my training needs for the next couple of months: weight training and stoke improvement.

Afterwards we made plans for training for the next 2 and half months. We are looking forward to spending a bit of time in the Pacific this summer.

Thanks to Brian "D-Fro" DeFrancesco for taking the picts!

Back in Southern Cal

2008-05-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

After arriving in LAX a little after 11pm on Thursday evening, I did the obligatory wait for the luggage, wait for the shuttle, queue to pay for parking, and drive down the 405 to Orange County. I crawled in bed at 1am.

When the alarm went off at 5am, I wasn't readyto get up, but I wanted to head to Wollett Aquatic Center in Irvine for the 5:45am Nova practice. I crawled out of bed and got there in 15 minutes. Chris called the set on a 50m layout:
1 x 600m warmup
10 x 50m (odds sprint, even easy)
Repeat 3 times:
3 x 50m kick w/fins (sprint/easy, easy/sprint, sprint)
1 x 50m easy kick
5 x 50m sprint w/fins
1 x 50m easy
5 x 100m negative split 50s
6 x 50m sprint from blocks
1 x 200m warmdown

Get some naps today- tomorrow is a 9.5 miler in the Pacific.