How To Be a Little More Safe on the Water

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Did I mention that Diane and I like to swim up the beach for lunch?  We tow our lunch apparel and funds in a device sold by the International Swimming Hall of Fame.  The ISHOF Safer Swimmer Float is specifically designed to provide a safety aide for open water swimmers, serving three important functions without hindering performance or hindering your stroke.  1) It makes you visible to boaters, jet skiis, kite boarders or other potential human hazards while you are swimming - a little peace of mind on the open water is a good thing.  2)  It can be used as a floatation device when you need it in the case of cramps, dizziness or injury and it can also be used to rescue others - we've been fortunate so far and have not needed this feature. 3) It can also keep your “stuff” safe while you are swimming or allows you to take along your “stuff” on one-way swims across rivers or lakes - yep, this is why we got one. It's a good thing Diane's waist is small enough to get the belt around herself.

How To Prevent Shoulder Injury

I just got back from the United States Aquatic Sports Convention in Greensboro, NC where I attended a very informative and useful seminar conducted by Dr Jim Miller who is very active in both Masters Swimming and FINA. FINA regulates international swimming. I sure don't want to try to explain how FINA, USA, USMS et al fit together. Maybe I'll try that some other time. At any rate, Jim took us through dry exercises which are intended to strengthen shoulders BEFORE injury occurs. He made a point of reminding us that OTHER exercises would be better if the shoulder is already injured. A video of the exercises may be found on the FINA.org website at ....

http://www.fina.org/project/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1435&Itemid=496.

At the Convention, it was made painfully clear to me that despite all the yards and miles I swim, I am not as strong as I could be.  My cardiovascular conditioning is good. My stroke technique is not bad. But my core strength is weak. In the coming months I plan to put more time into dry land exercises and less time into being in the water. And I'll work on shoulder strength as well.

Lake Erie Virtual Swim - How long is a mile?

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So the question is...how long is a mile?  A one mile swim in the pool is 1650 yards.  But we all learned in grade school that a mile is 5280 feet = 1760 yards. Let's call 1650 yards a "pool mile". And let's call 1760 yards a "lake" mile. Open water purists, such as yours truly, use lake miles.  This summer, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, I swam 100.77 lake miles although not all yards were in the lake. For the Lake Erie Virtual Swim, this means I made it across to Canada but did not quite make the return trip to the US. So I will be stranded on an iceberg for the winter. But if I recompute lake miles to pool miles, my mileage increases to 107.49 miles. This puts me on the Cleveland water crib for the winter. This is a choice between a rock and a cold spot. As you can plainly see, swimming is not all about swimming. It's about having fun.