Diana Nyad tries again: Cuba to Key West

September 2, 2010 at 12:01 pm | Posted in News, OW swim stories | Leave a Comment
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At 61, Diana Nyad is hoping to attempt the swim she couldn’t complete in 1978: Cuba to the Keys.  She swam for nearly 42 hours in 1978, but was defeated by wind, waves, and current. (The story of Nyad’s 1978 swim can be read here in Sports Illustrated.)

Interestingly, Nyad apparently only got back in the water in 2009, after a 30-year hiatus, as noted in a story in the Miami Herald:

Nyad didn’t swim a single lap for three decades, from 1979-2009. “Major burnout,” explains the International Swimming Hall of Fame inductee, who kept busy as a journalist, speaker and radio commentator. “Couldn’t pay me to get in the water.”
This time, she plans to forgo the shark cage she swam with in 1978.  Ironically, however, at the moment the biggest threat to her swim appears to be bureaucratic:  she’s waiting for a travel visa from the Cuban government.

August 24, 2010 at 1:15 pm | Posted in OW Training | Leave a Comment
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Per her USA swimming bio (long version), Eva Fabian (phenomenal young OW swimmer–she won the 5K at the 2009 Open Water National Championships and then in July 2010 won the women’s World Open Water 5K) trains 15,000 – 20,000 yards each day, 6 days a week.  Set your training goals, kids!

Chris Greene Lake Cable Swim 2010

August 10, 2010 at 10:09 pm | Posted in Chris Greene Lake Cable Swim, OW swim stories, Open Water Races, Race Reports & Results | Leave a Comment

Some of you may remember Janet Manning’s amazing Chris Geene Lake victory story from last year. Well Janet was back in 2010 and nabbed a 4th place finish in her very competitive age group.  Way to go Janet!  I don’t even mind that you beat me!

Another great Chris Greene Lake story from this summer is featured on the USMS Web site.  From the article:

Calvin Barnes, 86, and Richard Selden, 88, also made waves at the event. Barnes finished first with a time of 1:26:27.21 and Selden came in right behind at 1:27:32.40. The two men earned the distinction of becoming the only two Americans in the 85 – 89 age group known to have raced in a two-mile cable swim. They met for the first time at the awards ceremony, where they shook hands while being recognized for their achievements.

Recommended Reading

July 20, 2010 at 11:24 pm | Posted in Allison, Book Reviews | Leave a Comment

NEW: Be sure to visit our Recommended Reading page. We’ll be posting information on and reviews of swim technique and OW swimming-related books. First up: Young Woman and the Sea, an inspiring memoir of Trudy Ederle’s life and quest to swim the English Channel.

If we’ve forgotten your favorite swim-related book, please leave a comment.

About that target heart rate

July 11, 2010 at 11:15 am | Posted in Caroline, News, OW Training | Leave a Comment

Turns out it’s maybe not so accurate for women.  According to a recent NYTimes article:

Last week, researchers at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago announced a new formula for calculating a woman’s maximum heart rate, a measure commonly used by athletes to pace themselves and monitor their progress. In a study of nearly 5,500 healthy women, scientists discovered that a decades-old formula for calculating heart rate is largely inaccurate for women, resulting in a number that is too high.

….

The commonly used formula subtracts a person’s age from 220. But based on the data collected in the Chicago study, the right formula for calculating a woman’s maximum heart rate is a little more complicated: 206 minus 88 percent of a woman’s age.

Yeah, whatever.  Maybe this obsessive training-by-numbers deserves a rethinking anyway. As the article also notes:

Of course, the new formula for women also raises new questions about the reliability of the old heart rate calculations for men. The original formula stems from research in the early 1970s that reviewed average maximum heart rates from 10 studies of men. The formula was a general calculation made for discussion purposes among academics, never intended to be used by the public.

However, the simplicity of the calculation appealed to a generation of exercisers who were looking for guidance about how hard to push themselves to improve fitness and improve their heart health. Companies promoting heart rate monitors, fitness clubs and family doctors all embraced the formula as a simple measure of fitness and the 220 minus age calculation became standard fitness advice.

But many researchers say it is ridiculous to base exercise goals on a person’s age rather than individual fitness level.

“The fitness industry, by attaching this to every treadmill ever made, kind of perpetuated this formula,” says Dr. Tim Church, an exercise researcher and director of preventive medicine at the Pennington Biomedical Research center in Baton Rouge, La. “There’s the idea that the formula was somehow not working out for women, but I’d make the argument that it doesn’t work out for anybody.”

In 2001, a University of Colorado team also concluded that the standard heart rate equation was inaccurate for both men and women. They devised a similar formula they said applied to both sexes — maximum heart rate equals 208 minus 0.7 times age — but the equation never caught on with the public.

Jack King Ocean Swim to be held 6/27/10

February 6, 2010 at 9:29 am | Posted in Open Water Races | 2 Comments

Though the temperature in the Atlantic is currently 43 degrees, likely all of Virginia is looking forward to the summer and race season.

The annual Jack King Ocean Swim will be held at 10 a.m. on 6/27/10. Note that this is one week later than usual. It’s $25 to enter, $30 if postmarked after 6/7/10, and $50 on race day. Pre-registered entrants receive T-shirts. The course is the same as previous years: An in-water start at 24th Street with a finish at 38th Street. Awards are given in standard master’s age groups (18-24, 25-29, 30-34, etc.)

Jack King Application 2010 [.pdf]

Update: H2o Audio Interval Headphone System

January 24, 2010 at 3:52 pm | Posted in Allison, Product Reviews | 1 Comment

Today, I experimented with the H2o Audio Interval Headphone System a second time. It worked flawlessly. Here are the tweaks that made all the difference:

  • Bigger earbuds: I brought ALL of the earbuds to the pool, and used a larger set than last time. They didn’t fall out once, and the sound was crystal clear.
  • Ponytail placement: Feeling like I was back in the 80s, I put my hair in a side ponytail (opposite of where the goggle clip was on the strap) and then wrapped it in my usual bun — but on the side of my head rather than directly in the center.
  • Unit placement: Then, I placed the unit in the middle of the back of my head, free of the bump of the bun it rested on (or under, or above) last time.
  • Goggles: Because I did the above and the unit wasn’t competing for head space with my hair, I didn’t need to tighten my goggles at all. Everything stayed in place for the hour I swam.

Because of the splashing sound my arms and legs made, I DID notice I needed to turn the volume up a little when I was swimming versus just kicking. But I was able to listen to an hour-long podcast, which was never possible before this device.

Now, I just have to find those goggles that don’t get foggy.

Inspired by Eva

January 15, 2010 at 3:28 pm | Posted in Caroline, Interviews | Leave a Comment

She’s only 16, and she’s only 5’3″ (hey, me too!  Well, not the 16 part, but the 63 inches, and that’s why Eva’s my particular hero), but she’s already making a big name for herself in open water swimming.  She’s on the US National Team, and this week she was interviewed on Swim Network.  Go Eva!

Great Chesapeake Bay Swim 2010

January 13, 2010 at 11:25 am | Posted in OW swim stories | Leave a Comment

The first round of the 2010 GCBS lottery is complete, and e-mail notifications have been sent out.  If  you didn’t get in, don’t despair.  Some people who did get in either will choose not to commit or will fail to submit proper qualifying information.  That’s why there’s a second round of the lottery.  In 2007, Allison got in on the second round.  I got a first-round pick in 2008 and 2009, but this year no luck there.  So you just never know.

Product Review: H2o Audio Interval Headphone System

January 2, 2010 at 9:00 pm | Posted in Allison, Product Reviews | 6 Comments

This is the first of what we hope to be many swim-related product reviews. If you want a product reviewed, please leave us a comment!

Product: H2o Audio Interval Headphone System for iPod Shuffle 2G (also made for 3G)

A new year’s resolution of mine is to do at least one long (which I’m defining as 2+ hour) swim each weekend, so to garner motivation, I gave myself an H2o Audio waterproof 2G iPod Shuffle headphone system as a Christmas gift, courtesy of my longtime-accumulating AmEx points. I spent 50 minutes trying it out today, and I’m sure glad I did. Though I was pleased with the system, I encountered several surprises, which I’ll discuss below.

Continue reading Product Review: H2o Audio Interval Headphone System…

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