One Big goal met!

BikeSwimLaugh

BikeSwimLaugh

0
I considered not posting this...but this is the sort of stuff we share on the forum and you're all my fitness buddies, so wtf.

I have a place up in Lake Arrowhead with a boat in a dock. On the other side of the lake is The Village, it's about one mile away. Long ago when I first started swimming I thought it would be a big goal to swim all the way (un-aided & non-stop) from our dock to the docks at The Village. Neighbors & friends proclaimed me "crazy"...such mortals, limited by their naive vision of physical performance.

This last weekend, I fulfilled this goal by doing it! :) :) :)

In the gym the indoor Olympic pool is different....the water is smooth and you kick off the walls with each lap, and it's at normal altitude.

Up in Arrowhead you're at about 5,200-feet and it really does make a difference, especially since breathing is not a constantly available thing while swimming. Add to that no kicking off the walls (you have to swim the whole way, no kick n' cruise for 15-feet each lap) and worse: all the boats can make the lake crazy-choppy!!!

I had my boat following close behind with the red-flag up (indicating water-skier in the water, course, I was swimming)...the boat served like a protector, but it got so choppy out there I almost thought it was going to run me over a few times (yeah, we'll call that incentive).

A few times I had to stop because it got so rough and I lost orientation....but I finally cleared the main boating lanes and ran about 125-feet off the shoreline. Some of the people on docks and the Yacht Club even cheered me on a it (passengers on my boat told me so later, I had my ipod in it's underwater case blasting techno in my ears). I can do a mile in about 34 minutes, but this venture took me about 45 due to the altitude and rough water....still, I made it all the way to the docks and that accomplishment will last me the rest of my life.

I wish there was another lake/land-mark I could try for...but the only other notable location is 4x further and be estimates would take about 3 hours to swim too....and it's not fair to have a chase-boat follow me that long. Swimming w/o a chase boat is suicide.

Anyways, got that done....been there, swam that! :D
 
Yep. Open water swims are a lot different than being in a pool. And once you're out on the open water, you have to make sure you have enough steam to make it back to shore ;)

Awesome accomplishment!!
 
Nice job Steve. Good thing you don't have many idiots on boats out there. Around here you'd get run over for sure.
 
That sounds like a pretty cool achievement... I need to pick a stretch goal like that. Was this a planned attempt, or just kind of woke up, and said "Let's do this thing!"?
 
Great job. What did you get one the other end? A hamburger? Also, another good idea to have with you is a life guard can which you swim although it might create a drag or a swimmer vest.
 
that is a great!!!!

I have been in that lake many times, but was never a "swimmer" at that time. I used to go up there with the van and just run for 2 days, and ride bikes, and tear my body up. I miss the mountains :(

"swim accrossed Lake Arrowhead" is now added to my list. I will do that in Feb when I come fo the LA Marathon.

thanks for sharing

Sweat Daily
FF
 
Kraken said:
Nice job Steve. Good thing you don't have many idiots on boats out there. Around here you'd get run over for sure.
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Kraken, over in your neck of the woods they'd not only run me over, they'd likely get me taxidermed and hung over their mantle before they realized I didn't have gills and was the ugliest fish they ever caught! :D

samurai1331 said:
Was this a planned attempt, or just kind of woke up, and said "Let's do this thing!"?
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I started swimming about a year ago. Right in front of our cabin is a stretch of lake-front that the Homeowners Association made into a beach. There are no docks in front of this area, so I would swim between the docks on each end. By using Goggle-Earth I was able to measure the distance as 328-feet (basically a football field+ in distance)...so I'd swim back & forth and people on the beach would just watch me like I was some long-distance swimming freak. Every now and then someone would swim out to join me, do barely one lap and swim back to shore (50') exhausted. Anyways, by swimming back & forth (1 lap) I could swim a mile in 8 laps. One day I measured the distance to The Village and realized it was under a mile...that's when it hit me: swim the Arrowhead Channel. :D

To answer your question, I've anticipated doing it for about a year. I wanted other people to join me in the water, but everyone looked at me like I was crazy...even the neighbor next door who does triathlons (he does sprints).

It just hit me that morning; nobody else will ever join me and I ate a fairly carb-rich dinner the previous night. I looked out at the lake and it didn't seem too busy...so I just decided this was the day. Plus, our friends were over and the dude was Ex Israeli special forces commando and IF the sh!t hit the fan, he could jump-out & save my drowning ass. Didn't you see the movie "Don't mess with the Zohan"?...these Israeli's can do anything!

Dallen, the boat followed me the whole way and kept within 15-feet of me....just in case I needed help, had to get out of the water but mostly to use as a shield/screen/marker so other boats wouldn't run me down. Swimming without a chase-boat would make it VERY easy to get run-over, it's not a very big lake and it gets uber-choppy out there when wakes converge. Did I have a hamburger at the end? No, I settled for a hot-fudge sundae. Of course I didn't have a hamburger, we hit the salad-bar at Woody's bar & grill.

flyinfree said:
that is a great!!!!

"swim accrossed Lake Arrowhead" is now added to my list. I will do that in Feb when I come fo the LA Marathon.
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No, WE will do that in February :)

First-off, thanks for the props! Secondly, next time you're in LA we'll have to hook-up and have us some fun. I'll take you on my favorite mountain biking ride and whatever else you're up for.

And yes, I did swim across the lake, but Arrowhead isn't exactly a big round lake, it has several arms, bays and is laid-out like a squashed spider. I swam one cross-section about 3/4-mile. Being that I've swam 3-miles non-stop in the gym's pool, this really wasn't all that big a deal. It's hard to say, to most people visiting us at the lake, the idea of swimming that distance is absolutely nuts, but to a trained triathlete or swimmer, it ain't no big thing at all. For me, it was one of my goals contrived long ago. It's just nice to cross another "things to do" item off the proverbial list. I'm not running a flag up the Ego-Pole. ;)

One problem: by late September everyone is taking their boats off the lake and nobody is swimming in the lake at all....and come February the water is going to be icy-cold. Our boat is off the lake in early October and comes back on around May. Bottom line; we won't have a chase-boat in Feb. That means nothing to you, since you once told me to go out, train and die trying....by extension you'd now suggest we drown trying. The insanity knows no bounds. :)

But seriously, the militant Lake Patrol will not allow swimmers beyond their standard "within 20-feet of shore". In fact, I was told I could not do this swim, but by keeping the boat next to me we just played it off as if I was a water-skier and the lake was so busy they didn't notice me. I've been swimming in our bay and, when the lake patrol just came along, they told me to stay within 20-feet of shore. Dude, without a boat, I don't think we'll stand a chance of safely or "legally" doing this in Febraury. Bottom line; I need you on a plane & here next week. :D

I don't know, we'll work out the logistics...but if you're in the hood, we're hookin' up and having us some fitness fun. If you really wanna do the lake, I'll need to get myself a serious full-body wetsuit....currently I only have a 'spring-suit' that has short legs and no arms at all. That lake water in Feb. will be numbing icy-cold.....couldn't we just play this on the Nintendo??
 
BikeSwimLaugh said:
Kraken, over in your neck of the woods they'd not only run me over, they'd likely get me taxidermed and hung over their mantle before they realized I didn't have gills and was the ugliest fish they ever caught! :D



QUOTE]

LOL yeah you're not too far off base with that one.
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