Tom Parette

Chesapeake Bay "Swim Course"

It has been a few weeks since the Chesapeake Bay Swim and wanted to reflect on the 4.4 mile swim event.

First I was very impressed by the quality of the race in terms of the race support.  It was very well organized and well run before during and after the event.  There was a significant number of kayaks and other craft on the course for people that may have trouble during the race.  The race itself actually went as I expected.  Granted, 4.4 miles is a long way to swim but the conditions made it not a difficult event to finish.  I never did see the boats to get drinks, etc. at mile 2 and mile 3 but I likely would not have stopped anyway.  I did end up with a very sore left shoulder and a bit of wetsuit rash but felt just fine after the race and drove from Baltimore back to Charlotte right after the completion.  I can foresee doing other long distance swim events in the future including this event again.  There is also some great venues to participate in long distance open water swims.

http://www.worldstop100openwaterswims.com/

I have not posted for a while and wanted to share some thoughts around training for a different event this year.

I was able to get in the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim  http://bayswim.com/ for 2012.  It is a 4.4 mile swim across the bay taking place on 6/10/12.  The longest swim I have done to this point is 2.4 miles in the Ironman races I have competed in.  From a training standpoint, I am obviously working on much longer swims but also focusing on long runs as the endurance aspect of this race will come in to play.  I am looking at 2:15 - 2:30 to finish this depending on conditions.  I am viewing this much like a marathon from a training perspective working on base miles/yards first then doing speedwork as training progresses.  Like a marathon, nutrition and hydration will be a consideration for this race but obviously will be different on if/how the problem will be addressed.

Overall I am looking forward to trying something different this year.  Part of this is recognition that after 27 marathons I may not be able to continue long distance running forever and this is an option to compete in challenging events and visit some wonderful venues.  Below is a link to what is considered the top 100 open water swims in the world.  The bay swim is #95 on this list.

http://www.worldstop100openwaterswims.com/

I recently ran across the site http://www.mapmyrun.com and started using it to track my mileage. You map out your regular routes and log those on the dates you run them. Below is a view of my Sunday run using their mapping tool.