Training for the Flowers Sea Swim

Katie and I are both training to do the Flowers Sea Swim on June 9.  That competition is a mile long swim in open water along Seven Mile Beach and it is one of the premiere open water events around the globe.  Each year it draws 800 swimmers including famous open water swimmers and Olympians.  You have to finish the mile in one hour and fifteen minutes.  Katie is already up to swimming a mile in open water and is now working on her time goal.  I am still working up to a mile and yesterday did a practice 800 meter swim doing freestyle the entire way with no stopping.  It was very calm and fantastic conditions for my first try at accomplishing that.  You may recall that when I did the CBAC 800 meter swim last month, I did it using a combination of freestyle, breaststroke and even some backstroke with just kicking.  I also was wiped out at the end of that swim.  So yesterday I wanted to see if I could do 800 meters without stopping, all freestyle and at a calm pace so that I would still have something in the tank at the end. 

I am happy to say I was able to do the swim yesterday in just about twenty minutes entirely freestyle and without stopping and without being so exhausted at the end that I was ready to pass out as had happened back in March.  I have two more practice swims this week followed by the Lime 800 meter open water swim race next weekend.  After that I will step it up to trying to swim a mile in open water without stopping and with any luck might actually be able to get to Katie's level and actually set a time goal for the Flowers Sea Swim and not just a goal of finishing within the allowable limit.

800 Meter Training Swim on May 5, 2012