Bear Lake Training Update - January

A quick Bear Lake training update for January:

First of all, I now have a date set for my attempt.  Thanks to Gords, we will be staying at his family's cabin in Logan over the Labor Day weekend and I will be attempting my swim on Labor Day (September 3).  Both Gords and Goody have both signed on as support and I'm very happy to have my friends be part of the swim.

In January I swam a total of 90,200 yards (51.25 miles), averaging about 22,550 yards (12.8 miles) per week.  50 miles is the first milestone in the USMS Go The Distance competition and will earn me a swim cap.  The 50+ miles in January also keeps me on track to finish 200 miles in the US Open Water Swimming Virtual Open Water Swim in February.

My training plan calls for me to hold the same weekly yardage for February as I did in January, but I might try to increase it a little bit.

Although my training has been focused on distance rather than speed, I have been getting a bit faster.  I swam 4,425 yards in the USMS 1 hour postal swim, which was more than I expected.  I also beat my 500 time from the SDRC meet three times during a recent workout and am excited to go for a PR at the upcoming QUAC Ski-n-Swim meet.

I have been meaning to try Hammer Perpetuem as a "fuel" source for Bear Lake, and recently did.  So far, I like it and plan to continue using and experimenting with it.

I tried contacting the National Kidney Foundation of Utah to see if they would be willing to have me swim to raise money for Kidney Camp and Youth Transplant Camp.  I haven't heard back yet, and need to try to get a hold of them again.

As my training progresses, I am getting more confident in my ability to finish the Bear Lake swim.  Where I used to get anxious thinking about it, I am actually getting excited for it now.  I had a dream a week or so ago where I finished the swim in a time of 9:15!  That time is definitely out of my reach right now, but at least my subconscious is confident that I can finish!