Swimming Blue

As the editor of this website I befriended Mr. Serdula as an acquaintance and I must say, I grow more impressed with him by the week. I’m a long-distance runner myself, something Mr. Serdula is also accomplished in, but I am completely ignorant about the training regimens for swimming. It’s much more intense than I have ever imagined, and clearly dangerous on some level. Being highly skilled at three very different forms of cardiovascular endurance exercise–biking, running, and swimming–is not something that the average person can attest to, especially considering his duties at the Royal Military College of Canada, so my hat goes off to him. One small note: The italicized portions of this entry are Jay’s personal thoughts and feelings of a particular event.

August 26, 2006
Jay swims from HMCS Cataraqui to the summer ferry dock on Wolfe Island in 2:34. (Approximate distance: 5.25km) This is Jay’s first big training swim. (Jay’s previous longest swim was on the order of 2.5km.

September 4, 2006
Jay swims for three hours, almost halfway to Simcoe Island, back to the shoreline west of the starting point and then back to the starting point.

September 10, 2006
Jay swims for close to three hours, making three laps around Cedar Island.

September 17, 2006
Jay swims for close to three hours, from Everitt Point to Lemoine’s Point and back.

October 9, 2006
Jay swims for seventy-five minutes in the Ottawa River. Water temperature not known.

October 31, 2006
Jay joins the Kingston Masters Aquatic Club where he will receive coaching and advice on speed and technique from two certified coaches.

November 2006
Having only breathed on his right side for several years, Jay finally learns to breathe on his left side and after a few more practices learns to breathe bilaterally.

December 20, 2006
Jay swims front crawl nonstop at the KMCSC swimming pool, covering 3.8km in 85 minutes. This is by far the longest Jay has maintained the front crawl stroke.

March 29, 2007
The ice has disappeared from the shoreline along the RMC peninsula. Jay takes his first open-water plunge of the season, only long enough to get his whole body wet.

April 10, 2007
While visiting his sister in Calgary, Jay is delighted to learn that the SAIT pool has a lane swim for two and a half hours. Jay swims front crawl for the entire lane swim, covering approximately 6.5km.

May 6, 2007
Jay swims for twenty minutes in Pearkes Lake. With the water temperature at 17C (63F), Jay is actually comfortable.

May 9, 2007
Jay swims at Progress Fitness Centre for four and a half hours, with limited breaks. Although curious to know how long he could swim for Jay had, by this time, resigned himself to two-hour lane swims at Artillery Park since this was the longest lane swim in Kingston which Jay knew about. He subsequently learns that Progress Fitness Centre has at least two lanes open for swimming at all times.

May 24, 2007
Anxious to jump-start his open-water training swims, Jay swims for 65 minutes in Lake Ontario along the shoreline of the RMC peninsula on a sunny day. Water temperature ranges from 10-12C (50-54F). Air temperature is 22C. Within minutes after coming out of the water, Jay starts shivering quite violently but is nonetheless far from hypothermia. A warm meal and a warm beverage, plus the usual routine of drying off and putting on warm clothes, is enough to suppress the shivering. (Jay’s open-water swims in the smaller lakes are already in full-swing.)

May 29, 2007
Jay swims at Progress Fitness Centre for five and a half hours, again with limited breaks.

June 2, 2007
Jay cycles to Dog Lake and swims back and forth between the dock and floatation markers, covering 13km in 5:41. It’s a sunny day. Jay feels no chill and experiences no shivering. His shoulders and upper back are somewhat red, despite having put on sunscreen. In contrast to the sunny day, Jay encounters a downpour on his bicycle ride back to Kingston and stops for shelter under a tree for an hour.

June 3, 2007
Jay swims in Lake Ontario for 1:50. Jay is shivering noticeably after completing the swim but, as always, a warm shower and warm clothes were sufficient to cure the shivering.

June 5, 2007
Jay borrows a friend’s canoe, paddles the canoe solo in Lake Ontario from Reddendale to Murney Tower (~7km) to meet two volunteer paddlers whom he had never met before and who graciously volunteered their time to meet Jay on a rainy day with waves on the order of 0.6m (which luckily didn’t get big until later on Jay’s solo canoe ride). Jay swims for close to two hours, starting at Murney Tower, swimming across the Cataraqui River and then back and forth along the RMC peninsula. At the end of the work day, Jay tries to be a hero and attempts to paddle the canoe solo from RMC back to Reddendale, despite the rough water. An inexperienced solo canoeist, Jay paddles more than one hundred strokes on the same side and keeps the canoe in one direction (not the direction Jay wanted to travel). Several times, Jay was closer to Garden Island than the mainland. Jay was one happy camper to get the canoe anywhere along the shoreline (not to mention not having capsized the canoe). Jay telephoned a close friend (thank goodness for cellphones) who graciously drove his van to meet him and drive him with the canoe back home. Of course, by the time Jay’s friend arrived half an hour later, the lake had calmed down. By this time, Jay decided that, on future swims, he would rather rent a canoe than paddle a canoe solo from Reddendale to downtown and back.

June 10, 2007
Jay swims from the shoreline of Lake Ontario towards Simcoe Island but turns around when in sight of Snake Island, in order to give his paddler, who is visiting from out of town, a view of the island. By this time, Jay is noticeably chilled and swims straight back to Dupont where he terminates his swim. Jay was in the water for two and a half hours. For the first time in his life, Jay shivers while in the water. Jay paddles his kayak back to his starting point, thus generating enough heat to offset the chill, while his paddler runs along the shoreline.

June 15-16, 2007
Jay swims from 11:30pm until 3:00am, starting and ending at HMCS Cataraqui, and going past Cedar Island. This is Jay’s first night swim. Jay wanted to know how he handled night swimming when well-rested before attempting a twenty-four hour swim. Jay handled it quite well, although the illumination from the streetlights of downtown Kingston may have provided an inaccurate depiction of swimming in total darkness.

June 23, 2007
Jay has a new idea: a point-to-point swim from Faircrest Blvd (about 4km east of RMC) to Amherstview. (Estimated distance: 24km) Jay aborts the swim after six and a half hours due to coldness. Water temperature is approximately 19C (66F). Estimated distance covered is thirteen kilometres.

July 7, 2007
Jay makes another attempt at his point-to-point swim from Faircrest Blvd to Amherstview. Jay sets up four shifts of paddlers. The waves get noticeably rough at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour but the second shift of paddlers handle it fine. At the Kingston Psychiatric Hospital, when the third shift of paddlers take over, the swim is immediately aborted due to an inability of the paddlers to control the canoe.

July 13-14, 2007
Jay swims from 10:15am until 12:30am at Wolfe Lake. Camp Iawah has graciously given Jay permission to use a canoe, paddles, and lifejackets. The intent was to swim for twenty-four hours but the swim was aborted after 14 hours for safety reasons, plus concerns of liability and hypothermia. Although Jay had goosebumps, Jay did not feel any chill while in the water. Jay was shivering mildly after coming out of the water. Somewhat disappointed at not being allowed to continue, Jay is happy to have more than doubled his previous longest swim plus done some night swimming. In addition, Jay has the psychological benefit of knowing that he could have swum longer.

July 21-22, 2007
Jay travels to a friend’s cottage at Chippego Lake and makes another attempt to swim for twenty-four hours starting at 6am. At 1am, Jay firmly announces that he is quitting despite encouragement from his support crew to continue. Without adequate medical personnel, save one lifeguard, plus being far from a hospital, Jay virtually made the decision at 8pm, when he first felt chilled and could still think clearly, that he would quit the swim at 1am. Jay knew that, once in hypothermia, he would not have the discernment to know when to quit. By the end of the swim, Jay is swimming for twenty-five minutes and then eating for five minutes. Jay shivered for at least twenty minutes after coming out of the water. Jay’s crew wrapped Jay in blankets and encouraged him to keep moving so Jay continued walking laps around the kitchen table while one crew member continued walking backwards around the table in order to look at Jay and keep him company. A warm meal suppressed the shivering.

July 28, 2007
Jay participates in the annual Swim for the Cure in Severn River, covering the complete distance of 12.8km in 5:53. The swim is a fundraiser for breast cancer but from Jay’s point of view it is more a training session for the big swim across Lake Ontario.

August 1, 2007
The RMC sea cadets, who have already accompanied Jay on two previous training swims, accompanied Jay in a canoe from the RMC boathouse to the Wolfe Island summer ferry dock, to the winter ferry dock, to Knapp Point and back to RMC for a total of eight and a half hours. Swimming from the boathouse to the summer ferry dock (slightly more than 5km) took Jay exactly two hours.

August 8, 2007
Jay’s final swim with the RMC sea cadets. Jay swims in the opposite direction this time, from the boathouse, past Cedar Island, to Milton Island, across to Knapp Point on Wolfe Island, and then parallel to the Wolfe Island shoreline towards Garden Island. At 2:30pm, before reaching Garden Island, Jay estimates it will take him an hour and a half to swim back to the boathouse and realizes that he must head back immediately since he told the sea cadets they’d be back by 4pm. On account of rough waves (and possibly fatigue as well), it takes Jay two and a half hours to get back. The sea cadets have graciously accompanied Jay on four of his training swims during their six-week stay at RMC.

September 1, 2007
Jay travels to Ottawa and competes as part of a team in the Iron-Distance Triathlon in Mooney’s Bay, swimming 3.8km in 79 minutes.

September 22, 2007
Jay makes a third and final attempt at his point-to-point swim from Faircrest Blvd to Amherstview. Jay sets up three shifts of paddlers. Jay starts the swim at 7:15am despite waves more than one metre in height. Who knew how big the waves would be further along the swim where the lake is wider and at a time of day when the waves are usually bigger? After one hour, Jay’s paddlers head for shore after concluding that they are unable to keep the canoe near Jay which all but defeats the purpose of having a canoe. Submerged from the neck down, Jay is unable to see how much water is in the canoe. As soon as he gets to shore and sees how much water there is he becomes surprised that his paddlers didn’t abort the swim sooner. Jay learns later that his paddler in the bow had only ever been in a canoe once, during Jay’s twenty-four hour swim at Chippego Lake. What adventurous spirit! Nonetheless, Jay’s chauffeur transports him, the canoe and the others to the PUC dock to meet the second shift of paddlers. This time, the paddlers manage to control the canoe and keep it near Jay for three hours despite the four foot waves (Good job! I’ll hire you any day) before aborting the swim. Jay is not shivering but gets vaseline on his windbreaker (an old one) after getting dressed. Jay liberally coated his body with vaseline before the swim in anticipation of swimming for eleven hours.

September 29, 2007
Having learned of the unwritten guideline that candidates should be able to complete the 16km open-water trial swim in six hours, Jay gets curious to know how close he is to meeting the guideline. Once again he cycles to Dog Lake and swims 13km in 5:41. As the homeowners point out, the water level is lower in the fall plus the weeds have time to grow. Consequently, Jay kept getting disturbed by the weeds.

October 16, 2007
Jay swims for an hour and twenty minutes. Having come down with a cold three days ago, Jay is debating not swimming, even at the last minute after two of his paddling volunteers have graciously volunteered their time and kept their word to meet Jay. By now, Jay thinks that each open-water swim is going to be his last.

October 21, 2007
Jay swims for twenty-five minutes in 16C (61F) water without shivering. The only reason the swim was aborted was that the wave height was on the order of three or four metres and Jay’s paddler, who paddled Jay’s seventeen foot kayak, often could not reach the water with the paddle.

October 29, 2007
Jay swims for an hour and five minutes in Lake Ontario. Water temperature is approximately 12C (54F) although may have varied from one point to another. This time, running three minutes to get home, a warm shower and warm clothes still are not enough to completely suppress the shivering.

November 2, 2007
At noon, Jay and six of his RMC colleagues swim across Navy Bay, from Fort Henry to RMC (250m) as a fundraising incentive for United Way. A sunny day with little wind, and with the bay flat calm, the conditions could not have been better. The water temperature is 13C (55F). Jay discerns with his sense of touch that the water is cold but his body doesn’t feel cold. Jay completes the swim without shivering.

November 5, 2007
Jay’s final open-water swim of the season. For three weeks, he thought that each open-water swim would be his last swim. His plan was to continue the swims as long as he was able to withstand the water for one hour. After 53 minutes in the water the discomfort is too great to stay in any longer. Water temperature is 12C (54F).

November 26, 2007
Jay swims front crawl nonstop for three hours at Progress Fitness Centre, covering 8.375km.

December 6, 2007
Jay has informed marathon swimmer and Swim Master Vicki Keith about his concern of “failing” the 16km open water trial swim in anticipation of not meeting the unwritten guideline of completing the trial swim in six hours. Vicki has advised Jay to work on his speed and suggested the following workouts:
8×400m on 8 minutes
16×200m on 4 minutes
32×100m on 2 minutes
Jay completes seven sets of 400m intervals on 8 ½ minutes:
7:20, 7:31, 7:41, 7:36, 7:53, 8:01, 8:18

December 15, 2007
Jay attempts to swim 16km at Progress Fitness Centre but quits after covering 9.1km in 3:41, on account of pain in the triceps.

December 24, 2007
While visiting his parents for the holidays, Jay visits the local pool and swims 200m intervals, with warm-up and cool-down. He is unable to do a complete workout since the duration of the lane swim is only one hour. After having done two days of cross-country skiing upon his arrival home, freezing rain ruins the skiing conditions for a few days. But swimming is an excellent alternative.

December 28, 2007
Jay returns to the local swimming pool and swims 100m intervals, with warm-up and cool-down.

January 5, 2008
Jay swims 16km at Progress Fitness Centre in 6:30.

Progress Fitness Centre has agreed to give Jay complimentary usage of their facilities in exchange for being named as a sponsor.

January 14, 2008
Jay swims 4.525km in eighty-nine minutes, one and a half minutes faster than his targeted pace of 3km/h (=30sec/25m)

January 18, 2008
At Masters swimming practice, Jay completes the following:
five sets of 100m with 20 seconds rest: 1:45, 1:50, 1:48, 1:48, 1:52
five sets of 75m with 15 seconds rest: 1:22, 1:22, 1:25, 1:20, 1:25
five sets of 50m with 15 seconds rest: 0:53, 0:53, 0:48, 0:50, 0:52?
five sets of 25m with 15 seconds rest: 0:24, 0:26, 0:25, 0:25, 0:24?

January 23, 2008
Jay completes eight sets of 400m intervals on 8 minutes:
7:09, 7:28, 7:26, 7:33, 7:43, 7:52*, 8:05, 8:18
*on 8 ½ minutes from here on

January 30, 2008
Jay swims at Progress Fitness Centre for four hours. The original plan was to take only one feeding break (liquid only) at the half-way point. At 1:42, a muscle seizure in the right calf forces Jay to stand and gave him an incentive to take a feeding break early, in addition to another feeding break later in the workout. The muscle pain quickly disappears, enabling Jay to continue swimming. Jay is not concerned about safety because if this were to happen in open water he would, in the worst case scenario, resort to travel stroke (three drown proofs followed by a kick and a pull) until his paddler could throw him a lifejacket. Travel stroke was not an option at Progress Fitness Centre where the swimming pool is 1.35m deep at its deepest point, just barely deep enough for Jay to tread water without touching his foot to the ground.

February 6, 2008
Jay completes fifteen sets of 200m intervals on 4 minutes:
3:38, 3:43, 3:43, 3:48, 3:43, 3:44, 3:53*, 3:55,
3:53, 3:53, 3:55, 3:58, 3:58, 3:55, 3:55
*on 4:15 from here on

February 16-17, 2008
Jay participates in the annual Gatineau loppet, completing both the 53km race on Saturday (classic style) as well as another 53km race on Sunday (ski-skating style). For many years, cross-country skiing has, by far, been Jay’s favourite winter sport. This winter, Jay is torn between enjoying his favourite winter sport versus swimming in order to train for the big event.

February 24, 2008
Jay swims 16km at Progress Fitness Centre in 6:51. Having already completed one 16km pool swim, plus being in the recovery process from the double ski race the weekend before, Jay is not worried about being slower than on his previous 16km swim. His main motivation was to maintain endurance.

February 27, 2008
Jay completes thirty-two sets of 100m intervals on 2 minutes:
1:43, 1:42, 1:39, 1:38, 1:43, 1:43, 1:43, 1:45?,
1:??, 1:46, 1:45, 1:46, 1:47, 1:46, 1:46, 1:51,
1:52, 1:53, 1:53, 1:53, 1:56*, 1:53, 1:53, 1:52,
1:52, 1:53, 1:54, 1:53, 1:54, 1:53, 1:53, 1:52
*on 2:05 from here on

March 2, 2008
Jay swims at Progress Fitness Centre for four hours and fifteen minutes, doing front crawl the entire time save two feeding breaks (liquid only) at the two-hour and four-hour mark. At four hours, Jay has covered 11.075km with only one feeding break. Then Jay covers another 550m in fifteen minutes.

March 7, 2008
Jay completes eight sets of 400m on 8 minutes:
7:13, 7:23, 7:30, 7:40, 7:40, 7:38, 7:43, 7:47

March 9, 2008
With the attendance at Masters swimming practice low (presumably because of the snowstorm), Jay has an entire lane to himself and opts for 200m intervals in lieu of the prescribed workout.
The duration of the practice is one hour and Jay squeezes in ten intervals in addition to warm-up and cool-down.
10×200m on 4 minutes
3:40, 3:42, 3:45, 3:44, 3:44
3:43, 3:43, 3:43, 3:47, 3:50

March 12, 2008
Jay completes thirty-two sets of 100m intervals on 2 minutes:
1:37, 1:39, 1:41, 1:42, 1:42, 1:45, 1:45, 1:44
1:44, 1:45, 1:46, 1:46, 1:47, 1:46, 1:45, 1:45
1:45, 1:43, 1:44, 1:45, 1:46, 1:45, 1:47, 1:46?
1:47, 1:49, 1:47, 1:48, 1:48, 1:48, 1:47, 1:47
For the second half of the workout, one of Jay’s co-workers who is noticeably faster than him graciously joined him and swam behind him during each interval, usually doing either front crawl at a relaxed pace or back crawl. This motivated Jay to swim faster. A big thank-you to Jay’s co-worker, not only on Jay’s behalf but also on behalf of all the people with Asperger’s Syndrome who will benefit from the increased awareness resulting from his swim.

March 18, 2008
Jay completes eight sets of 400m intervals on 8 minutes:
7:16, 7:23, 7:30, 7:30, 7:47, 7:49*, 8:04, 8:14
*on 8:15 from here on

March 26, 2008
Jay completes sixteen sets of 200m intervals on 4 minutes:
3:32, 3:35, 3:38, 3:42, 3:42, 3:43, 3:43, 3:46
3:48, 3:52*, 3:50, 3:55, 3:56, 3:49, 3:55, 3:59
*on 4:05 from here on
Once again, Jay’s co-worker, Catriona, joined him and swam behind him for most of the intervals.

April 2, 2008
Jay completes thirty sets of 100m intervals on 2:05:
1:43, 1:48, 1:44, 1:45, 1:45, 1:47, 1:44, 1:45
1:47, 1:44, 1:46, 1:45, 1:46, 1:49*, 1:46, 1:47
1:48, 1:46, 1:47, 1:47, 1:48, 1:48, 1:46, 1:49
1:50, 1:49, 1:50, 1:??, 1:??, 1:50**
*this interval was started five seconds too early
**on 2:10

Dedicated to helping Jay achieve his ambition in whatever way she can, Catriona has agreed to accompany Jay on his speed workouts every Wednesday, whenever possible. This time, Jay accepted Catriona’s offer that she swim 10 seconds ahead of him to help him maintain a consistent pace. In addition, Catriona has given Jay several pieces of invaluable advice including:
- swim at a relaxed pace on the first interval (gliding more and focusing on making his stroke feel smooth and effortless) as Jay has been swimming the first interval way too fast
- a consistent pace is more important than the amount of rest (hence the extra rest time)
The intent for today was to swim every interval on 1:45

April 6, 2008
Jay swims for three and a half hours at Progress Fitness Centre. His goal was to swim for five hours with only two feeding breaks in order to help condition himself to complete swim 16km with limited feeding breaks in order to “save time”. Just before the three hour mark, Jay’s calf muscle suddenly seized up without warning, probably because of a lack of fluid/nourishment. So much for saving time. Jay rests for ten minutes and then swims for another half hour before calling it quits.

April 8, 2008
Jay takes his first open water swim of the season and stays in for forty-five seconds. The cold water inflicts physical pain. Thanks to the sunny day with little wind, Jay warms up quickly – although he must keep moving for at least twenty seconds to counter the agony. After warming up, Jay goes back into the water for another forty-five seconds.

April 9, 2008
Jay completes eight sets of 400m intervals on 8:20
7:35, 7:34, 7:32, 7:34, 7:35, 7:32, 7:38, 7:36
The goal was initially to do every interval on 7:40 but was changed to 7:35 after the second interval.

April 14, 2008
Catriona shows Jay some swimming drills from the book “Total Immersion”
by Terry Laughlin. Catriona informs Jay that he is to rotate his body
to the side with each stroke. Front crawl is essentially performed on
one’s side and not on one’s front as many amateur swimmers assume.
Later in the day, Jay takes another short swim in Lake Ontario near
downtown Kingston and is photographed for a front-page picture in
tomorrow’s local newspaper.

April 16, 2008
Jay completes sixteen sets of 200m intervals on 4:10:
3:42, 3:37, 3:40, 3:44, 3:42, 3:45, 3:46, 3:46
3:48, 3:47, 3:50, 3:52, 3:51, 3:55, 3:46, 3:46
Once again, the goal was to keep every interval at a constant pace.
3:45 was the desired pace.

April 20, 2008
Jay swims 16km in 6:19 at Progress Fitness Centre, taking only four short feeding breaks. Near the end of this arduous swim, Jay manages to sprint 500m in 11:03

April 22, 2008
At the end of the workout with the Masters swimming club, before the cool-down, Jay swims eight sets of 50m on 1:00
0:47, 0:50, 0:50, 0:52, 0:50, 0:50, 0:50, 0:51

April 23, 2008
Jay completes twenty-seven sets of 100m on 2:05
1:48, 1:47, 1:46, 1:46, 1:44, 1:46, 1:46, 1:46
1:45, 1:47, 1:47, 1:50, 1:47, 1:50, 1:48, 1:47
1:50*, 1:54, 1:51, 1:51, 1:54, 1:54, 1:55, 1:55**
1:48, 1:51, 1:51
*on 2:10 from here on
**on 2:30 from here on

April 27, 2008
Jay swims for four hours and ten minutes at Progress Fitness Centre, taking only one short feeding break. Distance covered is 11.075km. Near the end of the workout, Jay sprints 725m in 15:37

April 28, 2008
Jay plans to swim twelve sets of 400m but calls it quits after the second interval, concluding that there is no point in continuing the workout.
8:12, 7:57
Jay has never been this slow; he guesses and hopes that his body is calling for rest after the four hour swim yesterday. Any other reason for his slowness spells trouble. Determined to salvage something from his visit to the pool, Jay swims four sets of 25m with 10 seconds rest:
0:24, 0:25, 0:26, 0:25

April 30, 2008
Jay swims front crawl nonstop for 87 minutes, covering 4.15km. Near the end of the workout, Jay sprints 400m in 8:00

May 4, 2008
Frontenac Outfitters holds their annual open house and blow-out sale. Thanks to Frontenac Outfitters’ generous donation of canoes and kayaks for free test paddling, Jay swims for 65 minutes in Pearkes Lake (his first open-water training swim of the season) while two of his volunteer paddlers kayak beside him. Water temperature is 57F (14C). Pearkes Lake is seventy feet deep at its maximum depth and therefore warms up quite quickly in the spring. Within the first two mintues, Jay wonders if he will be able to withstand the water. Less than ten minutes later, in a sunny area, Jay was much more comfortable.

May 6, 2008
Jay completes seven sets of 400m on 8:15:
7:33, 7:40, 7:46, 7:53*, 8:03, 8:06, 8:31
*on 8:30 from here on

May 7, 2008
Catriona graciously gives Jay one hour of one-on-one attention as she walks Jay through some drills, helping Jay to focus on his form. Drills consisted of distance per stroke, body rotation, and kicking on one’s side with head lead and hand lead. Later in the day, Jay swims in Navy Bay (part of Lake Ontario) for ten minutes. Water temperature is 53.5F (12C). Jay originally thought he would be calling it quits within five minutes and had told his spotters that ten minutes would be the absolute longest. Experience has shown that, unless Jay is in so much pain that he wants out of the water within five minutes, his heat-generating mechanisms have time to register in which case he can withstand the water for one hour.

May 9, 2008
Jay swims front crawl nonstop for three hours and ten minutes at Progress Fitness Centre. Distance covered is 8.225km.

May 11, 2008
Jay undertakes his second open-water training swim of the season, swimming for one hour and twenty-five minutes in Gould Lake. Water temperature is 59F (15C).

May 14, 2008
Jay completes fifteen sets of 200m on 4:10
3:46, 3:47, 3:43, 3:45, 3:47, 3:53, 3:53, 3:53
3:56*, 4:57**, 3:58, 4:01, 4:01, 3:46, 3:46
*on 4:20 from here on
**250m

Later that afternoon, Jay undertakes his first training swim in Lake Ontario this season, swimming for one hour and twenty-one minutes along the shoreline of the RMC peninsula. Surprisingly, Jay is comfortable some of the time but nonetheless chilled most of the time. Water temperature is 58F (14C) at the starting and finishing point but may vary by a few degrees over the course of the swim.

May 17, 2008
Jay undertakes his second training swim in Lake Ontario. Jay swims for 1:15 and would have preferred to continue swimming for as long as two hours but his kayaker was ready to call it quits. Water temperature is 56F (13C).

May 19, 2008
Jay returns to Dog Lake for a timed 16km swim, swimming from his friend’s dock to the 500m floatation marker and back 16 times, taking only five short feeding breaks. Jay completes the first kilometer in 21 minutes. At the end, Jay has slowed down to 28 or 29 minutes per kilometer. Jay sprints the last kilometer in 23 minutes. Total time was 6:51. Water temperature is approximately 61F (16C).

May 21, 2008
Jay completes thirty-one sets of 100m on 2:10:
1:55, 1:58, 1:55, 1:52, 1:52, 1:54, 1:55, 1:55
1:55, 1:54, 1:55, 1:54, 1:54, 1:55, 1:54, 1:57
1:57, 1:56, 1:56, 2:00, 2:01*, 2:01, 1:57, 1:00**
2:04, 2:05, 1:57, 1:57, 2:03?, 1:54, 1:58?, 2:02
*on 2:20 from here on
**sudden calf muscle seizure at 50m; Jay rests for 20 seconds before beginning the next interval

Originally, Jay had planned to swim forty-eight sets. Operating on the belief that one key part of the workout is to sprint the last three sets, Jay decides throughout the workout to swim only twenty-eight sets, swimming the twenty-fifth set easy and sprinting the next three. After twenty-eight sets, Jay decides he has enough energy to swim one more set. During that set, he decides he’ll do yet another set providing he completes that set within two minutes.

May 23, 2008
Jay swims along the shoreline of the RMC peninsula. The water temperature has dropped to 50F (10C), presumably on account of yesterday’s rainfall. Jay exits the water after forty minutes for obvious reasons.

May 25, 2008
Jay swims for one hour in Lake Ontario by downtown Kingston. Water temperature is estimated to be 52F (11C). Although it takes a few minutes before Jay starts shivering, his friends are concerned for him. One of Jay’s friends graciously turns on his car heater after which Jay sits in the car for fifteen minutes until he feels warm. The car feels like a sauna to everyone else while Jay is still shivering.

May 26, 2008
Jay completes twelve sets of 400m on 9:00
8:13, 8:20, 8:26, 8:28*, 8:25*, 8:32, 8:33, 8:33
8:45**, 9:14, 8:13, 8:17
*distances may not be accurate
**30 seconds rest from here on

May 28, 2008
Jay completes fifteen sets of 200m on 4:15
3:55, 3:51, 3:51, 3:55, 3:53, 3:52, 3:53, 3:51
2:53*, 3:54, 3:55, 4:00, 3:48, 3:49, 3:52
*150m

June 1, 2008
Pam Haldane, a Total Immersion coach, has agreed to be Jay’s coach for the big swim. Spending an entire day with Jay, Pam walks Jay through the total immersion drills, videotapes his swimming and tells him where he can improve. One of Pam’s many suggestions is to glide more and thus gain more distance per stroke. With Pam’s help, Jay swims 25m with only eighteen strokes where, previously, Jay averaged thirty strokes per 25m. This improvement, if continued, will reduce immensely the number of strokes required to swim across Lake Ontario.

June 4, 2008
While Pam was coaching Jay, one of Jay’s friends, whom he met at an earlier training session at Progress Fitness Centre, introduced Jay to Jean who also likes to enforce a longer stroke. Jean walks Jay through front crawl drills after which Jay completes forty-seven sets of 100m:
1:50, 1:53, 1:55, 1:57, 1:55, 1:56
2:01, 1:56, 2:00, 2:04, 2:03, 2:04
2:01, 2:05, 2:01, 1:58*, 1:07, 1:06
2:05, 2:09, 2:09, 2:08, 2:05*, 2:12
2:13, 2:14, 2:14, 2:14+, 2:12, 2:10
2:06*, 2:08, 2:18, 2:14?, 2:10, 2:11
2:10, 2:14?, 2:17?, 2:??, 2:16, 2:02
2:05, 2:05, 2:07, 2:07, 2:03
*at Jean’s suggestion, Jay swims the last 25m fast
+at Jean’s suggestion, Jay swims head-up front crawl on the last lap

At the end of the workout, Jean comments that the workout is symbiotic since Jean had not swum that far in some time.

June 7, 2008
Jay’s friend Jens comes to Kingston to visit him. Partly for a variety in swimming and partly because Jens enjoys ferry rides, Jay suggests that he paddle his kayak to Amherst Island while Jens drives his car to the island. Once on the island, Jens paddles beside Jay while Jay swims along the shoreline. Jens and Jay stay close to shore, so close that the waves are breaking and pushing Jay towards shore. At least twice, Jay brushes against the bottom of the lake and asks Jens to move further from shore. Jay swims west, against the current, for two hours and ten minutes until the turnaround point and then swims back to the starting point in an hour and a half. This is Jay’s longest swim in Lake Ontario this season. Water temperature was 58F (14C) most of the time but 54C (12C) in a few places. Jens was unable to keep his hand in the water with the thermometer for even 7 minutes without it aching from the cold. While Jay is paddling the kayak back to the shoreline, Jens measures the road distance one way to be 3.4km, although the shoreline distance may be slightly longer. Once back on the mainland, Jay and Jens have supper at an all-you-can-eat place, which Jay has worked up an appetite for, with two of Jay’s other volunteer paddlers.

June 8, 2008
Jay swims in Lake Ontario, further east this time. Jay starts at HMCS Cataraqui and swims around the point of Cedar Island and then swims back. Jay is in the water for two and a half hours, his first time in Lake Ontario this season without feeling chilled.

June 11, 2008
Once again, Jean meets Jay at Progress Fitness Centre to accompany him on his final set of speed intervals before the trial swim. Jay completes five sets of 100m as a warm-up:
2:07, 2:07, 2:16?, 2:09?, 2:11?

Then Jay completes ten sets of 400m intervals:
9:00, 9:05, 9:07, 8:51, 9:11
9:19, 9:01, 8:54, 8:40, 8:33
Rest period is usually 45-60 seconds

June 13, 2008
Jay travels to Hamilton to meet Pam for another day of coaching. Marilyn, Jay’s Swim Master and secretary of Solo Swims of Ontario, stops at the pool for a few minutes to meet both Jay and Pam for the first time and exchange a few words. Later, Jay and Marilyn get together to discuss the logistics of the trial swim including location.

June 22, 2008
Swim Master Marilyn and coach Pam, along with a few other support boaters and paddlers, meet Jay at Loyalist Cove Marina in Bath for Jay’s 16km trial swim. Loyalist Cove Marina has graciously agreed to sponsor Jay by allowing the use of their facilities. Jay is accompanied by a 20-foot power boat plus three kayaks. At three hours and fifteen minutes, Jay is informed that he has swum 8km and is instructed to turn around. After five hours and forty-one minutes, Jay arrives back at the marina. The power boat encountered engine problems and finally broke down on the return trip. This affected the GPS readings since the GPS was tracking every zigzag. Somehow, Jay knew he had not covered the full 16km, since Jay had never been that fast even in a swimming pool and the current certainly didn’t help matters. Water temperature is 62F (16C) and the waves were one to two feet high. Jay starts shivering slightly several minutes after completing the swim. A warm shower and warm clothes suppressed the shivering completely. Marilyn informs Jay after the fact that he had only swum 12km. All said and done, the distance doesn’t really matter; what matters is that Jay is now sanctioned.

July 1, 2008
Pam returns to Kingston to give Jay another day of coaching.

July 5, 2008
Jay swims for just over five hours, from the marina at Deadman’s Bay to Milton Island and back.

July 6, 2008
Jay undertakes his peak training swim of the season. Jay starts swimming at Faircrest Blvd and swims upriver. Jay had planned to make it to Amherstview. After three unsuccessful attempts last summer, Jay makes it further than ever before. On account of a mix-up with the volunteer paddlers, Jay makes it to Bayridge Drive and then turns around and conveniently ends the swim at his house. Jay had been in the water for ten hours and covered an estimated twenty kilometres. The water is calm for almost all of the swim. There is not a cloud in the sky; Jay does not feel the slightest chill but is quite sunburned despite having applied sunscreen before entering the water, sunburned enough to notice as soon as he tries to dry his upper back.

July 13, 2008
Now tapering, Jay swims for seven hours and fifteen minutes while accompanied by a powerboat with two RMC sea cadets with rescue training. Partway through the swim, Jay swims back to the boathouse so that the boaters can have lunch, during which time Jay takes a feeding break, treads water, and swims back and forth between two docks.

July 20, 2008
Jay swims for six hours and twenty minutes, accompanied once again by two RMC sea cadets in a powerboat.

July 22, 2008
Jay swims for four hours, starting at the RMC boathouse and swimming almost all the way to Milton Island and back, accompanied in a canoe by three sea cadets who remember Jay from last year.

July 24, 2008
Jay completes his final training swim before the big event, swimming for two hours and twenty minutes in Lake Ontario despite thunderstorm warnings. Jay’s paddler keeps the kayak close to shore, almost always within ten metres, ready to abort at any time. Now that the training is complete, there is nothing more to do – except tackle the lake.

“Inexperienced athletes are nervous; they focus on results.
Experienced athletes focus on preparation.”