Those who have done the Boston Light swim

RE: Those who have done the Boston Light swim

Former Member — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:37:52 GMT

Thanks Leonard, JDY and Fish for your thoughts!! Very reassuring and helpful advice. I had no idea about the salt water bouyancy, I am looking forward to that. I'm still most worried about the effects of 60 degree water and my leg cramps, but less so now. Thank you!

RE: Those who have done the Boston Light swim

Former Member — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:56:37 GMT

You definitley ar etraining enough fo rthe BLS. I did no OW training prior to my Boston swim last year. I did nothing to acclimate myself as I seem to get cold easily except when it comes to swimming. I like Leonard may be part Polar Bear as I never felt cold. As far as the bouy for temp, last year it was reading 66-67 at the time of the BLS. In fact, it was 60-63 along the course. As for salt water, more abrasion was a problem (straps of suit) & my tongue/mouth got sores. Any solutions for this? I am swimming in just over 2 weeks in sea water & would like to avoid this if possible. One other point is to have a feeding schedule down & what is comfortable on your stomach.

RE: Those who have done the Boston Light swim

Former Member — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:35:44 GMT

This post was really helpful to me. Great training suggestions. I have several follow-up questions, for you or anyone else. As background, I am swimming the BLS this year, and its my first race longer than 3 miles, first in temps this low, and first ocean race. I am training in a combo of OW lakes and pools, doing the equivalent of 40K yards per week, no coach to guide me however. I have swum 4.5 continuous in training so far, and going 6-7 should not be a problem and is on the training plan in the next few weeks. My goal is just to finish - not sure what pace I might achieve in those conditions, on a good day 25 min miles should be doable, but i don't know what the waves and temp will do to me. My questions: 1. How big a difference is salt water going to make for a swim that long? Is dealing with salt water ingestion a huge issue that I am not aware of? 2. I have been training comfortably at 66 - 68 degrees OW for 2 hours at a time. I take nothing but cold showers at 57 (as low as mine goes) every day to help acclimate. Given these facts, would you invest a lot of time travelling to colder water training spots if you were me? I would have to make some significant sacrifices to do so. The temp for the BLS as of today is 59. 3. After about 3 miles continuous, I tend to fight leg cramps. When I can touch down and stretch they are no problem, but in OW they can spread up my leg and sieze me. I am gradually working through it, and improving all the time at this (working on flexibility, heavier training to reduce fatigue, diet, muscle relaxation, etc.). Any experience or thoughts about this to share for a swim like this? 4. Bilateral breathing is something I can do but prefer to avoid. Is it so essential to a swim like this that I should be more disciplined about it and force it into my training every day? Your thoughts and anyone's are greatly appreciated. Just my opinions: 1. Salt water can make you sick if you take too much in. That said, I've never experienced it. I have gotten severe (near terminal) heartburn after races in salt water, though. I wouldn't worry too much about it, but just try not to drink Boston Harbor dry. The good news is that salt water makes you more buoyant/faster. 2. Sounds like you will probably be OK temperature-wise. The water could be in the mid-60's or it could be in the mid-50's depending on the weather. You might want to travel to somewhere in that area at least once to get a feel for what you are going to face and then make a decision about doing more traveling to cold water based on that. The year I did it I had almost no cold water training. However, I am part polar bear. One "trick" that I use is that I sleep without much in the way of covers year-round. Winter is often just a cotton sheet or very light blanket and summer is just sleeping on top of the bed. I often wake up with a cat on each side as they try to get body heat off me. 3. I've never cramped up, so I'm not sure what to say. You may want to consult with a doctor and/or trainer about this. I do think that that flexibility and being sure that your diet has adequate electrolytes is an easy win in this area. BTW, if memory servers me, David Barra may have had some issue with this at MIMS. David? 4. It's good idea to at least be able to bilateral breathe comfortably for brief stretches of your swim. It can relax over-used muscles, help you sight and make breathing easier if the waves are smashing into your preferred side. Easiest way to train it is to go up one side of the pool breathing to your right and then swim back breathing to your left. You don't need to do huge amounts of this, just enough to be comfortable for short stretches during the race. Also be sure that you are doing some gentle stretches for the neck muscles and upper back in your preparation. Other: If you are doing 40k/week you will have NO problem handling the distance - cramps and cold water aside. Even if it is rough, you will have enough in the tank to do this and do pretty well, I'd bet. Make sure your boat person knows what they are doing and where they are going. Knowledge of the harbors currents and navigation is a great help. Go heavy on the sunscreen. Please feel free to PM me if I can help you in any way. -LBJ

RE: Those who have done the Boston Light swim

Former Member — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:09:43 GMT

I don't think it's strictly necessary to do a full 8 miles in the pool in order to finish. Of course, it wouldn't hurt. I do think that you might want to get to the point where you can do about 1/2 the distance (or so) on a regular basis and 3/4 of the distance once in a while. I would also suggest the following type of workout: Swim for a given time and then every so often, go hard for a distance and then go right back to pace. Example: If you are swimming for an hour, "sprint" a hard 50 on every 5 minute mark, or some variation of that. Start small and work your way up in terms of total time, frequency of hard effort and distance of hard effort. Be sure your techniques is as efficient as you can get it. I'm not going to get into the religious war of technique, but at least check out Total Immersion and Swim Smooth. -LBJ This post was really helpful to me. Great training suggestions. I have several follow-up questions, for you or anyone else. As background, I am swimming the BLS this year, and its my first race longer than 3 miles, first in temps this low, and first ocean race. I am training in a combo of OW lakes and pools, doing the equivalent of 40K yards per week, no coach to guide me however. I have swum 4.5 continuous in training so far, and going 6-7 should not be a problem and is on the training plan in the next few weeks. My goal is just to finish - not sure what pace I might achieve in those conditions, on a good day 25 min miles should be doable, but i don't know what the waves and temp will do to me. My questions: 1. How big a difference is salt water going to make for a swim that long? Is dealing with salt water ingestion a huge issue that I am not aware of? 2. I have been training comfortably at 66 - 68 degrees OW for 2 hours at a time. I take nothing but cold showers at 57 (as low as mine goes) every day to help acclimate. Given these facts, would you invest a lot of time travelling to colder water training spots if you were me? I would have to make some significant sacrifices to do so. The temp for the BLS as of today is 59. 3. After about 3 miles continuous, I tend to fight leg cramps. When I can touch down and stretch they are no problem, but in OW they can spread up my leg and sieze me. I am gradually working through it, and improving all the time at this (working on flexibility, heavier training to reduce fatigue, diet, muscle relaxation, etc.). Any experience or thoughts about this to share for a swim like this? 4. Bilateral breathing is something I can do but prefer to avoid. Is it so essential to a swim like this that I should be more disciplined about it and force it into my training every day? Your thoughts and anyone's are greatly appreciated.

RE: Those who have done the Boston Light swim

Former Member — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:09:35 GMT

How do you use the ginger capsules. Based on your recommendation on this board I got some for the Tampa Bay Marathon a few years back. I got seasick then and am wondering how many you take, when etc. Perhaps there was nothing that would have helped that day, or perhaps I would have been much worse without it. My routine, for what it's worth: I take 2 capsules right before I go to bed on the night before the race and then I take 3 capsules about 45 minutes or so before the race. In a really long race, I might take another capsule after 4 hours, mixed with my drink - YUCK. -LBJ

RE: Those who have done the Boston Light swim

FindingMyInnerFish — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:37:35 GMT

Gliding on Glass-- I won't try to add to Leonard's very knowledgeable advice. He's one of my distance swimming role models! Just want to wish you success in your swim and I'm impressed you're averaging 25 min. miles! One thing I can confirm from Leonard, as someone who grew up learning to swim in salt water. When I was a kid, my family belonged to a pool and I'd swim there a lot--then late in summer we'd spend vacation on Fire Island (salt water/bay/ocean), and I'd notice every year how much easier swimming felt in salt water, due to increased bouyancy.

RE: Those who have done the Boston Light swim

Former Member — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:34:56 GMT

How do you use the ginger capsules. . Those weren't suppositories?

RE: Those who have done the Boston Light swim

Former Member — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:34:31 GMT

RE: Those who have done the Boston Light swim

Kevin in MD — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:42:03 GMT

RE: Those who have done the Boston Light swim

FindingMyInnerFish — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 08:14:38 GMT

JDY and Leonard, Thanks for your comments/feedback--and congrats on such great places! I know I'm hearing from experts! When I did the 5.25 mile swim, I did the distance in training--in a pool. Do you recommend that in training for BLL? I'm thinking more the swim distance, that is, not necessarily the venue--if I had open water nearby I'd have done more training swims there... which is why I want to hold this swim off for a couple years... I need to get more open water races, especially longer ones, next summer so I have a degree of confidence. I actually translated my running experience to water when I trained for the other swim: shorter, faster paced swims during the week, longer ones on the weekends when I had more pool time (similarly when I trained for marathons, I'd do shorter runs, then increase the long run distance on weekends). Leonard, thanks for the suggestion about ginger capsules! I sometimes mix ginger extract in water for its supposed anti-inflammatory effect. (The jury is still out on that one....)

RE: Those who have done the Boston Light swim

Former Member — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 06:26:56 GMT

I swam it last year (2nd female, 5th overall). We had great conditions & I felt it wasn't too bad. I also had a great boat pilot that really checked out the course/currents ahead of time. It was cool temp (low 60's) but not as much wavw action as I felt in the Great Chesapeake swim (2004). I have also done Trans -Tahoe relay, and do a 5k at Elk Lake yearly, or almost. I trained at least 25,000 yds/ week for about 5 months prior to the swim. A different group of people have taken over running the swim with renewed enthusiasim so it should be a great swim!

RE: Those who have done the Boston Light swim

Former Member — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:41:17 GMT

I did it in 2004 (and got 2nd place). It is doable, but it is challenging. The water is cold - typically in the high 50's to low 60's. The current is with you most of the way, but there is a point where it is pushing you sideways and is a bit tough. The area around the bridge can be ROUGH - I remember watching my boat and thinking that they were going to drown. It's listed as 10 miles, but I think it's more like 8.5. It can be very difficult to get an escort boat and not cheap. OK - the good news is that it's an amazingly fun race on a superb course and is a must-do if you feel you are able. Everyone involved with the race is really nice. They had a nice dinner the night before and hot showers at the end. I would suggest that in order to finish you must work on strength/raw endurance (i.e. some long, paced swims) and you must be able to withstand the cold for a long time. Again, it is doable, but it's not a "one mile with the current at the beach" type swim. You may also want to check the tide table for this year's race- I seem to remember that it was timed in such a way that if you didn't finish in X time (can't remember the number), you wouldn't be able to finish because the tide would turn against you. That would give you an idea of the kind of effort you would need. Concerning seasickness, two words: Ginger capsules. I suffer from at and haven't had this once while using ginger capsules. Hope that helps a bit. Feel free to PM me if I can help in any way. -LBJ

RE: Those who have done the Boston Light swim

FindingMyInnerFish — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:41:29 GMT

Pretty much what I heard... so it's definitely not something to jump into lightly. I take some comfort in the fact that the times of the later finishers were over 4:30, so while the hot shots are battling it out in the front, it's not 3 hours or bust. In good conditions, it seems doable, but conditions can vary in a huge way.

RE: Those who have done the Boston Light swim

ViveBene — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:54:52 GMT

I haven't swum it - it has a high romance quotient, so I'd like to participate in a relay some year - but it strikes me as quite an elite event. Last year, the 100th anniversary of the oldest sanctioned OW swim in U.S., there were 19 entrants, and not all finished: www.bostonlightswim.org/BLS2008ResultsPressRelease.pdf I think it is ordinarily a miserably tough course.