Deicing & Great Whites

First, an interesting travel story: In hopes of getting home a little early on Thursday, I caught a standby flight out of Denver International Airport (DIA). Unfortunately, because its was snowing so much, planes were required to be de-iced before takeoff. That meant our plane queued up on the tarmac for almost an hour before the plane was blasted with an anti-freeze looking solution. Shortly after takeoff, the pilot thanked us again for our patience and announced that our delay on the tarmac before take off had resulted in the plane not having enough fuel get to Southern California and we would be required to land in Las Vegas for a quick re-fuelling before we finished our flight. So the usual 2 hour flight took 5 hours due to the de-icing and unexpected 30 minute "layover" in Vegas. Though the flight was a little frustrating, at least it wasn't scary. 3 weeks ago, wind shear caused the flight I was on into DIA to abort a landing AFTER touchdown. After a very turbulent flight, it is quite an experience to hit the runway hard and then hear the engines gun and abruptly go into a steep climb. If you aren't into excercise, it is a great way to get the heart pumping. :)

On Friday morning I did the Novaquatics workout at Soka University. The workout:
1 x 300 yards warmup
3 x 150 yds (50 catch-up drill, 50 kick, 50 swim
18 x 50 yds on :55,:45,:50,:40,:45,:35 repeated 3 times
10 x 150 yds with fins and paddles on 2:15 (1:35 pace)
1 x 100 yds warm-down
= 3,250 yards

I had to jump out a little early to get to the day's appointments, including a doctor's exam to certify me "OK" to do the channel swim. I passed, but was warned that sharks should concern me as much as my physical shape. Nice. I then took my son to an overnight camp out at O'Neil Regional park with our church group. I brought our small tent and didn't bring sleeping pads. I "slept" on hard rocky ground with a kinked neck because I couldn't fully lay out in the small tent. I was exhausted come Saturday morning.



On Saturday afternoon, I met up with Dave Galli at Newport Pier wanting a nap, but I wanted to get back in the ocean even more. It was blowing pretty hard and the sea was choppy. But the water temp was at least 63 degrees, visibility was about 15 feet, and Dave's friends were ready to kayak and paddleboard next to us. We swam around the pier and down the beach about a mile and a half (almost to Balboa Pier) and then came back. It was a swim of 3.5 miles in about 90 minutes. The temperature felt great the whole swim, maybe our swim pace had something to do with it too. I'll admit I had trouble keeping up with Dave. I was thinking about Great Whites the whole swim and I suspect Dave was too. Though I was relatively calm, when my hand hit a jellyfish or a vortex, I was ready to head into shore. I think Dave wanted to make sure if one of us was going to be eaten, it was going to be me, so his fast pace meant that I either swam in his bubbles or 10-20 feet behind him most of the swim. It did make for a good workout. Evolutionarily speaking, its fair. I've already had a chance to pass on my genes, but my younger friend has not so this old man should be the sharkbait. ;)