After the swim [Iron Mike's Marathon Swims » Iron Mike's Marathon Swims --]
Thought I forgot, dear reader(s)? No! Here’s the promised apres-swim post.
Immediately upon exiting, I’ve written about that already. After getting back to my room and scarffing down that ice cream, I went to the “grab-n-go” and got some hot dogs and cheese and PB and chips. I think I already spoke about this.
Then I slept. Well (for once).
I woke up and tried to sit up in bed. Holy Jehoshaphat, my abs! I guess the 1400 flip-turns (+/- 10 for the stops) I did the day prior really took their toll on my transabdominis. Shoulders? Nope. Back? Nope. Abs? Oh yes, pain!
Work followed, as it always does here. (Fun fact, till my swim on 23 Jan, I hadn’t taken a day off of work since 1 September.) I have a standing desk, but didn’t stand long. The entire abs area was painful.
People not in the know about marathon swimming were really impressed with my swim. They thought, and I believe still think, that I was being cocky or dismissive when I told them it really was like lying down for a long time. They also don’t believe that all I really wanted was a day to swim without being kicked out of the pool because my reservation was over. I didn’t want to be bugged!
But seriously, a swim like this does take some conditioning, but with the expected caveat of exiting the pool for Nature’s call, 10 hours isn’t really that much work. Every time I got out of the pool was a break. Non-crazy swimmers don’t understand how comforting it is to be vertical, and feel gravity, after hours of horizontal and sorta-weightlessness. It was so nice to exit the pool and feel the Earth’s pull.
I started doing ~90 minutes before getting out to pee (and sometimes eat). As the day went on I got out closer to every hour. Or at least stopped to get water while staying in. But this wasn’t anything like a 10-hour marathon swim. I tried to explain to folks how different it is when you’re treading water while eating, not touching anything that can give support. That’s a rough 10 hours.
But what I did was a mental test. 700 laps in a tinier-than-normal pool is taxing. I had to come up with other things to think about. Besides counting laps. I thought of stories I’d like to write. I thought of my daughter and her search for a college. At the end, it really was tough to do those last 20 laps.
The second day, Monday, I awoke with painful shoulders. “Ah! That makes sense,” I thought. Abs didn’t hurt anymore, but I most certainly could feel the swim when I raised my arms.
By Tuesday, muscle pain was gone. But I didn’t feel very good. Funky. Almost like I wanted to vomit. I had intended on going back to the pool that morning, but thought this was body telling me to take one more rest day. So I did.
And Wednesday felt great. Did a mile in the pool. Same on Thursday. Did two miles on Saturday and a mile and a half on Sunday.
And that’s been it ever since. Swimming-wise. Pool’s been closed for annual maintenance ever since. And then last night I saw this.
I was so excited. So of course this morning I had to go by again.
Getting there! Finally, this evening:
The MWR Director emailed me today and told me to get ready to be able to make reservations in the coming days. I am 9.5 miles away from 150 miles swum here in Africa. And I leave in two weeks. I can do it!
Oh, and what did I learn from the 10-hour pool swim? Never again!