In 2022, I signed up for a series of swims as part of a personal challenge - to swim 100 kilometres in a single season in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont in the United States. You can read more about that here if you like! Locals refer to it as the NEK, or more simply, "The Kingdom". With its rolling hills, forests and waterways, it's simply spectacular, a truly magical place to spend your time.
Here's my report for the third swim in the series, which actually is a week of swims in different lakes across the NEK. The goal was to accumulate a total distance of about 40+kms, work hard while exploring different weather and water conditions, and swim well while tired.
NEK Swim Week, day 1 - Crystal Lake [8km]
Back in the NEK for 5 days of swimming, which I'm using as training prep for the "big one" in September, The Search 40km solo marathon. I'm still resting up from last weekend's Willoughby Triple Crossing, I felt tired in the water today. Was planning to take it easy but something clicked once I got warmed up and I ended up working hard (6-7/10 level of effort, but low stroke rate 50-52). So effectively, today was a lesson in swimming well while feeling tired, something I don't do all that often but is really great training. The lake is stunning, how is this place even real?!
NEK Swim Week, day 2 - Island Pond [6km]
Another day, another beautiful lake. Went in planning to stick with 4/10 level of effort and use this as a recovery swim, but then at the turning point there was head wind and this girl can't pass up a challenge. Brought up my stroke rate and had fun with the wind and waves. Shallow water made the push from the waves feel different than what we'd experienced on Willoughby, ended up being a great opportunity to work on chop skills again and really develop feel for the water.
Day 3 (unofficial) - Lake Willoughby [7km]
Logistics prevented us from getting to the start of today's event in Ayer's Cliff on time, so we went to Willoughby's North Beach instead for an indie swim. The "Willoughby winds" heard we were stopping by and conspired to make us work for it again. The waves were longer and swells higher than last weekend's triple crossing, the kind of chop that both pushes parts of you under and lifts other parts of you up at the same time. The headwind on the way out was fun, on the way back we found shelter closer to shore for a bit and I swam with loons, then big tailwinds which I hate with every fiber of my being, then sideways winds, then tailwinds again and finally we were done.
3hrs and 7km of being pushed around in all directions, a good exercise in staying calm and moving one arm in front of the other even when I had no clue if we were moving forward. I've learned from my Willoughby swims this week that tailwinds put me in a really negative headspace, I can't find my rhythm or stroke and start thinking I must just really suck at swimming. It's important to recognize this now, so that we can develop a strategy for managing it on longer swims. That lake is no joke.
Day 4 (unofficial) - Lac Memphremagog [4.7km]
The event was called off today due thunder, lightning, and possible flooding forecasted for noon. So we stayed close to home base and jumped in the big lake to get in a few kms before the storm rolled in. Party float feed station was anchored off the boat. Had a nice coffee and chat with swimmers afterwards, a couple of them training for way bigger things than I am, amazing stuff. I'm a little disappointed I'm not getting the mileage in that I was expecting this week, BUT the goal was to work on skills and learn to swim well while tired. And I am really tired, I went from a hard 25km to short but strenuous swims a week after, and lots of work in chop. It was a struggle to maintain my technique over the last couple of days and I can see it in pics and videos...but that's exactly what I hoped to experience here. I've learned so much. One more swim to go before I head home.
Day 5 (unofficial) - Lake Echo [5.4km]
The event was canceled today again, but we were already at the lake so we decided to jump in for a couple of hours. Bernie and Irene showed up too, so we did the perimeter together and it ended up being a lot of fun. The wind gradually picked up to 18-30 km/hr, and we got to play in some pretty decent headwinds, tailwinds, sideways waves.
I was given the option to double back instead of dealing with the tailwind (have I mentioned I don't like tailwinds?!), but instead I used it as an opportunity to try figuring things out. I noticed my arm recovery position immediately changed once the wind was behind us, I had a hard time raising my upper arm out of the water, and realized I'd lost my streamline body position and some of my rotation while trying to balance with the waves coming up from behind, so I focused on that and it helped. I also tried timing my arm strokes to the waves so that I could leverage the push of the water and maximize my glide, that sort of worked.
And while Gary will tell you otherwise, I only whined about the tailwinds once, which is big progress for me. We all enjoyed lunch together afterwards, a special day and really nice way to wrap up a great week of training swims.
Day 6 - top up distance at Bangor YMCA [9.1km]
En route back to NB, stopped in Bangor ME for the night. Headed to the YMCA and did an amazing 10km set, dropping time off my usual pace. Patted myself on the back for working each km, thrilled with my times, couldn't wait to tell my coach. Got out, toweled off, turned to face the pool...and realized it was a yard pool, not meters. Which means I wasn't really going as fast as I had thought. But I got to spend 3 hours of training with a pretty big ego, which felt kinda nice Actual avg pace 1:55/100m.
The workout: I like working with perceived pace (as opposed to actual time) when prepping for long swims, meaning what are my different gears based on how I feel, what the weather and water are doing, and how sustainable each gear is. 4 x 1km @ 4/10 level of effort, working on some issues with my arm recovery 4 x 1km @ 5/10 level of effort, working on synchronization between various parts 1 x 1km @ 6-7/10 level of effort, pressing on the catch while working to maintain form 1 x 1km @ 4/10 level of effort, cool down
Observations: I could do 4/10 forever, I could do 5/10 for long periods, 6-7/10 minimal gains are not worth the extra effort (which I knew already but good to test again).
And that's it, the end of my training blocks for The Search. Gulp.
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