Sunday, February 23, 2013

Avila Dolphins Decimate Phelps's Records!  Cold and Choppy Water Spurs Swimmers to Unbeatable Speeds!

Look closely at the GPS plot of today's swim and you will see that we covered over 20 thousand miles in a half-hour. That is a 0.01 sec per 100 yard pace!  Pretty impressive.  If this holds up the IOC may forget about speed suits and just drop the official pool temperature to 49 degrees F as that is what we had today.  It was sunny and warm on the beach but there was a light breeze that kept changing direction.  There were also some 4' to 5' sets separated by moderate waves.  On the beach today were Sylvia, Yvonne, Niel, Duke, Ed, Ruta, Rob, Byron and Sharley.  Allison was with us with her new kayak but not technically on the beach since she  decided that it was prudent to launch over at the port and not buck the waves.  Ruta did launch from the beach in their inflatable kayak and made it in and out successfully.  We decided to swim on the left side of the pier because the cold water was making a short swim look attractive and to avoid the water near the creek.  Sylvia and Yvonne swim traditional style and didn't see the attraction in getting in.  Rob swims traditional style too but he has a younger persons stranger sense of fun.  We swam out, turned left and swam parallel to the beach down to the end of the sea wall.  From there we headed towards the end of the Avila Pier.  By this time the wind had settled in the W-SW and had pushed up a nice little chop which we were more exposed to the closer we got to the pier.  This leg finished up with some nice open water swimming, working the chop and current to find an even pace that would allow you to not swallow too much water.  We came in along the length of the pier, getting out about a half hour after we started.  We probably covered about .8 of a mile.  

niel