27,000 YARDS POOL TRAINING

"My Office"

On March 24th 2010 I did another long pool workout at Saint Ignatius College Preparatory Swimming Pool. (http://www.siprep.org/pool). This time the workout was prepared by swimming and rowing Coach Diane Davis. Diane is also a world class rower with many participation and placements at the Head of the Charles Regatta. The Head of the Charles is the largest 2-day regatta in the world, with more than 8,000 athletes rowing in around 1750 boats in 56 events. (http://www.hocr.org/home/default.asp)

This was my workout for the day:

10 x 200 free 30" rest
8 x 500 free 1' rest
3000 kick fins
4 x 1000 pull buoy with Finis snorkel to simulate high altitude
500 easy

10 x 200 free 30" rest
8 x 500 free 1" rest
3000 kick fins
4 x 1000 free
500 easy

27,000 DEBRIEFING

My flying work trip days before my training was hard with not enough rest. Even though I ate and slept very well throughout my trip, the commute to and from Chicago O'Hare was brutal.

Monday the 24th

Last day of my 4 day trip plus a 5 hour commute to SFO.

By the time I got home I had been awaken for 22 hours and looking like a zombie. I went to Naan and Curry on Irving Street and had Indian/Pakistani food for dinner. I should not have done that since it takes at least 2 days for my body to get rid of all that creamy sauces), anyway.

Tuesday the 25th:

I Slept for 10 hours and I should have slept more. For breakfast I had a huge bowl of Irish oat meal; I shouldn't have eaten that since it makes me a farting machine. I had a super busy day at home with unnecessary chores before a long swim. I spent the day doing laundry, cleaning, going to the dentist and packing for my next trip.

Around 6 PM I start thinking about prepping for the 27,000 swim when indeed I should have been going to bed. I even started giving second toughts about really doing the swim next day since I was so tired. But I kept soldiering on.

After shopping and brainstorming the menu for next day at 10 PM I started cooking the meat patties and potatoes for my main feeding meal and since it smelled so good I ended up have a really late dinner at around midnight.

The Feeding



This was the menu and feeding schedule for the swim:

1. 1HR FRS (Carb/Vitamin Energy Drink)
2. 1:50 FRS
3. 2:40 Warm chicken broth+MARZIPAN+water
4. 3:20 ½ bottle smoothie tied with bottle H2O
5. 4:00 ½ bottle smoothie + hot green tea+gu+honey
6. 4:40 Warm chicken broth+water+MARZIPAN
7. 5:20 FRS+WATER
8. 6:00 MASHED POTATOES+MEAT+NUTELLA+WATER
9. 6:30 MASHED POTATOES+MEAT+NUTELLA+WATER
10. 7:00 WARM GREEN TEA+WATER +VITAMINS
11. 7:30 FRS+WATER
12. 8:30 Warm chicken SOUP+WATER
13. 9:00 Warm chicken SOUP+WATER
14. 9:30 WARM GREEN TEA+WATER
15. 10:00 FRS+GREEN TEA+WATER+VITAMINS
16. 10:30 FRS+GREEN TEA+WATER
17. 11:00 Warm chicken SOUP+WATER
18. 11:30 GREEN TEA+WATER 19. 12:00 FRS

Right at 1 AM I started feeling pumped and excited about the swim and started watching some motivational videos to get me even more pumped and before going to bed for a night cap I had a couple shots of Scotch. Well, I should not have done that! Follow below a couple inspirational videos I was watching:


...Yes I can!


...for a moment I closed my eyes and I could see myself running on French shores...

And of course I had to watch this one:



Needles to say I couldn't fall asleep and when I finally did I had to wake up in one hour. I actually was able to sleep for one hour. I was trashed!

Wednesday the 24th

I woke up at 4:30 AM and not feeling hungry at all, still digesting the late dinner I had a big cup of black coffee, did my famous sh.t, shower, shave and got ready to go. For some reason I wasn't feeling like a million dollars...duh!

I finally arrived at the pool at 5:15AM and right at 5:30AM together with my swim partner and South End Rowing club Swimming Commissioner, Cathy Delneo I started my lapandemonium.



Cathy was able to swim 7,000 yards with me and then she left to go to work. After that Dine Davis and her rowing friend kept me company for a few thousand yards. I finished the first 10,000 yards under 3 hours. I was feeling great and strong and eager to continue at that pace. Dine and her friend left and Elisabeth Glass joined me for a few laps. It was very nice to see her. She took great pictures and the video below was taken by her.



The feeding was working great and I wasn't anywhere close of being tired. But around 4 hours into the swim I started feeling a little bloated and gassy. I think the whole concoction of Indian food, scotch, late dinner from the previous days added to my training food was making my guts a little sick. I finally had to go to the restroom and cameback a "little lighter".

At 13,500 yards I was happy to be done with half of the workout and started the next 10X200's on a great pace. Anne Dunn, from the South End joined me and kept me company for quite a while.



At 16,500 I started getting stomach sick. I think all those flip turns added to indigestion were back flowing my feeding and I wasn't able to digest anything and on top of that I wasn't able to feed at all since I wasn't hungry. In order to keep going I changed the order of the workout and decided to do some kicking trying to avoid the flip turns. One of Dine Davis swimmers, Dylan Moscone jumped in my lane and kept me company and together we had great kicking workout when finally left since he had to go back to class.



At 17,000 yards another great swimmer from the South End, Susan Saylor, joined me for a few thousand yards. It was also at 17,000 yards I had to leave the pool again for my second restroom pit stop. This time I cameback I a little afraid of continuing since I was feeling very stomach sick altough I had stopped farting since all that entire "Indian and Scottish legacy" was out of my system. I was lucky I had planned to try Chicken broth to my feeding and that bought me another 3000 yards without any pain at all.



20,000 Yards

Around 7 hours into the swim I started fighting a cold. I was sneezing and coughing without stop. I actually was already fighting a cold during the end of my flying trip since I had flown with a sick crew member. The next 5,000 yards were very painful and frustrating to me since I almost couldn't keep my head in the water sneezing and coughing so much. For a while I thought it was the chlorine but when I did the 25,000 workout in February at USF I didn't cough at all and USF pool has way more chlorine than SI swimming pool. It got to a point where I was running out of breath! But I was still smiling.

25,000 Yards



At 25,000 yards Diane Davis started walking back and forth following me and observing my stroke, correcting it when necessary. Her presence was very important to me and really gave me a nice boost of confidence. She was clapping her hands and screaming my name saying Let's Go, Let's Go Eddie! On the other side of the pool the girls from the SI high school swim team, coached by Matt, who kindly let me use a lane the entire day, since his Masters workout at 5:30 AM, were also cheering. It was a nice GO EDDIE moment.

But even though I had that great support I was feeling really sick. Coughing, sneezing and still stomach sick. I was pretty much done and satisfied with my duty for the day, especially going through all that sickness and still being able to swim 25,000 yards. Them I remembered that one of the biggest challenges of crossing the English Channel is actually the last mile of the swim where you have been in the water for many hours, tired, sick, hypothermic and still trying to make landfall in France with the tide changing on you. With that in mind I decide to suck it up all my whining, put my head in the game and finish that swim ordeal. I was committed to finish the 27,000 yards!

26,400 Yards

The last 600 yards were a challenge. I was planning to do 12X50's to finish the day when all the sudden I grabbed the ladder to walk out the pool. I was done! I was tired! Suddenly Diane Davis squatted next to me and started saying: "C'mon Edison you can do it! The last 600! The last 600! You can do it! I looked at her and started to cry. I wasn't sure I could finish it. I looked down the lane, I looked around all the other lanes with the high school team swimming as fast as dolphins and all the sudden everything started moving at very slow motion, with Diane still there squatted screaming and telling me I could do it and asking me to swim 6X100's when I barely could put my head in the water.

Most of you noticed reading my blog that I am a big Sylvester Stallone/Rocky Balboa fan. Who isn't? Who doesn't get pumped when he comes back from getting beat the entire fight to win the last round? On his last Rocky movie there is a scene that pretty much portrays the last moments of my swim:



And there I went willing to take the hit of thoese last yards, willing to take on the challenge of finishing those 27,000 yards. Those 26,400 yards had literally brought me down to my knees. Throughout the day I had to put in practice every piece of mental and body strength I had inside me, positive attitude and the most important; passion and love for swimming, in order to finish that workout. The same attitude and passion I will be taking with me from England to France.

26,900 Yards

The last 100 were a glory for me. The first 25 yards were calm and steady. The second 25 yards were a little nervous and strong. The third 25 yards I treated like "the last 50 yards"; I barely breathed and after the 1079 flip turn, I just couldn't resist; I had to finish the 27,000 yards swimming butterfly. I did it! I finished! 16 miles! 10:12HS

Walking out of the pool Diane hug me, Coach Matt and the entire high school team started clapping and cheering. It was a great feeling! Walking towards the locker room I looked back at that swim lane, lane number 1, and thanked it for the protection. I felt that part of me was left in that lane.

Many thanks to Diane Davis who supported me and let me use the SI pool for this crazy workout! Huge thanks to Coach Matt who let me use one of his lanes during his Masters and high school workouts. Also many thanks to Carlos who takes care of SI swimming pool like no other.

A special thanks to Cathy, Diane Davis, Diane's friend, Elisabeth Glass for taking the pictures, Anne Dunn, susan Saylor , Dylan Moscone, Jordan and the girl's high school swim team for keeping me company.

My last word about this 27,000 and my English Channel training is actually a paragraph written by triathlon coach Joel Friel from one of his books The Triathlete's Training Bible, Part 1, Chapter 1 page 12, 4th paragraph:

Most of us go through life living only on wishes and never coming close to our limits. But wishes are important; they're the start of great feats. Wishes grow into dreams when you are able to mentally "see" yourself accomplishing the wish. Dreams turn into goals when a plan for attaining them is defined . Goals become a mission when unwaivering self-belief and purposeful zeal are realized. Big challenges require mission status. The difference between a goal and a mission is attitude. Missions are evident by an accompanying passion commitment. With the proper attitude, almost anything is possible. What you believe you will achieve.

Take care, Love

FAST EDDIE PEINADO