First Open Water Swim
I haven’t swam in 11 years, like swam swam, laps, distances. Really, when I did swim, the longest I could go was 800m at a time but that was better than nothing, I liked short distances better (50m), they were what I was fastest at, breathing didn’t matter that much, I was sprinting, when I was done, I was done. Like running where I’ve had to stop running on my toes (because I preferred sprinting there too) I’ve got to relearn a few things. Actually, I’ve got to go relearn quite a few things. And then, I’ve got some new things to learn. I was a bit pompous about swimming and figured, hey, it’s gotta be like bike riding, once you’ve learned, you never forget…HA!
I went swimming today, I went swimming up at Cochiti Lake with several members of the New Mexico Outlaws Triathlon Team (GeekGrl, Sweet Baboo, M, O, and as usual I’ve forgotten a name, I’ll refer to him as forth guy).
Sweet Baboo, M, O, and 4th guy swam all away across the lake and back, 2.2 miles, one day, my goal is to be able to do that, preferably, that and a little more before November of next year.
GeekGrl went out to the grassy knoll and back and then pretty much out and back again. The grassy knoll is 800m from shore.
Me, I went…optimistically 200m, realistically 100m before I panicked and had to stop. My heart was beating in my head. I practically almost couldn’t breathe. And of course, I couldn’t touch the ground. I had left that behind me. I rolled over onto my back. And floated for a minute, I could float. I decided that I wanted to be able to go out to the grassy knoll and back, so I back stroked a little ways and then flipped over back to my belly to free style swim, and then I panicked again so I breast stroked, but then, I decided I wasn’t ready to swim 800m and back again, so I picked out a buoy, but then I couldn’t get there either, so I headed towards where I could stand.
A couple hours later I went out again and picked two points and I swam between the two points, of course, at each end of the two points I could stand. I swam between those 2 points for a while, then I found a 3rd point that was a little bit further and swam to it back and forth for a while. Based on today’s swimming, I know that I can’t do a consistent 400m freestyle swim in open water. That is something for me to improve upon.
I’ve also go stroke issues, and along with that stroke I’ve got breathing issues. Stuff to improve upon. This is good for me. Goals.
In the diabetes arena, swimming is going to be a bitch, of course, it was when I was younger so why I thought anything would have changed is beyond me. At 6am I pushed back my basal rates to 50%. I had breakfast of 2 fried egg whites and oatmeal. I bolused my usual amount. At 8am when I was getting ready to swim I took my pump off. My blood sugar starting was 243. Regardless of my blood sugar I drank a quarter bottle of cranksports efuel (13.5 carbs) After a half hour of kicking around in the water, my blood sugar was 78. I ate a GU, and washed it down with half a bottle of the efuel (total of 52 carbs). I went and just sort of chilled in the water, I didn’t swim or anything. An hour and a half later, that’s when I started swimming for round two, my blood sugar was 220. I had no active insulin in my system. The next time I came out of the water, after swimming for maybe a good 30 minutes, I was 164. There was a nasty spike an hour after the 164, even with a bolus of a half a unit to lower that number to 100, I spiked to 248.
I have to test my theory but after today, I think I have to start at about 200, and have no active insulin in my system. This will take care of me for 30 minutes of swimming and keep me in the 100s.
Notes for the future:
Whatever amount of sunscreen I put on, it isn’t enough. I got a bit red today. Not too bad on my face but my shoulders took a beating. I’m gonna up my sunscreen from 30SPF to 80SPF and follow advice GeekGrl gave and put some on the night before events (i.e. triathlons) and rub it in good and then reapply in the morning. Apparently being sunburned is bad times because it affects the body’s ability to perspire and then your body’s ability to cool down is affected, not good.
The lake temp was 65F, while I can swim in that with just my swim suit, I prefer to use my wetsuit. It does keep me warmer, but I also float, I won’t drown.
My pump site didn’t fair well to several hours in the water. It started peeling off and it hurt extremely as insulin was being pumped into me. I can tape it down to take care of the peeling, but I’m not sure I can handle it if I had to go several hours through an event with pangs hitting me every time insulin was being pumped into me.
One Response to “First Open Water Swim”
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July 20th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
[...] though I knew it wouldn’t be necessary. The water had been warm enough 2 weeks ago during my first open water swim to not have my wetsuit, but I’ve got issues with open water swims and figured I can’t [...]