Sellwood to Saint John's aka Portland Bridge Swim

A month ago, I did a thing. I swam from Sellwood to Saint John's with my friend Swim-emma. It took six hours and is my longest swim to date and only made me hungry for more. I thought I would be hungry when I got out, but I wasn't for several hours. I thought I would drop like a stone and sleep for hours; I couldn't get to sleep that night. I thought I would feel uber proud of myself; instead, I feel humbled. While this is a huge accomplishment, it feels like the beginning of something rather than an end. Dreams of future longer swims tug at the back of my mind as I go about my day.
 Looking ahead, I know that as I complete my last two years of graduate school, my opportunities to get in the water will only get fewer in number, but this is not the time in my life to focus on swims. This is a time in my life to use them for renewal and affirmation. Swimming will have to take on a different role in my life. Last week, in school, we read about Matuska's Life Balance Model. The model conceptualizes congruence and equivalence of activity configuration in the environment for creating a balance of activities to support individual health and well-being. Basically, it's not just doing the things we want to do the amount we want to do them; it's about doing them in proportion to other things we need and want to do within our lives. This is my version of the illustration from Matuska's research.
I made the environment broader and more encompassing than the original because it seems that our lives' environmental context deserves more than just a nod maybe because the environment feels so out of control right now with COVID restrictions, wildfires, and political chaos. Anyhoo! This isn't a blog about OT school, its a swimming blog. So here are some photos from 8/29 that paddle support took.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Buoy Repair 101

Image
Pinholes, cracks, abrasions. They're unavoidable and death for swim buoys. Fortunately, they can be patched and stretch out the life of the buoy.  Unfortunately, some holes are harder than others to successfully patch. To illustrate I have patched three different buoys of different construction with holes in different places. I'll follow up at the end and report which buoys are doing the best one month after being patched.  You will need the following things to begin.  1. Dish soap & bathtub or bucket full of water. 2. Rubbing alcohol.  3. Duct tape or masking tape.  4. Aquaseal brand wetsuit cement (Try others, but this is the brand I've used for years to repair gear. It can be purchased at REI, Wal-Mart, or most marine supply stores.) 5. Something to spread it with (I frequently will use cardboard and cut it into scrapers) paper towels.  6. Patience. 7. More patience.  8. If you're messy like me: Craft gloves. Aquaseal gets everywhere and does not come off of ha
Read more

RTAI 9.23.23

Image
Mid channel to Alcatraz  Round Trip Angel Island (RTAI) A month ago now I was walking out of the water (at about the time I'm starting this post) after swimming 7 hours 50 minutes and 9 seconds in the San Francisco Bay. The course was the famous  Round Trip Angel Island , one of the  Toughest Thirteen  according to MSF. Leading up to this swim I was a nervous wreck. This past summer was especially tough. After a successful, but painful,  Portland Bridge Swim  I had to cancel my planned  Three Islands Waldo Lake  route to focus on stroke work with  Intrepid Water  (more later in this post on my work with Shannon at Intrepid Water) and shoulder recovery. I felt undertrained and like I was still mending when my feet hit the water in Aquatic Park at 3AM on September 23. For all those feelings of trepidation, I made it through- in large part to my crew: Sue Phillips, Wendy "Pepper", Vicky Miller, and Sumner Williams; piloted by Tom "Reptile" Linthicum on the Ghostrid
Read more

Late season fun

Image
Fall swimming is in the air in Portland, but not in the Gorge!  The past two weekends I've made the short trek out to Hood River to swim 5 miles from Mosher to the Best Western in Hood River. It is such a gorgeous swim and the water remains a balmy 68 Fahrenheit while the rivers in Portland continue to cool down to the mid to low 60s.  On both weekends there was a moderate current assist, but the locals insisted "there's not any current right now."  Well, I know my 500 m splits and sub-7 minutes is not  my usual pace in open water. Regardless, the water and scenery are lovely and the company wasn't bad either 😉. The first weekend was a bit rough for me, I hadn't been sleeping well and was feeling burned out from studying. The swim was fine  the scenery was beautiful, but I was tired before I got in and so it was less enjoyable than a swim in the Gorge usually is. BUT! Week 2, wow. It was GREAT. I was better rested, Sue from Corvallis joined us, Brianna came,
Read more