Westmount Y Centre Masters Swim Club

Details (host, location, time) of the team’s traditional holiday party  on Friday, December 16th have been sent out…
As usual, it will be a “pot lock” and we would ask that everyone contribute in terms of food and beverage (BYO, wine, beer, etc…).
Please arrange to have it in a dish that can be put on the table with the necessary utensils.
Also we will be doing a food drive for the Y, so the entry fee to the party will be at least one non-perishable food item.

Le moment est arrivé pour confirmer la date et le lieu de notre fameux party de Noël.
Comme d’habitude, nous demandons la contribution et la collaboration de tout le monde pour ce qui est de la nourriture et des breuvages alcoolisés.
N’oubliez d’apporter un item de nourriture non-périssable pour la collecte du Y, ce sera votre prix d’entrée au party.

Come join us to celebrate our success in 2011 as well as our upcoming victories in 2012!

This year we have more training options than ever.  Please see the training page for all the details.  The schedule can be downloaded here.

Many of our team may not know (or perhaps they do) that one of our swimmers has set himself the goal of swimming the English Channel in September 2012. Alan Clack has been swimming with us for a couple of years now at the 6:20am practice, quietly going about his business of following the black line somewhere near the front of lane 1. During a casual conversation, it came out that he was in training for something bigger than any of us have probably ever undertaken in our lives… he was training to swim the English Channel!

 Alan has a blog about his swim: http://goodtogosolo.com/wordpress/ and was kind enough to answer a few questions about his planned swim for us:

Q. What inspired you to sign up to swim the English Channel?

AC. It took me a long time to answer this one.  I saved it for last.  In the end I guess it is just a desire to do something audacious. To say that I was inspired by one person or one event wouldn’t be true, but I can say that other people and other events have inspired me to keep going.  I wasn’t really looking do do anything in particular but a swimming event makes sense for me.  I had a friend that started training for it right after he graduated college.  I was still in college and he invited me and another friend to train with him.  After graduation I was offered a job out of the country that I couldn’t refuse, which took my attention.  I had always thought about it since but life overtook me. Then one day I realized that “someday” means “never” if you don’t put it on the calendar.  So I made the decision to do it. I have a few quotes on the walls of my office: 

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did.  So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

and

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. 

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!’” – A.H. Murray

The older I get, the more power those quotes have over me.

Q. I hear you were given some challenges to see if you were really up for the task, what were they?

AC. They were a series of open water swims.  In order to qualify to do the channel you have to do a six hour swim in 60f water.  In order to qualify to do that, you have to do a 3 hour open water swim (any temperature).  I completed the 3 hour in early June, then in July I did a six hour swim with witnesses (has to be witnessed) in Kinsale, Ireland.  The water was around 53 degrees.  

Q. Having trained with you, you have obviously swum before, what is your swimming background?

AC. I swam in college at Emory University in Atlanta.  I was a breaststroker and always pitied the distance folks. NCAA Div III All American in 200m breaststroke.

Q. We see you at the pool training with us, but lap swimming is not the same beast as open water swimming, what other types of training are you doing?

AC. In the winter I do a LOT of swimming indoors.  During the summer I am swimming in Lac Archambeau and I went to a “Distance Week” in Ireland (where I did my 6 hour).  We swam twice a day every day for nine days.  Our distance varied per person.  I swam around 120,000m during that time.  

The biggest issue however is the cold.  The water will be around 60 degrees when swimming the channel.  So I take cold showers three or four times per week and will swim in the lake until it freezes.  The coldest I have ever swum in was 34F for three minutes.  I managed 20 minutes in 40F.  These swims are probably the second toughest part about the training.  The first hardest part is getting motivated to swim so much.  Doing it with others helps so much.  I can safely say I would not have been able to train as hard without the people in my lane!

Q. To do this type of swim, you obviously need a support crew, how did you go about finding a crew and what do they do to make sure that you are staying on task and healthy?

AC. Yes, first you need a certified Pilot (certified to escort swimmers across the channel).  There are two bodies that certify pilots and swimmers:  the Channel Swimming Association (CSA) and the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation (CS&PF).  My pilot is Reg Brickell, a legend in Channel swimming.  He is a CSA pilot, and I am lucky to have him.  Then you need an official observer from the CSA, which is assigned to you.  I will not know who it is until we both show up at the boat!  After that it is really up to you.  I have asked a rather well-known Irish channel swimmer to be my crew chief and he has accepted.  His name is Donal Buckley (www.loneswimmer.com).  I found him over the internet and met him in July when he coached me through distance week.  Also joining me on the boat will be Andy Froncioni, who swam for some time with some Westmount Y Masters swimmers.  I have known Andy for some time. 

There will be “feedings” every half an hour or so where the crew lowers a bottle of carb or protein drinks.  The observer will closely monitor the feedings to make sure that I am lucid and healthy in their estimation.  The boat captain, the observer, the crew chief, and the swimmer can all end the swim and there is no argument.  

The swimmer basically has one task:  swim.  The boat captain navigates and coordinates with the ~400 vessels per day that use the channel, the crew feeds the swimmer and communicates regarding pace, etc, and most importantly maintains contact with the swimmer.  There must be “eyes on” the swimmer at all time because the most biggest threat is getting separated, especially because part of the swim will be in the dark.  

So as we head into shorter days and colder temperatures, think of Alan, still swimming in the lake…

Good news for Westmount Y Maitres-Nageurs!  

The YM-YWHA (Snowdon Y) is expanding their Masters swim program this year to include additional early morning and evening practices and they are inviting all team members to join them if they wish.  Troy, fresh back from the arctic and still awaiting the birth of his first baby (as of writing), will be coaching all of their practices (don’t worry, we will still be seeing him at Westmount).  

The YM-YWHA is charging Westmount Y Maîtres-Nageurs a special fee of 125$ per session (the first session runs September 13th-December 22nd) and you don’t have to be a member of their gym.  Here is a summary of the information…

YMYWHA (Snowdon Y) Masters swim program:

*Coach: Troy Rhoades

*125$ per session (Fall: September 13th-December 22nd)

*Practices times do not coincide with Westmount Y practice times:

Mornings:

Tuesday and Thursday AM: 6:45am-7:55am and 8:30am-9:30am

Friday AM : 9:30am-10:30am

Evenings:

Monday and Wednesday PM 8:30pm-9:30pm

*Swimmers will affiliate with Westmount Y Masters if they choose to compete

With the exception of the Friday 8:30am practice at Snowdon, none of the practices coincide with the Westmount times.  This is great news for our club because it will allow our swimmers to train up to 6 days a week with consistent coaching and will offer more flexibility in practice times and location.

July 22, 2011, team mate Oliver Cordoba finished his first ironman triathlon at Lake Placid in an amazing time of 11:17:56.  Most people are happy to finish in under 12 hours – congratulations Oliver!

His splits were:

Also competing was Ann Walling in her second Ironman triathlon and came 13th in her division:

One side note is that an ex-team mate, Arlene Ayoub finished 3rd in her division in 12:42:24 and qualified for the ironman in Kona!

Congratulations to everyone who competed and particularly to our team mates who came out of the water ranking highly in the field of 2880 competitors.