Aspirants Marathon Swimmers Forum..South End Rowing Club March 23rd at 10 am

Sharko

My fellow Travelers, Sharks, Giant Squids, Mad Jellies and Wanabees,

I have set a date for the aspirants marathon swimmers forum for Saturday the 23rd at 10 am in
the South End Day Room. The meeting will be an informal exchange of
experience and ideas about training for and completing a marathon swim.
Please invite anyone you may feel will enjoy or benefit from the discussion.
If someone could put up at notice at both clubs that might be helpful. I
would like to have marathoners as well as aspirants for a productive
discussion. It looks like we already have some interest in this...Please e-mail if you are coming or have any comments. Anyone in and around the Bay area is welcome just ring the front door buzzer and someone will come down and open the door.

Sharko

El Sharko....... aka Chris Blakeslee
"I never met a shark I didn't like"


707-495-0522

evmo

More from @Sharko:

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I have RSVPs from some very experienced marathon swimmers....so if you are thinking about or planning on a marathon swim of some kind...you will have the sort of information that will need to consider....some of the information we will be discussing are

1) The physical and mental training necessary to start and finish a marathon swim.

2) Feeding suggestions such as types of feeds, how to feed, when to feed, calories needed etc

3) Requirements of the various marathon/channel swimming organizations including pilot questions, medical, costs etc

4) Various social media groups dedicated to marathon swimmers such as: the channel swimmers google groups, marathon swimmers forum etc

Several people have other obligations and would like me to consider another forum.... so we shall see after this one if it seems like a good idea.

The meeting will go as long as people are interested and have time.

If you are willing and interested we can compile a list of people that as Roper says "are-in-the-loop"

Please forward this information to the Dolphin Club and to anyone you think may be interested.

Sharko

dc_in_sf

I'll be there, looking forward to meeting various folk in person and getting some great advice!

rxleakem

Wonder if there might be some video or written follow-up from this event? Looks to be an informative session.

molly1205

Video would be much appreciated!

Sharko

We had a good showing and I believe the sharing of information from both the aspirants and marathoners was beneficial...so I think we will make this an ongoing tradition at the South End...we did not have a video of the forum, as far as I know no one was taken, but I will try to summarize some of the main points later....Evan may have a perspective as well as he was in attendance.

firebah

Fantastic! 2 marathon swim clinics took part over the same weekend and neither one was for profit! What a concept to share knowledge and experience and not make a profit from it. Kudos to both SERC and Nick and Sakura for their generosity to others in the sport of marathon swimming!

heart

Oh, boy - I wish I were a diligent forum member and knew about this! I would very much appreciate a summary of the main points.

Sharko

My Fellow Sharks et al,

The forum started with introductions from the group. Attendees included marathon swimmers, those that want to, kayak support and swimmers that were just interested. No formal format, just questions and answers. The training discussion considered the off season aerobic and core strength building and pool interval training and how people build up to longer open water swims when the water begins to warm up. My personal experience was to put in long swims on the weekend and build each week..say a 2 hour swim one week then a 2 1/2 hour swim the next week building to an 8 hours swim and then a three week taper to recover and build my glycogen back up....we discussed how some swimmers seem to be so focused on swimming that they don't plan on recovery period...One of our South End Member's has sketched a very detailed program of training that I can forward to anyone interested (he studied statistics in college so you can imagine this doc might be thorough...and it is). We spent quite a while on sea sickness....and feeding and it seems that some people never conquer this and have to deal with trying to keep their feeds down....I certainly observed this from several swimmers I have fed and piloted....testing feeds thoroughly is helpful, but some people are just vulnerable to getting sick....releasing the brown trout was discussed and this is certainly important for longer swims...you never know when you may need to go....so be prepared...We spent quite a bit of time talking about visualization techniques and how important seeing, feeling and tasting the swim and particularly the finish of a swim...this worth some study...as it has been tested on elite athletes as well in business and life in general. Stroke instruction was talked about as important as well as having a mentor or trainer to help with body preparation and planning. I think one of the benefits of the forum is the networking that was accomplished so that further discussions can occur. I can see that 2 hours was not enough time...but it was a good start.

Sharko