Oannes Swims - Open Water Diary

Oannes Swims

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Diary:	Session 1 of 10
Date:	June 7, 2006
Location:	Cherry Beach, Lake Ontario
Water Temperature:	69 F or 21 C
Weather Conditions	Bright sunny, warm air, light wind
Water Conditions:	Slightly murky, lots of green floating things
Notes:	3 swimmers. Swam for about 1000 meters of easy swimming. 1 hour in the water.
Focus:	Sighting, breathing pattern, stroke counting.
Athletes Notes:	Currently there have been no comments submitted by Athletes	Submit Notes, Comments, Suggestions

Diary:	Session 2 of 10	Sorry, no Pic
Date:	June 9, 2006
Location:	Cherry Beach, Lake Ontario
Water Temperature:	64 F or 17 C
Weather Conditions	Dark cloudy day, threat of rain, high winds, but water quite calm
Water Conditions:	Slightly murky, lots of green floating things, air was cold.
Notes:	3 swimmers. Swam between 2 buoys only some 200 meters apart. I coach from in the water and off the dock.
Focus:	Sighting, breathing pattern, stroke counting, blind swimming exercise.
Athletes Notes:	Currently there have been no comments submitted by Athletes	Submit Notes, Comments, Suggestions

Diary:	Session 3 of 10
Date:	June 12, 2006
Location:	Cherry Beach, Lake Ontario
Water Temperature:	59 F or 14 C
Weather Conditions	Bright sunny, warm air, light wind.
Water Conditions:	Slightly murky, crisp, cold.
Notes:	6 Swimmers. Swam between 2 buoys only some 200 meters apart. Water was quite cold on the face and hands.
Focus:	Sighting, breathing pattern had been the main focus. In water this cold, focus on technique is difficult. How the body reacts under these conditions is a valuable experience.
Athletes Notes:	Currently there have been no comments submitted by Athletes	Submit Notes, Comments, Suggestions

Diary:	Session 4 of 10
Date:	June 16, 2006
Location:	Cherry Beach, Lake Ontario
Water Temperature:	68 F or 20 C
Weather Conditions	Bright sunny, warm air, heavy wind from the West.
Water Conditions:	Totally churned up, very murky, 1 meter swells with some white caps.
Notes:	9 Swimmers. Swam between 2 buoys some 300+ meters apart. Water was warmish (certainly compared to the last swim). You could not see your hands out front while swimming as the water was quite churned up by the wind. A lot of plant matter floating and some garbage.
Focus:	General open water experience and sighting had been the only focus due to the conditions. Dry Land Starts: We worked, as well as we could, on running and entering the water, with good results considering the condition. I'm not sure that if these condition existed on race day that they would let the event go on.
Athletes Notes:	Coach Kelvin promised we'd be able to keep up with the kite surfers by the end of the session, but I think I need a bit more work. We're certainly faster than they are in T1! The seaweed salad was excellent -- very fresh. I'll be back for more.	Submit Notes, Comments, Suggestions

Diary:	Session 5 of 10
Date:	Wednesday June 21, 2006
Location:	Cherry Beach, Lake Ontario
Water Temperature:	68 F or 20 C
Weather Conditions	Slightly over case, a threat of rain, but sunny and warm - hey, I just report it.
Water Conditions:	Clear. Calm at the beginning and some active waves at the end of the session.
Notes:	6 Athletes. Planned to do a Water Start & finish session, but the Swan seemed to occupy that area of the beach, so rather than gettin it on' with them, we did a triangle course (about 200m). We had an incident with a sculling boat that came zipping through our course, rather unexpectedly; Freaked out Martin and Howard. Luck no injury, but a close call. Those guy just row around, not even looking where they are goin'... Honestly! I's a big lake but apparently, not big enough!
Focus:	Swimming in the deeper water as one of the buoys was about 100m off shore. Sighting, stroke counting, power stroking (12 strokes on and 12 off)
Athletes Notes:	By the way, the session was great- exactly what I needed. For me, and probably for most people like me, I just need to practice in open water in an environment that "feels" safe, where I know other people are around and you are there keeping an eye out. It is not the same as 1500 people scrambling at the start of a race, but maybe we can all practice swimming in close quarters (no punching allowed) at some point.	Submit Notes, Comments, Suggestions

Diary:	Session 6 of 10
Date:	Friday June 23, 2006
Location:	Cherry Beach, Lake Ontario
Water Temperature:	67 F or 19.4 C
Weather Conditions	Sunny, warm, some thin clouds, light wind.
Water Conditions:	Clear, calm with some small waves.
Notes:	4 Swimmers. We did a long course some 350-400m. Swam there and back 4 times (at least 1500m) plus warm up. Swimmers really like this experience.
Focus:	Water starts, sighting, power stroking
Athletes Notes:	Currently there have been no comments submitted by Athletes	Submit Notes, Comments, Suggestions

Diary:	Session 7 of 10
Date:	Monday June 26 , 2006
Location:	Cherry Beach, Lake Ontario
Water Temperature:	63 F or 17.2 C
Weather Conditions	Gray day, little wind, coolish
Water Conditions:	Clear, crisp, lost of green on the bottom (it's coming alive down there!)
Notes:	3 swimmers. Did an alley way course for sighting focus and swimming straight for Blind swimming. Finished up with an swim/running exit from the water.
Focus:	Swimming straight, feeling a balanced pull and push in the stroke, sighting, side sighting, blind swimming
Athletes Notes:	Currently there have been no comments submitted by Athletes	Submit Notes, Comments, Suggestions

Diary:	Session 8 of 10
Date:	Wednesday July 5th , 2006
Location:	Cherry Beach, Lake Ontario
Water Temperature:	65 F or 18.33 C
Weather Conditions	Dark clouds with sun shine (?), warm air minimal breeze
Water Conditions:	Clear, cool in spots, calm with small swells
Notes:	Did a triangle course about 400m. Swam 5 time around with rest between. The Endurosport group came down and joined our swim course. Was nice to have a larger group of swimmers at one time on the course.
Focus:	Focus on sighting, stroke counting.
Athletes Notes:	Currently there have been no comments submitted by Athletes	Submit Notes, Comments, Suggestions

Diary:	Session 9 of 10	Sorry, only one pic - camera guy didn't do such a good job!
Date:	Friday, July 7, 2006
Location:	Cherry Beach, Lake Ontario
Water Temperature:	65 F or 18.33 C
Weather Conditions	Clear & sunny, minimal breeze
Water Conditions:	Clear, cool in spots, with small swells running east
Notes:	Only 3 swimmers. Did a long course and triangle about 600m around. With the small waves rolling to the east the conditions were quite interesting, in terms of an open water experience.
Focus:	Sighting down a long course, deeper water swimming, sets of powering up for strokes and relaxing for strokes, driving energy and power forward.
Athletes Notes:	Currently there have been no comments submitted by Athletes	Submit Notes, Comments, Suggestions

Diary:	Session 10 of 10
Date:	Monday July , 2006
Location:	Cherry Beach, Lake Ontario
Water Temperature:	74 F or 21 C
Weather Conditions	Clear, warm, bright, sunny, windy... in other words - Excellent!
Water Conditions:	Clear at the beginner but the wind blew and made the water murky. Great temperature. Wavy from the wind to white caps, but quite swimmable. Swimming East was easy, swimming West was quite challenging.
Notes:	Amy and I swam without wetsuit... finally. Feels so much better. I couldn't get one Triathlete to remove there's, however. Love that extra buoyant feeling. Swam some 1200 m on a long course.
Focus:	Water condition made focusing difficult, but offered powering up strokes and sighting.
Athletes Notes:	I found the open swimming I did with you earlier this year in June was really useful and got me ready for the water this year much better than I have ever been before . I am no great swimmer but it sure helped me. I am able to approach open water with confidence.	Submit Notes, Comments, Suggestions