P.S. The Cosi New York Pastrami melt is an amazing 1000 calorie meal. Unfortunately, it doesn't feel so good if you swim right afterwards. :P
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
First day of long course!!
YAY!! The MIT Z-center pool finally got converted to long course for the summer.
In celebration, I did a set of 5000 meter practice with the following main set with a mix of snorkel, pull, swim, kick: 5x300, 5x200, 5x100
As I swam today, I began to make a list of the pluses and minuses of long course:
1. Plus, no turns!! Sweet! Less possibility of getting confused as to which side of the pool I'm on.
2. Minus, still run into walls? Because I swim with my eyes closed, some how I still manage to forget to turn at the wall until I'm too close.
3. Plus, able to set steady rhythm.
4. Minus, meters are longer than yards. To be exact, 1.0936133x longer. So that mean if I swim 100m, I swim 9 yards more; 500m, it is 46 yards more; 1000m, it is 93 yards more; 5000m, I swam 500 yards extra!!
5. Plus, more people can swim in the same lane! The probability of running into people is decreased dramatically. Although, with my skills at zig-zagging down the lane, my odds aren't reduced by much.
6. Minus, can't take a lane for myself. Especially when a swim team is practicing at the same time, only 3-4 lanes are open for rec swimming. Which means, I have to swim with old people.
7. Plus, summer is here! Or at this point, very near. Just several paper to write/revise, 2 finals, pack, and move to summer housing. No big, right? :P
Saturday, April 23, 2011
..aannnd we're BACK
This is what you have missed since the last post:
- Fan Crippen, highly decorated open-water swimmer died Oct. 24th, 2010 in United Arab Emirates. This encourages us more than ever to prepare properly as well as prepare for the worst.
- MIT Swimming and Diving had an awesome season!!! Won both men's and women's NEWMAC conference meet (first time ever for the the women, 3rd year straight for the men). Men's team got 4th at DIII Nationals, women's got 14th.
- Happy New Year!! (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and 21st birthday :P)
- Minor freak-outs every week for the past month: another long year at MIT winding to an end...OH NO we are almost done with junior year!!
- We started to finally train for the Channel swim (yay!). Goal: swim 6000 yards (3.5 miles) a day, cold showers, and sell T-shirts.
- Speaking of T-shirts, finally decided to get the shirts shipped. Please, please, please, please donate! The fees and stuff are ridiculous so we seriously appreciate any help we can get. The Order Form and PayPal Link are on the side planel. We have white in Design 1 and red and black in Design 2. Thanks everyone!!
A bit of new business:
For those of you who thought we were joking, please know I'm officially offended. Haha, jk. But seriously though: we are swimming in August. Most of the arrangements have already been made so full speed ahead and no turning back. ;) Although, the deadlines for our the swimming applications to the Channel Swimming Association are at the end of April. I still haven't sent in my information yet. Oooppps
Ah almost forgot, Sydney and I are in contact with 2 sophomores from Smith College, Mackenzie Bradley and Emma Reim, who will be swimming in August as well. Unfortunately, they are swimming on an earlier date. But we definitely hope to run in to them while in England. Best of luck to them both!!
Side note: The Smith newspaper wrote a lovely article on them. Although, Mackenzie quote, "we're both designed to swim long-distance. We can just keep going." (they are both distance swimmers) did make me doubt my abilities a bit. For the record, I was a sprint backstroker this varsity season.
Ah well, I have been feeling pretty good during my set of 500s and 1000s lately though. In a sadistic kind of way I actually like these sets now. I think has a lot to do with a change in my mental outlook during these sets. Especially due to switching over from doing no more than 200s during practice, I always had a mental block at the beginning because I kept thinking about how long the set was. I also had a mental block at the end as well because I would think back on how much I did and think ahh wow I swam so much, I must be tired now. The shift in thinking: in the beginning I celebrate the fact that I feel good; by the 300 I know there is only a 200 left (which is really 4x50s right?); at the end of the 500 I pick up the speed with whatever is left; if I'm doing 1000s, there is just another 500 left.
I have also been working on my stroke technique. I epically failed at swimming freestyle this year. So I decided the best way to approach this swim is to reconstruct my freestyle. The snorkel and pull sets have been very helpful for this. Unfortunately, I am not sure how much my left shoulder can take. I did something funny to it last year while doing the Vasa trainer.
Anyways, I think I ranted enough. I will try to provide details of my training and daily scheming with a high frequency as we head into the summer. Look forward to future posts!!
Friday, August 6, 2010
Crazy? It's not fun otherwise!!
Ok, I guess it's my turn now...
I stood in flannel warm-ups on a rocky beach looking out across a expansive mass of darkness, which glistened harmoniousness as the surface reflected the warm July sun. It was difficult to see the bottom past a few feet from where the rhythmic tides hit the shore bring along with it clumps of seaweed and other sea life. Baby crabs, not much bigger than pennies, scuttled quickly towards the water. As the officials call us over to the docks for the start of the race, I took one last look at the white boat in the distance that marked the turn around point of the course.
Jumping into the chilly water and swimming a 3K at the Fran Schnarr Metropolitan Swimming Open Water Championship, from one barnacle-covered dock to another barnacle-covered dock and back 3 times, was perhaps the last thing I wanted to at the age of 14. And I vehemently expressed this disinterest after the swim. "Never," I said, "NEVER am I ever going to swim that again!"
Well, the following 3 years brought me deeper into the open-water world, each year bring with it some kind of drama. Swimming the 5K during these years I swallowed a jellyfish the first year (my coach claimed it was good protein when I told him after the race), had a friend got out for hypothermia the second year, and overheated and became severely dehydrated the third year. And yet, I loved it.
It was always a joke that I was going to swim the English Channel. I was the only swimmer in my grade during high school and people naturally assumed anyone with any swimming talent would be able to swim the English Channel, the pinnacle of all swims. I was awarded the "Person Most Likely to Swim the English Channel" award at the end of my AP U.S. Government and Politics class in senior year. Obviously, I never really took this seriously. However, after hearing that Clara Bennett swam it the summer I began college at MIT, the seed was embedded deep inside my brain. The more I heard from Clara about the grappling coldness, the draining distance, the jellyfish stings, the boat fumes, and other details that made my previous open-water swims a joke, the more I wanted to do it.
I first approached Syndey with this idea of swimming the Channel last year perhaps because I knew she was a do-er. It would not have been the perils of the sea that stopped me. I knew if we had agreed to this I would have no excuses to not do it. I am in awe of Sydney's motivation to accomplish things and I know she will be my motivation to go forward when I feel like giving-up.
I don't think I will fully understand the craziness of swimming the English Channel until I do it. Maybe I crave the challenge or maybe I just want to prove that I can do it. But all I know is: I AM SO EXCITED FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!
I stood in flannel warm-ups on a rocky beach looking out across a expansive mass of darkness, which glistened harmoniousness as the surface reflected the warm July sun. It was difficult to see the bottom past a few feet from where the rhythmic tides hit the shore bring along with it clumps of seaweed and other sea life. Baby crabs, not much bigger than pennies, scuttled quickly towards the water. As the officials call us over to the docks for the start of the race, I took one last look at the white boat in the distance that marked the turn around point of the course.
Jumping into the chilly water and swimming a 3K at the Fran Schnarr Metropolitan Swimming Open Water Championship, from one barnacle-covered dock to another barnacle-covered dock and back 3 times, was perhaps the last thing I wanted to at the age of 14. And I vehemently expressed this disinterest after the swim. "Never," I said, "NEVER am I ever going to swim that again!"
Well, the following 3 years brought me deeper into the open-water world, each year bring with it some kind of drama. Swimming the 5K during these years I swallowed a jellyfish the first year (my coach claimed it was good protein when I told him after the race), had a friend got out for hypothermia the second year, and overheated and became severely dehydrated the third year. And yet, I loved it.
It was always a joke that I was going to swim the English Channel. I was the only swimmer in my grade during high school and people naturally assumed anyone with any swimming talent would be able to swim the English Channel, the pinnacle of all swims. I was awarded the "Person Most Likely to Swim the English Channel" award at the end of my AP U.S. Government and Politics class in senior year. Obviously, I never really took this seriously. However, after hearing that Clara Bennett swam it the summer I began college at MIT, the seed was embedded deep inside my brain. The more I heard from Clara about the grappling coldness, the draining distance, the jellyfish stings, the boat fumes, and other details that made my previous open-water swims a joke, the more I wanted to do it.
I first approached Syndey with this idea of swimming the Channel last year perhaps because I knew she was a do-er. It would not have been the perils of the sea that stopped me. I knew if we had agreed to this I would have no excuses to not do it. I am in awe of Sydney's motivation to accomplish things and I know she will be my motivation to go forward when I feel like giving-up.
I don't think I will fully understand the craziness of swimming the English Channel until I do it. Maybe I crave the challenge or maybe I just want to prove that I can do it. But all I know is: I AM SO EXCITED FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, August 2, 2010
An Introduction
For those of you who know me well and see me often, I am sure I have already talked your ears off about anything and everything Channel related, so feel free to skim this article as much of it I am sure you already know. That being said, I am sure there are a significant number of readers whom I do not get to see as often as well as a certain number who have no idea who I am at all. This post is mostly for them.
First the basics - My name is Sydney Giblin, and I am a junior studying Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at MIT. I love things that fly, the beach, chocolate, and the color green, but mostly I love trying something new and accomplishing things I never thought possible. I have loved the water for nearly as long as I can remember, and although I did not start swimming seriously until I was 13, I had been involved with the Junior Lifeguard program since I was 9 and had already competed in ocean races. Now I am a member of MIT’s Varsity Swim Team, certainly not something my younger self would have predicted. Similarly, when crossing the Channel first entered my mind as a fleeting thought it was nothing more than fantasy, nothing I took seriously. But when I arrived at MIT for my freshman year I met another student, Clara Bennett, who had just completed a successful crossing the previous summer. I was in awe. I thought feats like that were for strangers, not people I actually knew. So when my team mate Qing expressed interest in swimming the Channel as well, it seemed only natural that we team up and train together.
And now here I am, signed up for what I am sure will be the most difficult challenge I have ever faced. 22 miles in 60 degree water, a challenge of endurance, mental toughness, and self-control. There is plenty of training yet to come, should be exciting and painful but all super rewarding. 383 days to go!
First the basics - My name is Sydney Giblin, and I am a junior studying Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at MIT. I love things that fly, the beach, chocolate, and the color green, but mostly I love trying something new and accomplishing things I never thought possible. I have loved the water for nearly as long as I can remember, and although I did not start swimming seriously until I was 13, I had been involved with the Junior Lifeguard program since I was 9 and had already competed in ocean races. Now I am a member of MIT’s Varsity Swim Team, certainly not something my younger self would have predicted. Similarly, when crossing the Channel first entered my mind as a fleeting thought it was nothing more than fantasy, nothing I took seriously. But when I arrived at MIT for my freshman year I met another student, Clara Bennett, who had just completed a successful crossing the previous summer. I was in awe. I thought feats like that were for strangers, not people I actually knew. So when my team mate Qing expressed interest in swimming the Channel as well, it seemed only natural that we team up and train together.
And now here I am, signed up for what I am sure will be the most difficult challenge I have ever faced. 22 miles in 60 degree water, a challenge of endurance, mental toughness, and self-control. There is plenty of training yet to come, should be exciting and painful but all super rewarding. 383 days to go!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
WELCOME!!!!
We are super excited about our crossing next year, and we hope our journey will also be entertaining, informative, and inspirational for you as well. More posts are coming soon, so check back often! WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!111!!!! COS(0) !!1!!
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