Comments to the SCAQ Blog

We found out the other day that one of our own, swimmer Rich Hartley, passed away while competing in an organized swim in New York City. He unfortunately was found unconscious while attempting to swim from shore to shore under the Brooklyn Bridge. This event was first seen by me in Monday's edition of the Marin Independent Journal, and the SCAQ blog picked up on the news too. I commented to the SCAQ blog on Monday and today regarding Rich's passing. In the SCAQ blog there is a link to an article in Newsday about the incident and it further states that the organizers of the open water swims in NYC require a form of proof that a swimmer has accomplished either meeting a set pool standard or have completed another open water swim. This type of requirement should be noted by the organizers of triathlons, especially the governing body of USAT, because there have been far too many drownings in triathlons.
I did not know Rich personally, although we did share some pool time at TLRC. I always wondered who that older guy swimming next to me was and why I had to swim pretty hard to keep up with him while he did open turns and I was flipping mine. Turns out he is a very accomplished swimmer with a long history of competitive success. Apparently he was one of the first swimmers to successfully swim from the Bay Bridge to the Golden Gate Bridge in 1980 and he recently completed the Bob Roper Invitational, which is another SF Bay swim.

I started another round of physical therapy on Tuesday at another facility. I apparently have to work on rotator cuff strengthening and stabilization. The therapist noted that I have a specific muscle that is not working properly and he kneaded it to the point that I actually saw a noticable physical difference after treatment. It is only slightly better today.

I swam easy on Tuesday, no counting laps, no pace clock, only a bit of stroke work. Probably 2500 yards.

Today I swam at a new venue. North Bay Aquatics has a masters workout at Redwood HS in Larkspur. The workout is M-Th at 0545-0700 and Ken DeMont co-coaches with Don Swartz. The NBA seniors were also swimming this morning. Ken coached the masters and Don worked with the seniors.
I can not remember the exact workout, but it made good sense. Some progressions, some stroke work, some hypoxic work, some descending 50's. And a 200 warm down.
It felt link 2500 yards. Maybe there is a NBA website with the day's workout.