Mako Sharks are the Fastest Sharks

My oldest son recently turned five and during bedtime a couple of weeks ago I tried to explain to him why I’m always swimming in the mornings. He listened very carefully and when I was done talking he simply said, “Mako sharks are the fastest sharks in the ocean.” He then paused and said, “Watch out for those.”

Invaluable advice from a five year old.

While that might be something to seriously think about later on, right now I’m just focusing on increasing my distance and time in the water (I will say though, Shark Week is this week on the Discovery Channel and I have actively steered away from it. There is no need for images of great white sharks jumping out of the water and attacking seals to fill up real estate in my head).

Swimming this summer has gone extremely well. While I’d like to do all of my swims in the open water, logistically, it’s impossible. I’ve recently moved my long swims from Sunday to Wednesday mornings which has allowed me to go down to Lake Michigan on Sunday mornings and get a solid swim in. It’s difficult to get a long swim in Lake Michigan during the weekday as it requires me to be out of pocket from work for a long time. The longest I can manage during the week in Lake Michigan is about an hour of actual swim time (if you add in: going to the gym in my office building to change, commuting down to Ohio Street Beach (I ride a Divvy Bike to the beach – about a 3 miles ride), do the swim, bike back, and then get showered and changed back at the locker room in my office building’s gym…lets just say it takes longer than I want).

As far as numbers go, in the month of June I swam a total of 93,573 yards. That’s 53.16 miles. My longest swim in June was 10,250 yards (5.82 miles) and that took me three hours and ten minutes to complete. Believe it or not, the physical aspect is not the hardest part of the long swim–the mental aspect is so much harder. I did the 10,250 yard swim in a 25 yard pool. That’s 205 laps! Try doing the same thing over and over for three plus hours with no change of scenery. It can be a little mind numbing. I don’t stop for breaks often, either. I usually take a one to two minute break very 45 minutes to a hour.

My July numbers are going to be in the same ballpark as my June numbers, except I have extended my long swim to 3 hours and 30 minutes (I managed 11,200 yards on that swim (6.36 miles)). While I still have a long way to go, I do relish these little increments as they give me confidence that I’m heading in the right direction.

The numbers over the last four months have inched higher and higher each week. My main objective at this point is continue to extend my overall yardage and time while minimizing risk of injury (and to not burn out early in the training).

Things to look for in my upcoming blog posts:

• I’ve had some people ask me how I plan to be in 58 degree water for several hours without a wet suit. I’ll go into the details of how I’m going to overcome the frigid temperatures.
• I’m going to be swimming for a charity and I plan to announce which charity I’ll be swimming for in the next month or two.
• Food – I’ll talk about what fuels me on my swims.
• There are still details that needs to be ironed out before I make the trip to Dover. I’ll discuss those in more detail.

As always, I will periodically update my website with new content. You can visit it at www.jonathanheilman.com and if you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter on the website.

Thanks for reading!

Jon