Post 12K

The repeating week

Day	Session	Steps	Food
Mon	Yin yoga	10K, easy	Small calorie deficit
Tue	Dryland, meditation, flow yoga	10K, easy	Small calorie deficit
Wed	Yin yoga plus a hill walk: 4 × 4 min brisk uphill, 3 min easy between	10K	Small calorie deficit
Thu	Pool swim, easy (Z2)	8K	Eat enough to maintain weight
Fri	Short ocean swim, easy (Z2)	8K	Eat enough to maintain weight
Sat	Rest, pack the buoy	6–8K, flat	Extra carbs
Sun	Long ocean swim	No target	Eat fully, refuel after

Swim distances by week

Week	Thu pool	Fri ocean	Sun long swim	Weekly total
Oct 5–11	1.5K	—	2K	3.5K
Oct 12–18	3K	2K	4K	9K
Oct 19–25	4K	3K	5K	12K
Oct 26–Nov 1	5K	3K	7K	15K
Nov 2–8	6K	2K	9K practice run	17K
Nov 9–15	3K (moved to Wed)	2K easy	15K, first chance	—
Nov 16–22	Recovery, or try again Nov 21–22

Steps, VO2 max and weight

• Steps: start from your current daily average and add about 1,000 a week, so you reach 10,000 around Oct 26. At 309 lb this protects your knees, feet and Achilles. Walk on flat, firm ground, and hold the count for a week if anything hurts.

• VO2 max: easy walking builds your base, but VO2 max rises most with harder efforts, so Wednesday's hill walk is the main one. It's kept away from Thursday and Sunday so it doesn't tire you for the swims. Check with your doctor before starting the hard intervals.

• Weight: aim for 1–2 lb a week, which is about 7–14 lb before the 15K. Only eat less Monday to Wednesday. From Thursday to Sunday, eat enough to swim, because under-eating is what slowed you down on Sep 20. Weigh yourself once a week, the same morning each time.

• Why not faster: in a swim without a wetsuit, body fat helps keep you warm and float, and the water cools from November.

Zone 2 builds the base, and your 12K shows it's working. Beyond more easy swimming, these will help most, in rough order of payoff for a 15K.

Swim straighter

This is free speed. On Sunday the watch logged 12,172m, but your GPS track measured 9,963m, so some of the extra was zigzag between sightings. On your Sep 1 sighting drill, wandering off line added 11.6% to the distance. Cutting even 5% off a 15K saves about 750m, close to 30 minutes in the water.

• Lift only your eyes to sight, just above the surface, every 6–9 strokes.

• Choose a high, fixed landmark on each leg: La Valencia hotel heading south, Scripps Pier heading north.

• Breathe to both sides in calm water, so you don't drift toward your breathing side.

Add a small amount of faster swimming

About 80% easy and 20% harder works better than 100% easy. A little harder swimming raises the speed you can hold at the same Zone 2 heart rate. Do it only on Thursday in the pool, where it's controlled:

• Re-entry weeks (Oct 12–25): 6–8 × 100m at a Zone 3 effort (115–130 bpm), with 30 seconds rest between.

• Build weeks (Oct 26–Nov 8): 3 × 500m at a steady Zone 3 effort, with 1 minute rest between.

Keep the rest of the swim easy, and never do this in the ocean or on Sunday. Your doctor should be fine with brief Zone 3 work, but mention it at your visit along with the Wednesday hill walks.

Strengthen your shoulders

Strength holds up your stroke late in the swim, and shoulder injury is the most likely thing to stop you. A 15K is about 8,500 strokes. On Tuesday's dryland day, 20 minutes of these is enough:

• Band external rotations and band pull-aparts

• Lying Y-T-W raises

• Straight-arm lat pulldowns with a band (the same movement as your pull)

• Planks and dead bugs for your core, so your hips stay high in the water

Make your stroke more efficient

A longer, more relaxed stroke gets more distance per breath and per calorie. Two ways to work on it:

• Film your stroke in the pool once, from the side and from the front. Look for a dropped elbow early in the pull, and for your hips sinking when you breathe.

• Count strokes per 25m in the pool every few weeks. If the count drops while your heart rate stays the same, your stroke is getting more efficient.

Feed faster

On Sunday you probably stopped seven or eight times. A 15K needs about 12 feeds, and keeping each one under 60 seconds instead of 2–3 minutes saves 15–25 minutes. Practise on the Friday ocean swims: float on your back, have the bottle already open, drink, and go.

Recover well

Sleep, protein and the yoga already on your schedule are where training actually turns into fitness. At 63 this matters more than adding more sessions.

Want me to add the Thursday faster sets and the Tuesday shoulder routine to the weekly template in the tracker?

Strength train twice a week

This is the biggest gap. Swimming carries your body weight and works mostly the upper body. After 60, people lose muscle each year unless they lift, and leg strength is what keeps walking, stairs and getting up off the floor easy. Muscle also burns calories at rest, which helps your weight goal.

Spend 30–40 minutes on Tuesday's dryland day and 20–30 minutes on Saturday. Do 2–3 sets of 8–12 reps of each:

• Legs: sit-to-stand squats from a chair or box, step-ups, glute bridges

• Push: wall or incline push-ups

• Pull: band rows (pairs well with the shoulder work)

• Carry: farmer's carry, walking 30–40 seconds holding a dumbbell in each hand

Choose a weight that leaves the last 2 reps hard but clean, and add a little weight every 1–2 weeks.

Protect your bones

Swimming doesn't put load through your bones, so a swimmer can be fit and still lose bone density. Your 10,000 daily steps help, and the squats, step-ups and carries help more. Ask your doctor whether a bone density (DEXA) scan makes sense at your age.

Train your balance

Balance declines quietly and matters for avoiding falls. Two easy ways to work on it:

• Stand on one foot while brushing your teeth, 30 seconds per leg.

• Walk heel-to-toe in a straight line for a few meters.

Yin and flow yoga already help, and standing balance poses add more.

Counter the swimmer's hunch

Thousands of freestyle strokes tighten your chest and round your shoulders forward. Two minutes a day undoes most of it:

• Doorway chest stretch

• Thoracic extension over a foam roller

• Band pull-aparts

Track a few health markers

Marker	How often	Why
Weight	Weekly	Your 309 lb starting point
Waist measurement	Monthly	Tracks fat loss even when the scale stalls
Resting heart rate and HRV	Daily on the watch	Shows recovery and fitness trend
Cardio Fitness (VO2 max)	Monthly on the watch	Your VO2 goal
Blood pressure	Monthly, or as your doctor advises	Should improve with weight loss
Blood work (glucose, cholesterol)	At your doctor visit	Gives you a starting point to compare against

Eat well every day

• Protein: about 30g at each meal to keep muscle while you lose fat.

• Fiber and vegetables at most meals to stay full while eating a bit less.

• Alcohol: keep it low. It hurts sleep, recovery and weight loss.

• Water: sip all day, not only on swim days.

Sleep

Get 7–8 hours. Most repair and fat loss happens during sleep, and poor sleep raises appetite. Your meditation practice helps here.

Fitting it in

Day	Add
Mon	Daily balance and posture work (5 min)
Tue	Full strength session in dryland
Wed	Daily balance and posture work
Thu–Fri	Daily balance and posture work
Sat	Short strength session plus walk
Sun	Long swim only

Start with light weights for the first two weeks while you're still recovering from Sunday's 12K. Want me to add the strength routine and health-marker tracking to the tracker's weekly template?

Oct 4 is a neap tide

This is the part I got wrong earlier. Oct 4 sits at the weakest point of the tidal fortnight:

• High 6:40 AM (1.16m) → low 10:42 AM (0.96m) — a 0.7 ft range across four hours, which is almost no tidal current at alltide-forecast+1

• Then flood to 4:40 PM (1.58m) — 2.1 ft over six hours

• Tidal coefficients are 49–54 on Oct 4, rising to about 70 by Oct 13wisuki

I pushed you to Oct 11 for recovery reasons. But Oct 11 is heading into spring tides with materially stronger currents, and current is one of the two things that broke S66. Take Oct 4. The recovery argument doesn't outweigh swimming on the calmest tide of the month.

The route: Tower 30 ↔ Cove, 1,210m legs

I chose the short leg deliberately over your Cove↔Pier idea, and the reason is fuelling rather than distance.

Leg	Heading	Finish	Cumulative
1	S — into swell	7:35 AM	1,210 m
2	N — with swell	8:23 AM	2,420 m
3	S	9:16 AM	3,630 m
4	N	10:04 AM	4,840 m
5	S	10:57 AM	6,050 m
6	N	11:45 AM	7,260 m
7	S	12:38 PM	8,470 m
8	N	1:26 PM	9,680 m — decision gate
9	S	2:19 PM	10,890 m
10	N — with swell	3:07 PM	12,100 m

Start at Tower 30 heading south, so the legs alternate and the final leg runs north with the swell — the exact inverse of what wrecked you today.

Why 1,210m legs and not 2,360m

Every leg ends on a beach. Cove↔Pier legs are 92 minutes apart, which means carrying three feeds per leg and still depending on a timer. At 1,210m you touch sand every 47 minutes.

So: stash a dry bag at both ends. Feed at every single turn, plus one carried gel at a fixed mid-leg landmark. That's a feed roughly every 24 minutes, triggered entirely by geography.

This is the important part. Even if the watch reconfiguration completely fails, the fuelling still executes. S66 failed because eating depended on reading a screen. This design removes the screen from the critical path.

And it caps your swell exposure

On S66 your return was 3,198m of straight-line reach into an 18-second SW groundswell, started after four and a half hours, with no exit before the Cove.

Here the longest exposure into the swell is 50 minutes, and it always ends at a beach with food. Leg 7 lands at 12:38 PM — the same window that broke you today. But it's 1,210m instead of 3,200m, and it finishes at the Cove.

Two things you should brace for

This is an 8h20m day in the water. 12,100m at your S66 moving pace. Start 6:45 AM at sunrise, finish around 3:07 PM, sunset 6:29 PM so daylight is not a constraint. But it's 2.5 hours longer than anything you've done.

You need about 628g of carbohydrate. That's 75g/hr across 19 feeds, roughly 33g each, with 300–500mg sodium per feed. Weigh it out and split it into two bags on the Saturday — do not improvise this at 5 AM.

Decision gate at leg 8: if you're not through 9,680m by 1:30 PM, finish at leg 8 or 9 and bank it. A 9.7K with 19 perfect feeds is a better result than a 12K that falls apart in the last hour.

Week before — Sep 28 to Oct 3

Day

Session

Day	Session
Mon 28	Full rest
Tue 29	Yin + light dryland
Wed 30	Pool 3,000m easy
Thu Oct 1	OW 2,400m — swim exactly two legs. Place both stashes, rehearse the turn-and-feed, time the stop
Fri Oct 2	Rest
Sat Oct 3	Rest. Stashes packed, carb weighed
Sun Oct 4	12K

Thursday is the one that matters. Two legs is enough to find out whether the stash locations work and how long a feed stop actually takes — if it's 6 minutes instead of 3, that's an hour added to the day and you want to know now.

W10 Plan — Sep 14–20

Day	Session	Notes
Mon Sep 14	Yin Yoga	Recovery, mobility
Tue Sep 15	Dryland 1hr	Strength + activation
Wed Sep 16	Yin Yoga	Mobility, taper prep
Thu Sep 17	OW 3K–4K prep swim	Navigation drill, sighting, stroke feel — 7 AM entry
Fri Sep 18	Rest	Final rest day
Sat Sep 19	Rest or short pool 1K	Optional stroke primer only
Sun Sep 20	12K OW Attempt	7:00 AM · Cove → Pier → Cove

Sunday Sep 20 Forecast

Detail	Conditions
Swell	SW 18s long-period — peaks ~2 PM but energy present all day
AM window	Mostly small, cross-shore morning — swell building through day
Wind	Light to moderate, cross-shore
Tide	Low 12:44 AM · High 8:02 AM · Low 12:12 PM

Tide note: High tide at 8:02 AM means 7:00 AM entry is on a rising tide — the Cove will be full but manageable. You'll be at the pier turnaround (~6K, ~3.5–4 hrs in) around 10:30–11 AM when the tide starts dropping — ideal flat return.

The SW 18s long-period swell arriving Sunday PM is actually a positive signal — Sunday morning will be ahead of the swell peak, meaning organized groundswell energy without the surface chop. Not flat, but swimmable and actually better than last Saturday's conditions.

Thursday OW Prep Swim — What to Do

3K–4K, 7:00 AM, La Jolla Shores/Cove:

• First 500m: easy warmup, let HR settle, check stroke in open water

• Main set: northbound toward pier, sight every 10 strokes — re-establish your bilateral sighting rhythm after two weeks of pool

• Check regular goggles seal and comfort under load

• Note: your HR will feel 8–10 bpm lower than pool within 20 minutes — that's normal, let it happen

• No pace target — this is a feel session, not a fitness session

Key goal: get your ocean legs back before Sunday so the first 2K of the 12K doesn't catch you off guard.

Best Day to Swim This Weekend

Why Saturday wins:

• Lower wind: Mornings typically hold 3–7 mph WNW, while Sunday trends toward 8–12 mph by late morning.

• Cleaner surface: Saturday’s swell pattern is usually 2–3 ft SSW, long-period, low-chop — ideal for a 12K Z2 aerobic swim.

• Better visibility: Saturday mornings have clearer water before weekend crowds churn up Cove entry.

• Tide timing: Saturday’s tide cycle gives you a mid‑morning rising tide, which reduces kelp drag and improves northbound efficiency.

  
  

🕓 Best Entry Time

Start at 7:15–8:00 AM PDT.

This window gives you:

• Glassiest water before wind ramps at ~10:30 AM.

• Minimal boat/kayak traffic near Shores.

• Rising tide for smoother Cove exit and reduced kelp.

• Cool but stable water temps (~68–71°F), perfect for your Z2 HR target (100–108 bpm).

Expected return: 10:45–11:30 AM depending on pace and drift.

🌊 Expected Conditions (Weekend Snapshot)

(Based on typical early‑September La Jolla patterns + your historical swim logs)

Sea State

• Wave height: 2–3 ft SSW

• Wind: 3–7 mph early → 8–12 mph late morning

• Surface: Light texture → mild chop after 10:30 AM

• Water temp: 68–71°F (no wetsuit needed for you)

• Visibility: Moderate → good

• Currents:

  • Mild northbound push early

  • Slight southbound assist on return

  • No canyon upwelling expected in morning window

Risk Level

• Low: Surf, visibility, temp

• Moderate: Longshore current near Shores

• Moderate: Kelp between Cove → Boomer → Shores

• Low: Boat traffic early; moderate after 10 AM

  
  

📍 12K Route: La Jolla Cove → Scripps Pier → Cove (Round Trip)

Leg 1 — Cove → 200–300m Offshore Line

• Exit Cove on the east side, avoiding surge near the rocks.

• Settle into Z2 (HR 100–108 bpm).

• Hold stroke rate 34–38 spm.

Leg 2 — Offshore Line → La Jolla Shores

• Swim parallel to the kelp line, staying ~200m offshore.

• Sight on Scripps Pier — use the pier’s roofline + horizon.

Leg 3 — Shores → Scripps Pier

• Maintain Z2.

• Expect slight northbound resistance early.

• Feed at 40–45 min (250 kcal/hr target).

Turnaround at Pier

• Swim around the outer pier pilings (avoid surfers).

• Quick feed + HR check (should be ≤108–110 bpm).

Leg 4 — Pier → Shores → Cove

• You’ll get a mild southbound assist.

• Negative split target: ~2–3% faster return pace.

• Watch for increasing wind chop after 10:30 AM.

Final Leg — Cove Entry

• Enter on the east side, avoiding surge near the cave wall.

• Expect crowds — stay outside snorkel zone until final approach.

  
  

🎯 Performance Targets (Based on your drift benchmark + recent swims)

• Avg HR: 100–108 bpm

• Stroke rate: 34–38 spm

• Pace: 2:40–3:00/100m (OW)

• Drift goal: ≤ 1.44 bpm/km (your Session 33 benchmark)

• Feeds: Every 35–40 min, 200–250 kcal/hr

• Hydration: 500–600 ml/hr

  
  

🔥 Concise Recommendation

Swim Saturday, start at 7:15–8:00 AM, use the standard Cove → Shores → Pier offshore line, and return before winds build. Conditions will be calm, warm, and ideal for a 12K Z2 progression swim.

Friday Sep 5 — Pool Session

Target: 1,800m active · Z2 aerobic maintenance · no fatigue going into W9

Warm-Up — 400m

Set	Distance	Notes
Easy free	200m	3:40–4:00/100m, just loosen up
Drill: catch-up	4 × 25m	Focus on high elbow recovery

Main Set — 1,100m

Set	Distance	Interval	Focus
Aerobic cruise	5 × 100m	30s rest	3:20–3:30/100m — steady, not pushed
Pull buoy	4 × 50m	20s rest	Upper body only, feel the catch
Negative split	2 × 150m	45s rest	First 75m easy, second 75m slightly faster

Cool-Down — 300m

Set	Distance	Notes
Easy backstroke	100m	Full decompression
Easy free	200m	3:50+/100m, HR back to Z1

Target pace: 3:20–3:30/100m active (FORM Move Time only)Target HR: Z2 — stay under 114 bpm throughoutTotal active distance: ~1,800mNo timed test sets — this is maintenance, not measurement

W8 + W9 Full Plan — Locked

Day	Date	Session	Detail
Mon	Sep 1	Yin Yoga ✓	Done
Wed	Sep 2	Dryland ✓	Done
Thu	Sep 3	Yin Yoga	Today
Fri	Sep 4	Pool	1,800m — see above
Sat	Sep 5	Rest	Swell building, stay off ocean
Sun	Sep 6	Rest	Peak swell 7ft — stay off ocean
Mon	Sep 7	Rest	5ft S still running — full rest
Tue	Sep 8	Pool	1,000–1,200m activation — neuromuscular priming only
Wed	Sep 9	Rest	Final rest — ocean fading
Thu	Sep 10	Forecast check	Confirm Sep 11–13 window, lock date
Fri Sep 11	or	12K OW Attempt	Cove → Pier → Cove, 7:00 AM
Sat Sep 12	or	12K OW Attempt	Same route — preferred date (best tide)
Sun Sep 13	—	12K OW Attempt	Backup if Sat not ideal

12K Entry Window

• Sep 12 Sat — first choice. Low −0.8ft @ 4:13am, High 6.1ft @ 10:35am. 7:00 AM entry on a flat incoming tide with 1–2ft 15s swell and light wind.

• Sep 11 Fri — equally valid if Sep 12 forecast softens.

• Sep 13 Sun — backup.

  
  

12K Pool alternative

Your OW GPS swim pace is 2:26/100m (S61 hard effort) and navigation drill 3:37/100m (easy). For a pool 12K the target is 3:10–3:20/100m active — controlled aerobic, HR staying Z2 (98–114 bpm). At 3:15 average that is about 6h30m of swim time — a full day effort.

This will be your longest pool session ever. Treat it as a slow-burn endurance day, not a swim workout.

25m pool · 480 lengths · 240 lapsStart time: 7:00–8:00 AM (pool opens, choose your lane early — this is a long one)Estimated total time in pool: ~6h45m (6h30m active swim + ~15m of rest stops)

Pre-Swim (60–90 min before entry)

• 400–500 kcal: oatmeal + eggs + banana

• Hydration: 500ml water

• FORM goggles charged, pool bottle filled, gels laid out on pool deck

Warm-Up — 400m (16 lengths)

	Distance	Pace	Notes
Easy free	200m (8L)	4:00/100m	Just move, no effort
Catch-up drill	4 × 25m (4L)	easy	High elbow focus

Main Set — 11,200m (448 lengths)

Swim 500m blocks (20 lengths) at 3:15/100m active. Take 30 seconds rest at the wall after every block. Count lengths on FORM — use the length counter as your primary tracker.

Lengths	Distance	Swim time	Stop
17–80	400→2,000m	~1h05m	30s after each 500m block
L60	1,500m	~48m	Gel #1 + salt tab
81–160	2,000→4,000m	~2h10m	30s after each 500m block
L120	3,000m	~1h37m	Gel #2 + salt tab
L160	4,000m	~2h10m	Gel #3 + salt tab — HALFWAY CHECK
161–240	4,000→6,000m	~3h15m	30s after each 500m block
L200	5,000m	~2h42m	Gel #4 + salt tab
L240	6,000m	~3h15m	Gel #5 + salt tab — HALFWAY DISTANCE
241–320	6,000→8,000m	~4h20m	30s after each 500m block
L280	7,000m	~3h47m	Gel #6 + salt tab
L320	8,000m	~4h20m	Gel #7 + salt tab
321–400	8,000→10,000m	~5h25m	30s after each 500m block
L360	9,000m	~4h52m	Gel #8 + salt tab
L400	10,000m	~5h25m	Gel #9 + salt tab — FINAL 2K
401–464	10,000→11,600m	~6h16m	30s after each 500m block

Final 400m — 464–480 (lengths 465–480)

Drop the rest stops. Swim the last 400m (16 lengths) straight through at whatever pace feels right. This is your finish.

Cool-Down — 400m

• 200m easy backstroke

• 200m easy free at 4:00+/100m

Pace Discipline

Zone	Signal	Action
HR under 108	Feeling easy	Hold 3:15, do not speed up
HR 108–114	Normal Z2	Hold pace
HR 114–120	Drifting high	Drop to 3:25/100m
HR over 120 for 2 consecutive 500m blocks	Too hard	Drop to 3:35, reassess

The first 4,000m should feel almost too easy. That is correct. The session is won or lost in blocks 13–20 (6,000–10,000m). Maintain the same stroke count and tempo as the first block — if the stroke shortens, that is fatigue creeping in.

Length Count Tips (25m, 480 total)

• FORM counts lengths automatically — trust it

• Mentally group in sets of 20 (= 500m) — only count to 20, not to 480

• Set a soft target at each gel stop: just get to the next one

• At length 240 (6K) you are exactly halfway — this is the mental anchor

What to Bring

• 9+ gels (Maurten or equivalent) + salt tabs

• Water bottle on pool deck (sip every gel stop)

• FORM goggles (full HR + length tracking)

• Apple Watch on wrist optional for cross-check

• A second cap if yours gets waterlogged over 6+ hours

After the swim: send me the FORM session data — distance, total time, HR trace (avg/max and any HR drift pattern), and stroke rate. That gives us the cardiac drift number going into the Sep 11–13 ocean window.

92 sources

Pros cons of doing structured workout which takes longer vs just swim 12K straight

11:28 AM

Structured (blocks + rests) vs Straight 12K

Structured

Straight

	Structured	Straight
Total time	~6h45m (swim + 15m rests)	~6h30m pure swim
Pace control	Easier — reset every 500m	Harder — fatigue compounds silently
HR monitoring	Natural check-in every block	Have to interrupt stroke to check
Fueling	Stops are built in — no decision	Must decide mid-length when to stop
Stroke quality	Stays cleaner — brief rest preserves form	Form degrades faster after 8K
Mental	Manageable chunks of 20 lengths	Full 480 lengths as one commitment
OW specificity	Less — OW has no walls or rest	More — mirrors continuous ocean effort
Data value	Block splits show fatigue curve clearly	Single continuous HR trace, cleaner data

The honest answer

For confidence and completion, structured is safer. The 30-second rests are not cheating — they are fueling windows and form checks. You will almost certainly finish.

For OW rehearsal value, straight through is more honest. The ocean has no rest stops. If you bonk at 9K in the pool with a wall to grab, you bonk at 9K in the ocean with nothing. Better to find that out in the pool.

The compromise that makes most sense for Sunday: swim straight through, but allow yourself a 15-second standing stop at the wall every 2,000m for gels only. No sitting, no extended rest — just enough to swallow a gel and push off. That keeps the effort continuous while preserving the fueling protocol.

At 3:15/100m that is a stop at lengths 80, 160, 240, 320, and 400 — five stops total, under 90 seconds of total rest for the whole 12K. Functionally continuous, and it mirrors what you would do treading water in the ocean.