World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles

Dec 20, 19 5:56

Post #1 of 35 (3108 views)

Some colleagues and I are currently attempting to break the world record for the longest swim relay in a pool, which is 470 miles over 10 days. We have to break both the time and distance. You can check out the livestream here. We are raising $$$ for Challenged Athletes Foundation and Swimming Saves Lives - please donate even if a small amount! Instead of buying that overpriced and oversized pulley system, contribute to buying a kid some carbon fiber legs!

I've done a lot of endurance things in my life, but this has been much more brutal that I imagined. It's Friday morning 6am and I'm at 8500m for the day, and 55km so far for this week (for some, that may be a pretty good run week!). I've had several days of 18+km. Everything is sore - as expected lats and shoulders, but even legs, calves, biceps, forearms. The worst has been toes - we all have blisters from doing so many flip turns. Basically every day feels like the day after an Ironman... so sore. However it seems to reach a point at which it doesn't get any worse.

At a minimum, it's completely reset my perspective on what a lot of swimming is. I'm interested to see how I feel once I return to normal swimming next week. That New Years 100x100 is sure going to feel like a breeze!

Most people want to know how we structure things. We've settled into 7 hour blocks of two swimmers at a time. We seemed to settle on a descending block of 75, 60, 45, 30 minutes, alternating between the two swimmers. It's been pretty hard swimming continuously every time I get in the pool. If we stop then everything is over, so there is a lot of pressure not to screw it up!

I have two more sessions left this morning - a 45 min and 30 min. Then back again around 3pm for the afternoon shift...

____________________________________

Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [robgray] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 6:35

Post #2 of 35 (3075 views)

Uucee started a thread yesterday.

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=7108752#p7108752

I watched the livestream for a while yesterday. , and noticed for a while there was only one swimmer... Then a second hit in, and they both were swimming for a while.

Can you explain the logistics a bit? Is the point of the two swimmers just to ensure continuity? I noticed several parts of the schedule where the same two names just alternate between swimmer 1 and 2. What's the difference?

Very cool! Best of luck!

But, shitty timing with the 100/100 going on! /pink

Last edited by: Tom_hampton: Dec 20, 19 6:38

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [Tom_hampton] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 7:16

Post #3 of 35 (3034 views)

ah cool - I missed the other thread - no doubt because I was swimming!

Ok so the logistics in practice are a bit different to what it looks like on paper. At all times there are two swimmers, but only one in the pool at a time. The reason you might see other swimmers is because the pool is still open to others. We have only lane 2 exclusive to us.

So basically, at the start of each 7 hour shift, we discuss how we want to break it up. We then write it up on a whiteboard so that we are both on the same page. We also have to make sure that we don't do an exchange at the same time that the witnesses are swapping (there are always 2 x witnesses 24/7). Does that make sense?

____________________________________

Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [robgray] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 7:36

Post #4 of 35 (3019 views)

Ah, OK...cool.

Yes, indeed the thread was posted while you and sven were swimming.

Yes, that all makes sense now. The non-participant swimmer in lane 4, yesterday, is what confused me.

The livestream says you are at 859km with 1 day remaining. If that's correct, congrats! I guess it's only a matter of how much you break the record by.

Last edited by: Tom_hampton: Dec 20, 19 7:37

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [robgray] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 10:12

Post #5 of 35 (2924 views)

I tried to see the live feed from a post, but it just went to a news station with a short blurb I think on what you all are doing.

I have a couple questions, first what do you get to wear for suits? Is it FINA approved pool racing, or OW rules? And I understand you have to go further in distance, and in total time, but do you have to beat the old pace per 100 too? Or do you have to get to their old mark with more yardage, and then do just a bit more for the record?

So sounds like you broke it into 4 groups of two swimmers? Are the faster guys doing more time than the slower ones, and are you adjusting as to how everyone feels each day to get the max out of the team? Or do you just have your minutes, you swim them best as you can, and that time is the metric for setting up each day???

Thanks for chiming in Rob, I hope I can find a link to the live feed somewhere..

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [Tom_hampton] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 10:14

Post #6 of 35 (2922 views)

Tom_hampton wrote:

Ah, OK...cool.

Yes, indeed the thread was posted while you and sven were swimming.

Yes, that all makes sense now. The non-participant swimmer in lane 4, yesterday, is what confused me.

The livestream says you are at 859km with 1 day remaining. If that's correct, congrats! I guess it's only a matter of how much you break the record by.

yes we've just passed the time goal too so have broken the record! The weird thing about this record is that we had to exceed both the distance and the time. We're going for an extra day just in case there is some error in the calculations. But we have timing mats, 2 x witnesses manually counting laps, 2 x polar watches worn by the swimmers, 2 x GoPros recording everything, and a Nest cam recording everything. So hopefully enough data to validate it all! The admin and logistics behind this effort are probably more difficult than the actual swimming...

____________________________________

Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [robgray] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 10:20

Post #7 of 35 (2911 views)

Well hopefully you all swimming are not doing the math!! But really, you have to pay the observers to just count and observe, they should have a good number for your swims, no? But go for it anyway, not you are putting the record away, and the next serious attempt will be that much harder..

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [monty] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 10:21

Post #8 of 35 (2909 views)

The Livestream page is is here. You can open Livestream in full screen here. We are in lane 2 (second from right, the one with the cones).

The pairings of swimmers are not always the same, it's more based around what people's schedules are (for example I mostly swam at night because I had to work during the day). We aimed to have us all do the same amount of time, so the faster guys just cover more distance. We had to break both the time and distance, so yes effectively the pace too. We are quite far ahead of it - I think we are at about 870km right now and we just passed the time too. Definitely an interesting thing to be a part of!

____________________________________

Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [robgray] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 10:26

Post #9 of 35 (2901 views)

Thanks Rob, and looks like FINA jammers for suits. So tell us a little about the swimmers on the team, I suppose some good swim credentials and endurance junkies like yourself..

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [robgray] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 10:34

Post #10 of 35 (2896 views)

So the last guy was swimming just under 1;40 pace, they just did a switch and the new guy is just under 1;30 pace. What did you say your teams overall average was up to now??

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [monty] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 10:42

Post #11 of 35 (2887 views)

Based on the polar flow data from the livestream:

10d 2hr 31min /. 868.5km.

I get 3581m per hour or 1:41 /100m

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [Tom_hampton] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 10:45

Post #12 of 35 (2884 views)

Well that would jive with the average of the last two swimmers, so I guess most are in the same ball park. At least on average...

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [Tom_hampton] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 13:25

Post #13 of 35 (2824 views)

Tom_hampton wrote:

uucee started a thread yesterday.

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=7108752#p7108752

On Tuesday, actually… And even did a search on ST to see if there were any threads about it already :D

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [uucee] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 13:27

Post #14 of 35 (2821 views)

I've been off work for the rest of the year since last friday. So, I have no idea what day of the week it's been! :o)

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [robgray] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 13:44

Post #15 of 35 (2816 views)

robgray wrote:

The Livestream page is is here. You can open Livestream in full screen here. We are in lane 2 (second from right, the one with the cones).

The pairings of swimmers are not always the same, it's more based around what people's schedules are (for example I mostly swam at night because I had to work during the day). We aimed to have us all do the same amount of time, so the faster guys just cover more distance. We had to break both the time and distance, so yes effectively the pace too. We are quite far ahead of it - I think we are at about 870km right now and we just passed the time too. Definitely an interesting thing to be a part of!

say what? you do 12 hours in the pool of which 6 hours of swimming each day for 10 days and still go to work?
That is insane. I would need to be in bed the rest of the time. Actually that's a lie, I would be dead after two hours of swimming.

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [monty] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 15:38

Post #16 of 35 (2790 views)

monty wrote:

Thanks Rob, and looks like FINA jammers for suits. So tell us a little about the swimmers on the team, I suppose some good swim credentials and endurance junkies like yourself..

Google is your friend; in this case that is a bit of a double entendre. A weak one, though.

https://www.googleswimrecord.com/swimmers

Last edited by: jkhayc: Dec 20, 19 15:38

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [jkhayc] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 17:53

Post #17 of 35 (2743 views)

A weak one, though. //

Not weak at all, and with all that google horsepower, I would hope they would be at least funding this thing for the guys. I didnt see any banners surrounding the pool though, so probably a low budget, everyone pitch in an 1/8th, and call it a day. The pool was probably not too bad, they no doubt had some deal, but the 24/7 observers I think have to be paid. Usually they have to be certified and this is what a lot of them do for a living. But for a change they dont have to get seasick on some super slow moving boat, get to sit in the corner with a laptop and some headphones and rock out!!

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [dgutstadt] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 18:13

Post #18 of 35 (2735 views)

Yup I basically slept in a storage room for several days. Just short naps in between swims and then a long 90 min nap before work. On Wednesday I finished early and got 4 hours sleep which felt incredible. My first swim today was 1am and I'm doing my last one now before catching a flight back to Denver. Should manage to hit over 20km today!

____________________________________

Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [robgray] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 19:46

Post #19 of 35 (2708 views)

robgray wrote:

Yup I basically slept in a storage room for several days. Just short naps in between swims and then a long 90 min nap before work. On Wednesday I finished early and got 4 hours sleep which felt incredible. My first swim today was 1am and I'm doing my last one now before catching a flight back to Denver. Should manage to hit over 20km today!

Just out of sheer, sheer curiosity, I don't quite follow why you are needing to go 20 K per day??? If you divide out the 470 mile, or 756.7 km across 10 days and 8 swimmers, each swimmer would average about 9460 m/day. Are you swimming more than some others b/c you are faster and, since you decided to divide it up based on equal time rather than equal distance, you have swum more??? Personally, I think I would've gone with equal distance and said everyone swim at least 10K per day, straight thru with no breaks, and then we'll break the record. You could have had set times for each swimmer to start and finish, with the next swimmer on deck in case the swimmer in water just can't go any further; in this manner, all of you could have gotten more sleep. :)

Also, the Guinness page says the relay must be 6 swimmers, but you have 8???

"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [ericmulk] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 20:44

Post #20 of 35 (2678 views)

ericmulk wrote:

Just out of sheer, sheer curiosity, I don't quite follow why you are needing to go 20 K per day???

yes we don't need to do 20k per day, that's just what I happened to do today, based on my schedule. I swam the 1am to 8am shift, then worked and took a nap. Then did a few swims again starting 3pm. Once I saw I was close, I had to just knuckle down and go for 20. I ended up at around 22 I think. So now I can at least say I've swum a half marathon in one day. I tried to do the last length as fly but I think it looked more like I was having some sort of seizure!

ericmulk wrote:

Also, the Guinness page says the relay must be 6 swimmers, but you have 8???

Yes we spoke to them and their website is wrong, it's meant to be 8. They said they will update it but we are still waiting. It would be a bad joke if they came back now and said "sorry, we were wrong it's actually 6"!

____________________________________

Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [robgray] [ In reply to ]

Dec 20, 19 21:11

Post #21 of 35 (2664 views)

robgray wrote:

ericmulk wrote:

Just out of sheer, sheer curiosity, I don't quite follow why you are needing to go 20 K per day???

yes we don't need to do 20 k per day, that's just what I happened to do today, based on my schedule. I swam the 1am to 8am shift, then worked and took a nap. Then did a few swims again starting 3 pm. Once I saw I was close, I had to just knuckle down and go for 20. I ended up at around 22 I think. So now I can at least say I've swum a half marathon in one day. I tried to do the last length as fly but I think it looked more like I was having some sort of seizure!

ericmulk wrote:

Also, the Guinness page says the relay must be 6 swimmers, but you have 8???

Yes we spoke to them and their website is wrong, it's meant to be 8. They said they will update it but we are still waiting. It would be a bad joke if they came back now and said "sorry, we were wrong it's actually 6"!

Ah, so you just wanted to be able to say you'd swum 20 K, or now 22 K, in one day. I can see that, I've swum 70 K weeks back to back but never 22 K in one day. And hopefully the Guinness folks will indeed change the web site to 8 and put your new record up there!!! Thanks for the additional detail!!!

"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [robgray] [ In reply to ]

Dec 21, 19 4:39

Post #22 of 35 (2618 views)

Go Rob. This is awesome. Sorry I have not been following, just been in transit. I would have never imagined gettting blisters on feet due to doing turns, but I can totally see calves getting sore from all the push offs. Is it LCM or Short course?

I bet you the front end of you 100x100 will feel tough because your current pace is "so slow". Then when you hop back in the pool in Boulder with the studs for 100x100 the pace will seem insane for 6000m....and then the back end will feel really easy.

Also during your swims, I would recommend doing every 20th length as dolphin kick on your side with one arm pull for half the length and then do the other half of the length on the side and give the arm a break. You won't lose much time, but will give your arms a frequent break. Your core also has way more glycogen stored on it between swims in those muscles. You may want to do the odd length of back stroke since it works the shoulders another way.

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [robgray] [ In reply to ]

Dec 21, 19 5:45

Post #23 of 35 (2581 views)

Enjoy hearing/reading about your races/events. Been a fan for a couple of years since you're living the life I would like too. I just enjoy the couch and coffee too much. Donation completed.

Time to update your website?

http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

Last edited by: timr: Dec 21, 19 8:20

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [timr] [ In reply to ]

Dec 21, 19 8:06

Post #24 of 35 (2546 views)

timr wrote:

Enjoy hearing/reading about your races/events. Been a fan for a couple of years since your living the life I would like too. I just enjoy the couch and coffee too much. Donation completed.

Time to update your website?

Ditto. Rob, really enjoy reading/hearing about your endeavors. Well done to you and the relay team with this - not just for the accomplishment, but also for the reason! Donation made to CAF and inspiration to swim my 2nd longest swim ever today (meager 5,500)!

Tad

It took awhile, but I finally discovered that its not the destination that's important, but rather the journey.

Re: World Record Attempt - Longest Swim Relay 470+ miles [robgray] [ In reply to ]

Dec 21, 19 8:21

Post #25 of 35 (2532 views)

Rob, why are there no ladies on the team?! Probably because we're too smart for these shenanigans....

Our Partners

transition-DOT-area-AT-slowtwitch-DOT-com

Advertise with us

©1999-2024 Slowtwitch, Inc., and Slowtwitch.com
Reproduction of material from any Slowtwitch.com page
without written permission is strictly prohibited.