• Bonar Bridge to Inverness
• 60 miles
• 3500 feet climbed
• 3000 sheep

Today began beautifully.  The sun shining and there was little wind.  We decided to put the Bellwether rain coats away and head south.

The first part of the journey was phenomenal.  We were almost alone on the road, and even though the climbs were tough, we were looking out over plush green fields, tons of farm animals, lochs, rivers, and waterfalls.

The second half of the ride was another story.  The wind speeds picked up, directly at our face, and we made a turn onto a road that, while characterized as small on the map, turned out to be a major thoroughfare.  Included in this part of the journey were two spanning bridges (Bonar Bridge and Kessock Bridge).  Both bridges had crosswinds that nearly put is in the water.  There was also a major climb that took nearly 45 minutes.  We were stoked to see the finish line in Inverness!

Swimming Loch Ness

We decided that we couldn’t make a trip to Inverness without a swim in Loch Ness!  Our support crew picked us up and we headed 10 miles south to try and find a good place to enter the Loch. The water temp was 49 degrees, so our swim was limited, but it was fun to be able to get in.  There was a cruise boat of tourists leaving a nearby dock dressed in sweaters and winter coats.  Two guys walking into the water in Speedos got plenty of attention. It was a good time, and brightened up our spirits and loosened up our muscles after the windy ride. We didn’t seeNessy, but the water was eerily black

The town of Nairn

After our swim we walked around the town of Nairn, which has a section called Fishertown (an old fishing outpost) where the houses are simple, quant and crazy close together. We walked around the town and had a blast, until we got so hungry that Neal almost passed out.  So we decided to stop with all the athletic activity and hop over to our hotel. Tonight we stayed in the Best Western Windsor Hotel in Nairn (our wonderful sponsor). The folks there are great. The old-style dining hall has all these awesome old war pictures and the English-style varnished wood bar has a huge scotch selection and great desserts – we recommend “sticky toffee pudding”.

Tomorrow we head to Ballater.  The rides start to get longer from here on out.

A shout-out to the Best Western Windsor Hotel in Nairn, especially the manager Jagdeep Sandhu. We really enjoyed the town of Nairn and this hotel is located right in the middle of it, and very near the sea. The sea breeze and the neighboring park was wonderful, and this place has a seriously awesome dining room with artwork of Brits kicking the crap out of french military guys on horseback. The rich wood in the classically British styled pub was a nice touch too. It was an awesome stay. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, the front desk clerk let us know she was nursing a bird with an injured wing — aww.

1. Swimming in the same direction as the waves makes you feel like you’re drowning. Waves force the legs down into the water. That provides a downward pulling sensation that caught me off-guard at first (i.e. I thought I was going to die).
2. The altitude here means I breath more – obvious and true.
3. My right hand cramped open, preventing me from scooping the water. This made me swim crooked and more slowly than usual. I kept up a 2 mph pace by kicking more. I hope the hand cramping was a one-time thing.

As always, here are some pictures to lend credibility to my crazy yarns.

[Special section for history nerds] Valley Forge was the site where General Washington stationed 12,000 soldiers during the winter of 1777. The Confederates had already captured Philadelphia and the soldiers were there to protect the rest of Pennsylvania. The winter of 1777 was reportedly wicked cold, and 2,000 soldiers died of exposure and pneumonia that winter. The park service lets the fields grow fallow so we can imagine all the tents and the thousands of men who were stationed there. Seeing it now is beautiful, but I’m guessing (based on the number of deaths) that back then it probably was a real crummy place to be.

Fortunately the tight schedule has not impacted the workout regimine significantly, and now I have a good 3-4 weeks off that I can hit it hard. Two-a-days and plenty of rest. My family has been great at allowing me the time to rest and recover like I need. Most importantly, my 3-month old, Joshua, has finally come online with my training needs! Until recently the little guy woke up about every 1 1/2 – 2 hours (I think just to check and make sure I was getting good rest). I appreciated his concern, but it wasn’t helping much. He’s now sleeping 7-8 hours through the night. Let me tell you how much of a difference in quality of life for me and Amy that has made. I’ve attached a picture below of the mini-culprit. How can you ever be upset at that face?

We figured he would know a thing or two about swimming in general. It also happens he had some specific advice for distance swimming training techniques. We came away from the conversation with so much good advice that we thought we would share it with all of you.

Tips from Mike:

1. Keep heart rate below 130 bpm for as long as possible. Endurance training is all about conserving energy. See how long you can keep heart rates below 130, start at 1000 meters, then 2500 meters, then 3000 meters. Keep working up until recovery time is instantaneous.
2. Distance swimmers avoid kicking hard. The distance swimming kick cadence is half the racers kick cadence.
3. Train at least 5 days per week.
4. If you try to just swim for 2 hours straight you’ll die of boredom. It’ll be like banging your head against the wall. Swimming is all about mixing it up. Mix it up with the pull buoy, kickboard. Do sets of 200, 400, or whatever. Mix up strokes and set length. Keep it fresh.
5. Keep rest between sets below 30 seconds, if you need more rest then you are already working too hard and your heart rate is too fast for ideal endurance training
6. Find outdoor swims to train. He recommended Sunkist in Atlantic City to us or swims during the winter in Florida (although this requires travel for us).
7. Pools should be kept between 78 and 83. He has his pool hot because “his boys are fat”. The hotter the water the more you sweat. This struck me, since I don’t feel myself sweating when I swim, but I guess we all do. Makes me think the water is probably pretty close, but I guess there is no sense dwelling on this since I’m going to swim anyway.
8. Distance swimmers typically do 7000 meters daily and 12000 on a double day. 6-7 days per week.

Mike starts and ends every discussion with us by saying “you guys are nuts”. He’s a totally good guy.