Swimming long

Open water swimming and coaching: A new chapter

19 months ago was the last time I wrote something here.

There are innumerable things that can happen in such time and yet there are things that do not change and will not change.

Amongst the many things that happened over this period of time have been very defining moments for my present and future life and while I find it very challenging has also been part of growing up as a person and as every one of the roles I have now.

First of all as most of you know, I lost my job at the Toronto Star. Not because I am an incompetent graphic/news designer but because ...whatever is not worth my or your time.

While in the midst of figuring out what I wanted to do and define my next steps, my older brother Eduardo lost his battle with cancer and passed away. That fact has deeply impacted every member of our family in many different ways. We all are finding a way to deal with it but as you can imagine is not something you get over it easy or fast and in this case is taking its time.

So... I decided to become a full time swimming - triathlon coach and leave for a while the news design; become much more selective and careful about the information I consume every day (yes, I do not care about 99.9% of things that do not bring me a little bit of joy anymore) and do something rewarding for me and the community I live in.

No, not the regular swimming teacher that you see in any swimming school in Mexico or here in Canada by any means. I decided to go about promoting open water swimming and help age group athletes to achieve their athletic goals while pursuing a healthy and fun lifestyle.

And so I founded a coaching company: Embrace Open Water swimming.

Now, I know that many of you know this but maybe, just maybe there are a few that did not know and along this journey I have met many more people as my work as a coach develop and reaches more people. 
I have been a tiny part of many admirable successes of age group and elite athletes over the last 12 months. I am proud of them all and very thankful that they allowed me to work with them.

This is the come back to record the journey. The every day chores, pleasures and strugles of this journey that has everything to do with a long, long swim.

This time has been an emotional roller coaster. However there are many, many very positive things that brighten my life and kept me inspired all this time. That is why the purpose of this space is to share those along with my thoughts to anyone willing to read.

So I am back to write and to start the path of a carreer in this form of swimming. 

Hard to believe that everything started many moons ago when someone came to my primary school to offer swimming lessons in a little pool called "Mundo Acuatico" when I was in grade 1...

 

 

Driving back home

Apart from another great weel of training and coaching, driving the bikes back to Ontario on my own has given me a unique opportunity to be really with myself for a long time. Some times it is refreshing not to talk to anyone for long periods of time (always knowing that there is someone you will talk if you want).

Maybe that is why I enjoyed the training for Lake Ontario!

Deepens my thoughts and while I catch myself thinking very randomly at times, I also have periods where I can think and focus on what I want to do next and what is needed to be done.

Thank you Barrie for this unique opportunity.

If you are wondering (I know most of you reading would not), I have covered over 3000km. Last night as the fog was very dense, I was really tired and there were a lot of tractor trailers' traffic on very narrow lanes as there is construction all over the place I decided to stop and rest. Now I'm in Portage, Indiana, writing this as I am getting ready to continue and arrive home today.

First of all as Stuart McLean of the Vinyl Cafe says: pay attention to the un-important it is important! So I have been taking a look at cloud formations, dead and alive animals on the road (If I come back as a cow, I definitely would never choose Texas to live!), the red moon the first night, the falling stars, the ever changing colours of the road and the scenes that are offered.

Some times I have also payed attention to the road while driving!

But I also to keep myself entertained,  have been timing the drive. Every 100 km. splits trying to average better than 100Km/hr including stops for gas and washroom breaks. That doesn't leave much room for fooling around or for a proper meal!

Yet the challenge makes it interesting.

This doesn't mean that I feel I have to drive faster. I drive to the limit or with the traffic but the key is to be very efficient on the stops. I have had to be figuring out how much gas I will get to fill up, go inside, pre-pay and then go to the washroom, if feeling like munching, I would grab the healthiest I can find there and pay. Go back to the truck and fill as fast as the pump lets me while cleaning the windshield... really you wouldn't believe the amount of distressed bugs that flying on the road have found Barrie's truck suitable to commit suicide! ... Anyway,finish to fill up and start the drive again.

Longest stop: 32 minutes : you wouldn't believe either how freaking slow people can be just to give you a sandwich to go!

Fastest stop 7min. 47 sec. No pee, no cleaning anything.

The fastest period of 100km. has been 46 minutes no stops or interruptions; just steady speed all the way.

The slowest 1hour 22 minutes.... now you know when was that.

Just wanted to all who have been interested or wanted to know about how am I doing that all is fine and that I am very excited to be home and hug and kiss my Katie tonight.

I will let you all know when I get home.

Driving long again

 

Que chinga compa!

My long time friend Ricardo wrote on facebook.

Sort of "freakin painful pal"

And yes, driving back non stop to Arizona from Guelph was long and at times hard, yet I got to see things that are beautiful, enchanting, funny, surprising or just plain nice.

Two days before coming, I went to to Toronto to work on the early train with Katie because of the snow storm. When we got there I got to see the thousands up on thousands of people that get to work in the city at that time every day. Most of them looked miserable. Very few smiled and many were looking like that joke of the "working dead".

After I read Ricardo's comment while driving here , I couldn't help to thing that, THAT is ther real chinga! What I am doing is taking the first two days of my holidays to drive down the bikes of some triathletes (that otherwise would have to spend a lot of money and have hassels to bring them down on their flights down) and spend time with sport friends and my son which I love doing
At the end of the day, at least on Thursday and Friday while driving here I was way better off than all those going to work to a place that they do not like and do not enjoy.

On top of that, all the discomfort of the trip and lack of propper sleep was a great mental training opportunity for the summer project.

I am down here to help some athletes to improve their swimming abilities,

To start the process (again) of regain human shape.

To train like there is no tomorrow (just smarter than when I was younger) at least for the week

Lake Ontario here we go

Miguel Vadillo: Yes, I did it ... again. Burlington to Kingston?

Yes. Once more I have started.

...Something

The thing is I have this idea, you might have heard already: (many have)

I want to swim lake Ontario from the pier of the lift bridge in Burlington to a place to be determined in Kingston Ontario.

Never has been done, No one has tried before.

Unlike the last time, I haven't faced any "are you out of your mind" comments or discouraging ones and none of "that can't be done!". Rather I have faced challenging looks like saying "really?  Let's see if you are capable of ..."  which is even more scary.

See, when someone tells me NO for an answer I, as a general rule try to change it to: No... for now, and then do the work needed to make it happen.

This time life has been a roller coaster so even when I know that it can be done, that will be something very hard but enjoyable, I kind of stopped out of fear to the insane amount of work that will take to do something like that.

Before I go any further I have to explain that this will be a relay swimming the 320 Km. (more or less) between Burlington and Kingston.  Six swimmers one hour each, one after the other hopefully under 6 days (with their nights).

So after August when I swam a 10Km. race twice one week after another and finished both smiling I have been in the water just a couple  of days a week thinking about all this but not really moving forward.

So this week I have started. I swam a bit on Monday, I went to the gym with Santiago Tuesday and started very light, and to my own surprise yesterday, I even swam at 10 p.m. for about an hour.

Writing this is also documenting this first steps in the direction of this new goal.

The amount of work and things that have to get done in other to be ready to just start this swim some time next August are overwhelming and at the same time I feel some sort of excitement somewhere inside me.

I hope you can and want to follow the journey.

10Km. Marathon swimming Open Water Canadian Nationals

Well now that the Olympic games are over and many will have this withdrawl symptoms including panic of what would they watch or read...

Here I'm back!

Ha!... Joke apart, the 10Km. marathon swim nationals on Saturday were the best way to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the swim across lake Ontario.

Very different conditions though.

To start I am barely prepared for the distance at the pace I would like to swim. Being realistc I set myself the goal of swimming the 10 Km. in 3 hours or less.

Even when the weather foreacast said the rain will be over for the morning, was still raining and at some times raining hard when we arrived to the start point in Maple Grove in Oakville.

We waited for a bit and when the storm seemed to have passed we started to get ready for the race.

Katie helped me to get ready with all the things to be done, the kayak we volunteered, to put vaseline, to strech a bit and did a great job at putting up with me as I was nervous. When I was as ready as I would ever be, I kissed her and turned around to get into the water.

 

One by one each swimmer gingerly got into the water and got ready for the start. Except for Arlene, my friend and a marlin master swimmer I didn't  know any other swimmer there and still we all wished good luck to eachother before we started. I briefly talked to Arlene about the sort of startegy I had developed in my mind and a few minutes later I found myself somehow swimming fairly comfortable as the water was warm enough.

Quickly passed a bunch of swimmers and found myself swimming beside two guys more or less at the same pace. I was trying to get into MY own pace regardless who was beside me and I knew that I had to be very relaxed for at least 50% of the race. That was good enoug to get the first 3.3 km done against the current and still feeling pretty good. I was feeling happy... the bad thing: I missed the feeding boat on the first loop. On the way back to the start point to complete another 3.4km. the wind was on our side and the current was helping a bit until started to blow so hard that white caps where showing at times (meaning about 18 knots or about 20.7 miles per hour!)  and started to push me to shore so I had to fight back to be on course. Again missed the feeding boat and the waves were so big that was very difficult to see anything. Was now the time to pull the gels from the bathing suit. And then the rain came back. got into a sort of rough time where I was wondering again, what am I doing here? Why? It hurts! It's hard! and ... who cares?

Then I heard a deep voice telling me : YOU idiot! swim faster!

at last I was able to see the turn around buoy... because was 3m. in front of me! and there I was turning and changing the mental state. The current and wind was against again! If it was hard the first time now after almost 7Km. and with stroger winds I ... (we I should say as all of the competitiors were in the same conditions) had to really show what we can do.

And did it pretty good I think.

3:04:15 almost what I wanted to do but in very, very rough conditions.

9th place overall

6th Male and still waiting to know about my age group as I am pretty sure most of the other swimmers are younger than me.

At some point during the 10Km the other 3.8 Km. race started and I saw some of the yellow swim caps pass by. Two other marlins were there: Cathy and Ted. Congratulations to both for a great race under such hard conditions. 

At the end was a wonderful feeling to know that I can swim still 10 Km. that I can swim a marathon faster than I can run one and to know that after I get on with life with a smile and proud of what I do for "fun".

P.S. Good luck to Rob Kent that will start his attempt to swim across the lake at 3:00 A.M. today...

 

Work piling, more to do. Little time. Writing suffers

Many things had happened since last time I wrote. 

And now that I am sitting with just a few minutes to write, I realized that has been over a month!

I feel that somehow I got into a treadmill and I had been running non stop for a long time without being able to process all what is going on around me and those close to me.

It is my fault. No doubt about it. I have been dealing with the need to write about what happen to me every day. In the pool, at work, at the lakes, coaching, swimming.

I have been leaving work thinking in going home and write an interesting entry with the material I have collected over this month and when I get there after more than an hour drive from Toronto to Guelph I just wnat to eat and go to bed. Like a teenager.

Anyway, acouple of days ago I stopped on my way to work in a store and while I was paying beside the register there was a little paper with this on it: "Expand your reality to the point where you pursue what you love doing and excel at it".

I really had to write this tonight because I am in the process of getting into that path for real and for good. I just need to overcome myself sometimes to achieve it... if you know what I mean.

ok. Stop now with the trivial words. I just wanted to share also one picture that kindly Jess Douglass shot a few weeks ago when the Triathlon Club of Burlington through Margaret Dorio invited me to chat a little bit about the lake crossing and to have fun in an Open Water Swimming little clinic.

Stay tuned for more photos and the story about that clinic.

 

The World's Largest Swimming Lesson in Guelph...

 

On June 14, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. the Guelph Marlins Aquatic Club was a host of a special swim lesson at Centennial Pool as part of The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson™ to build awareness about the vital importance of teaching children to swim to help prevent drowning and to help spread the word that Swimming Lessons Save Lives.™

I arrived at the pool around 10:15 to find the parking lot absolutelly packed! I was very impressed for a few minutes only to realize taht at the same time there was a highschool track and field event.

Kendra was told that a couple of classes from school would be attending this special event but at 10:45 we realized that wasn't the case. We needed at least 25 participants to make the event count and 10 minutes before we just realized that wasn't happening. I was tempted to just be content with whatever... but Kendra started texting people.
She could just have given up. Instead she made sure back up people was coming, I made quick phone calls and we got what we needed so we started sharp at 11:00

The lesson was a blast. We had fun, the kids had fun, the parents had fun, and as I told Chris, the reporter from the Guelph Mercury: The important is not so much the Guinness World record. The important is the fact that this kids were pulled out of class to do this. The teachers had to ask why, the class mates will ask them when they go back to their classroom: Where did you go?

And the answer more likley will be : I was in a fun swim lesson ! This will help to spread the word ... as well as the local papers, and all of our contacts and you dear reader will talk about this. Soon enough we will have lots more people talking about it. That way we have done something very positive.

On the other side, we learned. Kendra and I will be more prepared to work on this project for next year and will try have all swimming pools in the city of Guelph participating.

At the end of the day we feel very good with the experience and I will write to let you know if this year there is a new Guiness world record!

Thank you all.

World's Largest Swimming Lesson

 

Hello there.
Some how with the great work that Kendra (my coach for the lake crossing) is doing we got to be part of this great event: The World's Largest Swimming Lesson.

On Thursday June 14 at 11:00 a.m. local time many swimming organizations around the globe will be participating doing the same at the exact same time to create awareness about drowning prevention.

We will be giving a free swimming lesson to anyone would like and have the chance to go to Centennial Pool in Guelph at 11:00 a.m. The lesson will be exactly the same everywhere.

Please whether you can / will attend or not, help us spread the word and make comments to your social media contacts about this great effort!

Many are paying quite a bit of money to see them in London. I was lucky enough to be invited to watch them running a few blocks from my house at Exhibition park in Guelph: Canada's best marathon runner Reid Coolsaet, Canada's best junior triathlete Andrew Yorke and two times Olympic medalist Simon Whitfield in an impressive workout this morning:

Kayaking for open water swimmer, an eye opener two years down the road.

Santiago Vadillo paddles beside Miguel Vadillo on the shores of Lake Ontario on August 9, 2010.
Photo: Jim Rankin

 

Last Saturday, June 2, 2012 I went down to Welland, Ontario where an Open Water seminar for the 2012 great lakes swim crossings aspirants took place.

A great job of Christine Arsenault organizing the event and Solo Swims of Ontario that brought their experts to share lots of important knowledge and information to help the aspirants to be successful on their attempts.

It was a great time I spent beside great Open Water swimmers.
One thing that I got to do is to paddle a kayak beside Colleen Shields for her 5 Km. workout on the Welland Canal. The wind was very strong all the time on the first 2.5 Km we had it on our backs. Some of you would say that's wonderful! ... mmh if I was on my bike on an Ironman I will say that too. But in this case my job is to stay beside the swimmer at all times to monitor her swim and be of any help she possibly could need, and it wasn't easy to stay beside her when the wind was pushing me very hard at times. I had to paddle very hard backwards to be able to stay with Colleen and on the way back with the wind on my face it was hard to keep up with her because some how she was much faster than me on the kayak.

Colleen had a good swim (I think) and I learned how hard it is some times to be the paddler.

I couldn't stop thinking in my three main kayakers while I was training for my Lake Ontario Swim:

My great coach Kendra Burton, my lovely fianceé Katie and my son Santiago.

The three of them donated lots of time over the 11 months that I trained for this just to be at my side and help me with the water, the food, but most importantly with their support and words of comfort and fun when I most needed them.

Somehow this little 5Km of kayaking beside Colleen gave me a much better appreciation of how hard would have been for my team to do it so often and for so long. Some times over 5 hours non stop!

Kendra, Katie, San: Once again thank you very much. I have no words to tell you how much meant at the time and how much more it means to me now. I have lots of respect for what you did now that I have learned what it is to be in that position (for as short as it was!)

Regular life, great expectations. Stormy days... help!

 

 Getting up at 5:00a.m. going to coach the Guelph Marlins Masters swimming program on Mondays, Saturdays and Sundays, trying to swim the other days of the week, picking up Santiago (my son) cooking breakfast, driving him to school, doing some regular life /people house chores, maybe a little free lance job or helping somebody with something (there is always something extra to do no matter what) lately going to Waterloo for a chiropractic visit to fix an injure I got on my right calf, traveling 104 Km. to Toronto and another 104 on the way back Monday to Friday to my regular official full tme job at the Toronto Star Newspaper, coming back to Guelph at night to feed the dog and cat, spend some quality (short) time talking to my family in Mexico, friends here and there before finally at the end of the day I fall asleep after 19 hours days.

That has been my regular daily life for the last few months and my feeling is that there is no time to do all that it is there that I want to do or it is exciting to me. 

It is overwhelming at this point in time.

Very well I know that I am not the only one with this feeling out there and I also know very well that there is no one that is going to change anything of this other than myself.

Have you ever felt like there is a thousand worthy things waiting for you to take on and you just do not seem to find a way to start them?

I would love to hear about it.

Anyway, in an excercise of recalling those things I have done in the last 8 months or so that I meant to write about and never got to it because... (whatever, I am not going to repeat all of the above again). I am making a list of things that has happened that I should write about:

ParaPan American Games Guadalajara 2011. From the other side.

"La casa de los Niños" Learning to swim, the unexpected experience.

Recount of last year's failures that are shaping the future success.

The Big River Man Martin Strel in Guelph

Back to the open water

Swimming long. In fact really really long. The new goal.

Please stay tunned and ask questions! That makes me be on top of this and focus on what really matters.