Selkie Sam's Testimonial

After my unsuccessful Catalina butterfly attempt in 2022, I was adrift in terms of swim goals. Ultra-long distance swimming wasn’t as fun for me as I thought it would be, and I stopped serious training for a while. I didn’t have a coach, I didn’t know what to do when I got to the pool, and I wasn’t motivated to try anything.

Last year, Daniela got the idea to write a book of pool workouts for people training for open water swimming events. Wild Waters is an open water recreation company, but we know many open water swimmers train in the pool to focus on technique and speed. Daniela wrote a training program of 100 pool workouts to get people ready for an open water 5k. She asked me to check her math on all the yardage, so I got a copy of the workout book for myself.

Around the time that Daniela started writing these workouts, I decided I wanted to train seriously for an ice mile. I was swimming a mile in open water in about 40 minutes. I knew that if I wanted to have a shot at doing an ice mile safely, I needed to get faster. Faster ice swimming means less time spent in cold water, which means less risk of dangerous hypothermia. I decided to do Daniela’s workouts myself to see if I could use them to get faster.

Minus a few weeks’ break for pool-less travel, I’ve been using these workouts since December of 2024. I’ve gone from a 40-minute open water mile to an under-35-minute open water mile. My freestyle base pace has gone from 1:45/100 yards to 1:36/100 yards. I like to think that’s an impressive amount of improvement for someone on the verge of middle age.

Today, July 24, my workout involved swimming a mile for time. I’m swimming in a short course yards pool, so I swam a 1650. I did it in 25:34. According to my training log, on May 14, the last time I did a 1650 for time, my time was 26:34. I have shaved an entire minute off my 1650 time in 71 days. I didn’t know that was possible.

If you’re training for an event in open water and don’t have a coach or someone to write you workouts, I recommend getting Daniela’s workout book. Heck, even if you have someone to write workouts for you, I still recommend getting Daniela’s book. I’ve made faster improvements with her workout program than I have since I first started swimming.

Tomorrow, I’m doing workout number 90 from that book of 100 workouts. Selfishly, I’m hoping more people buy the workout book so that Daniela is motivated to write 100 more workouts. Otherwise, I’m just going to start over once I finish the 100th. Maybe I’ll be able to shave another minute off my 1650 time by next year.

Selkie Sam swimming at Trillium Lake with Mt. Hood in the background.