2013 Fundraiser

Emily von Jentzen is an Ultra Marathon Swimmer who completes lengthy endurance swims to raise money for children with special medical conditions.


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Monday, April 22, 2013

And my next swim goes to Carter

Well folks...I am very excited to announce that my next lake swim, my 70 mile swim around Canyon Ferry Lake in Helena Montana, will be to benefit 2-year old Carter Hasselbach of Helena, Montana.  Carter is in need of a service dog, and we are going to help him get one!  :)

I met Carter and his mom Amy last week in Helena.  Carter, although a little shy at first, by the time we were done with lunch he was telling me all about what he wants to do with his dog once he gets one.

Here's Carter:


Carter was born with a number of different respiratory issues and has been diagnosed with severe tracheomalacia (which means the cartilage that comprises his trachea is characterized by a flaccidity that causes it to completely close when he breaths or coughs); bronchial malacia (essentially, his bronchial tubes do the same thing); the airways close leading to his lungs; his lower left lung is collapsed; he has asthma; severe reflux, known as GERD; he requires a feeding tube because for some as yet unknown reason, any liquids he takes orally cause his lungs to fill with fluid; and he sleeps with oxygen at night.  Carter is steroid dependent, which has a host of side effects.   Carter has been hospitalized close to 50 times and often travels from his home in Helena to Denver Children's Hospital for specialist appointments, surgeries and bone infusion treatments.

Because Carter is dependent on steroids and so much of the focus of his body's early development was on adapting to his respiratory issues, his physical development was and continues to be delayed. His muscles are weak and he lacks endurance. One side of Carter's body is weaker than the other side and tires easily. He has learned to adapt, by dragging that side of his body when the fatigue occurs, but that adaptation also causes him to fall more often and lack overall coordination. The doctors do not know whether the source of his issues may be neurological (theories include a stroke either during pregnancy or shortly after birth).

A service dog will primarily assist Carter with his mobility and also will calm Carter during his procedures and examinations (due to his frequent hospital visits, Carter has anxiety attacks when nearing the hospital and questions whether he is going to be poked).

Although costs for service dogs vary, the cost will likely be greater than $10,000(some service dogs can cost up to $25,000!).  Carter's parents are looking into various options for service dogs, one option which may allow in home training to allow Carter to get his dog sooner.  My hope is that we can raise enough money to pay for the cost of Carter's dog including the cost of the rigorous training that service dogs require.  Once Carter's parents have found the right dog for Carter we will know more as to how much money will need to be raised.

Unlike my previous swims/fundraising attempts, this year all funds will be raised through my new non-profit (The Enduring Waves Foundation) which hopefully will be completely established within the next month.  I'm working on the website for the foundation and can't wait to share it with you all!  I hope you all will continue to follow me on my journey to assist my new friend Carter!

To read more about Carter, visit his Caringbridge site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/carterhasselbach


Wait for it....

Okay, I'm most excited about my next post....but its super cool news, so I want it to have its own separate post!  :)

Here's a little catch up on the training progress:

Monday April 15th 
The Half n' Half practice
(seriously try this one...you'll be super leg sore for a few days!)
500 swim
500 kick
400 fly with fins
400 kick with fins
300 pull
300 flutter kick
200 back
200 dolphin kick
100 scull
100 kick

Then 15 minutes vertical kick

Total: 3000 yards

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Was out of town for work...didn't swim...

Friday April 19th 
500 swim
200 kick
500 pull
8 x 200 Kick w/fins
4 x 300 variation of paddles
100 easy

Total 3000 yards

Saturday April 20th 
mini swim (due to pool schedule changes my workout got cut short-boo)
500 swim
30 minutes vertical kicking (swim lessons got in early...but I still had space to vertical kick)

Sunday April 21st 
Didn't want to...but took the day off because I was under the weather....

Monday April 22nd 
WU: 200 swim, 300 drill
MS: 2 x (200 swim @B
              (4 x 50 IM order
              (150 swim @ B
              (4 x 50 kick
              (100 swim @ B
              (4 x 50 K/Dr
              (50 swim
              (4 x 50 Dr/S
CD: 100 easy

Total: 3100 yards

I've been having dreams of open water swimming....now if it would only STOP snowing!

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Long Swim Sunday

Today was a strange day....woke up to snow on the ground, went and swam at 7:30 and left the pool by 10:30 to a sunny day with most the snow melted.

Here's what I did:

WU: 200 swim
        300 drill
        6 x 50 desc
MS: 1650 @ B
         5 x 50 BK/BR
         800 @ B
         5 x 50 kick
         400 @ B
         5 x 50 kick

          2 x (500 B + 5
                (5 x 100 @ B + 5
                (10 x 50 (1-4 FAST, 5 easy, repeat)
CD: 6 x 50 K with fins
        300 choice

Total: 8000 yards

My swim felt great-8000 yards is feeling short to me now.  :) The rest of my day was spent at Naughty Puppy Class with Mason and cleaning the house....busy week ahead.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Race Week followed by R & R

My favorite time is the week following a race.  I love races/events because they are benchmarks, report cards and progress reports.  Even races that don't go as well as I hoped seem to enable me to re-focus my training.

This past weekend (April 6-7) was our State masters meet.   Now besides the fact that I was swimming in the meet, I was also the event director as our team hosted the meet.  It was a ton of work, but the payoff was great.  The event ran smoothly and it was a great fundraiser for our team.

So my last post left off at April 1st....so here's from that point on(I took all last week off from lifting, so it was just swimming):

Tuesday April 2nd
Off

Wednesday April 3rd 
3,000 yards (1000 free, 400IM, 10 x 100 @ 1:30, 4 x 100 K, 200 easy)

Thursday April 4th
Off

Friday April 5th 
easy 1000 mixed strokes

Saturday April 6th
1000 WU
Race 1: 1650
Race 2: 400IM
Race 3: 200FR
Race 4: 500 FR (set new MT record for 30-34 age group)
Race 5: 200 FR relay

Total with WU/CD approximately 5,000 yards

Sunday April 7th
1000 WU
Race 1: 1000 (set new MT record for 30-34 age group)...and my cap fell off :)
Race 2: 200 Medley Relay
Race 3: 400 FR Relay

Total with WU/CD approximately 3000 yards

Monday April 8th 
only evening lifting

Tuesday April 9th 
only evening lifting

Wednesday April 10th 
OFF

Thursday April 11th 
WU: 300 swim 200 drill
MS: 4 x 100 IM
       6 x 150 (rotate 25 stroke fast)
       8 x 50 Kick
CD: 300 easy

2500 yards

Friday April 12th 
OFF

Saturday April 13th 
Short am swim: 500 yards, 15 min vertical kick

I'm planning on a nice long swim tomorrow.  Indoors of course, since its snowing here (right as I was about to try for my first outdoor swim of the season we have this crazy spring blizzard hit!)

I've got two big events right around the corner, USMS Spring Nationals in Indianapolis and USMS 10K Nationals in Las Vegas.  This next month is going to go by pretty fast!

I'm hoping within the next week to have some cool announcements to make related to my big summer swim!  Stay tuned!

~Emily

Monday, April 1, 2013

Things I Get Behind on....

It's been a great past few weeks of training.  I've been working hard, feeling sore and getting stronger.  But as it goes, the better I am with my training, the more I fall behind on things like laundry.....and blogging!  Sorry its been so long....here's what you missed:

Wednesday March 20th 
AM: Swim
WU: 300 swim
         4 x 200 IM
MS: 4 x 300 alt swim/pull
        200BK
         4 x 100 @ 1:20
CD: 300 easy
Total: 3200 yards

PM: Strength training arms

Thursday March 21st
AM: Off
PM: Strength training legs

Friday March 22nd 
AM: Swim
WU: 300 swim
         4 x 50 kick w/fins
        3 x 100 50 rotating kick w/fins/50 free w/fins
        200 easy choice
MS: 12 x 200 swim
CD:   200 easy
          200 IM
          100 scull
Total: 3900

PM: Off

Saturday March 23rd
Whole day OFF

Sunday March 24th 
AM: Swim
WU: 400 swim
         200IM
         6 x 50 DA-BK/2K 1P BR
MS: 4 x 100 @ 1:30 build
         2 x 500 @ 7:30
         3 x 150 BK/BR/BK
          3 x 100 @ 1:25
          2 x 500 @ 7:10
         4 x 125 (25FLY/100BK)
        2 x 100 @ 1:15
         2 x 500 @ 6:40 with paddles
        3 x 100 BK w/fins
       1 x 100 @ 1:10
       2 x 500 with fins @ 6:15
        2 x 75 BK/BR/BK
CD: 300 easy choice
           6 x 50 kick
          100 scull
Total: 8000

PM: OFF

Monday March 25th 
AM: Off
PM: Strength training arms

Tuesday March 26th 
AM: Swim
WU: 400 RIM
        6 x 100 kick w/fins
MS: 4 x 125 (100FLY/25 BK fast)
       300 easy free
        4 x 125 (75 FLY/50BK)
        300 easy free
CD: 300 swim/scull
Total 2900

PM: Strength training legs

Wednesday March 27th 
WHOLE DAY OFF

Thursday March 28th 
AM: Swim
WU: 200 easy choice
         2 x 300 @ :10 rest drill
MS: 4 x 75 @ :10 rest (K/Dr/S)
        6 x 100
        4 x 75 (K/Dr/s)
        6 x 100
         4 x 75 (K/dr/s)
        6 x 100
CD: 200 easy
        200 kick
       100 scull
Total: 4000

PM: Strength training legs

Friday March 29th 
AM: Swim
WU: 200 swim
         500(100k/100dr/100k/100dr/100s)
         4 x 50 desc
MS: 500-100-400-200-300
       10 x 100 @ B
       200 k w/fins
       8 x 100 @ B +5
       200k w/fins
        6 x 100 @ B +5
       300-200-400-100-500
        4 x 100 @ B + 5

          10 x 50 @ :10 kick w/fins
      100 easy
CD: 4 x 50 FR/BK
       100 easy choice
Total: 8000

Saturday MArch 30th 
Whole Day Off

Sunday MArch 31st 
Happy Easter Whole Day Off

Monday April 1st 
AM: Swim
WU: 500 swim
        300 kick
         4 x 50 build
MS: 6 x 200 alt FR/IM
         100 DA BK
         4 x 100 K w/fins
CD: 300 easy
Total 3000

PM: OFF