Dan Head

Hi friends,

It's been a big week. As of this writing, Team RBG has raised over $4000 dollars for the Swim Across the Sound. Meanwhile, friends and coworkers have donated more than $2000 to my personal campaign, while the Swim itself has raised nearly $200K overall!

Y'know, people can be amazing. We live in a time of what feels like unparalleled disunity, and yet here are folks from every corner of my personal and professional life coming together to make a real difference in the lives of complete strangers!

It means the world to me.

The Swim is important. I mean, sure, it's important to me in the sense that it keeps me in the water and motivated, it gives some structure to what occasionally feels like a chaotic life outside the pool. But it's MORE important to the people it helps. The Swim changes lives! It helps pay mortgages, electric bills, etc, for folks who can't work because they're struggling with cancer and its treatments. It helps cancer victims hold themselves together at a time when their own bodies are trying to tear them apart.

Cancer sucks, my friends. We may never beat it completely, but we can at least stand together when we fight.

* * *

If you've interested, I swam over 10 miles this week, and I biked another 22. Collectively, that's more physical training than I've put in since I was a Real Swimmer back at West Point. I've enjoyed it, too -- mostly -- but I don't mind telling you that I'm getting tired. My body aches all over right now, and I wake up increasingly sore every morning.

Thankfully, we're a little less than three weeks out from race day. This is my last full week of heavy training. I'll start tapering in the middle of next week. I'm almost giddy with excitement.

I hope everyone is doing well out there. Keep pushing and keep the faith.

We're gonna get there.

--Dan

Friends,

We're a little less than two months out from this year's Swim Across the Sound, so I guess that means it's time for an update. As of this writing, Team RBG has four swimmers entered -- me, Dave, Bryan, and Chris -- with the expectation that we'll add one more -- Stephen. That will give us five, which is one teammate more than we've ever before fielded.

This should be a good group. Dave is one of my closest friends, being both my West Point classmate and teammate from the Army Swim Team that won the Patriot League Title every year from 1992 to 1995. Bryan is also a West Point alum and former Army Swimmer, meaning that Team RBG will be Army-heavy for once after last year's team put three guys in from the Navy. Chris and Stephen, both Navy guys, return from the last two iterations of our team, and truthfully, I love both those guys and am extremely grateful to have them onboard. If you're wondering, Chris is a former Navy Corpsman while Stephen was a Navy Doctor -- and a former member of the U.S. Water Polo National Team.

We're not young, friends, but I have high hopes that we'll be plenty talented.

Speaking personally, I've recently transitioned in my training from mixed weights and swimming to pure distance swimming, adding as much yardage as my body can handle in preparation for the Swim. I've lately felt better in open water than I have swimming in the pool, but hopefully, my form will come fully around before we get too deeply into July. For better or worse, this is always a process -- and not one that gets easier with age.

Thank you again for your support of our team. More than anything, we want to raise money to help folks fighting cancer. If you can help, please do. The Swim supports cancer victims in their time of need. Believe me, every little bit matters to someone.

BEAT CANCER!

--Dan

Hi friends,

Once again, thank you so much for donating to my Swim Across the Sound campaign. This charity is incredibly important to me. Cancer destroys lives. We're can't change that, but we can at least try to mitigate the impacts as much as possible.

If you're curious, training is going very well. I train on a four-week cycle, with three working weeks to one rest week through each four week rotation. This is the same concept you might use to train for a marathon or triathlon, but I've adapted it for marathon swimming. This past week was a Week 1. I put in 12,000 yards over the course of four workouts, including a long Saturday swim of 4,000 yards. I also hit the weight room three times -- Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday -- though my focus has been much more in the water the past few weeks.

For those of you who know something about swimming, I closed up Saturday's work with a 300-yard tempo swim in 3:40. I'll be fifty in a month and a half, so that wasn't too bad, especially coming at the end of a long workout. It would've put me on pace to qualify for Master's Nationals in th 500 Free if anyone had happened to be there with a stopwatch.

I'll be in the water Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday this week with weights today, tomorrow and again on Sunday. Hopefully, I can keep eating right and sleeping reasonably well, too. That helps a lot.

Finally: I've gotten a few verbal commitments from would-be teammates plus a few "maybes". So at this point, Team RBG is still looking for some swimmers. If you know anyone who might be interested, please reach out.

Thanks!

--Dan