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July 15, 2009 at 1:18 PM

Hasselbeck ready to sink or swim?

Get Twitter-pated with Matt Hasselbeck, who posted this photo from his morning swim right here:

You can follow Hasselbeck on Twitter at MatthewHass008.

So what's the backstory on the goggles? Well, turns out that Matt Hasselbeck has an offseason conditioning routine that's all wet. He's been swimming across the Columbia River, he said to 710 ESPN, the local affiliate. Host Brock Huard first told Hasselbeck he'd heard it was Lake Chelan.

"It's not Lake Chelan," Hasselbeck said in the radio interview, which can be heard right here. "The Columbia River. Lake Chelan, that would be crazy."

The Columbia River, that's just cold, right? Yes indeed.

"It's not warm," Hasselbeck said. "It's not warm."

Consider it one of the unique ways to stay in shape in the six weeks from the end of the offseason workouts to the day the Seahawks start training camp on July 31.

Left tackle Walter Jones is famous for pushing cars -- most noteably Cadillac SUVs -- to build his leg strength and fullback T.J. Duckett is down in San Diego running on the sand. Safety Brian Russell is one of the fittest Seahawks, and he works out on the track four or five times a week with a world-class speed coach. This year, Russell has also added hot yoga to the routine. He goes twice a week and has become more flexible and developed more core strength.

Meanwhile, Hasselbeck is up to his ears in the Columbia River.

"Right now is a great time to kind of train on your own," Hasselbeck said.

There's no drill sergeant barking exercises. That will start on July 31 when Mike Clark, the Seahawks head strength and conditioning coach gets ahold of the players and structures the workouts. Clark is called the Colonel by the Seahawks players, and that's not because he provides a lot of latitude in the exercises they will be performing.

"The colonel, he tells us what to do," Hasselbeck said. "He tells us how many sets, how many reps, which exercises. At 11 o'clock at night they come in your room, they say, 'OK, lights out. Bed check.'

"They tell you what to eat, when to eat. Now's the time where we can kind of carve our own workouts, do our own thing. Be creative. It's a lot of fun."

Here's the page where you can find the PodCasts from 710 ESPN with Brock Huard and Mike Salk.

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