training stuff
In the end, I swam over 50 miles in 18 days for my Swimapalooza, I can hardly believe it. My final day was Saturday, culminating in my first 6 mile/10 kilometer swim around Hagg Lake. It was nothing short of glorious. The water was calm and the boats were sparse. Couldn’t have asked for a better day.
I’m proud to say I’ve stuck with my goal of swimming every day, and I had my biggest week ever at 27,000+ yards (over 15.5 miles)! And my shoulder doesn’t hurt, I can hardly believe it.
I haven’t been feeling particularly confident about the status of my swim fitness with the NEK Week Swims looming on the horizon. After my 10,000 yard swim back in early April, I messed up my shoulder and never quite got back in the groove again. My trip to the San Juans included zero swimming, and my planned 10km qualifier swim keeps getting pushed and pushed because of events or temps or this or that. However, it just so happened that a few weeks ago I quit my job and find myself with 2.5 weeks of unplanned vacation. What to do….
I’m not sure exactly why I decided that water above 49 degrees was no longer “cold”, and thus any swim 50 or above did not deserve the monicker “cold water swim” so I would not be adding to my log any longer. Ha. I guess I figured that if I could swim longer then 30 minutes, then it was just regular old swimming. However, what I didn’t know, is that 2 hours at 55 degrees is pretty damn cold, and just as much as a mind fuck (if not more) then 25 minutes at 45.
I’ve been watching fellow swimmers clock 3-6 hours in the pool, thinking to myself _no fucking way can I stare at that black line for that long_. For some reason yesterday I decided I needed to accomplish a 10,000 yard swim.
**Date**: March 24th **Time in water**: 22:47 **Water Temp**: 46-48°F **Air Temp**: 60s°F, sunny **Where**: Hagg Lake, boat ramp C I knew it had been a while since I swam outside, I didn’t realize it had been well over a month. I was a bit nervous, even with the 10 degree rise in water temp from the last time I almost froze my hands off.