Yup, it was freakin’ cold yesterday.
What can I say, the Lake only gives us a few cold ones to take advantage of before we start climbing the temperature ladder again.
We usually get 2 or 3 “stupid cold” ones (ie sub-50F/10C)… a handful of “chilly” ones (sub-60F/15C)… and the rest “warm” (60F -70F)… or “hot” (over 70F/21C).
And unfortunately you’ve used up all your “stupid cold” swims for the year. Yesterday was the first (and always the most drastic) roll-over of the year. We’ll likely get 2 or 3 roll-overs later in the summer, but they won’t be anywhere nearly as big. You might get a 70F that rolls to a 60F overnight, but no biggee. Then they roll back. That’s how the lake warms up.
It is actually the wind that is the biggest determinant of water temperature. If we get a north wind that pushes all the nice warm surface water across the lake to Rochester… which pushes the cold water from the bottom of the lake up on our side. And a wind from the south does the opposite. Pushes all the warm surface water over to us.
The nice thing is, that cold water is about as clean as mountain water. And as cold.
Anyway, you’ve paid your dues (literally and figuratively!… 189 paid LOSTies already!) with the cold water. Trust me it’ll be warmer next weekend. Quite a bit warmer. So this is when we often lose all those early season keeners. They come out all gung-ho… find out it is cold… stay for the first 3 or 4 swims and then decide it is too cold for them… and stop coming out… just when it is warming up. Again, trust me, after 12 years of this I know the pattern. Global warming or not the pattern is pretty predictable.
And honestly, if clean, clear, fresh, cold water on a warm, beautiful Saturday morning is the biggest worry we have… well, then those are nice problems to have.
At least we don’t have sharks or giant squids! Hey, we have one of the best places in the world to swim… Lake O. And even on Lake O, not all spots are equal. Where we swim is one of the best… ironically, because it is cold and clean!
Having said that, you’re all nuts! I’ll finish with the same line I opened with… “that was freakin’ cold!”. And 74 LOSTies went in (and came out!)… and trust me, there aren’t many (any?!) places in the world where 74 swimmers go in and swim for 15 minutes in 48F/9C!!! Yup, not in San Francisco… not in South Africa… not even in Ireland. You guys are tough. And ultimately, it will make you better swimmers. You’ll be lovin’ it when we hit 60F and beyond!
PS. congrats to all the LOSTies racing this weekend! A bunch at Ironman 70.3 Mt Tremblant, Welland Long Course Tri… and especially LOSTies, Darren Osborne and John Stribany, who did the 20k Swim Around Key West!!! (6 hours, 45 minutes for Darren and 6:58 for John… that’s all I know right now! Congrats boys… making us LOSTies proud!)
See you on Saturday!
Cheers,
Rob
