So after Saturday’s swim with the 7 of us, I went back for more on Sunday… and had one of my best swims ever! Joanne decided to join me for a swim and to lifeguard. It was her first of the season, so she committed to only one lap, but was easily conviced to do 2… but when I stopped after two, I couldn’t find her… she’d already started her 3rd lap! The water was great, 65F… which is perfect temp for you neoprene nuts… and quite comfortable for us “naked” swimmers… and by “us”, I mean, well, me. After being disappointed that I was only able to do 6 laps yesterday because I was too cold at 62F, my goal was to just improve by at least one today and do 7 laps… I did 12. I wasn’t too concerned with distance, just wanted to get a good 4 hour swim in, which is exactly how long 12 laps took. Much to my surprise, Joanne (I think due to boredom), got back in to swim me in on the last lap. 4 hours is a long time to have your face planted in 65F water, watching the fish… so it was really nice to have someone to swim with on the last lap! Given that this is my training for MIMS (Manhattan Island Marathon Swim on June 12), this was a good confidence building swim… even though that swim could be as long as 9 1/2 hours (that’s the cut off, kinda like the cut off Ironman).
When I got home I had emails from Darren, Wesley and Peter who all wanted to join me for a swim on holiday Monday! Which was great… more people to swim with! We had a bit later start… I needed a bit of a sleep in to recover from the Sunday swim… and I stayed up late to watch LOST, of course! (the TV show that is!) The water keeps getting warmer and warmer… up to 67F today! Darren has become the hardcore and knocked off 4 laps easily… it was only Wesley’s second swim, but he knocked off 4 easily too… and Peter was about like Joanne was yesterday… willing to committ to 1… and then play it by ear… but he ended up doing 4 as well! Darren got there a bit late, but timed it nicely to join me for my last two laps.
We also ran into a bunch of other triathletes out there (not sure what group they were)… there was a big group of 8 or 10 ladies coming out as we were going in (Annette Mckinnon, Barb Hockings, Dianne Gordon… and more, but I lost a few brain cells swimming this weekend)… also saw Norm Keith out on his own training for the Kona 1/2 IM in a few weeks, should be a great one! I don’t know anyone who has done that one, so there should be some good stories from that one.
Anyway, a great swimming weekend… 6km/62F, 12km/65F and 4km/67F… feeling good for MIMS! Hope to see even more out next weekend (we have too start at 9:00am at Gullivers now… but there is a chance that we can end the “pre-season” and start the true LOST Swimming next weekend… I’ll keep you posted!
Cheers,
Rob
