Cold Day Swim

Since it was the coldest day of the year we of course thought it was a good idea to go for a dip today. According to weather underground it was 11 degrees out, with a feels like of -4. I will say, though, that we found a spot by the building where there was sun and no wind, so that make things a little easier - when we were changing it was more like 11 degrees. Which is not warm.

Because it's so cold the water temp was down to 35 again. The best part, though, is that the ice shelf is back. Of course I swam out to it and got on. I decided that maybe I've been cutting myself getting back in, as opposed to getting out, and so I sat on the shelf and slid in on my butt. I noticed much less in the way of scrapes, so I think that's a good strategy. We stayed in for about 7 minutes and I took my gloves off at the end to acclimate my hands. My new mittens are amazing, and dang it's hard to stick my hands in the water. The big swim is going to be intense.

After I had a lot of after drop on the drive home. I took a long shower and sat on the couch with my hot pad for a bit. And then I started feeling so tired that I took a nap (which was quite delightful). I'm still psyched about the upcoming storm - I hope it's going to be a fun one.

One month to the Big Swim

The winter swim festival is fast approaching, and so a friend and I went to the lake for a practice run. It's not too bad out, except that it is pretty windy. We're expecting bitter cold tomorrow and a big snow storm on Sunday, so lunch today seemed like the best time for a practice 200. We decided to do our changing by the parking lot so that the boathouse would block the wind - it was definitely a good decision. After getting changed, remembering to put in my ear plugs, putting anti-fog spray on my goggles, etc, we headed down. I was really really dreading the swim, but as I walked in it actually wasn't that bad in the water. My watch later said that the water was up to 36, which is still pretty cold. I wore my new mittens which really are such a game changer in terms of my hands, which also helped. Finally, the sun was out and even though it's not very strong this time of year it still made a difference. 

I walked in to about my waist and then just went for it. Of course the water was cold and I felt a bit breathless. I made sure to watch my pace and not swim too fast. There was a nice big space open between the docks and the dam, and so I was able to swim about 25 strokes in each direction, doing four laps. That's the same as the actual swim. After doing my laps I stopped for a minute to take my gloves off so I can acclimate my hands to the water a bit. It was so cold! I did another 20 strokes with each arm before finishing. In the end I did about .13 miles, which is a little more than the 200. I was in the water for 10 minutes, though it took some time to walk in, to take off my gloves and to do my last little swim. According to my watch I was swimming about a 3'42" pace, which is definitely slower than my pace last year at the race - there I did 2'34 for the first half and 3'15" for the second half. I think having extra adrenalin and a wall to push off of makes a difference on race day, but it's still definitely slower than 5 minutes for the 200. 

On Wednesday after work I stopped at the ski place to get in another few laps. I skied for a half hour and was pretty excited to see that my pace jumped up to an average of 3.4 mph, with the second half actually being at a 3.7 mph pace! I think I'm starting to get how it all works. I still can't ski outside of the tracks and hills are a puzzlement, but I'm quite happy with my progress. And I love that it's such good exercise in an outdoor venue.

We are expecting a big snow storm on Sunday into Monday - the amounts keep getting bigger and bigger, but it sounds like it's going to be over a foot of snow. I'm super excited about it. I've got a puzzle, food and cats - I hope the storm is up the the hype!!

Faster skiing

My office was closed today because we had a big event over the weekend - the best part was that I didn't actually have to help with the event! I just got a free day off :) After sitting on my couch for a bit I visited with a friend who is fostering a puppy (so cute) and then went skiing. It was sunny but really cold out, which actually feels like perfect ski weather to me - I always work up such a sweat. The best thing though, was that there was almost no one there, and the whole place was open. There wasn't a single person lying in the tracks or just standing there that I had to pass - it was much better in terms of annoyance factor.

I watched a few youtubes last night to work on my understanding of the mechanics of skiing, and I think they were helpful! According to my watch I was going about 3.2 miles an hour, which is still a pace I could walk, but it's faster than yesterdays. For part of the time I really felt the balance shift and glide as well as the kick back. And, I am getting more comfortable with the angle of my weight being forward.

I did three loops around the bigger track and on the second loop I did an extra circle around the long flat part for some extra practice. According to my watch I went 4.3 miles in an hour and 22 minutes, most of the time in zone 3 for heart rate, but a full 20 minutes in zone 4. It's funny how much easier it is to get my heart rate up doing skiing than it is erging at the gym. 

The only thing that I haven't really figured out for myself is the water situation. I don't have anything to carry it in, and I'm always so thirsty when I finish. I suppose I could just stick one of those small water bottles in my pocket. 

All and all, I was pretty happy with the day's exercise, and enjoyed it so much more than a day at work :) 

Ski and Swim day

Today is one of my swim friend's birthday and so we were planning a group dip at the lake. Also, we had snow last night, and it was beautiful out. So, I decided to combine skiing and swimming into one adventure. The plan was to go skiing for an hour, come home, change, and then hit the lake. Unfortunately my bed was a little too cozy, and my coffee a little too good, and by the time I was ready to go ski there wasn't time to come home in between. So, I made it one big outing.

I made a cake for my friend last night, so I had my skis, the cake and my swim gear. Plus all the necessary clothing changes - my swim suit and easy to take off/put on clothes and my dry robe. It was so much stuff - I think I've traveled to foreign countries for two weeks with less equipment. I took my skis out first, put them in the car, and brushed the snow off. While I was there the guy who parks next to me got home - he drives this massive 4x4 truck (which at first I wasn't excited about, but I have to say that he can fit it in his space just fine, without being a hinderance to me at all). Anyhow, he helped me clear my car and we chatted a little. Then I went back inside, changed into my ski gear, and took two more trips to bring everything else out.

When I got to the ski area the parking lot was completely full. Fortunately my outstanding parking karma once again worked, and someone left with perfect timing for me to get their spot. I changed my shoes (so much easier to do with cross country than downhill), grabbed my gear and headed up to ski. Even though there were a ton of people there it wasn't that crowded because the whole place was open. I did a much bigger loop than I had been doing - it's a little over a mile. I had time to go around twice, and then I did a few quick back and forth passes closer in to the lot because I was running out of time. To some degree I am getting the rhythm of skiing - it feels a little like skating where you are pushing with one foot and gliding on the other, and to some degree I have a long ways to go. On the bright side, it seems I was moving faster than most of the other skiers in the little track things. But also, they were moving slower and it was kind of annoying. I kept having to step out of the things to pass people. And as soon as I step out of the tracks I'm slower - so frustrating. I should have several more opportunities for skiing this week because my office is closed tomorrow and then I'm going in on Wed and Thurs, so I can go after work. According to my watch I went 2.8 miles in an hour, which again is just a little slower than if I walked. I did get my heart rate up pretty well - over 20 min in zone 2 and over 25 min in zone 3.

After I finished skiing I was so hungry! I thought that I might need something to eat and had brought an orange, which definitely wasn't enough. I had just enough time to stop and get a slice of pizza, which I chowed on in the car, before swimming. 

My friend is a teacher at a school that was actually closed for a couple days last year due to norovirus, so needless to say I didn't put candles in the cake for her to blow out, instead we just lit a regular candle, sang, and she blew that out. Then we went for a dip. 

The water is still 35 though the ice shelf has melted back a lot. I was thinking about doing a real swim, but just couldn't psych myself up for it (I did one on Saturday, so I felt like I had done my hard-core work for the week.) Instead I went out to the ice and found a spot where I could climb on it - it was pretty slushy and thin, but there were still some solid bits. I could feel the ice moving as I was standing on it so only stayed up for a moment. It's supposed to be really cold again, so maybe we will have more freezing. After our swims we all ate cake (which I have to say was delicious), chatted and bounced around to warm up. 

Yesterday I went climbing at my fav gym, metrorock. I warmed up with a 5.7 on autobelay, then I did a 5.8, 5.9, and three 5.10's - an a, b, and c. The 5.10 b killed me, I fell so many times. I really liked the c - it's in my favorite chimney, though I also fell on that one. And the a is on my fav slab - I just fell once on that one. I cooled down with a 5.7 that was fun. My arms were toast at the end, though I think seven climbs is pretty good.

5 weeks

5 weeks from today is the big race! I've been dipping, but only swam swam once recently, and it was brutal. I decided I better get back to it so I'm acclimatized and ready, but I have to admit I was dreading it. It's about 32 out today and cloudy, as we arrived at the lake there were flurries coming down which was pretty cool. 

It's gotten warmer and the ice is melting. Unfortunately it's floated towards the dock and there isn't a ton of space for swimming. And, there were four other people there, so I had to share the space (and since I don't really swim in a straight line in open water, that's kind of a problem). I was so dreading it by the time I got into the water, but then it was actually fine. 

Because I didn't want to cut myself up on the ice, and my goggles fogged up, I wound up swimming pretty slowly. And I had my super warm gloves and wool socks under my booties. So, after all the dread it was completely fine. The water didn't feel that bad (though it was 35) and my hands and feet weren't freezing. I did feel a little breathless at first, but then I was completely fine. Probably in a big part because I was swimming pretty slow. I counted strokes, but at a certain point I lost track because I couldn't see well and was trying to stay away from both the agitator and ice. In the end I only swam about 145 yards, which isn't that far, but I decided it was OK because my face was in the water for about 9 minutes, and that's what I need to be working on now. After the swim we warmed up, danced around a little, and then I came home and am spending the rest of the day on the couch.

I did a swim last week that was brutal - I got into the water and couldn't breathe. I wanted to get out, but I made myself finish. It was so hard. Funny how today was so much easier. I'm going to try to do at least one swim swim a week until the big race as a way to prepare.

This week for work we were at HMS for four days. I biked there two of the days with a blue bike e bike. It was mostly nicer to bike there than drive - I took the bike path to the MOS, crossed the bridge there and then went down the bike path on storrow to mass ave. The only part that wasn't bike path was from mass ave to the school, but a bunch of that had protected bike lanes. The one thing that was hard was on friday it was so cold, and there was a wind blowing off the charles river. I was freezing! My hands hurt just like when I am swimming and when I looked at my face when I got there it was red and blotchy. Still, better than sitting in traffic. I could never have biked like that when I worked downtown, but the infrastructure is so much better now.

Coyotes by the lake

I went with a friend for a late-ish dip at the lake tonight. We got there at 6:30 and by the time we'd procrastinated and such, we got in for our swim at about 7. It was a little warmer out than it's been, without any real wind. The ice shelf has definitely melted some, but a few places that I tested felt firm enough to climb on. I didn't want to cut myself up again, so I resisted the urge. We stayed in for 10 minutes, and my watch said that the water was still 34.

I have been having some pretty intense zings with the nerves on my hands and decided that maybe I should protect them a little better. I bought these kayaking gloves from Amazon that are amazing. They are three layers - a waterproof one, a neoprene one for warmth and a fabric-y one for more warmth. It almost felt like cheating because my hands weren't in pain.

After our swim, while we were drying off we heard what sounded like a massive pack of coyotes on the other side of the lake. They went on for a while, howling and barking and creating mayhem. It was pretty cool, though I was glad that the sound was coming from the other side of the lake.

Back to swim lessons

I went back to swim class today. I wasn't especially excited about it, but once I got there it was fine - it felt good to be in the pool again, doing real swimming and getting an aerobic workout. And, I was able to time my swim speed and did a 100 yard swim in about 2 minutes and 10 seconds, which does convert to doing a 200 meter swim in less than 5 minutes. Of course, once you add in the cold factor it becomes slower and longer, but still less than 7 minutes. Which is what I have been doing at the lake.

In the pool it's a lot easier to focus on reaching and pulling, something that's harder to do when I'm thinking about how cold I am. But, I need to remember to focus on that when cold water swimming. I'll have three more lessons, so a good chance to practice and remind myself of what a good swim stroke looks like.