Swim swimming again

It's been a while since I did a swim as opposed to a dip. Today was gorgeous, with sun, about 40 degrees, and not much wind, so I did a late lunch and met some friends at the beach. When the time came around I was pretty anxious about it because I'd been dipping and it had been 36, so I thought it was going to be cold (spoiler alert, it was cold). We decided to go at 3:30, and the sun goes down at 4:12, but a little earlier at the lake because of the trees, so I wanted to be in the water at 3:45 at the latest. There was a certain amount of drama because there was ice at the beach - to be fair, that ice is sharp and you do have to be careful. But three of us were at the beach, and one at the docks, and so there was back and forth, until I was like "I have to get in," and so I did - at the beach. 

It was complicated to walk out past the ice, but I did big steps and made it. Then I just got right in and swam. My goal was to do 200 meters, the distance for the long swim at memphremagog, just to make sure I could still do it. Because I was all angsty, I started out waaaay to fast and could feel my heart pounding and was breathing way too hard, so I had to stop on the first length and catch my breath. There was a great blue heron hanging out by the side of the lake, just doing its bird thing, so it was kind of cool to check it out when I stopped. After I caught my breath I went back to it and was fine for the rest of the swim. In the end I went about 225 meters and was in the water for about 10 minutes - which again is longer than the five minutes that you are officially allowed for the 200 at the swim fest. Though, to be fair, it did take me a little longer than usual to get in and out of the water. While I was swimming the water felt fine. I think I had so much adrenalin going when I got in that I didn't even feel how cold it was on my face, so that was one positive. According to my watch it was 36 again. Which I think is only 3 degrees warmer than the temp I got at the swim fest last year.

Yesterday I went to the gym and did some ergging and lifting. I have my follow-up appointment with the knee doctor tomorrow. I can't believe it's been 6 weeks! And, I can't believe how amazing my knee feels ie it feels just like a knee, no pain. Not sure if its the strength training or the cortisone shot, but I am curious to hear what the doctor says tomorrow.

First snow of the year

Today we got about one inch of snow, which isn't much, but it's something. It was a really nice snow, not stormy, just gentle flakes coming down all day, sticking to the grass but not the pavement. I woke up at about 9 and thought what a perfect day it was for parkour because it's still happening across the street from me right now, but then it was so cozy in bed I didn't want to get up. By the time I bit the bullet and got out of bed it was to late for the 9:30 class. I sat on my couch and drank my coffee and thought about going to the 11 am class, which is a little more advanced and a little higher impact. I haven't been in a while because of my knee pain, but honestly my knee feels really good, and so I decided that I would go for it, and I was glad that I did!

When I got to class I realized that the snow was perfect for packing for snowballs, and there was definitely some snowball throwing through class. It was fun being in the slightly higher level - especially with the snow. We did a lot of exercises that allowed us to test the slipperyness of the snow (hint, it's slippery), but nothing that really bothered my knee. Yay! 

After class I had lunch, hung out for a bit, and then decided to go for a dip. It's been really cold out recently and today the lake was 36, which is pretty darn cold. Only another 4 or 5 degrees to get to the coldest, and the temp for memphremagog. Because I was by myself I decided to go easy, so even though it was during the daytime I just bopped around in the water for 5 minutes and didn't swim. After my hands were so cold, but the rest of me was fine. 

Yesterday was a big parkour day for me - I went to my usual class and then there was a parkour games at 1. People had been talking about the games being fun, and I didn't have other plans for the day, so this friend of mine and I wound up going for lunch after parkour, then hanging around harvard square, and then doing the games, which were a lot of fun. We did mostly tag, but different kinds of tag. One where you try to tag other people's feet with your feet, one where you tried to tag the calves with your calves, and one arms to arms. We also did this game where you did a forward roll and tried to tag people at the end. And then we played a really confusing game that was like half capture the flag that fell a little short. It was like 30 degrees out all day, and so by the time we got to the last game I was getting a little cold and tired, so maybe it was a "me problem."

Next week is the last full week at work before vacation. Things are slowing down and I'm looking forward to having almost two weeks off for some stay-cationing!

37

I can't believe that December is almost half way over! Though I haven't been writing about it, I have still been swimming/dipping, doing yoga, parkour, etc. I went for two dips this week - one at Walden on Wednesday after work where it was 41 and one today at lunch at the Mystic where it was 37! Crazy the difference. It's been so cold out lately, I drove past the Charles and it was covered with a layer of ice. It's been super windy the last couple of days, and the Mystic was actually pretty choppy.

The plan for today was just to pop over at lunch, do a quick 5 minute dip, and then come right back home. I wore my swim suit and dryrobe in the car so it was easy to get into the water - because of the wind I also wore booties so I could go up the stairs and stand where the boathouse blocked the wind after. And, of course, I wore gloves. The dip itself was pretty chilly, though once I got in it was mostly my hands that were uncomfortable. Just as I was getting out some guy came to chat with me - I was actually a little proud of myself for being like "sorry, gotta get out of the wind and get dressed" aka "I got a thing going on here, can't talk." Which is a little sad, because of course I can't chat when it's a feels like of less than 30 degrees and I'm soaking wet. Anyhow, I got dressed, got in my car and was just looking at my phone when I saw a state trouper car arrive in the lot, circle around to the top of the stairs, and stop. I think the tufts police may have called them because it seemed like they knew I was swimming...  That's not a positive development.

Skyline trail

It looks like the day after Thanksgiving last year I thought about going to the white mountains for a hike, but then didn't because the weather looked bad - instead I went on a Fells hike on that Friday, and did the entire loop. Which I guess I thought was a good idea, because I did the exact same thing today!

I was going to do jennings peak and sandwich, but it said it was going to be cold and windy, with gusts up to 40 mph. Nope. Also, no to getting up early for that. I slept a bit and then decided I would try to do skyline first, and if there was no parking I would do my usual rock circuit. For some reason there were a ton of spots open - it was kind of cold and it even snowed a few flakes. Anyhow, I decided to go for the longer hike. 

As in the past I parked in the sheepfold and went clockwise so that I would get the part that could be cut off done first - always an excellent idea because I was a little cold, tired and hungry as I got to the end of the hike and would have taken a short cut if I could. Last night I had a delicious dinner, including turkey and the stuffing from the turkey, and as usual I ate wayyyy too much and had regrets. Last weekend I ate bacon and it was delicious, and it's making me question this whole pescatarian thing. It's been about 5 years - I wonder if it's time to make meat a more regular part of my life again? Anyhow, I ate so much that I didn't need breakfast and wasn't hungry when I set out at 11 ish. Fortunately I still packed a granola bar, thinking that I might get hungry (I did).

It was a really nice hike, chilly but not cold - I was sweating but not too much. I did take my puffer off about a mile or so in and just hiked in pants and a smart wool top + t shirt. I was feeling pretty good, and my knee is feeling good as well, so especially during the flatter parts I moved a little faster, which felt nice. Because it's the long weekend I didn't really have any Dark Trail Thoughts or Other Angst to get out of my system, and it was a little difficult actually that I didn't have anything to chew over in my mind while hiking. I looked at my hiking time from last year and it was 3 hours 37 minutes - this year it was 3 hours and 16 minutes. Book time is 3 - 3.5 hours, so a little faster this year!

Although I haven't been blogging about it, I have been swimming. This week I did two quarter mile swims in 44 degree water, and it felt great! We've been swimming pretty regularly on Saturdays, so I went then. And then I had a little free time at lunch on Wednesday, so I went then as well. I intended to just bob around, but one of the women brought her family, and she was like "they will be so impressed if you swim" so I did (hint, they were completely unimpressed. But I was glad that I did swim, so it was a good motivator.) I've pretty much been swimming a quarter mile a week each weekend with the water getting slowly colder. Tomorrow is meant to be even colder out, but sunny, so hopefully it will be a good day for a swim.

I've also been doing the boring PT exercises and I think they are helping! Today my knee mostly didn't hurt during my hike. I think I might turn my left foot out a little, and so that may be part of the issue as well. I'm going to try to continue with the exercises and stretches, even though they are pretty boring.

Last Tuesday I accidentally stepped on my cat - she does this thing where she follows me around - it's kind of cute. But I didn't realize she was under foot until I felt a furry movement and heard a really angry yowl. She went completely kitty crazy on me and dug her claws into my leg. There was blood :(. After she was growly for a couple hours before she would calm down. Cats. I had to bribe her with a lot of treats, but she's forgiven both me and my other cat (who had nothing to do with the incident, but did get the bulk of her wrath.)

Half Mile at 51/Runners Knee

I've been mostly just bobbing around in the water these last couple of weeks, but today was beautiful and sunny, and I wanted to get in a good swim. I met a few friends a the beach, we chatted for a little bit, and then it was into the water. I've been wearing just swim cap and swim suit, but today I decided to go for the gloves as well, and it made such a difference! I got in and, memphremagog style, just went for it, with the plan to swim a quarter mile. The first length was hard as my face got used to the water, but from there it felt good. The sun was warm on my back and the swimming felt fine. After the first lap I started thinking about doing a half mile, and by the third I was sure I could do it. And I did!

With my apple watch on I've noticed a few times that I was just a little short of the planned length, so when I thought I was done I looked at my watch, and sure enough I was at .47 mile. The last .03 mile seemed the longest because I was just killing time waiting to be done. It was the slowest part of the swim.  In fact, when I look at the first split it was crazy fast, and then I realized that I needed to slow down, as I always do. I kind of stabilized at a 3'21" pace, which isn't fast at all - when I was pool swimming I was doing about a 2'25" pace - maybe I need to get back to the pool a little?

After it was so nice out still, we hung out and chatted and ate hummus with carrots. I got a nice chill going, but not to the point of being shivery. A really nice fall day!

My knee has been really painful lately, so I went to a sports medicine person who said that I have runners knee and need to strengthen my gluteus medius and stretch my IT bands and quads/hamstrings. Which means more boring PT exercises. She also gave me a cortisone shot in my left knee, and wow is it amazing. I hadn't realized how much I was just feeling this low level pain until it stopped. It's pretty motivating to actually do the exercises!

I though about the other PT attempts, and feel like it's the intense boringness of the exercises that keep me from doing them. So instead of going to a PT I did some research on what can help with these areas and wrote out a list of things that I don't totally hate. It may not be the 100% most effective exercises, but if I actually do them it will be better than not doing the perfect things. Today I wanted to take a kind of gentle day since I don't want to disrupt the cortisone from doing its thing, and so I did a 20 minute yoga for runners and a few leg lifts. I will keep doing this stuff, I will, I will....

First cold swim of the season

After my long dip yesterday I decided to go for a swim today. I met some friend on the beach and we all got in a little distance. My goal as I set out was to do a quarter mile swim - that's about twice the length of the long swim at the swim festival and also more than I've swum in a while. 

I got to the beach and it was so nice there - the sun is out and it's pretty warm feeling still. When the sun went behind the clouds it was a little chilly. We chatted for a bit before getting into the water, but soon it was time. Walking in it felt pretty cold, and I was dreading the swimming part a bit. The first lap, especially the first 30 or so strokes were especially challenging. But then my body got used to it and it was really nice. I could feel the sun on my back and swimming felt fine even though I haven't been swimming for a while. I got my 3 laps in and didn't feel a need to rush out. According to my watch the temp was 57, I went .23 mile and it took me a little less than 13 minutes. I definitely started my first lap a little too fast, and had to slow down as I went. Looking at my heart rate from my watch I was in zone 2 for over three minutes and in zone 3 for over 5.5 minutes, so good exercise! One of my friends did an a half mile, which was pretty impressive. After we got changed and didn't really need anything to warm up, though one person had brought tea, which hit the spot. 

There were a few other people there swimming, and so we tried to recruit them to the group. 

First Afterdrop of the Season

I went climbing today and brought my swim suit and dry robe with me so I could go for a dip after. Climbing was good - I did a few 5.10's, one of them clean :) There were some new climbs up and one especially was super fun, and a second pretty fun - excited to be able to do them again. After climbing I did go to the lake.

The plan was to go to the beach and bop around for 10 minutes and then go home. At 10 minutes I was like "I could stay in another 5" and then the same thing happened at 15 minutes. At 20 minutes I decided to shoot for a half hour, which is what I wound up doing. I didn't have my swim cap or goggles, and I didn't want to swimswim, so I walked back and forth, did a little chorus line kicking, sidewise walk like a crab, etc. There were a couple of people there who I knew, and one hung out with me for about 5 minutes. I didn't have booties or gloves, and I could feel my hands getting cold, by the time I got out they felt pretty chilly, as did all the rest of me. According to my watch it was between 56 and 57 in the water, so getting colder! After I changed and then headed right to my car, where I blasted the heat for the ride home. I actually did some shivering at the start of the drive, which felt kind of nice, but also really cold. When I got home I didn't want to get out of the car because I don't have my heat on in my place (which is just silliness on my part) and I knew it would be colder inside. Fortunately I have a really nice space heater which I turned on, and it's pretty cozy now.

Yesterday I had to go into work to give a presentation. I stopped at Walden on my way there for a short dip. I ran into someone I know in the parking lot - it's such a small world! It was so pretty at Walden - the leaves are changing and there was a mist coming off the water. I stayed in for about 10 minutes, and it was about 59 degrees. It was hard to make myself leave for work, but what can you do?

Tomorrow my plan is to go to join school of honk and bring a flute and play the flute, which I haven't done since middle school when my flute teacher made me cry all the time in lessons. I think this will be a lot nicer.