Waldon Pond - my first one mile swim!

Today I did something I never thought I would be able to do - I swam the length of Walden Pond!! It's about a mile and it took me about 55 minutes. I think the water was probably around 60 degrees - it's been around that temperature at Mystic, and it felt about the same.

I went into work today because we took our work/study students out to lunch to celebrate the year. One of them is graduating, and we got her one of the official school diploma frames, and she loved it. It was a nice day. And, now I've gotten one of my days for the week over with. Yay!

After work I knew I wanted to go to Walden for a swim. It's getting a little more crowded at the beach, with kids and families at the beach, and a few people hanging out and catching some sun. My goal was to swim over to Thoreau's cove, but when I got there there were two people in kayaks fishing, and I didn't want to bother them, or the fish. Or get hooked with a fishing line since my direction is still pretty bad. At the cove I realized that the other end of the pond wasn't that far, and decided to go for it. I was so excited when I got there! I didn't go to the furthest cove, but I got about 10 feet from shore, which felt like close enough (at the shore when I got in I saw some really big fish under me, and I didn't feel a need to see more). I breathed for a little bit and savored my accomplishment, but then reminded myself that I hadn't really done it until I got back. 

The swim back was easier in some ways, because I knew I where I was headed, and because I was swimming closer to the land on the left, which is the direction that I breathe to. On the other hand, it did seem like a long time - it took me about 22 minutes to get there and about 30 to get back (with about a 3 minute rest at the other side), so I was definitely slowing down on the way back. It was a long swim for me, but it felt very doable.  

I worked on getting my right arm to stay up while I lifted my head to breathe - I have this idea that this is the most important thing that I need to do to be able to improve my stroke. After 55 minutes of work on it, I did feel myself improving - there were a lot of strokes where I felt like I was breathing right. I feel like this week is going to be the week of the right arm. Then I need to work on my bilateral breathing, my catch, and the pull with elbow above hand. I feel like bilateral breathing will take the longest, but also be the best addition to my swimming.