Slush Mile #2

This whole cold water thing is such an addiction! I had some free time this afternoon and the sun was out and weather was supposed to be around 60 (which it was), so I met some friends at the lake. The guy who I swam the last slush mile with was like "want to try it again?" and weirdly I did. And, so we swam a second slush mile. The temp again was around 50, but the air was definitely warmer. It took me 55 minutes, which is pretty much the same as the time it took for the charles river swim.

We got to the lake around 1:10, unpacked our gear and got ready for post swim. The water didn't seem that cold when I headed in, and I appreciated how much the air temperature makes a difference - I went for a dip last night and could barely get myself to put my face in the water. But, with the sun out and the warm (ish) air I was actually able to get fully in with little problem.

I spent a lot of my swim time focusing on my stroke - trying to reach out longer and be solid with the pull phase. I also worked on trying not to drop my arms. It's funny how fast the time goes when I'm doing these swims. For the first bit it seemed like time was going slowly. And, a little over half way through my left pinky started to get a little claw handed, and I was worried I was going to have to get out. I decided to keep an eye on it, and if it progressed past the pinky I would get out. But it never did. 

At about the 3/4 point a bunch of other swimmers had assembled, and they all came in - it was fun to see everyone joining us in the water in a big group and for all of us to swim together. 

As I finished they all congratulated me and the friend who I swam with said that we'd been in the water for 57 minutes, and he was going to shoot for a full hour. I decided I could stay in the water for 3 more minutes, though I kept my face and hands out - maybe that's a little cheating?

When I got out I was definitely a little stumbly and it wasn't easy to walk in a straight line on the beach. I ended up doing my best penguin imitation, bobbing up the beach to my stuff. It was a little difficult to get changed and my water was too hot to stand in - when I finally got my swim suit off I threw it in the bucket to cool the water off. Now that I'm swimming without booties and have a new, expensive water jug, I have to figure out the temperatures better (for reference, I filled the water jug with boiling water on Tuesday night and left it in the car overnight and the next day, and it was still a little warm when I went swimming Wednesday night! And, it was in the low 30's over night). It took a little doing to dry off and get dressed, and then I had to run because I had a zoom meeting with my boss. (My swim buddy is in tech and he wrote himself a little program so that his computer looks like he's still working - awesome!)

I made it home with about 3 minutes to spare. The after drop hit me in the car and I had a good shiver, and I was so cold through my entire meeting! Nonetheless, another success! I'm pretty tired now and really want to snack, but I'm trying to hold off. I think it's a big energy expenditure. 

Tomorrow a group of us are going to L Street where the Brownies swim. I'm really excited about it because they have a new bathhouse with a sauna and steam room so we can alternate between dipping and heating.