Triangle swim

Today I did my second triangle swim of the season - three of us went to the point, across the lake and then back to the beach. The swim is about a half a mile, but I am pretty sure I made it longer by not swimming in a straight line. I mean, I was really off course several times.

I started the day with geriatric parkour, which I think I'm going to continue with - it's fun and the people are cool and my knees are hurting a lot less in this class than the regular one. But, it hurts my ego a little bit. We are back at the school across the street from my home, so it's silly to not go when it's so close. And, I have to say, the class is a little more chill than the other one, but still a workout.

Later in the day I met six friends at the beach and three of us did the swim to the point and then across the lake. It was pretty windy and cloudy today, which made it hard to get into the water and difficult to get going. I felt like I was pulling and pulling on the way to the point, but going nowhere. But finally I made it there, with only a little swallowed water. When we got there, we were all trying to decide if we wanted to swim across the lake with the waves, but tbh I was feeling pretty good - the water temp is about 55/56 and it's warmer than the air, so I was like "let's do it!" So we did. 

Swimming across the lake I got super off track and kept looking up wondering where i was. It didn't help that my goggles were completely fogged. I tried to work on stretching out, especially with my left hand, not turning my head too far (sometimes I can breathe and half of my mouth is still in the water, but I do that thing where I only open my mouth on the out of water side), and really pulling on the pull. I feel like sometimes I can go faster by really focusing on the pull (I guess that's not surprising, but there it is). According to my fitbit we swam for 23 minutes, which isn't bad for me for a half mile. 

Yesterday my family all met at a deli in CT for lunch, which is something we do about once a year. It's nice to have everyone together, but at the same time it's a lot of driving. I wound up taking my nephew home, and so I was driving for about 3.5 hours for the day. After I got home I decided to head to the dock for a quick dip, which turned into a swim - the water was so flat it was amazing! After I finished, as I was drying off, a bald eagle landed at the end of the dock and proceeded to eat dinner. It was so cool!

The first race that I'm signed up for is the landshark, and that's in 6 weeks. I have to work up to 1.2 miles. So, practice is important now.

Mt. Pemigewasset and a Total Eclipse

Monday there was a total eclipse! I was originally going to just watch it from Boston and enjoy the 92% eclipse, but a friend of mine convinced me that it would be so much better to be in the Path of Totality, and she was completely right. I'm so glad I went.

It seemed like Vermont was the best place to go to for viewing in terms of full effect and distance to drive. My friends reserved an airbnb about a year ago, but since I was so late to the game I wound up choosing a hipcamp camping site, which worked out really well. A couple friends joined me for the adventure, and we met up at the airbnb for the big event. 

One way to get up to that part of Vermont is to drive through Franconia Notch, which seemed like a perfect opportunity to stop and hike Mt. Pemigewasset - a hike that I've wanted to do for a while, but since it's 3 miles, not a hike I would just drive up for. It was the perfect hike to stop and do on the way, though. I forgot how much I love spring hiking - there was a solid monorail on the trail and I wore my microspikes for the top half. Because of the snow, though, the rockiness of the trail is smoothed out, and there aren't big steps up and down. The woods are so peaceful with the snow, and there was a great view of some of the big mountains on the way up. The hike had 1260 feet of elevation gain, which is respectable but not killer, and had some nice switchbacks, which were delightful. Near the top was a ledge and a really pretty view. I tagged the summit and sat and ate an egg salad sandwich that I got at the rest stop, and it was delicious.

After, I headed up to the camping site. The place we stayed is in someone's yard - I think it was her first weekend hosting, and so they had some figuring out to do. For starters, it's Mud season in VT, so the place that we were meant to go wasn't really inhabitable. She was able to put us in a different area, which wound up pretty full. I think the place had pretty much every type of sleeping setup. My friends and I set up our tents. There was also a couple from NYC who were tenting. There were two brothers from MA who had a really cute dog - one had this pop up tent on the roof of his SUV and the other had a tent. Then someone came in a converted school bus (it turned out that he was in the middle of a one week fast, and had all sorts of weird ideas of what his body was doing). Then, there was a family of four who had a pop up trailer. We had one just like it when I was a kid, and it brought back memories! There was a 92 year old man and his wife in a diesel truck with a trailer in the bed (they had been from Belize to Alaska in it!), a family in a big trailer that was dragged behind a truck, a winabego, and a woman with a sprinter van. There was also a couple that stayed in an RV that they had on the property. Aside from the guy who was fasting, there was also a conspiracy theorist who thought the moon was hollow and did not believe in vaccination. The couple from NYC cooked cinnamon buns in orange peels in the fire, which looked delicious. 

I got a new tent because I'm also going to go camping later this summer, and thought it was worth the expense to be comfortable. I also think that I could camp before some of the big hikes, and save myself from having to get up at 6 am by driving up the night before. We knew it was going to be cold, and especially the first night it was! I had 3 sleeping bags, 2 pairs of long underware, my heated socks and vest, and I was still a bit chilly. The second night wasn't as bad, or maybe I was just exhausted because I hadn't slept? Anyhow, after we set up we went to Smugglers Notch ski area where there was a "Fire Circus" which was really cool - there was a fire juggler, a woman hoola hooping with fire things on the outside of the hoops, and some fire spitting. After, they had fireworks.

The big day, though, was the eclipse. I'd read about what to expect, but of course it didn't really prepare me for it. We started sitting in the yard at the airbnb. It was a warm day, so I was wearing a tshirt and pants, and I was so warm I rolled up the legs of my pants. It was so cool seeing the moon cover just a little bit of the sun, and then watch it move over, but the most amazing part was totality. As it got closer to totality, it got colder and colder, so I had to unroll my pants and put on a jacket. The air got still and the light was weird and eiree. Everything started to look like it normally does at dusk, but the sun was still above. Watching the last bit of sun disappear, everything felt strange and exciting, and then it was gone and we could take off our eclipse glasses and look at the corona. It was really amazing - there was a bright pink solar spot at the bottom, and the light of the corona went out a pretty good way, we could see the other planets. I meant to do all sorts of things, like look to see if there was a sunset all around us, and look for stars and listen for animals freaking out, but instead I just stared at it in awe. So cool. And then, really fast, the sun was back and we had to put our glasses back on. It's pretty amazing that with all the technology we have, and all the shiny things, so many people were still out, watching the moon and sun in awe. I'm so glad I went, 10 out of 10, would do again.  

I drove home today and there definitely was some traffic, but not as much as after the eclipse. Apparently some folks were at such a standstill that they would leave their cars to walk the dog. My friend say that she knew someone who spent about 12 hours doing a 4 hour drive! So glad we stayed an extra day. 

MIT PreMasters

I'm back to my swim lessons at MIT - I signed up for the "PreMasters" level this session, and I'm glad I did! It turns out that the practice pool had some issues and is closed for a while - at least until Labor Day, and so they cancelled most of the lower level classes due to the depth of the pool. 

I really like this class, it's mostly swim drills, but the instructor is really good and gives a lot of individual feedback. The first week he told me to reach out further with my left arm before pulling, and to rotate less on my non-breathing side. This week he said to put my arm into the water at an angle before extending it and to look down and not move my head (it was sort of bobbing around). So, I tried looking down and thrusting my arm into the water at the same time, and I think it worked! I will continue to practice.

We did a lot of interval training - first we did 4-50's, then 4-100's. We did a rest between sets, but a short rest between set one and two and three and four, and a longer rest between two and three. Then we did 25's of backstroke and breaststroke. And then we swam for 8 minutes straight. It was all pretty tiring, but I did get into a rhythm by the middle of the 8 minutes.

We were four to a lane this week (last week I got my own mini-lane which was really nice). I started out first and was all stressed out about the person behind me catching up to me, but actually she only did on the backstroke. And then I made her go first. I actually lapped a couple people during the 8 minute swim! 

This week is really exciting because after 5.5 years at Wellesley I'm finally getting my Hilary moment! She will be on campus Saturday and I'm volunteering at the event. Also, Marie Yavanovich and a couple nobel laureates. They will be talking about women and democracy - should be really interesting.