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!!