Eagle bonanza

It turns out that I was exhausted after my swim festival because I was sick - I had some chest cold that left me feeling exhausted for about a week and a half. It took two whole weeks before I could go swimming again, or really do any exercise. I'm better now, though, fortunately.

Last week we had a day where it got up to 76 with sun! It was so nice out that at lunch I had to go to the lake for a swim even though no one else could join me. The dock was covered in Tufts students enjoying the sun. I sat on a bench for a little bit and enjoyed it too. After a while it was time to get in. Even though it was warm out the ice shelf was still there, so my goal was to swim out to it, of course. I got in and headed out slowly, got to the shelf and tested it out. It was still a couple inches thick and when I put my weight on it it felt solid. There was some slush on top which actually made it easier to climb out, and as I was thinking about that I heard a general buzzing from the dock. I climbed out and stood up and all the students applauded me - it was pretty awesome, to be honest. Since it was so nice out I stayed in for over 10 minutes. When I got out my watch said the water was 37, which is still pretty cold. After I sat on a rock in the sun in my dry robe both feeling warm on the surface and also shivering. It was so weird.

Yesterday I met a friend at the lake in the afternoon. There were a ton of bird watchers and people with telephoto lenses, which had to mean eagles! Soon we saw three giant birds flying overhead. I wasn't sure if they were eagles - the body type looked right, but I didn't see the white heads. Later there were 5 of them, and one had the white feathers - I think the others must have been juveniles. It was pretty windy out, and they were catching drafts, hanging out, and just doing bird stuff. We swam for about 10 minutes - I went to the ice shelf but it was a little cracky and so I didn't get out on it. The water was up to 39. On the drive home I saw three more sitting on the ice, just hanging out and chilling. 

This morning I went and hung out with my friend in Gloucester at the quarry. We were a little worried that it would be frozen over and not swimable, but when we got there the was just enough cracking in the ice at the shore that we could get in. It was fun walking around on top of the ice, popping in and out of the water, and moving the ice around on the surface. The water was 39 there, so getting warmer, but still cold enough to get a nice shiver on the drive to get pancakes. I love that it's quarry season again!

Success!

The swim festival was this weekend, and again it was a success!! This year the festival was only 2 days - Saturday and Sunday - because there were fewer people swimming. We had booked our airbnb before they changed it from 3 to 2 days, and so we went up on Thursday and spent Friday skiing, shopping and playing. It was a really nice, and really exhausting, weekend. 

The most important part, of course, was the 200. Somehow I got lucky again and was paired with another slow swimmer who I beat by about 1.5 seconds. And I beat my friend who I always swim with - he actually came in last. It snowed on Friday night into Saturday morning - probably about 5 inches. In northern VT they are very efficient with the clean up though, so it was no problem to get to the lake. The hat racers started in flurries and by the end of that round it had stopped snowing. As I was walking out the sun came out - a good sign. Despite that I was not at all psyched about the swim, in fact I was kind of dreading it. But, that's what I was there for, and so I got in when they told me to, and then off I went. 

Once again I started too fast and my spotter had to tell me to slow down a little (which of course is kind of a funny thing to tell someone in a race, but it was really appreciated). The second length I slowed down a little and let my heart catch up to where it should be. On the third length I was like "this sucks, I'm getting out when I get back to the other side," because my heart was racing and I was feeling a little gaspy. But then as I was swimming back I had a little talk with myself and reminded me how much I had prepared and how frustrated with myself I would be if I got out, and that it was only going to take me another 3 or 4 minutes, and I could do anything for that amount of time. And when I got back I just turned and kept going until I finished. I did run into the lane line a bit and didn't focus on my stroke technique at all during the swim. When I was pushing off at the last turn I realized that the woman I was swimming with was just getting to the turn, and I put on a little speed to #1 finish and #2 beat her. We high fived and hugged and then got out of the water.

My hands felt like blocks of ice, they were so cold! I couldn't get my goggles off or my robe on (even though someone was assisting me) and my feet were so cold I couldn't bend them to put them in my shoe, and then I couldn't use my hands to move the strap that was in the way - someone had to do it for me. One I had shoes and robe on I was so happy to walk to the nice warm changing room, dunk my hands in hot water, and get a hot microwaved sock with rice in it. I got changed, warmed my hands on the sock a bit, and jumped around a little. I was smart this year and brought my own microwavable hot pad so I could take it with me when I left the changing room, and we were lucky that we got the table by the fireplace. I was thinking about going back to the airbnb to shower, but then there were french fries, so I just ate and warmed up and felt happy and accomplished.

It turned into a really nice day. I went and cheered on the other swimmers a little bit but then decided it would be amazing to ski across the lake - not something I would necessarily do here in MA, so I got my cross country skis and went for a little jaunt. Which was super fun. Because it had snowed the evening before the snow was light and flaky, but a bunch of people were snowmobiling around, so I went in their tracks. It was really nice skiing! I got back to the restaurant where the races are held, though, and realized that I'd kind of over done it. I was so tired and a bit dehydrated. I decided to go back to the airbnb, stopipng for a gatorade hydration drink, which I am sure saved me from a migraine. 

I went back for dinner and the awards celebration where the merfolk won the scallywag's award, which I think means that we are considered cool and "in," because I don't understand what else he was talking about when he gave us the award. One of our crew had written a song to the tune of an abba song, and so we sang it then (I sang in front of people and no one clutched their ears and ran, in fact they gave us a big round of applause). The dinner was all heavy sauces and gloopy stuff, and I decided to skip it and just go back to the airbnb - everyone else soon joined me. We were all pooped!

One of our group really wanted to do the 50 meter relay, but she'd been back and forth so much that I didn't think it was going to happen and signed up for the 100. But on Saturday night she talked a group of us into it - it's a 4 person relay, with each swimmer doing 50 meters for a total of 200. I was all "I'll do it, but I think I will switch from the 100 to the relay rather than do both of them." And then when I got to the restaurant on Sunday I got dressed and did the 100 and then the relay. Which was also hard! I remembered that last year before the relay I had been all "it's nothing. I did the 200, this will be easy." And it wasn't easy. So this year I kept my mental game up, reminding myself that it was still 100 meters and then 50 meters in 32 degree water, and that's no joke. Which I think was really important. Both races were fine. Hard, but fine. I didn't have as long as I would have liked to warm up between them. In fact I changed from the 100 right into my other swim suit for the relay. It was fun to go with my friends and swim as a group.

There was this olympic athlete swimming this year - I think he won silver in 2004. He was amazing - I just saw him swim the 25, but wow he was fast. Anyhow, he was supposed to be on the relay team that swam against us. At first I was like "that's gonna suck" but then I was really excited about it because how often do I get to race against and olympic athlete? Unfortunately there is a blizzard coming tonight into tomorrow, so a lot of people left early, and three of four members of his team weren't there. So they didn't compete with us. Probably they were just scared. :)

I haven't seen the time results for any of the races but the 200 (which I did in 5 minutes and 17 seconds, so 2 seconds slower than last year, which I can totally live with). My friends said that I looked strong swimming, and they couldn't tell that I wanted to get out of the water. Which I also felt good about.

I went cross country skiing three days in a row - I stopped on the way up at franconia inn which has trails. It's kind of behind cannon mountain. It was really warm that day and the trails were pretty slushy, so skiing was tough, but I still went for about an hour. On Friday I was thinking about going to craftsbury cross country ski area which is like 45 minutes away, but then I learned that there were trails right in newport, and the newport ones are free. So I did that instead. The conditions weren't that good, but it was nice to be skiing out in the wild where the scenery was so pretty. And then of course the ski across the lake which took me about a half hour.

As I mentioned, we are expecting a blizzard tonight into tomorrow, so I wanted to get home to beat the storm and buy some food. It's the end of school vacation week, so I was a little worried about traffic, but it was totally fine until Concord - the last hour was pretty crazy. This one idiot in a truck was so close to rear ending me, and there was no where for me to go to change lane - I just clutched my steering wheel and screamed. Because we were going pretty darn fast ( I bet he was going 100), fortunately he moved over to the next lane and went around me. I gave him the finger and fumed about it until I reminded myself that my being angry wasn't bothering him.

When I got home my cat had thrown up so many places and pooped on the bedroom rug. That was not a nice surprise. I spent a half hour doing clean up before unpacking. Now it's nice to be chilling on my couch. The tips of my fingers are still a bit numb which I guess will take a couple weeks to heal. But otherwise a really fun, though exhausting, weekend. Psyched to do it again next year. And also to go to the lake and just be able to play and have fun, while wearing my swim gloves and booties!

Final training swim

I finished my six 200's in February, two a week, to prepare for the big swim. And it was intense. Now that I'm done, though, I'm really glad I did it. Today is president's day and so I have the day off work. I slept in a little and then went to yoga class. After I was meant to go for a swim with a friend, but he messaged that he wasn't feeling well. I was like "I don't want to go. It's just me, I can go on Wednesday." But then another person from the group said that she was going to come just to say hi, and I was like "fine, I'll go, but I might not swim." Of course then I got to the lake, put on all my stuff, and swam. It was hard. But now I'm so glad that I did it!

According to my watch it was 35 degrees and I swam a little over 200 meters in less than 8 minutes I think. Which is not less than five minutes, but whatever. According to my watch I did the first 200 at a 1'07" pace, and after that at a 3'44" pace. Which is just not true. So, I can confidently say that my watch isn't always correct on the pacing. Hopefully it's good enough.

Yesterday I went cross country skiing. That makes 11 times so far with the annual ski pass, just need 4 more to make it worth the cost. It's nice that there is still real snow on the tracks, so the place is a lot bigger. There is an area on the other side of the river that's a blue track that I tried for the first time last week and discovered that I love. If there's snow over there, that's my place now. The tracks wind around on the golf course, you can see the river, there are trees and it's a little less crowded. There's one big hill that's a little hard to go down, and even harder to get up. But it's really not that bad. I'm planning for some skiing during the trip to vermont and am pretty excited about it. If I like it on a golf course I think it's going to be really amazing in the woods.

One week left...

A group of us met at the lake today for some swimming. I was just going to dip and maybe play around on the ice shelf, but my friend who is doing the 200 was all "I'm going to do a practice swim!" and that motivated me to do one as well. I wasn't super psyched about it, but what can you do?

Even though it was warm out today there was no sun and a bit of a wind off the water - it felt colder than yesterday! By the time we had chatted and hung out and such I was already a little cold, but then I reasoned that being a little cold before getting into a 35 degree body of water isn't really a deal breaker. I was so not excited as I put in my ear buds, but now I'm so glad that I did the swim! Just one more on my completely unscientific training plan.

The ice shelf was pretty much in the same place as yesterday but there were more of us swimming.  I swam sort of at an angle to the ice shelf and back five times. I wore the thin gloves and no booties. My hands were pretty cold at the end. I know they will be killing me on race day! It was a tough one, but I reminded myself during the swim that I can do anything for 10 minutes and I would be so glad when it was done. Which I was. By the time I finished everyone else was out of the water and someone had poured my water into my bucket again. It felt so good to put my hands and feet into the hot water.

I spent some time reading about swim stroke yesterday and it said that you should imagine that you are rolling your arm over a barrel at the start of the pull to get a little extra oomph, making sure that your hand goes down fast so that you are forcing the water behind you instead of down. I was able to focus on this for most of my swim, and I thought maybe I was moving faster than usual, but when I got out of the water and looked at my splits it was significantly slower than yesterday. So, maybe don't try to change the swim stroke the week before the race.

We are going to go again on Monday and I will try to get in my last official swim then. I am also thinking that I will try to go on Wednesday, just to play around in the water a little, maybe with no gloves on. Or maybe I will go out to the ice shelf again and have a little fun before the big day. 

Right now I'm registered for the 200 on Saturday and the 100 on Sunday. We keep talking about doing the 50 relay on Sunday as well. Now I know I can do the 200 two days in a row (of course, with gloves. Without gloves is next level.) I will think about doing all three, but we'll see...

8 days to go

Today I met 3 friends at the lake for a swim. We got there at 4:00, which is a cutting it a little close with the sun going down. By the time everyone got there, chatted and puttered around it was about 4:30 and I was starting to get antsy because although sunset is after 5:00 the trees around the lake mean that you stop feeling any warmth from the sun before that. So, finally I just got ready, remembered to put in my ear thingies, got my goggles and thin gloves (no booties) and headed to the water. Everyone else was still fully clothed, but I was like "see you on the other side," and went for it! 

My strategy of acclimatizing is working because although it was cold, I felt fine as I started to swim. The ice had melted back and I was able to swim almost as far in each lap as usual, though not quite. I got acclimated pretty fast and was able to spend most of the swim focusing on technique, counting strokes, and trying not to hit anyone. I didn't manage to swim in a straight line, but whatever.

Towards the end of the swim I had that funny feeling that my hands were outside my gloves again, but not quite as bad. When I got out of the water one of my friends was pouring my hot water into my foot bucket for me, which was so nice! My hands and feet were so cold, it was super helpful to just be able to get them in the water without fumbling with pouring. I will say that my feet and hands are getting more used to the water now that I'm not wearing the booties and thick mittens (though I'm excited to go back to them after the Big Swim). 

We had a 4 person team for the relay last year and it seems like we are going to get one together again this year. I am now registered for the 200 and the 100, I'll have to decide if I will also add the 50 or just switch from the 100 to the 50 relay. I'm going to try to get in two more 200 swims before race day - it looks like it's going to be a warm week, so it shouldn't be too hard.

Solo 200

No one was able to join me for a swim today, so I popped over to the lake by myself at lunch time. It was beautiful out - 30 degrees with sun and almost no wind. It felt positively balmy compared to some of the recent weather. When I got to the lake, though, it was so frozen in! Even though both agitators were going by the docks the area that we usually swim in was covered with a thin (but not insignificant) layer of ice, leaving me only a short space by the shore on either side of the docks to swim. At first I was like "well that's it, I can't do it." But then I calmed myself down and made a plan. There may have been a little more space on the far side of the dock, but it was in the shade and I wasn't so excited about swimming there. The side where we usually swim was at least in the sun, and there was enough space for about 15 or so strokes with each arm before turning around. I was a little nervous, though, because there's a spillway that pulls water underground near the dam, and it was bubbling a little. So, I decided to swim on the sunny side, but to turn around well before the bubbling. 

I've been trying to acclimate my hand and feet, and went for my first dip without booties yesterday. My feet were so cold! I didn't wear booties again today and they were much better. I also wore my thinest gloves instead of the nice cozy mittens. Because my feet were bare I decided to step in off the dock, walk up to my waist, and go from there. 

For whatever reason, it was actually a pretty easy swim today! In part because I had to stay close to shore and so when I turned around I could put my feet down and push off (something that you can do on race day) and in part because of the sun. I did have to swim shorter laps of about 10-15 strokes in each direction, but I still went to about 175 strokes with each arm, which should have been a 200. For whatever reason my watch didn't pick up the distance correctly - maybe because I was swimming such short laps? At one point I did run into the ice shelf and cut up my arm a bit, but otherwise it was uneventful. When I got out I was cold, especially my feet, but not freezing. I did a quick change, got into my car, and came on home.

It's hard to believe that the Big Swim is just 11 days from now! I'm hoping to get in three more practice swims before the event. That's just 4 200's left this season hopefully. Then I can go back to playing on the ice shelf :) 

Another 200

I did my second 200 this week! I met a couple friends after work at the docks - it's so nice that the sun is going down after 5 these days so we still have sun at the end of the day. I used voice to text to message about the swim, and I accidentally sent a message that I would be there at R. The messages that get mixed up are so funny :)

It was mostly cloudy and gently snowing while we were there. I love that kind of weather, where it's so silent and everything has almost a pastel haze. One of the docks had come detached early in the winter and floated next to the other one, but when we got there today it was reattached where it belonged. Which meant that the area that I was swimming was smaller. I decided to swim on the other side of the dock, in the normal area, and maybe just have to do an extra lap and try not to hit anyone.

I did have the thinner gloves today but I forgot my crocs - I should just put them in my bag now before I forget. Anyhow, my hands were plenty cold in the gloves, I guess it's OK to wait for next time to torture my feet.

I got into the water, walked up to my waist, and went for it. Again, the first strokes were so hard, but then I could focus better on technique and breathing. I went out the the ice shelf and back 4 times before stopping to look at my watch. When I did, it looked like I was still a little short, so I did some extra strokes, and then wound up having to do more. In the end it was about 200 strokes with each arm. One thing that was nice was that I swam all the way back to the shallow part and was able to turn around and push off from there. At the other end it was slower because I had to make sure not to run into the ice shelf and and to turn with nothing to push off of. In the end I did a little over 200 meters in about 9 minutes, which is a little faster than I've been going. I think the push-off helps (which there will be two platforms at the swim fest, so double push off).

By the end of the swim my fingers especially were really cold. They felt like they were outside the gloves instead of inside, which I know isn't possible. But still I spent the last lap thinking about it anyhow. After the swim I was cold, but not too bad. In addition to jumping up and down and waving my arms around I also ran a couple laps in the parking lot to help warm up. I did have a good shiver in the car on the way home and a nice hot shower. 

Tomorrow its supposed to snow and Sunday it will be very cold - a high of 14 according to weather underground. When I looked at the forecast for northern Vermont, it's supposed to be a high of -2, without wind! I feel like if it was that cold on the festival day they would have to cancel, not for the swimmers but the judges and volunteers.

I'm hoping to get in 3-4 more practices before the big race - I can't believe it's only 15 days away!