Winter swim training

It's time to start getting serious about training for the winter swim festival. I went to the beach today at lunch with the idea of swimming a quarter mile, but only managed about 200 feet, most of it with my head out of the water. The water was 40 and my face was freezing! I even had gloves on - not promising. I have a lighter week this week and vacation next week, so I think I should be able to get to the beach for a swim most days and hopefully get back on track. 

Ashram Vacation

I had to use a jet blue credit that I had from buying a ticket to the wrong city (dope) for a conference, so I decided that it would be good to go on a December vacation because it's so dark now, and January is busy at work. Also, since I went this week I got to miss the holiday parties at work :) I went back and forth about where to go, and in the end decided that I really wanted something that was a short and easy flight, allowed me to do yoga, and wasn't horribly expensive for lodging. I've known about this ashram in the bahamas for a while, and decided that it would be a perfect time to go there - so that's what I did!

The place is on paradise island, which is really beautiful! Unfortunately, for most of my trip it was cloudy and windy, which was sad. But, the first day was perfect. I got there a little before noon, and since the forecast for the rest of the week wasn't that good, I spent the entire day outside, including a few hours on the beach. I was kind of laughing at myself because the water was 78 degrees, and I was all "it's a little chilly," but I guess it's all about what you are expecting. 

Their schedule is pretty much exactly the same every day, and I learned that it's exactly the same at all the ashrams, with yoga at 4 pm. And, the yoga class is exactly the same each time. Which was nice for the three days that I went, but I think I wouldn't love it if it was always exactly the same. Anyhow, on the first day we were able to do yoga on a platform right by the beach, and it was amazing - you could hear the water and the sun was a perfect temperature, and there were these beautiful pine trees swaying above me. It's a long class - about two hours, so towards the end the sun set and the sky was gorgeous. So perfect. After they had a pretty tasty veg dinner, and I ate with a couple of friendly people. I had gotten up at 4 am that day, so I was pretty exhausted after that, and sat in a hammock and read a book until bedtime.

When I woke up the next day the clouds were so thick in the sky, and you could hear the wind. The water was really wavy, and it didn't seem like swimming was a good idea. One thing about the ashram is that they don't have coffee (which I knew, and smuggled in some instant, and there was water to make coffee with). The first full day, though, I decided to walk up the beach to this resort that has a starbucks - such a bad yogi, but it was delicious. I brought my book with me, and sat outside enjoying my coffee and reading, and before I knew it I had missed breakfast at the ashram. So, I stayed at the resort and got lunch, and then walked around and looked at their dolphins and hammerhead sharks and went shopping and was a total tourist. I stayed for a good part of the day, and then went back for yoga, dinner, and the evening program.

In the morning and evening they have a 30 minute silent meditation followed by chanting and then a talk from different people. I actually kind of liked the meditation, it was a really cool feeling to sit in silence with so many other people. The leader suggested repeating "oom" on every out breath, and I tried to do that to keep my mind from wandering. Not 100% successfully, but not 100% unsuccessfully either. There was a program on designing the life you want which was pretty good - I've been thinking about retirement a lot lately (how did I get to be the age where I'm thinking about retirement??) and what I want to do for my encore career, and it was cool to spend some time with others in reflection. I've been thinking about food - growing it, cooking it, and helping people experiencing food insecurity. I don't know what that would look like, but it's definitely on my mind.

The second night I couldn't sleep - the bed was actually pretty uncomfortable and the sheets were old and thin and kind of wrinkly, and I finally wrapped myself up in my beach blanket and towel, and fell asleep around 4 am. The next day I slept in, snuck my coffee on the beach, had brunch at 10, finished my book, did the designing your life workshop, yoga, dinner, and more meditating and thinking about life. It was pretty chill and I felt refreshed and reenergized about life. But also like I wanted to go home to my cozy bed, cats, and life. Which I did the next morning. So, for me three days was the perfect visit length. 

Definitely not a luxury vacation, but I wasn't expecting it to be. Also, I did feel a little like I took it for granted - I've been lucky to be able to travel whenever I want lately, but maybe I need to take a little time off from traveling so I can appreciate it again? Or maybe not - it sounds like jet blue is going to be flying to Madrid soon, and I've been wanting to go back there, and then walk the camino. So, we'll see....

Middlesex Fells Skyline Trail

I really wanted to get in a hike for Thanksgiving weekend, but it snowed up in New Hampshire, and today was going to be pretty cold. I decided I don't always have to go on a long drive for my long hike, and went to the Middlesex Fells with the goal of completing the Skyline Trail. Which is what I did.

I often start out to hike the Skyline trail, but the once I get going I decide to make it a little shorter, or to take the reservoir trail back or cut off the pine hill overlook bit. So, I decided to park in the Shepfold (amazingly got parking with no issues!) and go clockwise to the view first, then around the reservoir where it's not really possible to turn back. I also thought I remembered that this direction got the harder part finished first. It was a good call, because by the end I kind of wanted to bail, but there isn't any way to, so I stuck it out and finished the loop.

It was about 37 degrees out, but with the wind felt a little colder. I wore my purple ninja hoodie, a t-shirt and little puff, and then some athleta tights and gloves. The skyline trail basically goes over every single little bit of elevation in the park, trying to get as much gain as possible. So, I warmed up quickly and took off my gloves, and then jacket. It was a beautiful day out and there were a bunch of other hikers, trail runners and dogs enjoying the trails, and the first bit went quickly. I got to the one viewpoint on the hike, and there was this woman who I think was blessing a guy - it was hard to tell exactly what was going on because she was talking in Portuguese (I think) and I felt a little bit like I was intruding, so I just took a quick look at the view and continued. From there you kind of circle back to get to the bottom of the reservoir, and then head up the other side.

I looked at all trails before I left, and it said the hike was 7.7 miles, with about 950 feet of elevation gain, and looking at my watch at that point it said that I had already gotten over 500 feet of elevation gain, which I was kind of excited about because that's a big part of the work. After a bit, though, I started to question my watch, and I looked at all trails, which said I'd done half the elevation gain. Weird - I have to figure out what's up with that. In the end my watch said I went 8.19 miles with 1651 feet of elevation gain. I'm going to have to do some googling on this.

The other side of the reservoir has trails that get pretty close to the road, and then go by a dam and feel like they are in someone's back yard. This is an area where I used to get lost a lot, but now with all trails and better trail markers, is much easier to navigate. In the end I got back to my car in 3 hours and 40 minutes and felt pretty good about it!

My plan had been to go for a swim after, and do a practice for the 200 meters. But, I was kind of cold from all the time outside and decided that I would just go jump in and bop around for 5 minutes instead. Which is what I did. 

When I got to the docks, I ran into Santa in the parking lot! He has a regular gig at one of the boat clubs, and they take pick him up from the docks with a pontoon boat, bring him across the water, and then bring him back to his truck at the end. Which I know because I ran into him there once before. I have good Santa luck. He was very gracious and took a picture with me, even though he had already taken off his belt, and must have been ready to head home.

After, I questioned my decisions about going into the water. It was freezing! I think my watch said 44, but I can't be sure because I couldn't get it to stop, and so it averaged in time in the car with the heat blasting. I think it didn't recognize my fingers because they were so cold - I finally remembered that I have siri, and asked her to stop the activity. I will have to remember that for the future. I had my first real after drop of the season, and shivered in the car the whole drive home! 

All and all a good day of exercise, and it was really nice to finish and be so close to home.

46 degrees

I woke up this morning at about 5:30 and couldn't fall back to sleep. At about 6:15 I gave up on it and decided to get up and go to the lake for a sunrise dip. It was 32 degrees out, so colder than it's been for my previous dips, and I questioned my decision making the whole way there. When I arrived there were a few people fishing on the lower lake, but no one on the dock. Still questioning my choices, I stripped down to my swimsuit, walked down the dock, started the watch and dove in.

It was freezing! According to my watch the water temp is down to 46, but with the colder air and a slight breeze, plus no gloves, I definitely felt the cold. I swam back and forth along the dock, thinking about how cold my hands were and wondering how I was going to do the 200. I stayed in for about 8 minutes, got out, got dressed, got in the car and turned the heat all the way up. I had my first real after drop of the season and got a little shivery on the drive home. After a hot shower I danced around the kitchen as I heated soup, and now I'm sitting on the couch with my cat and two blankets. Glad to have that done for the day.  

.4 mile at 48 Degrees

My new apple watch can record all kinds of things about my swims, part of why I chose it in the end. Today was the first day that I wore it for a real swim, and I was so happy with it! I met my friend at the beach at lunch for a swim out to the point. The initial plan was to do the full triangle that we do, but when we got into the water it was 48, and we decided better safe than sorry, and to return to the beach. The start was really hard for me - my face was so cold and even though I did my mantra of counting my strokes and saying "breathe through it" I was struggling to breathe through it. I finally got into a rhythm, but I had to stop a couple times to give my face a break.

It was actually pretty nice out, but the sky was full of clouds, and the sun went in and out as we were swimming. So, there were some times that were colder. Anyhow, once I got going it was fine. We got back to the beach after being in the water for 20 ish minutes. My friend wanted to complete the half mile, but I was kind of done, and we both wound up getting out. I could tell he was bummed with himself after for not finishing - we were cold but neither of us really had much after drop or shivering, so we would have been fine doing it. Anyhow, we both also agreed that hypothermia isn't necessary.

After we got dressed we had tea - I made mint tea with mint from my garden, and added just a little sugar to it. Wow, it made such a difference to have the sugar in it - I was a little nervous that I wasn't going to be able to finish all the tea bags I made, but now I think I have it figured out! In the end, my watch said exactly .4 mile, with the parts once I got going being around 2'50" pace. For sure not fast, but it's OK. The thing that I was actually most excited about was that I swam in a really straight line! Ha! Go me! So excited to be able to track this stuff even closer.

This evening I used my last class that I paid for at the hot yoga studio. It said it was slow flow, but I didn't realize how slow it was going to be. I'm going to be excited to get back to not-hot yoga for sure!

  

Smarts Mountain fail

The plan for today was to hike Smarts mountain, one of the 52 with a view. Unfortunately it just wasn't my day, and I didn't get the hike done. Sometimes it happens, but it's OK - the mountain will be there next time. I left home a little later than I wanted to and got to the mountain at like 10:15. Google took me there by all these dirt roads, and the start of the trail was on a dirt road as well. Google tried to send me up an old logging road, but I realized that wasn't going to work - fortunately I'd driven past a parking lot and figured it might be the trailhead, which it was. The lot wasn't huge, but it was fine for a Friday in November. 

I started out on the AT heading up, and right from the beginning things didn't feel great. There were a ton of leaves on the ground, so it was slippery going and I was a little concerned about how hard it would be to get down the mountain. I'd also read that the other trail wasn't as well marked, and it was pretty hard to find the AT. I was nervous about getting down the mountain and having to drive back in the dark, with no cell signal (I'd written down directions, old school, but the dirt roads didn't all have street signs.) Anyhow, the worry just kept building. I tried to hike through it, but it just wasn't happening, and finally I decided that I had given it an attempt and could call it a day. As soon as I made the decision I felt immediately better and sat down to have my sandwich a little off the trail. 

Heading down it was slow on the steeper parts, but I did make it back to my car in reasonable time. In total I hiked 1.5 miles with 700 feet of elevation gain in an hour and ten minutes. Which is respectable exercise for the day. 

I've been feeling envious of some of my friend's smart watches, especially this feature that tells you the temperature of the water when you are swimming on the apple 10. I decided that since I was in NH where there's no sales tax, I might as well hit the apple store and see if I wanted to get one. (Spoiler alert, I did get one and I'm pretty happy with it - it was a little more than the garmin I was eyeing, but so so many more features. And the super cute rose gold color!)

Since I had no signal I just put my map up on my phone and drove in the direction of the highway - fortunately I'd downloaded the route the night before, so this worked. It turned out that you didn't need to take the dirt roads, of course, though I guess they may have been a few minutes faster. Anyhow, as I was headed into the town of lyme, what I can only describe as a suicidal deer came flying in front of me. Fortunately I wasn't going that fast and there was no one behind me, because I slammed on the breaks and somehow didn't hit it! I mean, WTF deer? There was no one behind me - it was like some boston driver or something. I drove on but then pulled over in a bit to breathe. That didn't help with the whole anxiety thing of the day, that's for sure.

When I got back to the boston area I decided to take a quick dip in the lake to shake out some of the angst. It was super choppy and the sailboats were out, but I jumped in anyhow, and paddled around for 5 minutes and felt a lot better when I got out. Anyhow, not a perfect day, but I am happy with my new watch, and I suppose the money I saved paid for the gas. Next time I try Smarts I may go before the leaves are down, and will make sure I have a little more time. The part I did was pretty nice, so I'd like to do the hike in full.

Half Mile at 50 degrees

I took a long weekend this weekend, with Thursday and Friday off because I just really wanted to - I've been in a bit of a funk since the election and felt like I needed a little bit of a break to do some nice things for me. Today I slept in a little, then got up and sat on the couch with my cats for a while. I met some friends for an informal parkour jam at Harvard, and then went to the lake for a swim. After the swim I did my laundry and then went to this ski movie that was really good. And, I won a year of outside magazine, which was awesome! 

The swim was really nice - it was sunny and not windy out, which always helps. I met my one friend who's also really hard core about the cold swimming, and we decided to swim out to the point and back. It was pretty cold at first and I didn't want to put my face in, but then I just started counting and saying "breathe through it" to myself when I came up for air. It took about 25 strokes on each side before my face acclimatized, and then swimming was fine. I wore gloves for the swim (and I'm glad I did because I still had a spot on one of my fingers that was a little numb afterward, though it's fine now), which I actually think act a little bit like paddles. The swim felt pretty fast and before I knew it we were back to the beach. To the point and back is about .4 mile, which is so close to a half mile that we decide to swim a couple more laps to finish the half mile. After, I wasn't even that cold, though I did have a couple shivers. We sat and drank tea and admired the lake for a bit before heading out.