Swim to the Point

My first swim to the point in 2024! The water is now about 50 and it was sunny and warm today. A group of us met, and a couple of us decided that we were tired of swimming laps and wanted to head out to the point. It's been a few weeks since I swam-swam, and at first it was hard for me to get my face in the water again. But, I took a couple short breaks, breathed through it, and soon was doing fine.

The swimming part was hard too. I was focused on how cold it was, and not my stroke technique and it was slow going. It took forever to get to the point.  When I arrived my friend was already there waiting for me. He was like "do you want to swim across the lake to the other point?" And in my head I really didn't, but out loud I said "sure," and we swam over. It was kind of windy today, and the water was a little choppy. I swallowed some water, and I got water in my goggles - that section of the swim was the hardest. By the time we got to the last leg of our triangle, though, I was getting the hang of it, working on my reach and strong arms for the pull. I think the last bit was the fastest. In the end we were in the water for about 35 minutes, with most of it swimming. The route is a little over a half mile, so it wasn't the fastest swim, though we did stop for a bit at a couple points. 

The other thing that I did was pick up my bike from the shop. I hadn't used it since before my trip to Africa, and it was in kind of sad shape. Now it's all squeaky clean, and has a new chain. Before the swim, I rode it around the lakes, which is about 4.75 miles.  My plan is to ride it to the lake some this summer, so I don't have to worry about the parking situation. The ride to the lake, if I take the bike path and minimize time on the roads, is about a mile longer than the ride I did today, which was totally fine. 

50 degrees

Spring has arrived! Scary early, it's not such a good thing, but it is really nice. Today at work I went for a walk around campus without a jacket, I even ate my lunch outside and enjoyed the sun. The daffodils are in bloom, and it's so pretty out. 

I was really proud of myself because I adulted really hard today at work, having a difficult conversation with my boss without being emotional (well, not too emotional at least) and getting my point across. And then I rewarded myself with ice cream, which wasn't really what I meant to do, it just kind of happened.

After work a group of us met at the beach for a relaxing swim. According to my fish-momoter the water was about 50 at the surface, and a degree or two cooler about four feet down. We had a pretty chill swim, just bobbing around and doing the old lady breast stroke, but we did stay in for 25 minutes. I wore my gloves, but I don't think I'll need to for much longer. We briefly thought about a swim to the point, but where feeling a bit lazy. It's really time, though, that we can stay in long enough to get to the point! Super exciting. 

I found a new weight training program that's for women of my age, and I started it this week at the Y. It's called hailey happens, and so far I'm enjoying it. The program allows me to life higher weights, and a lot of free weights, which I actually do prefer. I went to do deadlifts, though, and just used the barbell because it was all kind of heavy. I'll have to look back at my crossfit records to see how much I used to lift.

The other thing I've been doing lately is I impulse bought a ukulele (off ebay for $20) and am trying to learn to play. There are lessons at the cambridge adult ed center, but of course they are the same time as my swimming lessons coming up. I think they offer them every season, so I'll have to try to take them in the summer.

Back to the Lake

I'm finally over my cold, and finished with a busy week at work. Today was the first day I got any exercise in two weeks! I went to a kind of chill yoga class and then for a dip at the lake. The water is getting warmer - today it was around 42.5, though we went after dark which always makes swimming harder. As always, I didn't really want to go in, but then we all did and it felt great. In a not-so-great way. We stayed in for 10 minutes - I wore my gloves and was cold but not too bad. 

After we were standing around snacking and warming up when I realized that there was someone in the old pump house that's by the lake. We've never seen anyone in there, so of course we went to investigate. The building is brick, with no windows, and it's got a lot of pumping equipment and such, plus a kayak. The guy was really nice and he let us go in and look around. He told us that there's an old spillway that goes out by the lake and tunnels into the bottom of the building. Of course we will need to check that out, though I'm pretty claustrophobic and probably won't go that far. 

Race Day Cold

Just came back from the swim fest which didn't go at all like I wanted because I was sick and couldn't finish my long swim, or be a stripper. We drove up on Thursday and I noticed I was a little grumpy and sneezy, and that my throat hurt, but I didn't really think much of it. On Friday I did my hat swim in the morning (feeling even grumpier), and then came the big swim. It was so disappointing.  I got in the water and it was cold but fine. I started with the swim, and had so much adrenalin that I started off too fast and didn't pace myself. I actually beat the other woman I was swimming with for the first 25 meters. But then as I turned back my chest was pounding and I felt like I was going to throw up. And, I just didn't feel right, so I had to get out. 

I went to the warming hut and was even grumpier. And then warmed up, and went and sat outside. I didn't get what my deal was, but then in the middle of the night I woke up and was so congested, I was like "aaah, that was the problem." I spent the second day of the festival by myself at the airbnb, reading a book and feeling like crap. Today I went and supported the team, and the came home. After all that training, it was such a bummer. Well, I wasn't sure what I was going to have to shoot for next year, but I guess it will be a Redemption Swim for the 200.

Things I did well:

1. Practice and acclimatize - I really was ready for the event
2. Improve my swim technique

Things to change for next year:

1. I didn't pace my anxiety and got way too in my head. With a long-ish race like this, it's a while from race start to my start.
2. Worry about things in my power, not things that I can't control. There was an email two weeks before the race saying that we had to finish in 4 minutes, which I knew I couldn't do. I let that get to my head, when in reality there was nothing I could do about it. And, they did let people finish in over 5 minutes.
3. Carpooling - it was really frustrating not having a car. I think I would have just gone home if I did, but as it was I was stuck and had to rely on everyone else for everything (like cold meds). Also, it was a lot of together time.
4. I may need to wear a mask for the week before the race so I don't get sick! That really sucked.

Less than a Week to Go!

One week from now I'll be done with my memphremagog swims for the year! Things are starting to get real. We got an email a week ago that they want you to finish the 200 within 4 minutes and will pull you if you over 3 minutes at 150. Which seems a little silly because if you can make it to 150 then why can't you make it to 200? I'm hoping that they just did it to scare people into dropping out if they know they can't do the race in 4 minutes. Well, I'm not falling for it. I know I can't do it in 4 minutes, but I'm going to make them pull me. Or just let me finish. You have to have a spotter watching you during the 200, and mine is a second grade teacher - she's going to use her teacher voice if they tell her I have to come out. That's my strategy.

I've been doing a good amount of practice. Yesterday I swam a quarter mile in water that was about 38 degrees I think. It was pretty cold. My goggles leaked so I had to keep stopping to fix them for the first several minutes, so it was a pretty slow swim. I did finally get the goggles to work, but in the process gave myself a little bit of a black eye. I think I was in the water for about 13-14 minutes. I was pretty cold when I finished and had to do my penguin walk out, where I shuffle a little as a try not to fall over. After, I went to hot yoga which felt really nice.

Tomorrow we are doing a little going away event, with a pre-swim, so I'll be trying again with the 200. Probably my last go at it before the big race! I have to say, I'll be a little bit happy to stop with the swimming, it's SO HARD in the cold. I may just dip until we are over 40 degrees.

Swim Speed

I'm getting a little nervous that I won't be swimming fast enough for the 200 and they are going to pull me before I finish. Another woman who's swimming the 200 was going on about how nervous she was about it, and then we swam and she finished almost a full lap ahead of me. Sigh. That was a low moment of training.

I decided that I've worked hard over the year, and if they pull me, they pull me. I'll just have to learn to swim faster and try again next year. 

But, before we get to that point I do still have 17 days until the race. I resolved that I would do some research on how to swim faster and go to the pool and practice at least 10 times before the race. Which is a lot. And not a lot. I'm not sure how much of a difference I can make in 5 hours (because I can't deal with much longer than 30 minutes in the pool), but I can at least try.

Today I watched a video that said to shrug my shoulder as my hand goes into the water and keep it shrugged until my arm is bent and I'm at the pull. I tried doing that and it was hard, but I did think I was going faster (go me!) It also said to slowly get your arm in the correct position first, and then accelerate the speed of the arm. With the images it makes a lot of sense. So, I'm going to keep watching the video and keep practicing. Today was one day - just 9 more practices to go :) 

Presidential success

Presidential visit was a success! There was no exercise involved, but I just want to remember that she stayed for almost an hour and a half answering questions and complemented me on the program. The students asked really good questions and seemed super inspired. I managed to not say anything stupid for a full hour and a half. Phew.