Two good things from yesterday's lake swim (and one bad)

Every Wednesday I head out to Pike Lake to rinse my mouth with algae and become tangled in the weeds. Um, I  mean, swim. Yeah that’s what I do at Pike Lake: swim.

Each week I add some time. Yesterday was 45 minutes. By the end of August I want to finish at least two 90-minute open water swims.

Normally I just swim back and forth in the swimming area as I am too nervous to strike off down the lake by myself. Yesterday I had a swimming buddy (thanks Reagan) who led me north for 25 minutes before turning around and swimming back to the beach.

Two really good things happened yesterday.

First, I have got the wetsuit setup I really like. Last fall I bought a De Soto two-piece. It is an awesome suit. Very easy to put on and take off. Low neckline with no zipper at the neckline so it does not chafe (or even cut my neck like my previous suit prior to alterations). The only problem with my De Soto is that it is not quite as buoyant as I would like. I am sure that someone who is a better swimmer than I am would LOVE these De Soto suits. For me, though, I like feeling the safety of a little extra buoyancy.

Problem solved – instead of the De Soto Bibjohn (the bottoms) I used my old Quitana Roo sleeveless. I put the De Soto top over my old wetsuit. Brilliant! Bouyant enough that I can float without having to skull at all. In 45 minutes swimming I can almost just trail my legs and not kick at all. This all helped me to feel REALLY relaxed in the water. Excellent.

Second, we swam north for 12 minutes, paused, and then swam another 13 minutes north. After a brief chat we decided to swim back to the beach without stopping. Not a big deal to a lot of swimmers but I can count on one hand the number of times that I have swam, continuously, in open water for 25 minutes or more. So that’s good. But, the best news was that as I was swimming along I suddenly realized that I was thinking about work, family, holidays, etc. In other words, I wasn’t worrying about drowning. This was a THRILLING moment for me. I makes me think that I will not hate the 90 minute Ironman swim.

I if I can manage to compete the 3.8 km Ironman swim in 90 minutes I will be 275/314 (last year’s results). Slow… but I can totally live with that.





Only one bad moment.

Somewhere in the middle of the lake I got tangled in the weeds. It feels like a Giant Kraken coming to the surface to pull you under. I fought free of its tentacles and carried on though. Phew. That was close.