OPEN WATER

Just when I thought I had things kind of wired with this swimming thing ...


Last night we had our first open water swim. I'll admit I'd slept badly the two nights prior and had woken up with a sore jaw from clenching my teeth during the few hours that I did sleep. I was wondering if Valium was a bad thing to take just before swimming.


Naturally, Thursday was the coldest day of the week. The wind was blowing like crazy. And we decided to jump into a cold pond.



The wetsuits we received are nearly impossible to put on. In the house, I would be exhausted before I even got the thing up to my waist. Wetsuits become harder to put on when your body is wet, so the fact that I would be sweating like crazy from the struggle didn't help at all! But since it was barely over 60 degrees with a cold wind last night, donning the wetsuit was a snap!


Fortunately it was not as cold as I had feared. I think all the ice baths I've taken after long runs really got me conditioned. The pond was nowhere near as cold as ice!


But then we were told we needed to fill our wetsuits with pond water. Open up the neck and let the water flow right on in. Nobody told me THAT before! Brrr! 


After getting our faces used to the water a little, we headed out into the pond. I could barely feel the cold of the water through my wetsuit. Thank goodness! 


However, I felt like everything I'd accomplished the last few months had just disappeared. Front crawl? What's that? How about side stroke, doggie paddle, back stroke... I did get my face down in the water a few times and take a few strokes, but not for long. It was exhausting trying to breathe easily in the chilly water, but the wetsuit did make me float almost effortlessly. I could tread water with just the smallest effort.


Overall, it was a good introduction to the world of open water swimming. I didn't drown - but then that was not my fear. I didn't freeze to death - that wasn't my biggest fear anyway. I didn't see any creatures or other murky looking shapes under the water - THAT was my biggest fear. Looking down was just a cloudy, green haze. Not too bad.


We will miss next week's swim since we'll be out of town, but hopefully I can catch up the following week. We will be swimming twice a week from now until our event. Good thing - I'm going to need the practice!


-- JAM