Viadoom Swim/Walk

Usually I swim with the Notorious Alki Swimmers for my weekend swim.  As the name implies, we swim at Alki beach. Seattle is now, in the midst of "Viadoom" while, for three weeks, the Alaska Way Viaduct is closed and the replacement tunnel is not yet open.  I'll skip the politics of this in this forum, but suffice it to say, the impact on traffic, city wide, is anticipated to be significant.

I usually take the viaduct to Alki (or home) and so planned to meet up with a few north-end swimmers at Golden Gardens instead.  Three of us showed up on a beautiful, sunny, flat day.  The water was clear, and the sun was out. I almost worried about sunburn!

Golden Gardens is known for having a bit of a current as you swim around the point. I'd done it many times before and, although I'd felt the current, it had never been an issue.  Until this time.

I also have a new toy (I'll post on that soon) that is a GPS and gives me real-time auditory feedback on my pace. This ended up being very helpful, and a great safety tool, in this situation.

As I got used to the temperature, and started getting into my pace, the GPS was telling me that my "laps", which I'd set to 50 meters, were about 1:09 to 1:25.  I knew this was fast for me, but since I usually swim in a yards pool, it was hard to track how fast.  The swim was easy. I was watching the beautiful sand and sea floor. I had a goal of about a  mile, but after 650, the other two swimmers were coming back, so I turned around with them.

The next lap jumped from 1:20 to 2:20 then to 4:20. I wasn't sure, since the GPS is new to me, if this was a sign of the current, or of the GPS malfunctioning. You can see the change in pace around lap 11 here:

Either way, I decided that it was safer to start swimming towards shore, so I'd be closer in if I needed to bail.  This was a good idea.  It took me minutes to get near shore. And then, the current was pushing me so hard that my slowest 50 m was over 5 min! I got close it to shore and started to walk, in shoulder deep water, to see if I could get free from the current.  I couldn't.  But I tried for a few min.  I realized I was making no progress, so I got out, and walked back to my gear. My friends met me half way back with my shoes and towel. You can see my route here:

Notice that the color of the line is an indication of pace.  The green is faster than the blue. The darker the blue, the slower I was going.  Basically, from the turn around spot, I dramatically slowed down.

What did I learn from all this?  

First, swimming with friends is a good idea, I knew they were watching out for me and aware of where I was.  

Second, the GPS ended up being a real safety device. I wasn't sure I'd like the every 50 m updates, but in this case, it highlighted for me much quicker than I would have noticed alone, that my pace had dropped dramatically. 

Third, the habit of swimming parallel to shore is a smart one. I knew if I couldn't break the current, I would be able to turn around and swim across and with it to shore. Another safe choice.

Finally, once again, I got into an uncomfortable situation and got myself out of it safely.  As I push my limits swimming, I need to also balance that with swimming safely. This was a good test of my response intuition and I'm proud of how I responded. I never felt unsafe. I was confident the whole time that I knew what to do.  That was a good learning experience.

And really finally, there is no shame in walking.  I don't regret it. And I still think of this as a fabulous swim. Every swim teaches me something new.  This one was about current, and planning.

Swimming with the fishes-- Waikiki again, but the true on this time

The spouse and I decided to spend Thanksgiving in Hawaii. Probably the best decision I've made in a long time.  This was the view from our hotel room balcony:

That's the Waikiki harbor, with an excellent perspective for sunsets, though I think we watched all of them from the beaches.

As the swimmer that I am, the highlight of the trip was swimming with the fishes!!  Hamama State Park has a nature preserve in it with amazing coral reefs.  You take a bus out to the park, pay the $7.50 entry, watch a 9 min video on safety for you and the reefs, and then walk down a hill with this view.

And this one:

You can see the shape of the reef from above.

Blue water is sand.  The reef is the darker area. It was great to see this view of the reef, because it was a map of what I would swim through, and really helped me get my orientation.

I own snorkel gear. In part this is because I want my prescription goggles. And in part because using a snorkel that has been in someone else's mouth is ick. 

I was one of the few with a swim cap on. Combine that with the Yellow rash/sun guard, and my orange buoy and I was easy to spot while swimming!

But what really mattered was what I was spotting.

The highlight was the sea turtles.  Day one I had a turtle almost to myself for 20 min.

We had a good long conversation about turtle-y things.

But the second day, the turtle had paparazzi.

This made me sad. Although, technically, the guy was within the rules-- he was not touching the turtle-- he was awfully close. The turtle was swimming away from him. Unlike the one I'd made friends with the previous day, who was happy to eat and talk to me.

I easily spent two hours in the water each day.  When the wind would pick up, the conditions would get worse, and I'd get out for a while and hang out on the beach. It was such a pretty place, easy to spend a day.

Another highlight of the trip was the drive to the North Shore, where we watched surfers at the Bonsi Pipeline. 

And met some beach chickens.

And I drove a VW Bug Convertible.  Wow I had a hard time giving that car back.

After so much sun, and 70* ocean water, the return to Alki will be hard!

Swimming into Spring

My favorite aunt (just kidding, I love them all equally) lives just outside of San Diego. I try to get to see her about twice a year, because she's a awesome lady and she lives in a sunny paradise. I was down there the third week of March, just in time to see spring spring fourth.

For some reason, I'd never been to La Jolla.  This is a problem that I'm glad I have now rectified.  How could I possibly have missed Seal Beach? The sign warned against selfies with seals.

So of course I took one-- though you can see I did so from a safe distance.

I was also impressed to see the seals nursing their pups. I know that seals are mammals, but on some level it had never occurred to me that they would nurse. Yes, mammals nurse. I get that, I just never actually connected it in my head.  It was awesome to see them.

In La Jolla, it wasn't just the seals that were showing off their young.  These Cormorants were, as well as the Pelicans. Spring was busting out all over.

On the swimming front, I spent a lovely afternoon at the beach with my spouse, aunt and her companion. I got to swim while they sat on the beach.

And true to fashion, we had ice cream after!

Bonus photo from the trip-- this was in a bar we went to for trivia. Good advice for all!

And bonus bonus photo, with my historic fear of flying, I was proud to take this photo at take off from SEATAC.  That's my friend, Mt. Rainier.