Green Lake Open Water Swim- Race Report

The Green Lake Open Water Swim (GLOWS) is always the "early" swim of the season. This season it seems to have come too early. I've swum it two of the last three years, and finished in 22-23 minutes.  The course is a short half mile course. This year I felt under-trained-- I've been in the lake, what, 5 times so far?? Not a lot of swimming!  But I knew I could do the distance, if not at the speed I'd done in the past.

Going to the start on the bus (it's a point-to-point swim) I was amazed at the number of people who seemed to be doing it for the first time. Turns out the first year I did this, about 65 people finished (the half mile), and this year over 80 did (just in the half mile), so there must be more and more first-timers each year.

The water temps were cold, and the race organizers encouraged us to wear wetsuits.  I would have anyway.  I hung out at the start until about 5 min before gun, then got into the water.

I started at the back of the pack, but in the middle, not off to the side. It wasn't planned, it was just where I was when the gun went off.  The water was cold, but not as cold as Lake Washington had been so far this season.  I started swimming fine, then a few minutes in, couldn't control my breath.  It was similar to the Whidbey Island swim in that way. I didn't panic. But I couldn't control my breathing.  I switched to head up breast stroke and kept swimming, knowing that when I caught my breath I'd be fine.

Sure enough, two or three minutes later, I was.  I got into a rhythm, and could swim.  I could feel my shoulders getting tight (ah, the joys of under-training) but just kept swimming. By half way across the lake I was alternating 10 strokes of crawl with 10 strokes of breast.  I was in a grove, and fine.  I wasn't loving it.  I felt slow. And the distance felt long. I was happy when I saw the finish.  I crossed in 25:26.  My slowest time ever for this swim. That just teaches me that I have to get in the water more!

Not my best race ever, but I'm glad I did it!

I should have known...

I should have known this wasn't going to be a great swim when I got to the lake and saw white caps.  But I was determined. I'd rested my shoulder this weekend because it was sore from tumbling class, and I really wanted to swim.

I should have known it wasn't going to be a great swim when my goggles strap broke. I'd left my spare pair at home, trying to streamline what I carry with me.  I was able to make do with the stump of the strap, but they didn't fit quite right.

I should have known it wasn't going to be a great swim when my Vibrams started irritating my toe with the missing nail.  The nail is growing back slowly.

I should have known it wasn't going to be a great swim when I kept getting hit in the head by my swim safety buoy.  Usually it floats behind me and I don't even know it's there.  Today the wind kept blowing it at me and it got in my way.

I should have known it wasn't going to be a great swim when the waves started making me sick.  I swam north, as I usually do, with the wind coming from the south east, the waves crossed me in a way that made me ill.

But then I turned around.  Into the waves.  And swam back.  And suddenly, it was a great swim.

35 min. Water temp- 64* Air temp- 62*

Change in attidude

It's amazing how I can go from "it looks cold I'm going to be miserable" to "I could swim forever" in the period of half a mile.

Swim in the rain, eh?

I went down to Magnusun for a Sunday morning swim. It was raining lightly, so I left all my dry stuff (towel) in the car. Slipped into the wetsuit and headed down to the beach. As I was finishing getting dressed, a man asked me how cold the water was.

I said, "I think about 55, I didn't check today but last week the bouy reading was about 13, which is around 55."
Man: In the winter it gets down to about 45, doesn't it?
Me: Yeah, I think the coldest is about 8 or 9, so around that.
Man: What are you, Canadian?
Me: Well, dual, actually, but the bouy reports in Centigrade, hence my thinking about the temps in C.
Man: I knew I'd get it out of you!

I walked off to swim.

Did my half mile out and back. I'm out of swim shape. And the water is still cold on my face. Most of the "out" was warm up. But for the "back it was easy to put my face in the water and just swim.

I did notice that the current in the lake was going the wrong way.  I swim north of the ship canal, which is wear the lake drains to Puget Sound. So usually the current is from the north to the south.  Today it was from the south.  This also made the "back" portion of my swim "upstream" and therefore a little tougher.  Not sure if it was the wind's direction or if one of the in-put streams was causing the current.

When I got back to the beach there was a 5-year-old birthday party going on. They were flying kites-- in the rain. I took off my wetsuit and showered off in the outdoor shower.  One kid was staring at me while I was showering.  I could tell her mom was uncomfortable with how hard she was staring. So I spoke to her, telling her about the wetsuit and how it keeps me warm in cold water.  She just kept staring.  I wonder why I was so interesting to her.

Another mom asked me what triathlon I was training for.  I said just swimming. She seemed disappointed.

And she's back....

Got back in the water for the first time today.  Did about a half mile "shake down" swim.  Everything still seems to work (mostly my body, the gear is all fine too), and once I was warmed up, it wasn't too bad.  Air temp was 80. Water about 55.

So what happened to the winter swimming??  Mostly, life got in the way.  I missed a few weeks in a row while my husband moved in with me.  And during that time the lake temperature dropped significantly. Suddenly it seemed too cold. I'm sure if I'd kept things up those weeks I would have been fine, but with the time off, I couldn't face the cold.  May try it again next winter.  In the mean time.... it is time to swim through summer.

Time to swim but not to blog

I've been going through a major life change the last few weeks (don't worry, it's a change for the better). So I've had time to swim but not time to blog. I promise I'll update soon, including my swim in a large mud puddle!!

Fearless

(this one isn't about swimming, but it is about how I see myself as an athlete.)

I've been thinking a lot about this woman who was in my gymnastics class last night. She's a lot like I was about 12 years ago and I found her SO annoying. She was incredibly pessimistic. She, and a guy, and I were in the "newbee" group, the other 4 in the "veterans" group. The instructor would give us a skill to work on, and she'd immediately start with the "oh, I don't think I can do that" and "I hope I don't hurt myself" and "I must look like a fool." She flirted with the guy in our little group. Couldn't stop talking to him when the instructor was talking. Teased him, etc. At one point she said to me "you lose 13 pounds in the first 12 weeks of this class. Or at least I hope so" About 45 min into the class we were working on running cartwheels and she decided her ankle hurt too much to keep doing them. So she sat and watched the rest of the class (though she almost got "better" when we moved to the trampoline.)

I'm not sure why I'm thinking about her so much today. Perhaps because she was a good example of how far I've come. I'm not in it for the weight loss. I don't try to pick up guys EVERYWHERE I go. My self talk is much more along the "come-on reebs, you can do this" line. In fact with the running cartwheels I did the first one, and fell. And the instructor said "you just went for it. Good job!" I was so proud. I did just go for it. Forgetting fear. Realizing you have to learn to fly to do this skill.  I found pure joy in that moment. And it was spectacular.