Last swim of the year

Six participants this week:
Gords, Jim, Goody, Dave, Tyson, Josh

This morning I went to pick up Michelle, but she was either gone, or not hearing me knock on the door or ring the doorbell.  I met Josh, Jim, Goody, Tyson, Dave at the marina.  Goody gave me a very cool new cap that said "Sub 0° Swimmer".  A little more manly than the candy can hat I've been wearing.  This morning it was really windy and there was some pretty decent chop outside the marina.  It's a good thing we swim inside the marina in the winter. I wouldn't want to swim into those cold waves.

Tyson and Dave are the two new guys for this week and I hope they had a good time.  I did my normal 250 yard swim out to the corner turn at the other end of the marina and back.  I had everything laid out perfectly so I was fully dressed in probably less than 90 seconds.  I have big boots that don't need tying, and I just slip into everything.  No zippers or buttons to deal with.

At the end it feels so good knowing in about 2 minutes
everything will be back to normal.  Well almost.

I got a response last night from Jack Bright concerning issues with cold hands.  He said that his swimmers often prep the hands with hand creme and then rub it in as well after the swim.  He also said, to pay special attention to your body and if it makes sense to cut back, do it!

This time the water on my thermometer came to 35.8°F.  Warmer than last Saturday by quite a bit.  We've a warm week.  My cold is also improving. I've never been a big fan of soup, but I think it is making a difference in my recovery.

This week when I got out my hands recovered very quickly due to the increased water temperature, plus I was really efficient getting back into warm clothes.  The wind chill was brutal!  Tyson asked me "What would you do if something happened out there, would someone be able to go out and get you?"  Josh probably would.  But I would never put myself in a situation where I would need help.  I've had plenty of experience swimming through cramps, and there's no way I can get hypothermia in 3 minutes in water that cold.  Experience with waters in the temp you start to learn what you can and can't do.  You stretch yourself and expand your limits, but not to a point where it's really dangerous.  Sure there's risk, but you keep it at a level where the odds of something really bad happening is extremely slim.

Rachele and Scott Kunz ran with Jacob and Cathi at the
New Year's Revolution Run at the Olympic Oval

Had a great time, and enjoyed the fact that I got to do an extreme event on New Years Eve which only took three minutes, and I get to go support Cathi and Jacob at the Olympic Oval.

Jacob ran 19 miles this morning, and Cathi a full Marathon.  Jacob took first for the 17 and under division.  Cathi got in another marathon for the year, totalling 16 marathons for 2011.  Wow!

Now to take a little nap.



250 yard swim in 36­°F Water in 3:31