.39 miles in 44 degrees

Goody and Me near the marina opening
Photo by Josh Green

This evening I met Goody, Josh, Jim at the Marina.  Goody was in a hurry and was first in the water.  I hung out a little for Jim and we got in and headed to the opening to join Goody.

I definitely noticed that I didn't get my cold water swim last week.  It was tough this week!  My breathing the first minute was hard to get under control.  Not hyperventilating, but definitely quicker than normal.  But once I got about 200 yards into it, I was fine and slowed down.  I met up with Goody for a quick picture by Josh who had his boys with him and like a good father didn't just go swimming leaving them on shore.  But he came out to take pictures and cheer on the rest of us.  What a nice guy!
I decided to swim out of the marina out towards the buoy.  Here's a satellite pic with my path outlined:

.39 miles of swimmng in 44 degrees

Goody took the temp for me while I was getting ready.  It came to 44 degrees.  After our swim Josh took a temp with his.  Amazing, it wasn't off by two degrees like it normally is.  It read 44 degrees too!

When I got out and put my parka on I noticed that I was chaffed up real bad!  On my stomach and under my arm pits.  Wow.  My stroke must look like real crap when I'm swimming like mad and trying to stay warm.  I need to remember to put on some grease cause it doesn't take very long to get serious rub burns going in the Great Salt Lake.  I keep forgetting that little fact.

I got out and Jim was coming back. He spent a few more minutes in than I did.  He's getting to be very resilient in that cold water!

I'm rounding the buoy and Jim
is coming up on it too.  

Anyway, I had to hurry off as I was supposed to go to a dinner out with Cathi and her side of the family.  I was supposed to pick her up at the train station in Woods Cross.  Usually I'm done shivering by the time I get to the Hunter Douglas warehouse near the airport, but this time I shivered the whole way to Redwood Road where I got off to take a quick shower at my parents house.  I took my heart rate when I got on I-80 and it was high!  I wasn't breathing hard, but I could tell my heart was freaking out.  I was a little concerned about going 80 miles an hour down the freeway and having my body go through recovery like that.  I told Cathi that from now on, if we plan anything right after a cold water swim, that she needs to give me some time to recover slowly.   I'd rather pass out and wake up in a warm parked car, than in a brilliantly white place looking up at St. Peter who is shaking his head and looking at me like I'm an idiot, cause I just wrecked on the freeway while passed out.

Total distance: .39 miles (680 yards) in around 8 or 9 minutes.  I forgot to start my stopwatch duh!