Afternoon swims are about to end

Second stop at Blackrock

Tonight I met Goody, Chad and Josh at the marina and was ready to get in a 4:40pm.  We all got in and Chad, Goody and I swam out to Blackrock and back.  I was feeling strong and did it at a decent pace.  At each stop I would hurry and get my drink, get back to swimming, and then start up again with them once they got their drinks.

View from Silversands beach.

Did two laps of the straight and then did an extra double buoy loop (that route adds and extra 1.5 miles to the course).  I was in a race against the sun.  It was dropping fast.  Ended up beating it by like 40 minutes.

I took three reading throughout my swim.  The water ranged from 68 to 71 degrees depending on where I was with the cold spots, and the warm surface of the water.  Swimming in 68 is just too warm to really be good training for channel conditions.  Today's swim made me come to a conclusion:   After this week, I'm planning to swim T/Th mornings at the marina just as the sun comes up.  I'm hoping that the cool nights drops the water temp a few degrees and I'm able to swim in water that is below 65.

GPS track of this evening's swim.  

After recently reading this blog post from Mark Robson, the English Channel temperatures this year, are quite a bit chillier than past years.  I may not be swimming in water that is 60 degrees or higher.  When I felt the cooler water about 2 feet deep, or when passing behind the wake of a sailboat, I welcomed the cooler water which probably would have registered as 65f.  Come June/July, I'm going to have to do some consistent training swims in Pineview instead of GSL.  And also lots of bear lake weekends.  And just to be sure, cold showers, which I hate!

Finished at Silversands beach and stopped my GPS and it read 5.58 miles, and my watch stopped at 2:49.  not too shabby considering about 5 minutes of that was "frolicking", as Goody put it.


Total: 5.58 miles in 2:49