Independence Day Swim in Pineview

This morning I got to Pineview at 5:30 am.  I was meeting Goody, Joelle, Annie and Sharon (who I never met before).  Ogden Canyon was supposed to open to traffic at 5am (according to the electronic signs), but it was delayed until 6am.  That didn't affect me, because I come up through Trappers Loop.  But Joelle and Goody were stuck in Ogden Canyon until it opened up.

I discovered that I misplaced my goggles and ear plugs from last night's clinic in Echo.  I was able to scavenge through my crap and find one ear plug, but not two.  That was really annoying.  It delayed my 0545 start by about 30 minutes.  When I was in the water and about to start I saw Goody up at the top of the path going down waving his arms yelling for me to wait up.  He came down and we talked for a bit, and then I took off.

Swimming with one ear plug was messed up!  It was strange.  I have grown so used to not having water in my ears while I swim that its now a hinderment to swim without them.  And having only one ear protected was even worse.  I felt a little dizzy, but kept on going.  After about 5 minutes I looked back and saw Goody's orange SSD back at the beach area.  He must have seen Joelle coming down and waited for her.  I kept going.  I was severely depressed about the ear plug situation and was considering only doing two Goody laps instead of my 4-5 planned.

By the time I finished the first lap I was starting to get used to the one inner ear wash.  I was still in a pissed off mood about it though.  Goody took a shorter loop and was already at the beach waiting.  He said Joelle was about 500 yards behind and we waited for her.  Then we did another lap together.  Her pace is very good.  We're almost identical in speed.  I asked her after her second lap if she wanted a pace swimmer.  She said her siblings were pacing her.  So that's good.

I got a call on the way this morning from Sharon telling me she would join me later in the morning.  At this point I wasn't going to stay much later.  I called to let her know that if she wasn't on her way that I was going to leave in about 45 minutes.  She said she was just pulling into the parking lot.  So I waited at the beach for her.  She came down and got into her wetsuit.

Sharon and I swimming to the Dam
Buoys. 

She realized that the water was warm enough without it, but she has a couple triathlons coming up (including Echo next weekend), and wanted to ensure that her new wetsuit fit properly, and she was used to it. We got in and did a straight out and back to the dam buoys.  A course of 1.8 miles.  I gave her the tip about alligator eyes sighting, but she is still learning it and needed practice with it.  Her stroke looked good and her speed was pretty good.

Coming back she slowed down and I tried to get her to draft off me, but she wasn't able to hold the pace.  I reassured her that more and more practice and she would feel more comfortable and get faster.  She said she might join me next Wednesday.

I love my paddler!

Jacob was such a patient paddler.  He did a good job, and on the way back from the dam buoys I played around with him a  little.  I would try chasing him to see if I could hang on to his stern, but he could hear me close by and speeding up so he would paddle faster to avoid my "attack".  Sometimes he would try running me down and I would laugh and duck down underneath the surface while he went over the top of me.  I then would push up on his boat underneath and make him topple just a bit, not enough to tip him, but scare him a little.  Fun times!  I'm so grateful for his support!

Total Distance: 6.8 miles 

After today's swim, it is official that Pineview is my second most swum in lake.  Bountiful up till now was in second place (with 135 miles accrued), but now Pineview has 140 miles, so move over Bountiful Lake!

I went and lifted at the gym afterwards and man am I sore!