51

Last night Cathi gave me her blessing to leave all the Pioneer Day partying so that I could drive up to the cabin in Logan canyon.  I got up there at 10pm and hit the sack within 30 minutes.

Got up this morning at 5:30 and got some hot chocolate prepared for a cold water swim in the Logan River. I got in and the water felt even colder than I anticipated.  I was about to start, and realized that I really should wear a cap in order to stay in the water longer.   So I got back out and looked all over in my car for a cap.  No go.  I would have to tough it out.  I need to keep a cap in my bag, but I rarely wear one that I prefer to just keep them at home in my closet to avoid them from going brittle and wearing out.

I started my watch and was hoping for a minimum of 30 minutes of swimming upstream, but staying in place as if I was swimming in an Endless Pool.  The speed of flow in the river was perfect.  It wasn't too fast, and not too slow.  The water was so cold that I was getting a brain freeze and stopped every few minutes to do breast stroke or to just stand on the bottom crouched so that my head was above water, but my shoulders stayed in.

I checked the digital thermometer on my watch: 51°F.  Wow!  That's probably a little extreme for cold water training for the channel.  If it was 57 or 58 it would be perfect and I would last a lot longer.  Anyway, as time went on I was doing less and less breaststroke and more head in freestyle.  Once I saw Bill (Cathi's Dad, who is staying up at his cabin this week alone), at the edge of the river yelling out, "Is it cold Gordon?!"  I told him the temp and he just laughed and went back to bed.

Soon the elapsed time was 30 minutes, then 40 minutes, and then I set my final time to be 50 minutes.  At 50 minutes I swam to the edge, and it was tough getting out.  The rocks were not smooth, but very rough and sharp.  So I had to crawl out very carefully to avoid falling or getting cut up.  I finally got out and dried off.  Took a warm shower and got dressed to go to work.

I've been taking ice baths every day now.  The temp ranges from 57 to 62 depending on how many containers the kids fill up and put in the freezer.  I've been staying in from 40-60 minutes per session.  That has helped, but going down to 51 is quite a jump.  But I felt good about that amount of time in that cold water.  


I'm heading up there with the family on Thursday evening where I'll swim that night, Friday morning, and then Saturday, Sunday off, then Monday morning.  I won't be online from Saturday to Monday morning, so I'll report back on Monday.  I hope to increase my time so that I'm in the water well over an hour by Monday.


I wish I could head up to Bear Lake to cheer on James this weekend, but I don't have any details on his swim and I wasn't invited, but I sure wish him the best.  That swim is gonna be epic!

Total time: 51 minutes in 51°F