Who are you?

Wednesday night I headed to the west side for an open water swim. Upon arriving the total immersion coach that also meets there on Wednesdays asked if any of us CTCers had checked on the Lake's bio levels. Heehee. I know better than to do that. We would never get in the water!

Ahh if only you all knew what I knew ;)

She then told us there were quite a few dead fish. More than the week before. I saw the panic in a few CTCers eyes but I laughed it off and we all headed down to the water.

There were a couple of large dead fish on the beach, but as that was what greeted me the first time I ever swam at this beach I wasn't too shocked. The way she had said it I was imagining waves of dead fish near shore, which I have seen at the beach close to me.

So we all waded in and got to it. We swim out then to the right breakwall about 300 yards, then all the way to the left breakwall, about 600 yards, back, and to the middle again. About 1800 yards total. (Which never ask me to calculate that while swimming, because I never came up with that total that night)

When I was about 10 we went on a family trip to Disney. We went to the water park where you can "swim with the sharks." For some reason my parents thought we would love this. Boy oh boy were they wrong! You have never seen two kids swim so fast in your lives! Little did they know about our overactive imaginations in the water! My sister and I played in the pool pretty much everyday it was warm enough our whole childhood. Well that's a lot of time in the pool, so you come up with little "games" to make it more exciting. Our most common game involved us as mermaids. And you could not go in the areas of the pools with shadows, because that's where the sharks lived. As recently as last October I could still freak myself out in an indoor pool if I were by myself and there were shadows! I know I am bizarre!

But my point is, Wednesday night I swam like I belonged in Lake Erie. I did not worry about sharks or dead fish. Although I must admit it was a bit disturbing to feel a tap on my toes, turn around expecting TriSaraTops and find a dead fish instead. I just swam, and swam well. We did around a mile in 27 minutes at what I felt was a relaxed effort (not including breaks to regroup). I didn't have a hard time with the waves on Wednesday and despite the sun right in my eyes and my left arm still bothering me from weed whacking, I did a great job of swimming straight.

I don't know where this open water persona came from but she is very interesting.

After the swim I went out and rode my bike for just shy of an hour. Got in about 16 miles at around 16.5 mph. My legs have felt tapped every time I get on the bike lately. Just one day I would like for them to feel fresh.

9 comments:

Cliff said...

All i know about the lake sharks are that they love me. I am super slow in the water. Easy meat for them. They are all waiting for me to swim in the deeper end to take a bite out of me.

Bolder said...

what's your cadence on the bike?

with your legs and engine, i'm surprised you don't always feel fresh...

it's all about the bike.

E-Speed said...

not sure Bold, but I try to keep it high. I don't have a cadence meter, but I am guessing that I am around 80? I don't mash or anything like that. The hills get seriously ridiculous as I just get in my granny gear to keep cadence high and I slowly make my way up. I would die in Colorado.

Trisaratops said...

Mmmmmm....fish.

Not so much.

Way to help me swim straight, too! And please don't tell me what you know about the Lake. :)

Janet Edwards said...

Yeah...I am just going to pretend the lake is not gross although I know better!!

Way to be out there in the water...sounds as though all is well on that front for you! Oh I miss the child water games...perhaps we will have to incorporate that into one of the training sessions......sharks & minnows anyone?

Ginger Breadman said...

I have serious training envy - you're like the bionic woman. You totally inspire me to go swim - maybe in a lake with no fish, though.

L*I*S*A said...

I don't know how I would handle bumping into dead fish...you're my hero!

Rae said...

Hmmmmm......I don't think I would do well in an open water swim!!! Lakes seriously freak me out.

Michele said...

Great swim. I hate swimming in open water and have only done it twice. Don't know if I would do it again if I saw dead fish everywhere!