Thursday, August 30, 2012

Repeat 2.5 mile Swim North of Pier to Wisconsin St and Back












I took some pictures but my camera cord isn't working.  The sky was a clear blue yesterday evening.  I went down at 5:30 PM and it was quiet at the Pier.  The tide was low to medium, with small waves and gentle surf.  I did the same swim as a few days ago.  My time was very similar; I did the route in 1 hour and 49 minutes.  The water was flat swimming out and got a bit choppy before the end of the pier and beyond the pier.  Visibility was about 7 feet.
I'm thinking about how to describe the swim south to the Wisconsin Pole and back north to the pier.  The ocean was calm but with a constant 1 foot ripple of a wave over and over the entire way.  It wasn't a chop, like a washing machine up & down, but a defined, constant, small, formed wave that I tried to time my breathing with as I swam.  I was taking more strokes per breath and breathing on both sides as I felt which stroke would put me at the apex of the small waves on the surface to breathe easier.  There was also a mild current moving south again, as is mostly the case in the area.
I started the swim at tower 2 on the north side of the pier, and hit off the end of the pier at 14 minutes.  Then I swam parallel to the shore out at that distance from the shore to the Wisconsin pole.  I checked my watch after I circled the pole and started back; it was 51 minutes.  I hit the end of the pier at 1 hour and 33 minutes, and the beach at 1 hour and 49 minutes. 
I was starting to get tired about a quarter-mile south of the pier.  Swimming in to the beach was hard for me; I didn't had any gas left in the tank.  The warm water lulls you to laziness:  70 degrees.  I personally need more misery to make me pull harder and kick more.  I prefer my misery in the form of wet cold. I was also lazy with my kick yesterday evening.  On the swim northward it was nice to get a repeating view of the full sun descending to my front and left.  I brushed against a big, white blob with just my feet; I think it was a big jellyfish because I looked back at it--but it seemed to be chasing me, so I got the heck out of there.  No stinging at all though.  Maybe an overactive imagination?
After I was out of the water, there was an almost-full moon shining in the southwestern sky.
A good swim, but I paid for it when I woke up this morning.  I have epidural nerve block injections this afternoon to try something else for the low back.

"The first time you quit is the last time you try."

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