At noon I was ready to hit the beach today (Saturday). After yesterday's swim, a gentleman came over to me and inquired if I was training for a cold-water swim. I responded in the negative, adding that I was trying to swim the year-round with just swim trunks.
He said, "Oh, so the Pier is your thing." "Yes," I answered. "I just do the Pier a couple of times a week. I love it here."
"It's great," he agreed, as he leaned against his bicycle. "We are blessed," he said, and I agreed. He told me that he had done a lot of coaching and training of swimmers, most especially his sons when they were younger. He lit up as he told me of records that his sons hold for a leg of the English Channel Relay Race. His wife had swum the Channel. One could tell that he was very into the training knowledge of cold-water swimming and distance swimming. He told me that he'd be happy to work with me if I wanted to go farther out and increase my distance--he'd kayak with me as support.
I looked him and his family up on the internet after I got home, and he is the real deal. So, if I get into setting a goal for a swim, I have that going for me. Nice guy.
So last night and this morning I was looking at the Mapquest map of the Oceanside Beach and approximating distances for swims--and thinking about setting a goal. My feeling on goals as I have aged is conservative--as a friend once told me: 'Inch by inch, it's a cinch; yard by yard, it's hard.'
I'm a step-by-step guy; set small goals: achievable ones, but also allowing for a physical & mental challenge.
Back to my swim today. It's 5 PM, and I'm wiped out--just exhausted. My plan for today's swim was to stay in the water for two hours--57 degrees--and swim a course of 2 miles plus.
And to make a long story short: I did it. My 2 hours was actually 1 hour and 52 minutes--close enough. My swim was between 2 miles and 2 1/2 miles, and I estimate conservatively. It was hard.
My extra gear for today was to wear a jockstrap underneath my swim trunks--because your 'bits & pieces' get mighty chilly. This issue was eliminated with the jockstrap. I also wore the neoprene hood that my wife gave me for Christmas--I hope this is not cheating.
I got in on the north side of the pier and went out past the pier and headed south, parallel to the beach. I stayed far out and swam to Wisconsin Street--that was the half-way goal.
Sixteen minutes in, just past the pier, I was getting used to the cold, but now I learned some things on this longer swim for me in cold water--one thing is that after getting used to it for a while, one reaches another level of cold. This is a constant cold misery, and one can feel the different body parts freezing up little by little.
Oh, I forgot to say that the ocean was glass--an amazing day for a swim--flatter than flat.
My wind and my lungs were good. Stayed good throughout the entire swim. I could have done more.
My left heel chilled up first, then both my heels. Then, the cold took over my left foot and worked up to my knee. The right leg did the same thing a while later. This was at about 48 minutes into the swim. At about this same time my fingers stopped working properly, and for the rest of the swim I was not able to keep my fingers together on my 'pull.'
On my return leg north, I stayed far out again, and I just concentrated on my arm pull.
Oh, you know the Geico commercials where the cavemen are out in public doing normal things, and then they see their caveman image on a billboard--and they get ticked off. Like they can't escape being noticed. Well, as I was swimming, a small airplane was going down the beach dragging a big Geico banner. I thought, 'Wow,' I can see how that would have ticked the cavemen off. Even swimming far out, there's the Geico caveman ad. Weird. It actually didn't have a picture of a caveman, but that detail kind of spoils the anecdote. After the swim, I took a long, hot shower to warm up, and put on 3 shirts and a jacket.
"The first time you quit is the last time you try."
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