I enjoyed a calm but chilly nearly-2-mile swim today at Brighton Beach. Contrary to the forecasts, it was an overcast day. The crowd of CIBBOWS swimmers that turned up this morning were looking for the sun to come out as the day, and our swims, progressed, but it stayed stubbornly hidden behind the low-lying clouds. But the beach has its own beauty that shines in any weather, and I enjoyed being in and near the water on this silvery palette-ed day. Cara measured the water temp as we were getting in, and it was a little colder than anyone expected—between 54 and 55. This was a bit of a drop from last week. Although swimming a loop today would have boosted my confidence for the 5k swim I am doing in a couple of weeks, I was focused more on being cautious about getting too cold, and the temp reading just strengthened that resolve. I haven’t swum outdoors much this season, so I am not as confident as I might otherwise be in my cold-water acclimation. I have also been getting uncharacteristically cold in the pool this week—on Thursday at Riverbank, when Rondi and Hannah were sighing over the too-warm water, I was quite comfortable, and even grew a little chilled when we stopped to chat. So I decided today was a day to pay special attention to my body and how it was feeling, and to be sensible about turning back if I was getting chilled. Cara, Richard, Melissa, and I set out towards the pier. There was a lot of activity down that way, with two barges stationed towards the pier’s end, repairing the damage to it that hurricane Sandy did last fall. There was also a lot of other activity on the water today, with police boats paralleling our swim route and helicopters flying low overhead. Thankfully no jet skis out today though—one benefit of the cloudy cool day! Melissa and I separated from the others after a bit, and ended up swimming together past the aquarium and to Coney Island. It seemed like a very long time since I had been out this way, and I was glad to see the familiar sight of the Cyclone and the rest of the amusement park as we passed by. By the time we reached the WonderWheel, just a couple of jetties short of the pier, I was beginning to get chilled and was ready to turn around. Melissa decided to come with me, so we reversed course and headed back to our starting point. I was a little worried about the cold I was feeling, but also enjoying the sensation, and glad I had a swim buddy with me today. We made good progress, even against the current—I was ready to be back at this point and was swimming harder, rather than being the sight-seer I’d been on the way out. We were swimming a bit further out now, but as we passed by the jetties I could still detect a fishy smell at each one. A couple of times I turned over and backstroked in order to watch the helicopters swooping low over us, and wondered what they were doing, and if they were watching us swim below. After the last long jetty I pointed myself towards the pavilion on shore. I could see the group of CIBBOWs swimmers congregated on the sand, and I was glad I was close to the end. When I got out I got dressed quickly on the beach. Melissa and I had been in about an hour. I had packed plenty of warm clothes and a down jacket, even though I hadn’t been sure I would need them today. I shivered as I drank my thermos of hot tea and welcomed the others as they trickled back in from their swims. I had gotten chilled through, but not unpleasantly so. Several of us compared our mottled skin as blood flow returned the surface unevenly and made interesting patterns on our legs. I didn’t have time to hang out much afterwards, but enjoyed the subway ride back with my pal John. The trains were packed with finishers from the Brooklyn half-marathon, which finished at Coney Island and attracted over 20,000 runners. A couple of today’s swimmers today ran that race, then swam with us afterwards! It’s unusual that the water is warming up so late this year. The first race in the area takes place next weekend—the Great Hudson River swim, put on by NYCSwim. It’s short, and allows wetsuits, but even so I hope the water is out of the 50s by then, because temps like today’s can be a shock to swimmers unused to them, no matter what they are wearing.
Today was a solo swim. I tried convincing my kids to join me, but my son had a birthday party he was attending(these are becoming rare for him and he still really enjoys them) and my daughter just did not want to swim today(she is already swimming 5 days a week at 9 years of age, but is really enjoying it). I decided I,was going to do a pyramid swim today and thought the pool would be setup short course but to my pleasant surprise it was setup long course. I modified the pyramid slightly only going upto 400s but held a pretty quick pace and felt pretty good throughout. I really need to get my yardage backup and this will no doubt hurt, but longer term this will be good. I am going to,sit down with my coach in the next two weeks and work on next years goals and put a plan in place. Despite short course Nationals only just finishing I am ready to get going on the next set of goals. This morning I even caught myself thinking about doing long course nationals in August. My wife will kill me and I know I promised I would back off over the summer, and long term it will be better to reenergize and focus on a longer term goal, but it's tempting. Warm up 400 free with snorkel 6x50 alternating catchup and finger drag drill on 45 Main set All done with paddles and buoy 100 on 1.20 200 on 2.40 300 on 4mins 400 on 5.20 400 on 5.20 300 on 4mins 200 on 2.40 100 on 1.20 10x50 kick on 1min 10x50 catchup with 6 beat kick on 50 Warm down 300 easy swum 50 back, 50 free Total 4000meters I felt pretty good on the pull set and held 1.08 pace the whole way. I felt quite sore after the second 400 but kept my stroke long and concentrated on quick turns. I noticed in all my swims in Indy my turns were ok, but very slow. I know at 6.5 feet it's hard to tuck into a tight ball but I need to get over quicker. As i write this entry I am tired but I guess that's what happens when you taper all the way to no yardage and then build it back up again. I want to build a good base this summer and fall as a platform for next year.
Swam at the Nat this morning. Dave M was there, but Dave B ad Peter were no shows. It was like a madhouse. We had 9 people in our lane - 3 of us doing one thing with a 4th doing some of our stuff but not others, and 5 either doing something different or doing the same thing at a different time. Added some excitement to the swim! And then the mass of youth swimmers showed up. At first, I could watch the intervals, but then there was no way - it was just go after and before the others . Oh well, still got a pretty good workout in even though it was limited to 85 minutes. 5x100 Free on 1:45 4x50 Kick 5x100 Free w/paddles 4x200 Free w/paddles 10x50 Back w/paddles 200 Free 4x50 Back 2x100 Free 4x50 Back 4x50 Free 4x50 Free 2x50 Free 2x50 Back 100 Back w/paddles 4000 meters 85 minutes
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