swimsuit addict

I had a beautiful swim at the beach today—I did a 5K loop in some nice rolling swells. The water was very clear, and the sky brilliant blue and spotted with clouds. It was a perfect beach day, with moderate crowds out enjoying the sunny mid-70s day. It’s nice to swim by and see all the umbrellas dotting the sand--such a change from the deserted beach of the off-season.

After my loop I got out a bit, chatted and drank some juice, then hopped back in for an additional little swim to the white building and back. Afterwards I floated in the water and looked up at the clouds for a while before getting out. It was very blissy.

I have a busy few weeks coming up. My next swim, on June 26, is the 2nd stage of the 8 Bridges Hudson River Swim, 19.8 miles from the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge to the Mid-Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie. It’s a meandering, bucolic stretch of the river, and with the current assist I expect it to take around 6½ to 7 hours. A week and a half later, on July 7, I’ll be doing the 10-mile Kingdom Swim in Lake Memphremagog, in northern Vermont. Both swims should be fun experiences in gorgeous settings; they will also be excellent chances to practice feedings for my final swim of the summer, a 20-mile Plymouth-to-Provincetown attempt in late August.

In addition to my own upcoming swims, I’ll be crewing for MIMS for my friend John this coming Saturday, and volunteering for stages 4 and 7 of 8 Bridges. That will make for a lot of time in and on the water over the next 3 weeks! Should be some fun and busy days.

Today’s trip to the beach was my first swimming since last weekend. I had been going through a rough patch with my training, feeling slow and frustrated in the pool, so I took advantage of a trip to Alabama this past week to take a mini-vacation from the water. I’m hoping the little break will help re-set my body and my expectations, and help get my ratio of fun-to-frustration back to its usual happy levels. So far it seems to have worked—I felt good at the beach today, and was just able to enjoy the experience of stroking along steadily on such a beautiful day. Looking forward to doing a lot more of that over the next few weeks!