Lake Swim in April

At the weekend I did my first lake swim of the year :-)

I was thinking about turning back as my car temperature sensor displayed 1C (33F) on the drive down to the lake. However I carried on down to the lake. When I was getting in to my wetsuit the people who had already been for a swim were coming back saying it was cold and they only did 2 laps.

As the grass by lake was already cold I think that helped the transition in to the lake. Surprising my hands and feet were not that cold after the initial shock, the problem was getting my face in the water for more than 5 strokes!! The water soo cold on my face it was taking my breathe away and I was reverting to breaststroke or doggy paddle, I think that affect my GPS data.

The lake is a small lake so I thought it would have warmed up more, they had the lap as 250m. I somehow managed 3 laps in under 30 minutes, not concerned about the speed but I made it. My stroke felt good for the few strokes I managed with my head in the water.

First Lake Swim of the year and a Run

This weekend I did my first Open Water (OW = Lake Swim) of the year, this was at a different lake. The lake was a 360m loop which was a clockwise loop with 4 buoys marking the route.

What concerned me as I was getting ready to go in people come back was saying it was cold. At the lake side I was told it was 12c (53F), I was glad I had my new thicker swim hat with me to try for the first time.

When I stepped in it was still a bit of a shock how cold it was. I got my body in the water few a few seconds before starting to swim keeping my head out of the water. After a few strokes I decided to put my face in the water which was cold. I used my breathing per stroke than normal to get my face used to the cold and cloudy water. By the time I got 20m from the start I was thinking about turning back as my hands and feet were really cold but my head was not (usually would have been).
However I carried on and by the time I got to the other end of the lake I was starting to feel a bit warmer and carried on round to complete a lap in about 8 minutes. I thought I would carry on for another lap, the extra heat source kicked in on the second lap and managed this lap in about 8 minutes as well. As I had time before the run I thought I would do another lap which was also 8 minutes.

For the swim I was glad of the extra thick swim cap and my pace was even and faster than in the pool. Also my sighting in the lake was a lot better than normal as I did not go that much off course. It was quite strange as while swimming you would sometimes see a aeroplane taking off for the nearby airport.

I then had a quick walk back to the club house to dry off a bit before getting ready to run. However as I kept my tri suit on that kept my legs a bit cold, so for the run I had to go fast just to keep my legs warm. I had a few layers and cap on so the rest of me was not that cold.

The parkrun 5km was a 2 lap around a country park on gravel footpaths, grass and crossed a mini steam railway track. You had to concentrate on your route as there was a few undulations and ruts in the route and places it narrowed done to one person wide.
I went off at a fast pace that I could maintain for the distance with my cold legs. When I was getting in to my stride at about 1km we had to wait for a mini steam train to go past before we could cross over !!! At least it gave us a breather before going off fast again, luckily none of the other crossing for the run we did not have to wait at. For the last 100m along the gravel path I was able to pick up my pace a bit but I was not able to over take the people in front of me. I managed it in a bit over 22 minutes which was about 30 seconds outside my other course PBs. There was even a cafe on site afterwards to post exercise "recovery" food.

I think I would be back again to do the swim and run later in the year.