Sunday: Chilly Swim

This morning, I woke up before my alarm went off at 5:40 AM.  This waking up early is so easy for me on the weekends and so hard on the weekdays.  It defies reason.  Anyway, it was in the forties outside, but I was undaunted about going to the lake for morning swim.  After swimming in the San Francisco Bay and Lake Michigan, I feel pretty certain that nothing Tennessee has to offer me in early October is going to stand in my way.

So, I put on my Uggs and a fleece pull-over and made a big bowl of oatmeal and cup of tea and headed out to the lake.  When I got to the lake and got down to my suit, the wind was whipping and it was unpleasantly chilly.  I think that there were only three of us not wearing wetsuits, but I really didn't even think about wearing one.  Wetsuits are deceptively warm in my experience.  I have crawled out of the water feeling completely dehydrated and miserable.  In a race, you always wear them if you can, but just to practice, I usually don't.

Now, the main reason for this is that the wetsuit I own is an ebay deal that I ended up getting for free as it was ripped when it came in the mail and the seller refunded my money.  It was pretty exciting at the time, but as wetsuits go, it is pretty terrible.  It is very stiff around the shoulders and the neck is very uncomfortable and chaffs something fierce, and the upshot of that story is that I got what I paid for.  Anyway, if I need a wetsuit now, I rent a Zoot from Endurance.

So this morning, I was without a wetsuit.  And stood in the water for a second before doing a quick immersion and swimming like mad to warm up.  I did warm up pretty quickly, but with every stroke that I put my arm out of the water, I could feel the wind blowing on my wet arms.  So my arms were cold, which I did not experience in the Bay or in Lake Michigan.

Anyway, it was overall a really nice swim until I got out of the water.  I became quite cold immediately and I really haven't stopped shivering since.  I've been wearing my Uggs all day, and I am really excited about the prospect of my electric blanket.

We swam about two miles.  My Garmin satellite is not picking up in the water AND my heart rate monitor is not working, so I am clearly going to have to duke it out with Garmin AGAIN tomorrow.

Also, I am again suffering from the lake induced allergy drama, and completely miserable.  I have been telling myself all week that the ragweed is off the water, but methinks I am wrong.  I am one big mess of Kleenex, Affrin, and Zyrtec.