Saturday, December 3, 2011

150 yards in 33.9°F water

I planned on going just for a cold water swim right before sundown at Antelope Island Marina.  Cathi ran a few errands for Christmas shopping, but at 4pm she was still not back.  So I took Oliver, my 4 year old.  I parked the car on the boat ramp parallel to the water (so if my brakes went out it wouldn't roll down into the water).  I left the car running with the heat going full blast.  Oliver was content to just sit in his seat playing games on my Ipod.  I said, "Oli, I'll be back in about 4 minutes.  Stay here and just play your game."

I was already in my speedo and applied some channel grease to my shoulders and put on my cap, goggles, ear plugs and walked quickly down the ramp to the water's edge and got in.  The water felt even colder than Thursday.  I didn't put in a thermometer yet.  I just put it on the ramp to take a reading when I got back.

I waded up to my waist and then dove in and started to swim.  I was heading towards the marina opening and made it out about 150 yards.  The bottom of my feet were killing me.  Everything was on fire, but the bottom of my feet were intense!  I turned around at that point and swam back.  It's one thing to swim alone, but swim alone in water that is icy?  You have to be very in tune with your limitations.  I didn't want to push it.  I swam back and hit stop on my watch.  Only 2:33.  Boo.  I had to take a quick temp.  I was convinced that it was sub 40.  My digital thermometer said 33.9°F.  What the heck!  It snowed this morning and we had a brisk wind from the west, but I didn't think it would be low 30's.  That was amazing!

I could have gone longer, but was happy with a solo for that amount of time.  It's only gonna get colder baby! Got to do twice a week in hopes that its not so tough each time.  The body has to acclimatize!

It was funny.  On the way back home.  Oliver actually stopped playing his game to watch me shake and shiver.  He was looking at me in this really puzzled and concerned look.  "Dad, are you cold?"  "Yeah, just a little buddy."

@ 150 yards in 2:33

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish you wouldn't go by yourself. I like reading your blog too much...

Congratulations on the accomplishment, though.

Anonymous said...

It's very shallow there isn't it.I swam there once years ago, and walked out from the beach instead of off the slipway, and it took forever to get to waist deep water, so the temp can drop really fast I guess? Under 34f though, that's impressive, I haven't gone under 39.