swimming the swim!

don-my new hero!



trying to read my tattoos that say 'tough girls'



tough girls looking so happy!

don (he is uber ready for anything) c rose and ralph who is so the man.

swim report sunday 9am: lftc, claudia in the water, don (my new hero) and ralph on kayak support duty. we parted from the boat launch in warm but choppy seas, no surf, we just walked out, no viz to speak of but we weren't looking. we swam north and more north, my distance was 5 miles round trip, claudia's 7. at the 2 mile mark, i wanted to stop but don suggested a few more minutes so on i went. once more i tried to stop but again he suggested some random number, like 7. i didn't care what 7 meant, point 7? 7 minutes? 7 strokes? it just sounded doable so i did the 7. we turned around at 2.5 and head back. claudia and ralph kept on going. according to don my initial pace was a 30 minute mile and dropped a little at 2 miles. my shoulders felt very fatigued but mostly i felt pretty good-in between wanting to jump on the kayak. claudia tells me the feeling good/feeling bad flip flop is normal. i was worried that it meant i wasn't really fit at all, all the hours i put into my body were for naught but no, it's normal. so i liked it and will do it again. i love having kayak support, it is invaluable on a long swim, for fluids, for an encouraging word, for safety.   we had a lovely picnic on the grass, we ate and ate and talked, some of us napped a little and we parted ways with exciting plans to go again. i'm so pleased to have met don, he is wonderful and a very skilled kayaker.  i'm grateful to claudia for giving me the opportunity to shadow her and giving me the support to check out my stamina and to ralph swims and kayaks, talent all over the place..
to all of my partners in fact for swimming the swim with me, short, long, fast slow, thanks swim peeps!
lftc-out