Ill Concieved Plans Poorly executed

If you go down to the lake today

After weeks of procrastination I finally made it to the lake for a bit of open water practice. I like swimming in the sea. In fact all of my open water swimming has been in the cold sea off the Hebrides so I wasn't really sure what the lake was going to be like. It was nice to see a few familiar faces whilst I rubbed the sand from last year off the wet suit.

I'd forgotten quite how much buoyancy a wetsuit provides. A little bit of floating about was needed just to get used to the feeling again before setting off round the buoys. There were two marked courses. The short one seemed just a little too short so I went for a splash around the longer one. It started out well but at the far end of the course the buoys were a little further apart and almost invisible through my goggles. This coupled with my ability to swim to the right meant I was moving in large arcs between the markers. Some room for improvement here I think.

One thing that I was not prepared for was the changes in water temperature. In the sea it is nearly always the same temperature (cold) but in the lake there were cold spots in the shade, logical really but it caught me unawares.

After two laps I'd had enough, my tea was waiting at home and that was a large incentive to stop. After a brief chat I found that the long course was a shade under one kilometre. I felt quite chuffed about that. Not bad for a first time, next time I'll go for another.