Shakin' But Not Bakin'

I thought I was doing well, I really did. I swam 19,000 meters last week all of it outdoors in progressively cooler water. I thought, I'm kicking butt compared to a year ago. Then I looked in my 2012 training diary. This week a year ago I swam 19,000 and one swim was in 60 degree water for 1.13 miles. DO WHAT!?!

Today, Monday, after my 2.6 mile shuffle, I went to Twin Rivers. Big John and I had planned to meet, but he had to cancel, so I was all alone. The water was 67.5, the sky was overcast, but the air temp was warm, around 70. Although I did swim and it didn't take me minutes to get started, I was never comfortable and only managed 2,100 meters before I crawled out. I was cold the whole time, felt every variation in the water temperature, and even noticed that the top three inches were warmer than the deeper water. I had never experienced that before in a pool although it is common in the fish ponds. I didn't get the shakes until I went home and was there for a few minutes. Odd how that works. They weren't bad, but still to real cold water swimmers 67 is pretty warm. Not for me.

I wonder if I will ever be able to just handle it the way so many people do. On the bright side, if I will/can develop the ability, this is the year to do it because I have an outdoor long course pool not a mile from my house that is scheduled to stay open all winter. I hate to admit it, but this cold water stuff is one area where Randal Beets gets the best of me. He is "the man" when it comes to ice swimming or any swimming below indoor pool temps. Around here anyway. Not only can he endure colder water and endure it longer, he has always beaten me back to the truck when we swam a pond last winter. Not this year. By golly, if I have to get up every morning and go soak in the pool, so be it. Randy Beets cannot win. He just can't. It ain't right for AquaMan to lose to Spongeboy. Good must prevail in the end. If it does not, people lose hope, the earth is off kilter, the universe is not right. I can't let that happen. It's beneath the dignity of a superhero.