Monday, Funday

I took pups and headed to the pond as soon as I got off work and loaded the truck. The weather is a pure godsend; I suppose it always is, but the way it has been lately has made me think God ordered it up just for me. As I did the last time, I let the hounds out about a half a mile before my parking spot and let them run in. Bear runs just fast enough to keep the truck in sight. Pee Wee races the truck and tries to bite the tires. That last part is not good.

After parking, I set my thermometer to soaking and started the arduous process of getting dressed. It takes a while and it is difficult. If it were not hard to get into and out of a wetsuit, the suit would not work. I also have to spend time preparing my nostrils for taping, and for the actual taping. That is to keep out the brain-eating amoeba that kill several people each year. They enter the body through the nasal passages and destroy the brain. Not only that, but the taped nose, I theorize, discouraged alligator attacks as well as prevents sinus infections due to the high bacteria content of the water.

The water temp was 64. What?!?!? It was that Saturday and Sunday the weather was 80 degrees and sunny all day. But this time of year, the temps do strange things because there is a lot of cold water just under the surface of the ponds even when the top foot temps are nice. 

I did notice that the pond was more uniform in temperature than Saturday and it was warmer farther under the surface than then. That made the total effect much better, and although I froze out Saturday, I could have swum for hours Monday. I stopped at four laps and a double on the parking end. I like to build slowly, and that gave me 3.31 miles in 1:38 for an average pace per mile of 29:40. A pretty nice swim and my longest in the pond this year.

We took a walk after the swim, and my feet were not feeling like blocks of ice. It was a nice day and I am really fired up about some upcoming open water training efforts.

Praise be to God from whom all blessing flow.