16Jun17 - A test of discipline

Alarm went off at 0400 and I felt eager to get to the lake.  Not one thought of sleeping in or ditching Lisa crossed my mind.  Halfway driving there, I started to get very tired again and the closer I got to the lake, the more tired I became and less motivated to swim.  Too late, I'm almost there!  Arrived a bit before 5 and got my stuff ready.  Lisa had not arrived yet and so I went back into my car.  The air temp was 43 and I only had shorts on.  I laid the car seat back and was just falling asleep when headlights flashed across my face and woke me up.  Lisa is here.
We said hi and she started to put on a wet suit....wait what?  She said that even though she did SCAR without one, water under 65 doesn't go well for her.  Understood and I kept my smart ass comments to myself.
The water level was HIGH.  Very high.  I've never seen so much water in the lake.  I got in and Lisa and I noticed how cold it was.  I knew the website said it was 62 but it felt colder...much colder.  We finally stopped talking to stall time and headed out to the first buoy.  It took me a long time to get adjusted.  Longer than usual.  I was convinced it was colder than 62.  Once we hit the first buoy, I took a temp reading.  EUREKA!  I was right, the water was colder than 62.  It was 61!  Now I felt like a huge wimp!  I used to be able to handle 50 with minimal problems and I'm freezing myself in only 61.  Even though I did not acclimate myself to cold water during the winter as I usually do and that has a major impact for spring, I felt weak and a bit disappointed.  We headed west first then back to the start.  We then went east and when we reached the end, we noticed a few more buoys that make a small "T" at the end.  We headed back to meet up with Josh but knew we would do that extra T on the next lap.
We got to green and Josh was arriving.  The sun was just coming over the mountains and Lisa and I changed our goggles.  Normally I take a minute to appreciate how beautiful it is in the lake at this moment but I honestly was still cold.  Not dangerous cold but noticeably cold.  I noticed Josh was wearing a wet suit and I couldn't hold back at least one snarky comment.  I say it out of love!
We headed east to start this lap.  We met up when we had all done the extra T.  We headed to the green buoy at the start and Josh had to go.

Lisa, me, and Josh  Perfect morning weather for a swim

 I told Lisa before we started that I wanted to try for 4 miles.  Josh got out and we went west to the end of the line then back.  We were still short a few hundred yards for 4 miles according to my GPS watch.  I was really tired at this point and asked Lisa to swim next to me for motivation.  She paced slowly next to me and we went out 3 more buoys then back.  We headed in and we hit exactly 4 miles.
I was wiped out and glad to be done.  I just didn't feel right.
Heading home I was on Blue Tooth most of the time to keep me awake.  I took a shower and went back to bed.  I slept another 4 hours and even writing this I don't feel right.  I think I'm getting a cold which would explain my lack of energy and inability to warm up completely this morning.

One problem I discovered when I did the math at home.  Lisa and I were thinking of a pool mile of 1650.  That would put 4 miles at 6600.  That is what I ended on.  An actual mile is 1760 yards.  I don't measure by pool miles, I measure by real miles.  6600 yards = 3.75 miles.  THIS IS WHY WE NEED THE METRIC SYSTEM!  Our system is just random BS numbers!  Oh well.  Still, a swim is a swim!  One nice thing is that Lisa and I figured if you go west to the end then east and add on the T, it will be dang near 2 miles exactly.  I'll measure when I go next.

Today was a test of dicipline.  I wanted to quit a few times but made myself keep going.  I was cold but as long as I was only uncomfortable and not dangerously cold, I kept going.  I do math in my head at random times and if I can solve the problem, I'm still ok to keep going.  If I can't divide 5589 by 9 and get the right answer, it's time to get out.  I was just slow and cold but kept going anyway.

I do want to express thanks to Lisa for swimming with me the last few hundred yards when I was really struggling to get any movement going.  It helped a great deal.  Thanks for being my friend.

3.75 miles OW