Big Summer Goal Achieved!

OK, so I couldn't race at all this year and had to take 3 months off from swimming due to injury... and just got back on the bike a month ago... but that didn't stop me from wanting to set a goal for the end of summer.

This year I set my sights on swimming 2 loops at Lake Kelso (3000m) - partly because I can't run and my bike rides are still short so I wouldn't be overly tired from other training sessions but mostly - to see if I could.

Up until then, my biggest swim ever had been 2500m in a pool - and that was last summer.  My longest open water swim had been about 2000-2100m this year.

I really wasn't sure about this.  I'd missed some swim training sessions in the couple of weeks leading up to Saturday, so I wanted to give myself some slack.  I figured at the very least, if I couldn't manage the whole thing, I could at least aim for 2600m and beat my distance from last summer...

It was a beautiful morning on Saturday - sun was shining and glinting off the water and happy athletes were enjoying their last official open water training session at Kelso for 2011. 

I set my watch and off I went; checking in at certain points in the lake, in order to gauge where I was at... I hit the lap counter when I passed the beach to start my second loop.  I was really not sure if this was going to be possible but decided that I would know if my times were really off at the checkpoints on the second loop.  Imagine my surprise when my checkpoint times were just about the same as the first loop?!  Was I going to pull it off?

By the time I rounded the bend and was making my way back to the beach, I saw Eric (hubby) and JJ (coach) standing on the beach, cheering!  I shrieked with delight and then head down - swam on... by now, I was trying to preen like a dolphin for them as I swam by... 'look at my lovely stroke' - 'don't I look graceful?' - that sort of thing... LOL!

I got out of the water in 80 minutes.  Not a super-fast swim time, I know...  but the best parts of this were:

- I didn't feel tired - I could have done MORE! (???)
- My stroke didn't feel like it totally fell apart
- my body wasn't screaming in pain after the swim
- it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be (??  This was hard to believe)

So... 2011 summer goal accomplished.  Now what??  Hmm... as I got out of the water, wanting to do another 500m (coach pulled the plug)... I thought to myself...

If I can do that... I wonder what else I can do...?

Hard to believe that 2 summers ago, I had problems swimming 25m in the outdoor swimming pool...


- SWIM ON!!