First Swim of the Season

Since we're now less than 90 days out from Ironman Wisconsin (Sept. 7), I figured it was finally time to get in the water last night. I haven't been in a pool or lake since last year's race, and usually put off the "first swim" as long as I can. I don't think it's ever been this long, though.

Why put it off so long? First and most importantly, I hate chlorine. I spent too much time in that stuff growing up. Which pretty much rules out pool swimming for the vast majority of the year. And a notably cold winter and spring has delayed the possibility of lake swimming until just recently. I also totally have a fear of lake swimming (i.e. weeds and dead bodies), so typically it takes me a few weeks to conquer my fears. And finally, I've found that my Ironman swim time doesn't vary by more than a minute or so whether I swim every day, or just once a week. In training for an 11+ hour race (of which only ~an hour of it is spent in the swim portion), I find it's most valuable for me to focus my training on running and biking, events in which solid training can translate into some serious time improvements. But that's just my personal training philosophy. Or maybe just a good excuse to swim as little as possible...

So last night was it. Short and sweet, but it felt good to be back in the water and I felt stronger than I thought I would. Good old Lake Wingra treated me well. I've now survived another swim with no muskie attacks nor dead bodies. And for that I'm thankful.