This past weekend Sue and I went out to try our hands at an open-water swim to prep for the Steelman Triathlon we’ve been working towards. We went up to lake Wallenpaupack for the weekend both to have a go at swimming the required 800 meters in open water as well as have some fun family time. I gotta say swimming in a lake without walls and lines on the bottom it TOTALLY different than swimming in a pool. Totally.

We woke up early on Saturday morning to beat the boaters out to the water and decided to set up in the kayak for support. Sue told me I would go first so after ssslllooowwwllyy getting into the cold water, I was off. I swam freestyle for a while but started to get tired because so far, my longest interval has been 200m. I rolled over and started to do some elementary backstroke to recover, but ended up swimming to my right. I rolled back over, straightened out and continued swimming freestyle. And got tired again so I rolled back over and promptly started swimming in a circle to my right again. Ok, another roll-over and about 100m more and I needed to recover again…I did this several times until about the 700m mark, where I couldn’t even swim freestyle straight anymore. I started to freak out. Sue was probably only about 20 feet away in the kayak but I honestly had a flash go through my mind where I just sank into the water, never to be seen again. With that I made my way to the kayak and called no-joy to finish the distance. I climbed into the boat and Sue got in the water and started fighting her own demons. For me it had nothing to do with being in the lake and everything to do with not being sure I could swim the distance. I just didn’t know if I could do it and when I started to panic a little I lost my nerve to finish.

So Sunday rolled around and after both of us told the other how much we didn’t want to go out and swim, we went out anyway. I was first again. I got in the water, let my boys acclimatize (after all, the best swimmers in my body are down there, right?) and began to swim. Sue yelled for me to keep my eyes open when I breathed, and I checked for a big rock on the shore that marked where we were going with each breath. My shoulders and lats ached from the day before. My lungs contracted in the cold water. I kept swimming. Fueled by a cup of coffee and the desire to prove to myself that I could do this my arms and legs kept moving. I kept checking the rock to make sure I was going straight. I remembered to ‘feel’ the water along my arms and legs to know I was moving it as efficiently as I was currently capable of doing. I rolled over for a recovery since in the water my lungs didn’t feel like they could open as much as they do on the bike. I looked at my toes and pointed them at our starting point. I burped up some coffee. I rolled back, checked the rock, and started freestyle again. I kept swimming. I kept checking the rock. I took another recovery. Today was different- somehow I was swimming straight. I wasn’t as concerned with being in the middle of a lake as I was making sure I was actually swimming towards the rock. And when I was on my back catching my breath as long as the red boat was between my toes I knew I was going the right direction. Sue called out to check if I was going to finish at about 150m, and I yelled back I was. So I rolled back over, checked the rock and swam. To the rock. Hell yeah. I climbed up on that SOB and gave a victory yell and was happy I had done it. Some other folks were prepping for their own swim when I made it and they cheered for me too. It felt great, and now I feel much better about the swim for the race. I also know I need to increase the lengths of my intervals to take it in bigger chunks. I may not be a fast swimmer, but dammit…28 minutes later I made a full 900m swim and yelled on a rock. All with coffee burp in my mouth. Bring it on!