After my half ironman triathlon in July I pretty quickly started another not-quite-as-time-intensive eight-week training program for an olympic triathlon in September, which is coming up this weekend. My friend JoAnne and I have been cycling on the weekends together, and since she's also training for the triathlon this weekend we started doing open water swims as well. Four times we finished a bike ride (three 47-milers and one 58 miles) and then drove to Sherando Lake to swim laps. Then this past weekend she was busy but I still drove out after running 9 miles for what I assume was my last Sherando swim of the year.
Swimming in a pool is fine, but swimming out there was wonderful. It always felt so adventurous. And I got to confirm that even if I'm still slow, I really can swim normally in open water. (Which was not clear from my two triathlon performances.)
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| We would do laps between the white buoy on the left all the way to the speck of a white buoy to the right of the island. It's about 140 meters one way. |
I'm sad the season is ending and it will be too cold to swim out there anymore. And I'm already looking forward to next summer.
