Tuesday night was my last open water session of the year, and I'll miss it terribly. In upstate NY, we don't have a very long summer, so from Labor day to Memorial Day we are forced to swim indoors. I swim with a Tri club at an Adirondack lake, and I made it every week this summer but one. In 13 weeks I dropped my time by 5 minutes over ~2Km. Now, starting Sep 11 it will be 9 months in an over-chlorinated 25yd pool, which would be drudgery except the master's team coach makes up sets that at least keep us thinking.
Yeah, same here. Though my last OWS is on Sep 15th. Also, this year, a guy in our masters team worked with a village close by to let us swim on the long island sound 3 days a week. Because I commute to the city for work, I don't have the time to swim there. I do see some time improvements, but I find that the water conditions are so different each year on the same course that I can't really do a proper comparison. I do know that I am gaining more confidence. I also got a swim watch with GPS, I see my zig zag path...definitely something I need to work on.
@Sumorunner, you should consider coming down to Westchester NY some time. We have the Swim Across America event. It's not a race, but sure is fun. You can choose 2k, 5k or go crazy and do a 10k.
I'm rather new to swim meets and don't know how to prep like I did with running or track & field for 40 years. I did do a few pool events this year., two of them were part of indoor triathlons.
Jan 20, adk lmsc Happy New Year Meet, 50m (51 sec) and 200m (4:27)
Mar 4, indoor tri, 425 yds
May 7, indoor tri, 350 yds
BTW, the Lake Placid half-ironman triathlon is this Sunday with many of the folks I train with all summer. Air temp. for the swim start is predicted to be 33F at 7AM, and not much warmer when they get out and into the bike transition.
If anyone is interested, the Highland Lakes Challenge is in early November this year:
highlandlakeschallenge.weebly.com/
I did the, "weekender," 2 years ago and really liked it. But I'm a bit concerned since it is about 2 weeks later this year. When I did it, the water temp was about perfect. We had a cold front that rolled through at that time so the water was 75-78 and the air temp at start was in the 40s one day. I'd guess the lake temps could be 5-10 degrees cooler.
So I'm on the fence right now, between water temps and a big vacation in October. But I can be swayed. :)
Sumo, have you considered putting a race on the calendar for the spring that can help keep you motivated during the dry spell? Miami has a 5k and 10k in March that is usually run well. https://swimmiami.net/ Sure, you're still swimming in the pool for most of the winter, but at least this would give you something to look forward to.
There's also a fun virtual challenge that Karen Reeder puts together to get through winter. usopenwaterswimming.org/. It's great way to keep you focused on getting miles done through the dark days, plus you can get a t-shirt. I've done it for the last 4+ years and have enjoyed watching the progress.
