So we have a "swim rant" thread, but I wanted to post my "swim happy" moment today, probably brought on by being out of the water for over a week.
Pool reopened after maintenance + clear, fresh perfect temp water + 6 lap lanes between 4 lap swimmers = 4200yd :bliss:
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I'm happy with my new 200m PR of 2:59.0, which is almost a full second faster than last week.
When I did my Teal Lake open water swim race in July, I did back stroke for a bit and noticed an exceptionally large black bird way above the lake. A race organizer just confirmed that the bird was, indeed, a bald eagle.
I'm happy with my new 800m PR of 13:09, down from 13:12 on Jun 26th.
(However, I''m a bit bummed at the minimal progress at 800m over that period, when compared to other (shorter) distances. I have a theory: 800m is a huge slog, because most of my sessions total less than 1500m, and I rarely swim more than 400m at once. I'm beginning to stagnate at 800m because I am not respecting the distance in training. I'll fix that.)
Once again I have to be away from here & come back to read all kinds of good news. Inspiring!
Walden Pond swimming! I look forward to that sometime. Perhaps sooner than later. :)
The last few weeks have been wild for me with my spouse in the hospital for eight days, major abdominal surgery. (Home recovering, all is well.) That and the unpredictable crazy that comes in life and I've gotten very little sleep along with only swimming once or twice a week. This week is better in that I'm back all week and we are tapering for our home meet this weekend. I want to scoop up two more state records so I'll have all the 50-54 breaststroke events in my name. If I can manage rest this week it is possible.
One thing that did make me very happy was to find out I made two USMS Top 10s this year! 8th and 9th in the 100 and 50 ***, respectively. As our coach hashtags, #OlderFaster. :banana:
Was it lovelier than diamonds?
The water is so clear I keep getting distracted on my way around the pond, like a goldfish in a supersize tank. It even has underwater castles! Well, cairns, but still.
(My town lake closed early this year, so I've taken to swimming at Walden instead, and pleased with how much easier it feels to swim around it than I thought.)
Please tell me about these cairns!
I think swimming in Walden Pond has entered my bucket list.
Ok, so full disclosure: I have no idea what these things are. The bottom of Walden (at least, before it drops off into darkness) is mostly sandy/rocky with very little vegetation apparent. As it's a kettle pond and formed by glacial retreat, the rockiness is unsurprising. What I can't figure out (and maybe a Walden regular knows) is the little pyramid-shaped mounds of stones (not tiny - fist to head size) in apparently random locations (there is one at the eastern end close to the far swimming beach, several more in the west end by Thoreau's and the Ice Fort cove). They might be natural phenomena, but they look person-made. They do look like cairns, though, in their regularity.
