Last night was my first opportunity to hit the UK
openwater this season. Along with all of
the other triathletes, I’ve been waiting impatiently for the lakes to warm up,
which has been a lot slower this year.
There seems to be quite a disparity in the temperatures of lakes around
the country.
This year I wanted to investigate the lake next
door to the lake that my tri club uses, partly because I can’t easily make the
tri club sessions (Thurs night clashes with a late night work shift, and Sat
am, at 8 o clock? No way…), and partly
because I don’t like that lake very much.
I needed to get into the openwater this week ahead of my first openwater
race of the season on Sunday (an Aquathlon), but I had also promised to take
along Cycling Claire (I need to give her a better name as she swims and runs
just as much as she cycles) to get her ready for her first proper tri at the
end of June. I’ve suggested that it
might be a good idea to do a standalone openwater swim race first to build her
confidence up a bit without having to worry about the bike and run, and as we’ve
identified one at the end of May, we needed to get going.
It was an absolutely beautiful evening, and putting
my feet in the water it didn’t feel cold at all. I’d been told that the lake was between 12C
and 14C but in my opinion it was definitely nearer 14C than 12. It had been fairly sunny all evening so
obviously had a bit of a chance to warm up.
It was pretty busy, and there must have been around 20-30 people in the
water (maybe more, I didn’t have my glasses on) and a nice lady signed us
in. Claire was a little bit nervous so
we stayed fairly near the edge and practiced swimming and sighting between the
shore and the first buoy, with a little bit of breastroke to begin with. I am very lucky to have always felt confident
in the water (as long as it’s not a swimming pool with huge drains) so I hope I
was able to pass a little bit of that confidence on. Claire asked to do another trip out to the buoy when I suggested getting out, so I think that is a fairly good sign, and we've planned our next trip to the lake.
What I took from the session was that the water is not
that cold and I will be absolutely fine for my race on Sunday as long as I am
nice and warm to begin with. And I’ll be
fine hanging around for the deep water start, but if I can keep moving, that
will help. And I took away an excitement
for the coming season of openwater swim racing (amid a little bit of sadness
that I only have 3 standalone openwater swim races in my calendar L)
Just converted Celsius to Fahrenheit--that still sounds cold to me! The earliest NYC open-water swim (event/race) I can find isn't until mid-May. There are a few one-day clinics I may do just to get more experience, but again, those aren't until later in the season (like June). Oh well, I need to focus on biking anyway. ;)
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