Open Water Swimming at Jordan Lake

Had a really nice swim today at Jordan Lake. Norman and I swam for about an hour up and down the cove, mixing in some fast segments where he gave me a 30s head start and then tried to catch me (he’s faster than me). There was a bit of a chop in the water, which made for good training for the Duke 1/2 race.

I checked the wunderground.com historical data when I got home, and the wind speed was 8.1 mph while we were swimming, with 4 mph the rest of the day. I’m going to watch the wind speed reports each day and look for another day to go out and swim in choppy water.

I was a bit worried it would be awful to swim in 100 degree weather…concerned about overheating or bugginess. But the lake temp was quite refreshing and I didn’t see any more bugs than normal.

The water level keeps dropping in our little cove. It’s still a great place to swim – we just learn where the low spots are swim accordingly. At the end of the swim, there was a pretty sunset beyond the trees. I’m going to bring my camera next time in case another photo opp comes along.

Norman suggested I breathe every other stroke for better balance and rhythm. I worked on that…

Get the balance right, get the balance right
–Depeche Mode

PS: I found a website that has open water swim sets”
http://www.triathletemag.com/Departments/Training/2005/storyff9c.htm