Long Course & Open Water Season Begins

While the month of May didn't find me in any interesting new pools or locales it kicked off the long course and open water swimming seasons. The big excitement at the MIT pool was that it converted from short course yards to long course meters for the summer. The first couple of practices are a bit tough getting use to the distance and Coach Bill trying to figure out the send offs. Once you get use to it swimming long course is heaven! The only thing that would make it better was if it was an outdoor pool.

Speaking of outdoors-I took the plunge at a couple of local swimming holes. The first, was Lake Cochituate home of the Wayland Weston Rowing Club. After hearing our crew girl, Courtney saying the water felt pretty good-it was time to give it a go. On Saturday, May 16th my little orange buoy and I made our way to the floating dock. With out much ado I was able to ease into the water. I had a leisurely swim up to almost the top of the lake and back down to the Wayland Town Beach. It was almost a two mile swim and the water temp must have been in the mid-60's. It felt pretty good. The second open water first of the year was Walden Pond. I joined the Friday Boston Tri Team group on Friday May 22nd for their early morning swim.  I got there by just after 6:00am and the parking lot was already full. Everybody walking to the water and coming out of the water was in full wetsuit regalia. Nope-not me!  I had quite a few looks when I went down to the water sans wetsuit. I must admit it took a bit longer to get acclimated to the water temp. By the time, I finally (read slowly) made my way into the water my group was 100+ yards ahead of me. There was no way to catch them with them wearing wetsuits so I only did one loop. The water was supposedly in the low 60's. It felt a bit cooler than lake Lake Cochituate-for sure! It was just good to start getting into the open water.

Todays Memorial Day outdoor swimming adventure was at the Wayland Town Pool sans bubble.  They took off the bubble earlier in the week and it was my first outside pool swim in New England in a while.  Coach Jen had a pretty tough 5,000 yard workout lined up for us but being outdoors somehow made it feel a bit better.

A couple of personal highlights for the month centered around our high schoolers. Sean had his prom and went with his good friend Bella. They made a fabulous handsome/gorgeous pair.

The second big event of May was on Memorial Day weekend. Courtney went out for crew this spring as a complete novice. With a lot of hard work she made it to the novice one eight boat. Yesterday they got 1st and were crowned the Massachusetts State Champs in the 1500m novice one eight person boat class. Very happy boat-hard work pays off!

 

Let summer begin!