in the drink

 

30th Jul. I have already blogged the first half of today under recent nice. It was a fairly successful photo-safari to Postman's Walk, Aberlady and the return of some holly blues. We had thrown our swim stuff in the car as well, just in case we felt like a paddle at Gullane afterwards. This might be the third occasion this year I've thrown my swim stuff in the car. However it was the first time I'd actually taken it home wet. Somehow the activity on the first two attempts lost traction and never materialised.

There comes a time when if you get too out the habit of doing something (running for instance, or swimming) you forget to do it. And then you stop even considering doing it. This was fast becoming the case for myself and open water swimming which I have really enjoyed in the past. To my great surprise I found myself in the water today and really enjoying it.

We reckoned it was warm enough today for going in without wetsuits. Mary wore a shorty neoprene swimsuit but it doesn't have shoulders and I suspect didn't keep her as warm as my long sleeved rash vest which is a super-tight absorbent top that keeps the water from flushing out continuously and after getting wet stays kinda insulating. I found it no problem getting into the water. We have both been doing 1minute of full blast cold water at the end of every shower and I think it helps build your resistance to the cold. It wasn't exactly balmy getting in but it wasn't a shocker either. I think I did about 20mins. It wasn't really a swim so much as a splash about. There was a bit of swell which always makes me feel motion-sick if I try to swim properly as it confuses your inner ear with the visual signals received by watching the sea bed rise and fall. 

I have no idea who these photos are of

 - looks nothing like me!

It can be nice to swim a bit out and float on your back watching the sky. Until a wave catches you unawares and you drink a mouthful of very salty water. I think that is what I'm trying to avoid here by puckering up my blowhole. Didn't work and I drank quite a bit of the Forth*. I do NOT recommend. The problem is I learned to swim in indoor pools where it wasn't an issue to swim with a mouth partially open. Again it adds to the pukey feeling. Makes the bottle of juice I took for afterwards taste amazingly sweet. Same goes for the cold showers on the end of the toilet block. Love the shower before driving home. Cuts down on the hassle of taking home a wheelbarrow of sand in the swim kit. Although I still had another shower when we got home.

*Blogger has offered me a free AI type service of making links or tags to random words I use here which it then flags up in orange. If this is as unrequired as I suspect I will be dropping it like a hot potato. But hey don't shoot something down before you try it out, right?

oooh that tastes BAD!

It would be great if the weather was regularly encouraging enough to go swimming. I felt energised afterwards and it wasn't as cold and unpleasant as I had remembered. 

787 yards! in 20m02s!

I swam so hard I swam halfway up the beach!