Back in the water again!!!

I played in the lake tonight...

As the day of work came to a close, Lenka called up to see if I was planning on going to Sasamat Lake for my first attempt at a lake swim in over 5 weeks. I was excited and nervous at the same time. I wasn't sure how much I could handle for swimming, having only gone 500 meters on Sunday but also feeling quite sore and tired afterwards.

So I picked up Lenka around 5:20 after some needlessly crazy Vancouver rush hour. I also stopped to bring my bike in for a final tune-up at the Bike Doctor. We arrived at Sasamat around 6:30 and I went to change and get my wetsuit on. I felt like I hadn't worn it all year. It was difficult to get on completely as my thumb still can't quite grip properly, so I had to maneuver and writhe around a bit just to get it to fit properly. I also couldn't get the back zipper closed so I needed help... I feel like such a wuss.

We got in the water and I realized just how abnormal this all felt. I started swimming out to the canoes - about 550 meters. It was also directly into the sun, and so I was going to also get a crash course refresher in swimming in a straight line and sighting. We got going, and Lenka made it all look easy. I was just trying to remember how the technique works. I got the hang of it after about 200 meters or so, and got into a rhythm, other than just trying to figure out where the canoes were with the sun in my eyes.

We hit the canoes, and I realized I felt great. I was like a kid discovering the water again.

One more hurdle crossed, and I feel great. It's not 3.8k yet, but I feel that every day I am becoming more and more "mobile" and, by Sunday, I should be able to finish the distance. I won't be setting any speed records, but I'll get through it!

This morning I woke up at 4:30am. I decided that today I would spend aobut 30 minutes lying in bed and visualizing the whole race in that 30 minute span. I tried to visualize the perfect race, with everything from the start, and how I wanted to go out, to what my heart rate would look like, to climbing Richter's Pass, the rollers, Yellow Lake, and the marathon. I tried to feel how I wanted to feel at various times on the race course...

I had the perfect race!