Day 8 in the Lake

So last night (Thursday 4th July) was my 8th swim,and Mhairi and I planned to go down to the lake with no kids, men or dogs, so we just concentrate on swimming, and not panic about dogs/kids drowning and men getting bored. I was determined to go all out and swim a whole mile, just to make sure I could actually do it!

I was fasting yesterday, so I had to make sure I had eaten enough before we swam, as I didn't want to flake out in the middle of the lake. As we didn't leave Greystoke til nearly 7pm, I'd had a nana nap and actually by the time we got to the lake I really didn't feel like swimming...

The lake when we finished

BUT - on went the wetsuit, and seriously it honestly isn't any easier getting it on. We decided we would swim left out past Parkfoot and Waterside campsites and then come back, past the red buoy all the way across to the pink buoys by Pooley Bridge pier and see how far all that was.

Man it was cold!! We'd only swam a couple of minutes when Mahiri pulled up sharply. 'What's up?' I shouted. 'That bird!' she yelled back. Wtf? I looked at the shore, which was only about 6-7 yards away and there was some kind of bird perched at the waters edge. Looked like a mini vulture, and Mhairi was convinced it was going to pounce as we swam by! We got by it unscathed and I managed to get all the way to Waterside without stopping. Mhairi had bought me a different pair of goggles, as I was sick of swimming with one eye shut, and they were spot on.

I actually felt... what's the word??? FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC! I couldn't believe how good I felt, like a fish, streamlined and smooth, breathing easily. We turned back at Waterside and went all the way across to the pier, stopping at the red buoy to see how far we'd done. Unfortunately Mhairi's watch wasn't picking up satellite signal (how far things have come on eh?!) and it wasn't picking up our metres, goddammit! It said we had only swum 0.87 of a mile, when we had clearly swum more than that! We set back off, having bobbed about for earth to mars to connect, and I managed all the way to the pier. You know, I felt like I could've swam all night! We decided to head back in and see how far we'd done then. I really pushed myself, so was steaming by the time we got back to the shore.

Nice men in tight wetsuits...

0.87 miles.... Phht! I had no choice but to keep going. I wasn't getting out until the watch ticked over the 1.0 mile mark. By this point there were other swimmers in the lake, so we had to watch out for them. It was a busy little pool last night! We headed back out to the red buoy, which is about 200m out from the shore. Once there we noticed other swim hats bobbing about, and stopped to chat to 3 men who were having a rest. Niceties over, we headed back in, and hallelujah, we had swum 1.08 miles. I was elated!!



'I managed a mile!' face

While we dried off, the 3 men we had chatted to out in the lake, came in, and untied their dog from the fence. We commented that had we tied our dogs up like that, the dogs and the fence would be half way round the lake by now!  Now, I am not one to ogle, but they were obviously very fit lads, and I'm just saying that they did look good in their wetsuits. We didn't hang around to see if they had anything under them. Mhairi wanted to, but I didn't....

This open water swimming malarky is quite good fun! Next swim is on Sunday. The forecast is awesome, so really looking forward to that.

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