...Sweeping the clouds away
On my way to where the water's sweet
Can you tell me how to get
How to get to Salford Quays...
(with many apologies to Sesame Street)
Above is the view from the ladies' changing tent at Salford this morning. This is post-swim - when I arrived there was a great big Canada Goose patrolling the waterline just outside, honking like mad! There was even a pair of ducks, and I'm sure I saw some fish way down deep. Quite a bit of leaf-litter, and some ordinary litter too, unfortunately, but not enough to be annoying and spoil the swim.
12.1oC in the water today, but a lovely 14oC on the land with no wind, and sun, sun, sun everywhere. It makes such a huge difference to your mindset. I suppose that's what makes open water dangerous, sometimes - I imagine it'd be easy to be fooled into thinking it was warmer than it is and get yourself into trouble if you weren't used to it. There were certainly a few novices who had no idea what 12oC really feels like, and having a bit of a surprise as they got further in (which just made me giggle after an hour of being used to it!).
I managed 2km today and it was lovely to be able to swim around the bridge on the 500m course - I miss the 750m course quite a bit. Overall I'm pleased with that given my state of health and fitness. I still have the chesty cough and had managed to twist my back up with it as well. The physio used some ultrasound on Thursday and the appointment helped a lot, I certainly feel very little pain when I'm in the water. Walking out is another issue, though. So I'm still barred from running, feeling deeply unfit and consequently fretting quite a lot about Windermere, since it took me over an hour to plod through that 2km. It suggests I'm on for maybe 1hr 30 if nothing changes in three weeks, which is disappointing. Fingers crossed the cough at least will have gone by then. A couple of extra degrees warmth and a sunny day would also help a great deal.
Til then, I guess I'll just be worrying...
