First OWS ... ever :)

Yesterday I went for my first open water swim ever. I never went out to swim in a lake, sure when I was younger I went to lakes to play in the water and have fun with my friends. But yesterday was different, I was heading there to swim and have an idea how it was before my first triathlon, two weeks from now.



It was also the first time that I would try my new wetsuit, well not that new since I bought it second hand but new to me. I was a bit nervous, I had no idea how it would be, what the lake water temperature would be. I was wondering if I would be able to see the bottom of the lake or if I would swim without seeing anything. A lot of new stuff and I was a little bit nervous about all this. But since I have my first triathlon ever in two weeks I needed to get out there and swim in open water at least once before, to make sure I won't freak out on race day.

We got there and I touched the water to see how warm cold it was. Anyway, I put the wetsuit on, which by itself was an experience. By the time I was done with that I was already sweating and I was not as scared as before to be cold. I figured that this wetsuit was pretty warm since I had it on me for 5 minutes and I was really hot.



And off I go, my wife is sitting on the beach and watching me go into that cold water probably thinking that I really am nuts. My feet tell me that it's cold but I try not to listen to them. Then my hands tell me the same, but I tell them to HTFU and I just keep going. At one point I am in 3/4 feet of water so I just start swimming. OMG! My face is pissed at me because it is so damn cold. I just try to swim but HTFU about the cold but it's not that easy. Every here and then I can feel some cold water getting into the wetsuit, and when I say I can feel it believe me I was feeling it.

I just kept swimming, freestyle mostly, and when my face was too cold I would turn and do some backstrokes just to get some sun, and then back to freestyle. I swam 15 minutes maybe, then came back to the shore to unfreeze my face, hands and feet. Then I went back into the water for another 10-15 minutes maybe and swam a little more. The water was not as cold when I got into it the second time, I guess I was slowly getting used to it.



I am really happy that everything went well. I didn't have any pain or problem with my wetsuit. I could swim with it really easily and not feel any problem with my shoulders. At some point during the swim I stopped focusing on the swim and more on what was underneath me, and at that time my mind could see all kind of stuff that was not really there. I don't know why I am that way though, instead of just enjoying the moment I try to freak myself out. I was happy not to swim in the sea, I am sure I would have imagine at least 20 great white ;)

The only thing that was different from when I swim in a pool was that I felt out of breath a lot, I am not too sure if it was because I was swimming faster than usual. Or if it was because I was nervous, or because the water temperature was colder than usual. But it was weird to feel out of breath like that, even if I was trying to slow my pace a little bit.



I remember when I was young, we had a summer house by the sea and I used to swim in the sea a lot. Never really swam that far from the beach and I could always see the bottom, but the water was crystal clear and it was nice to always see everything. When I got into the lake yesterday that feeling of seeing everything was not there at all. The water was not that clear, I could barely see the bottom of the lake with 7-8 feet of water.



When I got back home I checked the temperature on my pool to have an idea and it was 55, so I figured that the lake was at best 55, maybe colder ;) But whatever the temperature I had fun and I am happy that I finally did my first OWS. Now I am getting more and more ready for my first triathlon in two weeks.