Rob and I (along with my children Alex and Nicholas) spent Easter weekend in Tennessee visiting my Mom. She lives on a lake that is absolutely beautiful, it even rivals Pine Lake (our team knows the lake of which I speak). My Mom and her husband looked at us as if we were nuts when we asked them to take us out on the pontoon boat Saturday morning so we could jump in and do a swim. As we motored away from the dock, Rob and I donned our wetsuits and Mike (my Mom’s husband) informed us the water temperature was 62.2 degrees. In I jumped…… yes, it did take my breath away a bit, but after about 5 minutes I was totally warmed up and feeling great!! I had forgotten how wonderful it is to not change directions every 25 yards. Sunday afternoon we once again headed out on the pontoon, this time with the entire family on board. The water temperature was up 64 degrees, and believe it or not, the initial shock was not as it was the day before. Rob had an absolutely great swim on Sunday…. now if he could just learn to swim in a straight line 🙂 After we climbed on board, we did the route we had swum both days with our GPS’s running – we had swum 2 miles each day! What a boost of confidence for the both of us.
Don’t worry, all is not a fairy tale. There was a price to pay for the open water swimming. Since we did not bring any bikes down (they didn’t qualify as carry on luggage – kidding), we ran each day. Let me explain, my Mom lives atop the plateau, the highest point between the Rockey and Smokey mountain ranges. Thus, there is not a flat spot to be found to run on. We were either running uphill or downhill – can you say holy hamstrings and shins!!
Coming home was bittersweet. Love being back with the team for our group training, love being back in my own bed, love playing with my cats, don’t love the cold and rainy weather have come back to, and compared to the cold shock of the lake – the pool felt way too balmy this morning.
By the way…. check out the La Crosse Fitness Festival athlete spotlight winner!! Our very own Mike Mulroy. If you see him, make sure to congratulate him. He is so deserving!!