I have to blog about my outdoor swim last week... I just have to. Pam and I decided to get an outdoor swim in lake CDA last Thursday night. This was after a week/day from h-e-double-hockey sticks. The words of encouragement that luminated from Pam's text message said something to the extent of "the cold water will help clear your mind". I think what she really should have said is "if you don't die in the water tonight you'll just be glad to be alive and will forget all of this". Regardless, we loaded up and headed out to lake CDA.
The sun was sort of out (at this point any shade in the sky other than gray will count as the sun being sort of out). It was drizzling on and off but we were determined. We pulled up to the beach, it was a balmy 47 degrees. We proceeded to put our WetSuits on as passerbys slowed their cars to a near stop to observe the crazyness. Move along people, this isn't an episode of Jackass, it's just two determine Ironman athletes. Once we entered the water I realized the water wasn't too bad, 50 degrees is still borderline polar bear plunge weather but it's manageable. It was definitely colder than a summer in San Diego thus warranting a urination in the wetsuit for warmth (these are training techniques people... it's a coping mechanism). My face was cold from the water but numbed shortly after we began. The worse part was the WAVES. Ok... allow me to explain a bit further. When I say waves I'm talkin like Oregon Coast in December. We were sloshing around like two buoys who lost their tie-downs. If any whale hunting vessels had shown up I may have been mistaken for a gray whale in the middle of the ocean and harpooned. In addition to this there were sticks and other debris everywhere. At one point I realized that my chances of being impaled in the neck by a large sharp stick were fairly good borderline promising.

We swam for about 20-25 minutes and then got out. I'm alive, have no impalement's in my neck and did not experience hypothermia so I guess it was a successful swim.