rough seas, long swim

(pic is from the "military point" on janten - point in the picture is end of Janten and beginning of Paamul bay - almost home)

I have been feeling the need to increase my swim workouts. I usually aim for 6 laps (1920 yd) but was thinking on the run today that I really need to aim for 10 laps (3400 yd). So as I was doing my longest run this year (30 min!) I figured I'd go for 10. The water looked a little choppy at JanTen but I wasn't sure if it would hold for PaaMul bay also.

As I started my run I was wondering if I should do 10 (since I didn't run yesterday) or 20 (planned) or 30. My reasoning for 30 was that I was going to do it some time this week and I was already a bit nauseous so in the event I got too sick to run I'd at least have gotten in my "long" run. I found it incredibly ironic during the run that last year I was running 10 miles and now my hard, long run was 30 min. It was nice and warm today - low 30's I'd say and the sweat was ROLLING off me after that 30 min run just like in the summertime. Looks like this past norte is HISTORY.

I was hoping my stomach would cooperate for the swim and as I headed out to the beach I realized the water was much rougher than I expected. I then scaled back my expectations and figured I'd figure it out after a couple laps. It was actually easier swimming directly into the waves than coming back with them - there were times it felt like my feet were going to summersault me over as the wave would pick them up and my arms tried to keep going forward. Good times. Pike was too sick to come out with me and it gave me a chance to really work the swim. I ended up doing 8 laps but I was D.O.N.E. after the 8th one. I'm hoping that with calmer water I will be able to handle more because if 8 laps are my limit I'm in SERIOUS trouble. So, this next week will be 8 laps each swim (or 10 if it isn't rough). My bad shoulder was starting to twinge so 8 was a good time to stop. Oh, and a couple swims ago I found my seabed landmarks again so I don't zigzag across the bay. Oh x2 the tourist boat is back. Kinda slows down the swim as I wait for it to come across the reef and then again to drop anchor but nice to see the guys again.