First open water swim - and a faster run

Okay, so I know it's May 15. And I've had open-water swimming on my calendar since May 1.

But I was away the first week, and frankly, it's just too cold here to swim outside in May! Really! This morning, it was 45 degrees when I left my house (and only 50 when I got out of the water).

The water was warmer than the air, though - but not by much. Maybe 60 degrees.

But first: I met the girls at 5:30 for a run. Kathy has been focuson on speed, so she asked if we could run a 9:15 to 9:30 pace instead of our usual 10 to 10:30 meander. All the girls were game.

For some reason, I started out first and set the pace. I just ran harder than usual - maybe a 10K race pace or so.

Kathy says for the first 4.5 miles or so, we ran at an average 9:20 pace. And Nancy says overall we did a 9:28 - both of which rock (and it makes sense that Nancy's time is slower, because we branched off and nearly all of the remainder after we split from Kathy was uphill - some slight, some steeper, but all UP).

So that was good - I felt fine the whole time. I didn't really WANT to run like that - my body is quite comfortable with a 10-minute mile - but I know I have it in me to run faster. I mean, I guess I have to know that, since my half-marathon PR is 1:57 and I really don't imagine running a half-marathon slower than that again (unless for deliberate reasons - friends, it's at the end of a half-ironman, etc). But since most of my running is long, slow stuff, sometimes I wonder if I'm losing the ability to go faster. (Not fast - with a 5K PR of 24 minutes, I can't claim speed!)

Then the swim. I got to the water, met the other crazy triathletes who needed to get in the lake this morning, and pulled on my wetsuit. I stood there in the morning sun, getting warm.

I put my little swim booties on, but realized I forgot a colored cap and only had a nylon one. Oh well. Still gotta swim.

I was the first in the water - and though it was a little shocking when the water got into my zipper, it didn't cause me to lose my breath. I was okay. I motioned to the guys to come in, and I took off for the firt buoy.

Immediately I noticed my feet were colder than I thought they should be. They were colder than my hands, and my hands weren't covered! So that was weird. But my face was okay - I wasn't putting it all the way in the water at first, but once I got a length down, I could put my face in the water properly.

I did three laps - which comes out to exactly one mile - and it took me something like 45 minutes with stops. Not so much to rest, but to look around, check for water skiers, see where the other swimmers were, etc.

And I got out of the water feeling pretty hard-core. Nice!

Now I've got to do this two or three times a week, and for longer distance. But the first time of the year is the hardest, right?