Open Water Swim or .......Ice Bath???

Last night, I returned from Lake Balaton where I spent a few days working for an English training course that specifically trains Hungarian business professionals.

While I was there, I managed to squeeze in a swim Thursday morning and a run Friay morning. If you live or train near warm water (Bree in Hawaii) I'm sure you'll be thankful and inspired after reading this post. In fact, you might feel compelled to jump into your warm water and train!! I still can't believe I took an ice bath at Lake Balaton on Thursday!
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30 minute swim - Thursday
OPEN WATER SWIM OR OPEN WATER ICE BATH?.....
Apparently open water swimming has a much different feel from training in a pool. That point became obvious immediately for me. It's easy to get freaked out, even by your own shadow in the mirky open waters. I am sure there were creatures below, but I couldn't see them because the water was so cloudy and for that I was thankful. I found out later, at breakfast time, that the lake is indeed filled with water snakes which are harmless. I don't think I would have ventured into the lake had I known that beforehand but in this situation, ignorance was ......almost bliss.

It's less than a three minute walk from the Hotel Aranyas to the lake. I brought my tri-suit and thought I'd use it for the first time. Other than swimming this past summer with my little brother to the Sand Harbor buoys at Lake Tahoe, I can't say that I've done any open water swim training. Yet strangely, I was optimistic.





Perhaps it was the sight of water which has always been medicinal for me. I used to love running at Redondo Beach in California. Just the sight of water does something for me! And if I had it my way, I'd live near the ocean and do nothing but write, drink coffee and exercise along the coast. I guess that's another topic for another day.

In the back of my mind, I kept thinking that I didn't want to be in the water completely alone. Luckily there were a few older gentlemen fishing and I had a captive audience. Honestly, that was the last thing I really wanted (a captive audience) and they were much more interested in catching fish anyways.

I moved far away from them so as not to disturb their peaceful morning fishing adventure. I knew they would probably rescue me if I needed rescuing since every man loves rescuing a damsel in distress, right gents? Unfortunately Lake Balaton turned out to be a lot more shallow than I imagined for atleast 75 meters from the shore so there would be no opportunity or need for rescuing today.

When I first got to the lake shore, I put my feet in and found it was colder than I expected. Actually, it was more like an ice bath than an actual swimming lake. I almost turned back to the hotel. Then, I looked at the beautiful sunrise cascading through the clouds, I looked at the water in front of me and I looked over at the fishermen.

My toes were numb already and I had only dipped them in briefly.
"Am I crazy?" I thought, as I looked back over the water. I dipped my toes in again optimistically but it felt like they were sitting in a freezer box. The temperature hadn't changed and I was back to my original thoughts.

"I must be crazy. Just put your sweatshirt on, Jen, and go back."

And then the fight began and indecision set in for atleast 5 minutes.

"Jump in." I thought. "You need this experience in open water. It's mental preparation. You have to be ready under every condition."

I argued with myself for atleast five minutes before finally jumping into the absolutely, incredibly freezing Lake Balaton water. It took me atleast a few minutes to catch my breath. A few times I thought I was going to get an attack of coronary thrombosis. I was in body shock at first.

Finally, like Dori on Finding Nemo I kept saying to myself
"Just keep swim-ming, just keep swim-ming."

And I managed to stay in that "bloody" water for 30 minutes.
(I've been around a few Brits the last few days so my English has been tainted.)

The water was shallow and honestly I felt as though the swim were more to help me get over the fear of open water swimming than actual distance and time training.

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The weather was incredible Friday morning. One of the guys on our team from South Africa joined me on the run. We ran 28 minutes although I was scheduled for 20, which just seems so "weak" to me, but o.k. Like Robyn said a few posts ago, I need to concentrate on distance and speed and not worry about the time slots. It was great to run along Lake Balaton.