First colder swim

I had an unpleasant swim yesterday morning. I planned a three hour swim at Balmoral, as the water temperature in the harbour drops sooner than the temperature in the ocean. As the ocean is still a balmy 21 degrees, it's not helping my cold water preparation time.

I hadn't quite been prepared for how cool the water would feel, particularly after the torrential rain we've been having this last month. It was 17.5 degrees which was quite a drop from the 21 only a week ago. Consequently, the three hour swim didn't go quite as planned and it took me well over an hour to settle in. With the help of Anna, Katya, Duncan and Margie, however, who all kept me company, I managed to stick it out for 2 hours 20 mins, although I had had a big week in the pool and mentally was very tired.

Now I have to readjust the focus to be less on the distance and kilometres, and more on building up time in the colder water. Now it starts to get tough.