Up the Ante

Tuesday night I found an open water swim workout on my calender. Hmm... who could be crazy enough for that? It is October, in Minnesota, and we've had frost almost every night this week...
Well, there is a small group of us who like to continue to "Up the Ante" so to speak. First it was the challenge of swimming in September without a race-goal, then it was a "full moon swim" then a "New moon swim." Now, I think we just lost our minds in Little Long Lake, and needed to go back to find them!
I had hoped to get a swim and run in beforehand, but I got out of work later than anticipated, and decided that the run would take priority. I had a very pleasant 6 + mile run. Then it was time to pull on the swimsuit under the warm fuzzies, grab the wetsuit and head to the lake.
There was a group of 8 of us, brave enough to "swim." One of our more crazy members stated that it wasn't a true workout unless you swam for 15min. I was happy to have lasted 5! The air temp was 52 degrees when I left my house (about 10 miles away), but it was still light out, so I'm sure that after it was completely dark the temp probably dropped at least 20 degrees! Ok,well not that much, but some I'm sure ;)
The air felt chilly as we stripped off our warm fuzzies, and pulled on the wetsuits. The chill was tempered by shots of Jack Daniels however, to get the inner fires burning. And off to the water we went. It was shockingly cold. It was so cold that it took your breath away, and 'stung' your bare arms (Most of us have sleeveless wetsuits). I wasn't willing to put my face in the water, so attempted to raise my body temp back up by a vigorus doggy paddle. Tonight's swim could also be called "How to drop your core body temp in 5 min or less." But there was something really neat about it (maybe it was the buzz from the J.D... but I regress)
The 1/2 moon, and crystal clear sky over the lake was amazing. And the comraderie really made it a super evening. Our "15 min Man" did make it for the full 15 min. But was overheard saying a few "choice words" when he checked his watch, and found out it'd only be 11 min...
Getting out of the water, and into our warm clothes, the air almost felt warm - well, at least not as cold as it did the 20 min prior! To raise our body temps back up, Aquavite was served along with some very tasty banana bread before heading off to the local Ox Yoke Inn for some real food (and Hot chocolate with Baileys.. yum) and good conversation.
I think one of the funniest parts was when we sat down for dinner, the waitress came over, and we said that we'd been doing an open water swim, and her comment was simply, "Because?"
And we all had to laugh, since we were rendered speachless.