I didn’t have a structured workout scheduled today and with the temperature getting into the 90’s, it was the perfect day to head to the lake for a swim.

The photo looks great, but it is deceiving.  What you don’t see are dozens of other people in the water to my left.  This was a challenge, because the official swimming area is also to my left.  In the end, I was able to swim slightly outside the official area, which was a little bit less crowded.

The swim was far from my best swim, but it felt good to be back in the water.  My shoulders were ‘feeling it’ almost immediately, but as I got into a rhythm, they seemed to loosen up nicely.  I was a little concerned that I would tire quickly, but I did better than I thought I would.

I swam laps back and forth for about 45 minutes.  I was able to practice my sighting, which was important, as I needed to avoid the others in the water, none of who were actually swimming.  My pace was a little slow, but to be honest it’s really hard to know when swimming in open water.  My GPS watch doesn’t track perfectly, so distances are not accurate.  This in turn means my pace is not accurate, so I don’t worry about it.

What I do know is that once I got going, I was able to start getting a good feel for the water.  What I equally know, is my swim strength has definitely declined, after three months of no swimming.  This just means that I need to swim more, and that is something I will be doing, now I have at least the option of swimming at the lake.