Water Blogged

It’s been a few days since I wrote about my morning swims, but that doesn’t mean I took a day off – things have been so busy (personally and professionally) that it was all I could do to get a swim in the morning.
So I’ll play a little catch up and write about the past three swims:

Friday
Friday was a nice warm morning. Jade and Kevin Sellers (kayaking) and Jim Glickert (in the water) joined me. We began the swim at Public Beach 2 at the state park in Osage Beach. Jim, who manages a Lake Ozark fitness web site named gojim.tv, hadn’t been in the water this year. But he gamely jumped in the water for the cause.
Like me, he’s a little rusty, but it’s always good to get that first swim in.
We went around the beach cove to the left and ended up toward the other ramp of the state park. As usual, the view from the water was fantastic and I enjoyed treading water for a while just looking around at my surroundings. In total, we spent around 40 minutes in the lake.

Monday
After a long and fun Mother’s Day weekend in St. Louis, I wasn’t looking forward to getting up for a morning swim. The rain in the morning certainly didn’t inspire me either. So I delayed the swim till the afternoon – when it had stopped raining, but had grown much colder and very windy outside.
Few things will motivate you to do what you said than by saying what you are going to do on the front page of a newspaper – unfortunately, I said I’d swim twenty days in the lake. Thus, I found myself running out into the water at Public Beach 2 in the late afternoon. I lasted about 20 minutes in the water and probably looked quite insane to anyone who was watching.

Tuesday
Another cold morning – this time I swam at Old Kinderhook. I’ve always tried to keep in good shape and hoped that I was setting a good example to my children in doing so. However, I’m not sure if I’m being a good role model or scarring my children by walking around every morning in a black skintight wet suit. I certainly can’t imagine (and never want to) see my folks in one. To their credit, they don’t seem to be phased by it – but they’ve seen me in running shorts and cycling tights – so maybe they’ve grown immune to seeing their dad in silly outfits. Poor kids.
I lasted about 25 minutes in a fairly cool lake – but felt invigorated and ready to start the day.