This Morning's Swimming Pool!

Yesterday after work at 3.45pm we all went for "a drink" to start the Weekend off!  The weekend definitely started with a bang when one drink turned into several and we ended up going home at 8.30pm legless!  I'm blaming the lack of food!

Anyhow I had already arranged to meet a friend at 10am this morning to swim in Lake Windermere, and I didn't think a hangover was a good enough excuse to cancel!

It was a fantastic morning, rather chilly and there was snow on the fells but the sun was shining!  

For the first time since May I decided the time had come to dig out my wetsuit gloves and socks!  I didn't want my fingers and toes dropping off!


My friend who I swim with goes in in just his trunks - mad man that he is!

After all the torrential rain and floods the jetty was still underwater, which made it a little more tricky getting in and out!

I was amazed that I didn't get thet "OMG" feeling I usually get as my wetsuit fills with ice cold water!  It's probably due to the fact the air temperature was so cold my body was already in shock!

Despite it being a beautiful morning the lake has a habit of being choppy whenever I get in and today was no exception!  My goggles were also not playing nicely either and kept leaking and sliding!  I realised when I got home what the problem was!  I had committed a silly school girl error and had used face cream this morning!  Obviously the oil in it was making my goggles slip slide all over my face!  Lesson learned!

We didn't stay in long or swim very far as my body is still acclimatising to the extreme water temperatures!

When we did emerge from the lake there was a group of 4 people watching us, they came and spoke to us.  Apparently they were film makers from America here for the Kendal Mountain Festival with Swimmer Sean Conway and they asked to take a photo of us!  Lord only knows where that will end up!

Anyhow by the time we had finished talking to them I was feeling slightly chilly and was pleased to get my clothes back on and a drink my flask of Hot Chocolate!  

There is a little bit of an uphill walk to get from the lake to the car park which is quite good for getting the circulation going and warming the body up slightly!

My toes were the only part of me that were suffering - the tingling pain as they warmed up was not very pleasant!

I have no idea how far we swam as my Garmin obviously didn't appreciate the shock of the cold and went doolally! According to it we were in the water 13 minutes and swam 9.29 miles!  I can guarantee you I did NOT swim that distance - it was more like 250 metres!

The jetty under the water!

The walk up from the lake to the car park!