Due to the demands of his job and a significant sleep debt, Keith couldn’t make the swim this morning, so I was on my own.  Well, sort of…I have the most amazing parents ever, and both were on hand to offer substantial support today.  I’m a lucky girl!  My father rocked the piloting scene, and my mom got up early to drive…and later ended up rescuing us!

Despite getting up at 6:30am, we got a late start on the swim this morning due to a series of unforeseen delays.  All along the coast, heavy fog blanketed the ocean and the beach, reaching up to enshroud PCH as well.  We almost called off the swim due to concerns over visibility, but ultimately decided to go for it.  I headed out from Newport Beach at 9am, intending to swim as long and as far as I could with the hope of attaining 10 miles.  The water in Newport was incredibly beautiful; clear, slate blue-green, tranquil.  I felt strong, my dad was doing an awesome job of piloting me, and I gained confidence that I could make it the full 10.

As we crossed into Huntington Beach an hour later, the water abruptly changed from clear and glassy to murky brown-green and choppy.  Rather than burn off the fog, the sun was out enough to create an even worse haze over the water.  It was at thispoint that my hip flexors started to really flare up.  I otherwise felt okay, so I had some GU and we kept going.  Half an hour later, though, I started to get very cold, and the water grew extremely choppy.  With my hip flexors searing, the chill seeping through my body, and the conditions getting worse, I was having trouble with my stroke.  My dad gave me some words of encouragement, and I decided to stick it out as long as I could.

2 hours into the swim, however, I went from feeling cold and stiff to my teeth chattering as I took a breath.  I felt like knives were digging into my hips.  My dad was having trouble navigating the kayak in the chop.  And from 400 meters out in the water, we couldn’t see the beach at all.  I physically reached a point where I couldn’t keep going, so 6.8 miles north of our starting point in Newport, we went in.

Well.  I may have been out of the water, but I was shaking uncontrollably, each tremor sending stabs of pain through my hips.  And our van with hot water, towels, and dry clothes was at home.  Enter – Mom to the rescue!  We called and she showed up within 10 minutes. Salvation!

I didn’t make it 10 miles today.  But I learned a lot from this attempt, and from the past four days in general. I can’t be too upset with how my training weekend in SoCal went…6 miles on Thursday, 10,000 yards on Friday, 4 miles on Saturday, and now nearly 7 miles today.  That’s a much higher volume than I’ve done yet in my Channel training!  And while I didn’t meet all the goals I set for myself at the start, I realize now that they were probably somewhat ambitious given my training volume up until this point.

I’ll be back in Huntington Beach in about a month.  And I’ll try again to finish a 10 mile swim then (the water in SF is too cold right now for this).  Eventually, I’ll get to the point where 10 miles isn’t such a big deal.

Eventually. I was initially down on myself for not pushing through today.  However, I have a wonderful family and great friends who helped me realize that I’m actually doing okay.  Thanks so much to all of you – I could never do this alone, and I am so grateful for all of your help and support!!

Brrr, the water in the SF bay is definitely getting colder, and it amazes me what a big difference every degree makes!  Seriously, you can feel the difference between 57, 56, and 55 (and I’m sure 54, 53, 52….)

My goal right now is just to stay in as long as I can while the temperature drops. Previously, when it was still 57, I was swimming 3 coves (3 miles) in about an hour.  However, with the temperature continuing to decrease, I don’t know how long I can stay in, and I still worry about getting into trouble far away from help.  As such, I’ve been aiming for 2 coves, and then swimming up and back along the buoy line (half a mile round trip) for as long as I can.

Saturday afternoon, the tide was ebbing as shadows slowly spread across the 55 degree water.  I’d never before experienced a current in the Cove, being protected as it is by two breakwaters.  However, when I started my swim, it was absolutely hauling!  One minute I was spotting the opening, and the next minute there was a huge anchored boat in my face:  the current had swept me to the far right of the cove where the large ships boarder the swimming area.  As I changed course and aimed to swim across the opening of the Cove, I could actually see the water moving with the current, and I felt like I was swimming in place!  It was hard not to start laughing at my complete lack of progress.  I managed 45 minutes.

This morning was stunningly beautiful, clear, and warm, and I had a hard time remembering it was late November!  The water temperature was up to 56.3 degrees, glassy and still, so I hoped to stay in longer than yesterday.  I started off feeling pretty good, but almost instantly my hip flexors started to burn.  For whatever reason, these muscles have been bothering me a lot lately, and today was worse than usual.  40 minutes into the swim, I was totally cold, stiff, and desperate to hit the sauna, but I decided to try to push it for a full hour.  I found a second wind, and was feeling strong enough to make it, when the pain in my legs intensified.  I felt like I was in danger of kicking my legs off of my body!  I’d managed 50 minutes, and decided it was time to call it quits.

I’m just concerned about what is going on with my legs…is it just a strengthening issue?  Did I strain something?  Will stretching help, or make it worse?  I’ve had a lot of injuries, but this is definitely a new one!

I’m going to be in the pool for the next few days, but then I’ve got some awesome training plans for the Thanksgiving break when I’m back in Southern California (details coming soon).  Hopefully this little break from the sea will help me heal up by then!