The morning came way to early with the jet lag. I dragged myself out of bed at 6:45am to shave (important to keep chafing down) and a quick snack. We meet at the beach at 7:30 for a quick swim (5-10 minute) to determine speeds to break us (14 swimmers) into 3 groups for when we have 3 support crafts following us. Eliz and I got placed in a stylish pink swim cap group together which will be fun since we train together and know each others pace. After that, we went in for a real for real breakfast. At 9am, we meet at the beach for the first real swim. The wind picked up overnight and the boats were unable to get out of the south side of the island. Swimtrek had one Zodiac that could be used to patrol the cove so we did laps in the cove. It was cloudy and windy out, windy enough that we could see white caps out of the cove but it was reasonably calm in the cove. We swam for one hour. The water was chilly but I had no signs of the cold effecting my swim. After a little break, we gather to talk a bit about the logistics of the channel until lunch. After a hearty lunch, we meet at the beach for a 2 hour swim. The good news is the sun is out. The bad news is the wind had continued to pick up so we had some serious white caps in the cove now. The decision was to only go half way toward the exit of the cove. After one loop, the Kodiak had some technical problems so they called us in to do smaller circles that were basically back and forth along the shore line with enough circle action to avoid running into each other. The wind continued to pick up throughout the afternoon. After one hour, we stopped for a Maxim nutrition break (30 seconds only). At this point the waves were challenging but only about as bad as I had fought at the La Jolla rough water. It was a workout but definitely was still swimable. Over the next hour it progressed to some serious wave action. At about 1:40, the guides said that it started to deteriorate at a much more rapid rate. I will admit that on the right hand turn into the wind, I was starting to hesitate a little before taking off to gain the mental strength to fight the waves. It was challenging and starting to get marginally swimable. At about 1:55, the guides called us and had us exit in an alternate location due to the waves being to dangerous to exit in the primary location. The wind continued to pick up the rest of the day. We meet at about 4:30 to discuss stroke mechanics on the 5th floor of the hotel. The cove facing window of the 5th floor window was getting soaked by the ocean spray of the waves coming in. After the meeting, we walked outside and found about 6" of water in the street going perpendicular to the shore for about 150-200 meters from the surf. The weather forecast for tomorrow was actually for more wind then today. The guides are working up alternate plans for the probably case that even the cove is not swimable.
A quick feedback on my condition on the 2 hour swim. I actually was feeling pretty comfortable cold wise during the swim. The challenging water was definitely giving me a solid workout but it did not seem more then I could handle. After the swim, the guides did say they had started watching me closer. My back skin color had start changing, my stroke rate was dropping and they noticed my hesitation on the turn. All these are signs that my core temperature was dropping. I have felt more hypothermic in the past so I was somewhat surprised. It will make the next rest of the week interesting if 2 hours is starting to cause problems. It might have been the conditions since I heard later that some of the other swimmers skin color was changing. I did get back to the room for a solid 30 minutes of uncontrollable shivering. I still find it interesting that this tends to start almost 10 minutes after I exit the water. Is it when the cold pooled blood in the extremities flow back into the core? Is there a way to slow this process up so that the cool blood can warm up before it gets dumped back into the core? All wonderful questions to be investigated.
Water in the streets
Look like fun to swim in?
The 'afterdrop' that you mention is the thing that I hate about swimming in cold water-I actually don't mind being in there, I just spend the whole time dreading how much I'm going to shiver when I get out and how difficult it will be to get dressed. And then as a result I try to put it off by staying in longer, which of course only means that I'm colder when I do get out so it makes things worse!!!
ReplyDeleteLuckily in Malta you can head straight up to your room for a nice warm shower after...we used ridiculous amounts of hot water during our week there!