So tonight I managed to do 2 1/2 miles in the lake. I’ve got a 3 mile event on Saturday so this was the final training swim and it felt good. I came out after 2 1/2 miles very happy that I could have done more and also just relaxed and chilled. This was the first time I’ve swum in the lake and didn’t have a single moment of “why am I doing this?”.
Every other time I’ve been in the lake that thought has crossed my mind, even if only for a minute. Tonight it didn’t. I just swam and relaxed and enjoyed it. The lake itself was quite busy and I think that helped. It was good to feel part of a community of swimmers – even if you don’t get much chance to chat!
Several people overtook me and were going what seemed to be impossibly quick, yet I overtook quite a few people myself. And strangely after being concerned about my speed – I speeded up a bit. I didn’t do anything different or try to swim faster, but I think the very fact that I had talked about it and was aware of it meant that if not consciously trying to be faster it was there at the back of my mind and didn’t let me relax at all.
My time for tonight’s 2 1/2 mile swim.
On Saturday I did 2 miles in almost exactly 1hr 20 mins (so 40 minute miles, or 20 minutes per 1/2 mile lap). Tonight I did the first lap in 18 minutes and in total I did 2 1/2 miles in 1hr 36 minutes – so 4 minutes quicker than Saturday’s pace.
You can see my final time on the photo and the numbers above it show the first split time (18 mins, 1 second, 23 hundredths).
It’s funny how it works that way – but I’m not complaining. It does mean that I am now clearly targeting a sub-2hour swim on Saturday.
1000kmstowindermere 
Good Patrick, that’s a loooong time to be in the water. Glad the weather is warm, I see it’s all about speed and not water temperature! Enjoy Saturday and look forward to reading the resulting post : )
Thanks Lucy. I think the temperature will definitely play a part and I expect to be slower when it’s colder, but while it is a bit warmer now I want to be swimming a bit faster. Strange to think that a 3 mile swim is the equivalent (in terms of time at least) of a half marathon run – I was just under two hours when I used to run. Which means that Windermere will be the equivalent of over a marathon and a half. Gulp!