Trying Times…

Mid June, the 18th to be exact, was when I had had enough. I awoke that morning under some kind of anadromous spell and instinctively migrated to a local lake. Despite the water being an unseasonal 66 degrees, I gritted my teeth, removed my sweats, girded my loins and dove in (Silver Lake off the dock at the park). Just before, when I was walking down, I queried two ten year olds that had boasted of going in, on whether it was too cold to enjoy.

They lied.

It’s funny how children learn at an early age to be cruel.

And it was miserable; for the first thirty seconds. But slowly, like a sunrise bathing a valley, the chill started to ebb. As I warmed, I stopped hyperventilating; which means I picked a side to breathe off of as I crawled 100 yards. And it’s funny that as my senses returned to me and I crossed some thermal threshold that allowed my brain to consider something other than my frozen nads, I noticed that my vestibular system had gone wacko.

You don’t really realize it but compared to the general population, swimmers have very acute vestibular systems. They’ve done studies that showed that indoor swimmers, especially short course aquamen and women, perform on par with some techy gyros. It’s all those flip turns.

Anywho, the old gyros in my head, having not thrashed the noggin about for 90 some odd days, were giving the “error” message. When I finished, after 15 minutes, I stood in the shallows and walked in. It was like being out on a small craft during those “small craft warning” days in the Sound. Either that or characterize it as walking “three sheets to the wind”. I very literally “stumbled about”.

I shook that feeing after three or four minutes and the bone chill left about an hour later; after cranking the heat in the car on the way home, and after a hot shower, and sitting by the fire, and eating some hot chili. Then, oh boy, then the endorphins came. And all was balanced in my life once again.

It wasn’t long after that I found a lake closer to my house. Subsequently I e-mailed a fellow Twimmer on where to get a triathlete type full body suit (I got great satisfaction from the cold plunge but I suspected excess loin girding might be harmful to one my age).

I continued to cold-water swim sans wet suit until, 10 days later, 2 different area pools opened. Now I work out at either the Lynnwood or Snohomish pool.

But the wetsuit; ah yes, the wetsuit.  Since ordering one (I still had to get one just in case), I have come to realize I have an anatomic anomaly. I’m 5’10 3/4” and 170 pounds. This means that I am on the large end for a medium and should be on the small end for a medium-long.

Not so Quasimodo.

Neither fit.

Not even close!

I purchased and returned both suits from Xterra, three weeks apart. I was sure one would fit but instead, the largest of the two left me twisted like a pretzel, exhausted on the floor with half a suit on. I actually pulled a back muscle with one of them. That’s when I was glad for the coldness of the open water because muscle pain disappears instantly when you hit the chill.

Therapeutic.

But, I’m swimming again.

So where do we all go from here?

Same place where we always try to go; the wet stuff, however and wherever we can find it. We are TWIM, baby! We are not just people that like to swim.

It’s more complicated than that.

When a horse is foaled we are that urge to run. When an eagle fledges we are that need to fly. And when a dolphin is born, we know the feeling.

We know that feeling every single day.

The hunger.

The only thing that diminishes it is the exhaustion of a workout or a race.

Communicating with many of my TWIM brothers and sisters, it’s obvious the angst that this pandemic has caused. Its effect has cut the human race deeply without any hint of when or how it will be corralled. These are the times that try men’s (and women’s) souls. Thomas Paine wrote that phrase during our American revolution yet, despite it being as old as our country, it is so appropriate now in the face of this scourge.

When talking to teammates it is also very obvious how adept all of us have become at “collateral fitness”; staying in shape any way we can, treading water so to speak, until once more, sometime in the not so distant future, hopefully, we once again will stand shoulder to shoulder to defend the TWIM banner against all comers on our chosen field of battle; the sacred pool of competition.

It was nice to hear from coach Tammy; her words are sacrosanct. Be careful at first but, be ready. . .it will be soon that we can let the throttle out and be ourselves once again.

It’s coming!

Hail TWIM!