Eileen's First Open Water Swim - No Snakes!

I have to post Eileen's first open water swim account. She is absolutely right about bilateral breathing, too. She wrote:

"Hey!! I just got back from my first experience at open water swimming!! I was not looking forward to it ...... Jim [husband] was telling me about all the snakes that are out etc..... yuk!! however I found a great place at Lake Granbury and the area is roped off so the snakes know not to go in there! hee hee! Anyway it went much better than I thought. I went for 30 min. Julia, I remember a note that you said someone told to you to learn to breath both sides .... well I didn't understand why at the time but I did practice that in the pool. But today I can definately see the advantage as it helps spot yourself better. I would take 3 strokes turn right, 3 strokes turn left and I could get a good sense of where I was and where I was going. I have my next 5k Mon. - it looks like a good one. It's called American Hero's and seems to have a lot of military people involved so I guess I will be very humbled in many ways and will be covered in the dust I'm sure!"

Good swim, Eileen!

I also went open water this morning for about 20 minutes. The water was about ten degrees colder than last week. We have had several nights in the upper 30s and a lot of rain. The water was almost painful to my forehead, but after about ten minutes I got my rhythm and felt reasonably good! I know I will need to "warm" up for about ten minutes to be able to race with rhythem, and keep up with the sisters! [TRY]

Way to go Eileen! You are doing great!!!

Tom