3rd times a charm, I hope

Bill and I signed up for Ironman Lake Placid today for next July (2014) along with some friends, Stacey, Carrie, Jason, Jay, Christine and Ben.  It should be a fun training year and I'm hoping since it will be my 3rd IM it will be a charm...

P.S. I have no idea what we were thinking, again! 

I survived a 5 hour swim :)

So Saturday, Lynn, Stacey and I planned a 5 hour training swim in Lake O.  Courtney Paulk was in the area from Virginia to do some training for her Catalina Crossing in September, so we invited her along to join us.  The craziness in Lake Ontario lately had us a bit nervous about what we could expect.  The website showing water temperatures was predicting VERY COLD!   Courtney did some testing Friday night and the results were much more favourable at 70F...


red sky in the morning, sailor's warning???

Stacey, Lynn, Carrie, Courtney, Mel

I must admit the lake conditions weren't all that had me nervous.  5 hours would be my 1st long swim since my Lake O crossing, more than double the longest practice I had done since... but my shoulders held.  They were a bit sore after, but I think my back was more achy.  I was pretty uncomfortable for the rest of the day but woke up Sunday, feeling well recovered.  I must say I am very happy with being able to manage a 5 hour swim...

 

passed a few hydro towers

I look forward to following Courtney's Catalina crossing too, you know where that could lead though right?

Lake O gives the orders

So the Lake was freezing on Saturday at 46F, not much more to do then splash and dash back to the boat, but on the positive side of a short swim it
meant I got a boat driving lesson and a bit of time in the drivers seat.  Bill laughed at my cautiousness but I just needed some warming up, before letting it get up to any real speed...

We had planned a sunset into night swim for the following Monday on the full moon, but with the Lake's roll we weren't sure what to anticipate, so I went down in the morning and managed a short swim without the wetsuit, it was cold, but not 46F, I'd guess 60F... so I hoped it would continue to warm by the evening.  But by evening, it wasn't so much the temp it was the waves.  Bill was going to kayak with us, to keep us swimming into the dark, but the Lake wasn't very kayak friendly, we managed to get him out into the lake dry but it wasn't just the breaking waves that were the problem, he didn't really want to spill far out either so he decided to head back.  We swam a big wavy swim, while we had a little bit a daylight left.  Then we had the fun ride back to shore as the sun said goodnight... to find Bill went for a dip too, I wished I had seen it :)

before going out in the nice big swells Monday night

 

 

Samantha, Nicole, Rebekah, Colleen & Mona

The next day, 5 other girls would start their 5 day relay from Kingston down to Burlington.  Lake O would hit them with some crazy conditions and make for some difficult swimming resulting in covering less distance than hoped, finishing in Whitby, but still an amazing accomplishment!  Way to go Girls!

the force of Lake O at play

 



Warrior Women

I wanted to try something a little different, one of these obstacle running races that have been the rage. 
I checked a few out and thought the warrior dash looked like a fun one, so I asked a few of my BMSC women friends, who seemed like good candidates to earn the title of a warrior woman... 3 friends, Fiona, Suzanne and Denyse decided to take a go at the event with me.

We headed up to Hardwood Hills in Barrie and got ready to take on this fun and challenging event, a 5k hilly and scenic run with numerous obstacles, climbing, jumping walls and fires, mud and barbed wires etc. 

We ran together and crossed the line holding hands. 

can you tell we like water

We then enjoyed washing up.  We had our finishers beer and just because we were warriors we ate some big turkey legs.  Arrr!  It was a real good time!

real women drink beer



and eat turkey legs

The goodies were fun too, our T-shirt is quite nice, the medal is one of the best (it doubles as a bottle opener) and we wore our warrior hats all the way home.  :)