Ice Bath

Week 20: July 14-July 20

Bike: 129 km (100 on the road, 29 on trail)
Run: 36 km
Swim: 1 hour and 20 minutes in the lake

For many years, I spent my Alberta summers in Lac La Biche at the Maccagno cabin. While there, I was famous for lounging in the warm water for the entire days and spending the entire weekend in my swimsuit. Since moving to the Yukon my lake hours have been tragically limited. For some strange reason, swimming in glacial waters does not appeal to me...it must be something about liking to keep my body at 37 degrees celsius.

The sad fact about a triathlon, is that there is a swimming portion that is usually held in an outdoor lake/ocean/body of water. It is only in places like the Yukon where outdoor swimming could mean mass-hypothermia where a swimming pool is used in the first leg of the race. As I am planning to do some triathlons South of 60, I decided it was time to get in the water. (You'll have to watch the first 45 seconds of the clip to get my fabulous little joke).

Since I don't have Ryan Gosling, or a cute 50's style bathing suit, I needed to get a wetsuit. Thankfully the Polar Swim Shop in Whitehorse carries suits that are made for Yukon summers (or B.C winters). Because Mary-Anne, who owns the shop, regularly swims in the frigidly cold Marsh Lake, I fully trusted her opinion of appropriate outdoor swim gear. The only problem with this, is that Mary-Anne's expertise is widely known, so every other girl in the Yukon is sporting the same outfit - how embarrassing...

Cassandra and I bought identical suits and began meeting for open water swims. Our mutual fear of drowning made us perfect partners for swimming beside the shore in 3 foot deep water. In addition to some regular Thursday night meetings, we decided to take advantage of Mary-Anne's generosity and join her in Marsh Lake.

There is not much I can say about Marsh Lake - partially because I suffered permanent brain damage from immersion in ice water. The amazing thing about it is that between my ankles and neck, I remained relatively comfortable. It is really only those unfortunate areas left uncovered by neoprene that made me empathize with Sam McGee and wish for a furnace to crawl into. Despite the crazy cold, there is no swimming pool in the world with a better view to enjoy and no lifeguard that is as nice as Mary-Anne. PLUS, there were hot smokies and coffee cake when we got out - which was much better than the Cheetohs available in the vending machines at the Canada Games Center.

After the swim, I rode my bike 60 km back to Whitehorse with a super-triathlete. We had a raging tailwind that made the ride fast and fun. it was also an eye-opener to the advantages of training with someone faster, stronger, etc... I had my butt kicked up every hill leading into Whitehorse, and I certainly did my best to keep up - forcing myself to pedal faster than I would if by myself.

The only real tragedy of the day was using my waterproof camera to take some pictures. Turns out that my new Olympus Stylus 770 was waterproof until used in the water. I was excited when buying my Stylus because of its underwater picture abilities, so when I watched it slowly fill with water, it was a bit disappointing. On Monday morning I quickly phoned the Olympus warranty center (because in a great miracle, it had actually broken on day 89 of a 90 day warranty), only to be told that I had to magically transport my camera to Markham Ontario to be evaluated BEFORE the 90 days, or it would not be covered. Shockingly, I think that sounds slightly unfair, since the actual breakage clearly occurred within the covered period. I've sent it to Olympus and am hoping that they will get it fixed. If not, I will unleash great blog rage on Olympus.

Sierra posted this on Jul 28, 2008 from the gym | | permanent link