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Nottawasaga-Bay-50, originally uploaded by monado.
One of our entertainments on holiday was to spend a few hours at the beach of Nottawasaga Bay at Blue Mountains. While the older and younger generations did a long swim, the middle generation created an Om symbol out of sand.
We left before heat and humidity built up to destructive storms, including a downburst of wind.
Coach Kelvin’s triathletes met at Cherry Beach on Lake Ontario for some long-distance open-water swim training. The lifeguards were on duty in spite of the city workers’ strike, because they work for the police “marine” (lacustrine) unit.
Monday should have been the first swim of the year but I was daunted at the thought of swimming in skin and don’t like struggling into my wet suit. I shouldn’t have worried: the water was fine or so I was told. Where we swim is sheltered from the cold current along the north shore of Lake Ontario by the Leslie Street Spit, so it warms up nicely during the day.
It was fine again on Friday (21C): cold at first touch, but then refreshing with layers of warm and and streams of cold water in the lake. Just above the bottom, several feet down, the water was turbid from the rain that fell on Thursday, and the rest of the water was faintly cloudy.
I felt confident in my ability to sight on landmarks and swim in a reasonably straight line this year. So I spent most of the time acclimatizing myself to the whole open-water experience. I need distance practice more than anything. Second, I need to get used to floating in swells. Some long, gentle swells rolled in from time to time, generated by passing boats. When I’m just floating or doing a backstroke, it’s easy to get a little motion-sick.
I mostly swam back and forth along the buoys that mark our 500m courses. I got in about 1900m: breast stroke to warm up, freestyle practice, breast stroke and side stroke to recover, more freestyle. Early on I tried to corner a couple of swans against the shore so that I could look at their paddling feet; but I couldn’t get close enough and the water was still too turbid for a clear view at a distance. So I let them go. I took lots of breaks because I am out of shape and much slower than the average swimmer. After swimming for quite a while in beach shoes I left them on the lifeguards’ dock. Just about the time I felt I’d had enough, the training session was over.
But not all days will be fine, so I need to order a wetsuit that fits.
I’ve decided not to worry about the E. coli count unless it’s astronomical. If the count is over 100 per 100ml, parents will keep their children on the beach and let them play in the wet sand where the count is hundreds of thousands.
Daily water sampling is not taking place because of the city workers’ strike.
Swim workout in 25-yard pool, overseen by Coach Kelvin:
Total: 950 yd. or 805 metres.
Worked on: deep breathing, continuous swimming, double-leg push-off.
We had Pilates lessons again. I’m pleased that our group has finally moved up to the Intermediate level. We had a nice, relaxing lesson at Coyne Pilates.
Swim workout in 25-yard pool with LotStreetWiz & AthleticKid, overseen by Coach Kelvin, 1 hour:
Total 1050 yards or 945 metres.
Today’s improvement: working on a more fluid breaststroke and rising out of the water more.
Today we had a fun ride. LotStreetWiz, AtheticKid, SilentLight, and I all biked down to the Leslie Street Spit, around the outer road (three times for L & A), and back again. We put in about 17 miles plus a few extra for our athletes. We took the Don Trail both ways to find a gentler slope. I generally brought up the rear. At the entrance to the park SilentLight and I hung back to have something to eat. I felt more energetic after that.
The Spit had a community event with nature lookout points and bird boxes for swallows or perhaps bluebirds. Apparently it was part of Doors Open Toronto. At our turnaround point, just before the road turns to gravel, there was a display including some bird skins, so we were able to compare herring gulls, ring-billed gulls (a little smaller), and common terns (a lot smaller). We learned that a pair of great egrets are nesting, or at least hanging around, past our turnaround. That was about our only stop as the emphasis was on letting AthleticKid get in some training time.
still, we saw a lot of birds: cormorants, Canada Geese, gulls, terns, swallows–barn swallows?–and lots of smaller ones. We heard a lot of robins. The red-winged blackbirds are everywhere.
The beaver lodge in the big pond is higher and we saw freshly gnawed and felled trees back by the park entrance. So either there are two beavers with different territories or one wandering animal.
The New York Times has a small roundup of beginners’ running plans:
And who knows, some day it might lead to longer runs.
Coached workout at 7 a.m. in 25-yard pool with Coach Kelvin:
Total: 1900 yards
The stroke improvement helped me because I thought I was doing all those little things already, but I wasn’t.
Swim workout in 25-yard pool, overseen by Coach Kelvin:
Total: 1250 yd. or 1125 metres.
Today’s improvement: a more fluid style in the breaststroke.
Swim workout in 25-yard pool, overseen by Coach Kelvin:
Total: 1250 yd. or 1125 metres.
Today’s improvement: getting a good long reach in freestyle stroke.
Afterward, I walked partway home—a mile or so.
