It was before 6am and my neighbor Scott and I were departing Darien, CT to Lake Waccabuc in NY.  The roads are empty at that time and after the brutal heat experienced last week Saturday felt relaxing.   This was going to be the 1st swim for us in 2010 at Lake Waccabuc.  The past weeks heat has brought the Red Jelly Fish to Long island Sound – painful little things!  The last time we had entered the Lake was November 2009 in 48 degree water – ohhh my God was it cold! 

Back to Saturday.  We rode to a small dirt trail, and carried our bikes down this single track to the Lake.  We were fearful of the bike being stolen so we had to hide them in the brush.  We unhooked our googles and hit the lake.  It is 1.5m across.  The entire time I spent eyeing these two swans making sure we did not become their pray – they litterally followed us the entire swim.  Back on the bikes and off we rode back to CT.  It was soo cool.  No towels, just bikes, googles, and nutrition.  All that and home to be with the kids before 10am.

The Definition: A solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year when the Sun’s apparent position in the sky reaches its northernmost or southernmost extremes. The name is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), because at the solstices, the Sun stands still in declination; that is, the apparent movement of the Sun’s path north or south comes to a stop before reversing direction.

Today a work stunk!  On my favorite day of the year.  Not to mention the day after a Great Fathers Day.  I swam in Long island sound with a swim skin – 5:45 am – swam 1.2m with my next door neighbor.  It was chilly but fantastic at the same time.  Came home showered in the hottest shower possible.  Got back in bed with heating blanket, because I was so cold.  At noon I met my neighbor Scott again for a 75 minute run,  It was humid as HE double hockey sticks.  I felt like I was going to die.  I ran for 80 min with ave HR of 152 – far from the moderate run my trainer called for.  I get to work today and as I opened with it stunk.  But as I have said many times before perseverance wins.  Never, never, never give up.  The best part of my day was a 30 min Long Island swim at high tide o Summer Solstice.  It was beautiful!

For the past month plus I have been swimming in Long Island Sound.  Yes it is between 48 and 55 degrees.  Yes most of the time I find it difficult to find someone to go swimming with me.  Yes I know that it is not smart to be swimming a mile off shore solo in these conditions.  But it is SOO great not to be in the indoors.  My 1st time in L.I.S. in 2010 - it was so cold I swam out to an island and had to sit in the sun like a seal to warm myself.  The second time out I got what I diagnosed as Sea Lice.  I had these red dots all over my body.  The best was this weekend when I swam roughly half mile out in the fog and found myself between 2 fishing boats.  Six fisher men with rods and bait and little oldf me right in the center of the feeding grounds.  Not an ideal spot for a swimmer.  I can not tell u how many Shark Week episodes went thru my head.  But even with all these issues it still is so much better than beaing stuck indoors.  Welcome Summer time!

A few weeks back the East coast was hammered but a storm.  In Fairfield county power was out for 5+ days.  Trees were down everywhere.  No school for the kiddies.  The place was a disaster – keep in mind I mean a disaster for Fairfield county.  Not a disaster compared to what some areas of the world are going thru.  But back to my point.  I was going on my post work run.  I was making special effort to run my all the electrician and tree teams out trying to get everything back to normal.  I wanted to give them a thumbs up or a big “thank you.”  To my amazement these people were shocked.  They were so pumped.  I got the idea that most of the greetings that had been receiving had been complaints.  Then came the part that made me proud to be a triathletes.  I passed a guy I meet 2 years ago on a training ride.  We spoke for a minute and he said he was almost done, but wanted to make sure he thanked the tree team down the road behind me.  For all the heat triathletes get about being self absorbed – that gesture made me proud.

I am lucky in that my professional responsibilities do not require me to travel a great deal.  The idea of being on and off airplanes and spending the night in hotels is not for me.  It is not what I was built for.  I am a creature of habit.  I get up at 4am get an hour workout in and then off to work.  I log in 12 plus hours a day – a few dinners a week and that my normal work week.  I am aware that my life style is not ideal to all.  But its mine and I dig it.  But as we all know life takes out of our comfort zones from time to time and the trick is to make the best out of it.  The last week I was in SF for two nights and LA for 3.  I experienced two great work outs in LA area that I thought I would share with you.  The 1st one is well known and that is the Santa Monica stairs.  They are great and the experience definitely makes one question why do I live anywhere but right here?  The second experience is not as well known yet, but could be on its way.  I went to Cross Fit Malibu.  It took place in an old “army barracks” like structure.  It was a class of 10 people of a variety of fitness levels – 40% were triathletes.  We ran, pulled, jumped, dragged, and much much more.  If you find yourself in Malibu – you got to check this out.