Open Water Swimming

This weekend we went up to Devil's Lake for some open water swimming.  Courtney and I loaded up the kayak and met Jeff, Matt and Stephen at the lake for an early morning swim.  I'm the slowest swimmer of the group so it's a pretty tough workout for me sometimes, but that's a good thing.  They definitely push me and help make me a better swimmer.

The other day I stopped at Rutabaga to pick up some accessories for the kayak, and one of the things I bought was a water-proof bag for the camera so Courtney had some fun with the camera while we swam....

 Me, Matt and Stephen.  Jeff was super fast so there aren't any pics of him.  

I'm in the green cap, Matt in yellow, Stephen in orange.

We had a nice paceline going for a while.  Here we are (Stephen, me then Matt):

Me drafting off Matt.

Nice of Matt to acknowledge his dad on Father's Day.  
 

More video of us.  Stephen's leading, I'm drafting, Matt is on the right....

 Matt

Drafting off Matt on the way back.

Here's some video of us heading back.  I'm drafting off Matt, which I was only able to do for a few minutes before I fell off (fatigue).  Stephen and Jeff are out front.  It's the only video Courtney was able to get of Jeff.  That's what happens when you swim 10 minutes faster than everyone else (he covered the 2.5 miles in one hour three minutes).

It's 2.5 miles there and back, but I wanted to swim for 90 minutes so as tired as I was I had more swimming to do.

I got in a total of 5300 yards (3 miles) so it was a really good workout.  It was great having a few guys to push me and get me out of my comfort zone, and even though I swam pretty slow and easy for the last 1/2 mile I think it was good for building endurance so I can keep up that faster pace for longer.  One thing I noticed watching the videos is that my stroke rate definitely slows when I get tired.  

After the swim, everyone went their separate ways and Courtney and I laid on the beach and soaked up some sun.  What a great way to spend the morning.