I swam 3800+ meters today @ 8:00. At Konyalti Beach, from cliffs towards the west. The sea was 27 degrees C. Sunny, hot, water surface was smooth, but water visibility was only like 2m- the sea bed was stirred up by a strong western sweeping current and the previously settled slime had clouded everything up.
With such low visibility I was essentially blind in the water which surprisingly was better for concentrated swimming- at least it helps me with any anxiety I might feel about deep water. It’s obviously not a debilitating fear I have, since I don’t hesitate to swim alone in the sea, but still it’s an elevated caution or unnerving sense of vulnerability I feel about things I cannot see in the deep blue below me. It’s part of the challenge I face in swimming calm under any circumstance so I practice pushing past it.
I swam with the current for 30 minutes, then back against it for 39 for a total of 69 minutes. A 9 minute difference and yet I knew I was swimming at a negative split pace so that reveals how strong the current was. It was a good effort, but I was not willing to extend my distance today because of having to swim back against the current. When it is calm like this, from the shore I cannot tell if there is a current or which direction it might be going. Which beach I show up at determines which direction I swim- today I discovered the current only after swimming into it after several minutes in the water, now committed to my path, then at the half-way mark realizing how swift it was and that I now had to work against it all the way back. It’s one thing to have it planned into the workout, but a bit more intimidating when it is unexpected.
But still it is a condition to train for. Any given race or sea swim could be current-assisted one way and opposed in the other- so training mentally and physically for both is essential. This is where having ‘gears’ appropriate to different conditions becomes so useful.
© 2010, Mediterra International, LLC. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Mediterra International, LLC and Mediterraswim.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
RSS - Posts