What is Appropriate?

Oh man it has now been over a week since getting in the water. I took last weekend off of swimming because I swam so much during the week and had some other stuff I needed to get done over the weekend. Then I started to feel a little sick on Sunday and all week long I have been bogged down by a medium grade chest/head cold and light fever. I was not exactly miserable but just not well enough to get in the water. On Thursday I had taken a run and then I seemed to go downhill after that so I was afraid swimming might have a more severe consequence given the water temperature.

Picture of Doheny on my run this morning I feel compelled to include.

Yesterday I was feeling better and even better today so I took a 6 mile run in the morning with the idea that will psychologically set me up to think I got in my workout and then I can get in the water and feel no obligation to swim longer than what I deem appropriate. The big question here is can my judgement of what is appropriate be trusted? I don’t have a great track record here.

Well I’m doing it and I pull into the parking lot at the Strand just before 11:45. The water looks ruffly but I don’t see any chop. As I step out of my car the pavement feels nice and warm on my feet but the air feels generally cold. It still has not hit 60 degrees yet.

Walking down the stairs, I can see the shades and shadows over the surface of the water revealing the rocks and kelp underneath which means visibility is likely decent. I’m trying not to think too much about water temperature, but that’s not really much of a struggle. I feel completely uncalibrated. After not being exposed to the water for a week and all the while my inner thermometer being tossed about by my mild illness, what does cold even feel like really? How can I even judge cold from warm or normal?

It is partly cloudy out. It doesn’t feel sunny but doesn’t feel grey and gloomy either. There is plenty, and I would say mostly, blue sky over the water but just enough cloud cover to significantly dim the light. Also it’s Winter. It’s a medium tide and all in all the beach is looking pretty great. I’m happy to be here and teach myself what cold water feels like again. There is someone else out in the water without a wetsuit. He is wading just short of the edge of the surf and looks to be enjoying himself. We wave to each other as we cross paths while he is drying off and I am just heading in.

I walk through the small surf and a set of smallish waves roll in that I dive under. I feel fine. The water is cold but I just can’t remember if it’s colder or warmer than my last few swims. Based on recent buoy data, that I read like scripture, it’s probably a touch colder. However I have noticed, and probably posted but can’t remember, that the initial plunge does not seem to phase me much lately. I’m wet now and there was not a whole lot of drama involved. It feels good to dive under the waves and emerge from the breaking white water into blue clarity just below the surface. So pretty seeing soft, flat, white sand stretch forever below the blue and unblemished amniotic fluid of the ocean.

I start to swim and I can tell it is going to be a bit of a bumpy ride. The current is definitely moving south, in my direction (for now). Every now and then I can feel a wake or a pair of them push me forward and watch the dancing kelp below me pass by at an accelerated rate.

I keep swimming and every now and then it seems like the water warms around me. However I suspect this is more the result of numbed extremities that true temperature fluctuations. Doesn’t really matter, I’m comfortable and I’m glad to be here. However I don’t feel like I’m yet operating at 100%. I’m not sure how long I’m going to be in the water. On the one hand, I have already ran and I’m kind of fine if this all just lasts 15 minutes but on the other hand wouldn’t it “be cool” if I could get in a full swim? Yeah, whatever Matt. Sure. That would be really cool.

I make it to the south end of the beach and realize that eliminates the 15 minute option. I’m likely already 20 minutes in and I need to swim back. There is a Seagull on my big rock and a couple surfers northeast of that. The sun is high just to my west and the glare makes the cliffs beneath the headlands dark and shaded. Not a whole lot not to like here. The Seagull flies away and I take that as my cue to leave as well. North!

The tone of the water changes as I drive into the current and without the reference of the shore now as I breathe to my left, it feels like I am just sloshing about. The cold is penetrating my psychological shell and it’s not long before I decide that I am going to take advantage of the permission I have given myself for an abbreviated swim. I’ll just swim back to my take off point and skip the trip to the northern bathrooms.

I feel like I am fighting with my arms to make forward headway. That current is in it to win it, but we’ll just see about that. I’m still very glad to be here. There are moments when the sun emerges from it’s light cloud coverage and I can see the full brunt of its light shine right down on me like a gift. I am very grateful.

I’d say the water has grown more turbulent from when I started. A few times I pause and look about and this surface does not want to keep still. This definitely matches up with the wind forecast model I reviewed this morning. Right about noon, the onshores were due to kick in and it looks like that is what is happening.

I’m getting close to the edge of the houses here and the wooden strip of boardwalk. Then my destination is not far, but I have drifted a way offshore and I try to point myself inward both physically and spiritually I guess. I watch trees of kelp below me and I try to power my arms to get me past them. If I can see them move then certainly I am making progress.

Finally there is my house that I parked my backpack below. I’m still a ways out but I swim due east in earnest. It takes a bit but I’m seeing that sand not too far below me and I stand in shoulder high water. The swell pulls me out further and I resume swimming just a few strokes to get to shallower water. There. I did it.

I get to my pack and for the second time since the cold water season started, I actually use my towel and clothes in my pack to get warm. Toweling off feels harder than it should be and getting my shirt on feels unnaturally difficult but I eventually succeed. Well I was in the water for 53 minutes. Not too bad. That northern current must have slowed me down a bit.