Less fish, more geese

Last night Sandy joined Claudia and me for a swim at Shadow Cliffs. It was cooler than it had been and very windy. There were tree limbs and leaves and stuff all over the ground. I had hopes that the water would still be warm from our fleeting heatwave but no such luck. It felt almost as cool as our first swim, so about 67-68 degrees. Big brrrr.

Again the area was almost deserted with only 2 guys horsing around in the water - they got out before we stepped in. Seeing the lovely expanse of empty water the goose families decided that they'd take the little ones in for a dip. As we headed toward the water two different families of stinky poopy geese stepped in and started swimming, with mom (or dad?) in the lead, little goslings in the middle and dad (or mom?) following behind to keep the kids moving. We waded on in and realized that the birds were swimming back and forth right in the swim lane. Great.

I was leading the way as we were wading, kicking up the sand so that we wouldn't see any fishies. We got out to the lane and made noise and splashes and the geese finally turned around and headed to shore. I'm sure they left all kinds of little presents in the water for us though.

We decided to swim 6 laps and regroup, and although I started in the lead Claudia quickly sped ahead. I enjoyed my swim although I didn't get quite the rhythm that I felt on Tuesday. When I finished the 6 I decided I had to go at least as far as I had before so I swam the last 2 and decided my skin was shivering and shriveling off and it was time to go. Sandy and Claudia were waiting for me and as we turned to shore it appeared that the geese were blockading the exits from the water. Really, they were lined up along the shoreline and wading and swimming into the shallows.

We angled away from them and found a gap and got out. My legs again felt like rubber. I've realized that although I'm not really kicking, when I breathe on the right side I do a weird little flutter-kick to keep from sinking. I'm working on it, along with all the other problems with my form. Which are plentiful and hopefully will get worked out throughout training.

I'm hoping to run long tomorrow, a test of how my knee is doing. It will help me decide next week whether to join Bree and Sandy at the half marathon in Alameda or whether to go to Kick-Off. I'm very torn, I want to be both places at the same time. I don't know what to do!