Walden's Still Pretty Cold

But bearable!

I had a really great swim there yesterday. I took my new Zoot Synergy wetsuit out for a spin. What I love about the Synergy and the Zenith is how stretchy and flexible the neoprene is. It allows for a ton of movement in the shoulders but what's even better is that it makes them easier to put on.
You can grab a whole bunch of rubber and pull it up the leg. By far the easiest suits I've ever put on.
Since it was drizzling and gray and pretty cool yesterday I put my suit on while sitting in the comfort of my dry front seat. Well, I got the bottom third of my suit on. After that it was a little hard to maneuver.

Putting your face below the surface is by far the worst part of swimming in water that's optimistically in the high 50's. Feet, not so bad. Hands naw. Face...oh man you just gotta do it.
And once you get in you just have to go. Blaze through the cold and after a couple minutes you'll be alright.
Of course I don't think I'd be talking with so much confidence if I didn't have my Zoot neoprene cap. I picked mine up at Wheelworks for Mooseman last year. And it's become pretty invaluable. They look totally goofy and old school. But it's amazing how well it seems to work. Of course I don't know how cold it would feel if I wasn't wearing it.

I also swam at Walden last Saturday and there was a Tri club of 12 or so doing some open water race drills. For the brief couple of minutes I was on the beach I saw them run/swim to a few friends standing chest deep in the water and then run back out. Practicing starts and exits I suppose?
When I was getting out I saw they had formed two sides of a lane/gauntlet into which a couple of swimmers would enter. As they swam through they jovialy got spalshed, batted and pushed around. Practicing starts and triathlon commotion I suppose?

As a final note: The second hardest thing about swimming in such cool water is getting out. There's an amazing amount of dizziness. Cold water in the inner ear I suppose? It's fun/scarry.