First Ocean Swim/Encounter of the Year

I did the LA Tri Club "Ocean 101" this a.m. -- just to get a few refresher tips on reading the waves etc. And to get myself into the (ice-cream-headache-provoking) frigid (53?) water.

It wasn't nearly as cold as I feared. In fact, I truly believe that Ventura last June was colder - this was cold, this morning, but it didn't make my bones and flesh ache.

And dolphins! a pod of five dolphins came within 10 yards or so, maybe closer. So neat!

I actually had the presence of mind to do my stroke like I've practiced in the pool, shooting my arm out & down instead of smacking it against the surface in energy-sucking windmilling.

For those of you interested, I wore my full wetsuit (my lovely new XTerra Vector Pro2) because I wanted the full-length arms and two swim caps.

Last week was a good training week in that I made it to the pool, lifted weights, ran, and did a spin class.

Dave and I also did daily hikes (uphill! through the snow!) while in Yosemite for the vet conference (day one about 3 miles, day two about 5 miles, and day three about 7.5-8 miles). We tried to hike up at least just past Columbia Rock on the Yosemite Falls trail but had to turn around because of snow and iciness. We did get to see these two does and a buck also on the trail.

See! it really was snowing! This is me, all bundled up for our long hike. We took the shuttle bus to the Happy Isles/ Mirror Lake stop then hike up past Mirror Lake to the big bridge across Tenaya Creek. .We ended up having to break our own trail for quite a bit of the hike past Mirror Lake (i.e. everyone else had given up and was drinking hot toddies or whatever at the Ahwanhee Bar). At the bridge we turned around and retraced our steps. Instead of catching the shuttle bus, we hiked all the way back to the Lodge. It was a nice hike and we only get to be in the snow when we do trips like this.