First outdoor swim this year!

We are blessed with a real early visit by summer.
Usually, in may, here in Norway, it is spring.
Temperatures would be moderate, some rain, som wind, some sunshine, and maybe some unexpected night time below freezing until mid of may.

Not this year!
We have had proper summer temperatures since early may, and it's absolutely faboulous.
Since our local pool is only open during the winter months from october to march, I had planned to rely on another pool about 30km away.
Unfortunately, that one had to close due to instability problems in the roof - and will stay closed until mid of august!

So since the nearest pool now is 50 or 60km away, and I don't have a car (just yet, we'll see about that), I'll try my best and get my swimming done outside, in our lake, as long as temperatures will allow it.

So, yesterday, I had planned a longer bike ride at a rather relaxed intensity.
And since I was about to ride around our lake, I would pass several places where it's easy to access the water, including one of four camping sites with a beach.

So I packed a little backpack, a swimskin (that is, a wetsuit with just 1mm of thickness), googles and a cap, and a small towel.
And - with the wind blowing in the right direction, yes, at the smaller of the two beaches on the one camping site, there was this little girl swimming and enjoying herself in the water.

Oh man, if she can, I can, I thought.
When I was little I was about as tough as that little girl, but I grew out of that a little bit, even if I am always ready for a cold water challenge just for fun.

When I started to put the swim skin on, I was joined by two other girls (not in wetsuits, but bikini) who wanted to swim as well.

Nice.
The one girl was quite tough and in a good mood, and explained the best strategies to get into cold water.
- You can just get into it! she said.
- You can tell yourself it's warm.
- It will get better after a while!
And so on.
She was the first to get wet, but I followed, inspired by her guts, and was soon swimming along.

It was more of a test of equipment than swimming, but I had a really good time.
I think it was the first time I swam in the lake while there still was some snow visible not too high up in the mountains!

Swimming felt good.
It was cold, but good.

I decided to just have fun instead of doing a more structured workout, since I still had more than two third of the lake to ride around to get home.
And my bike form is far from good.
My legs are usually burning also at the slightest hill, my hamstring scream and I feel really out of shape. Running is getting better although hard as well, especially when I try to take it easy, weirdly enough.

Well, I am pleased with yesterday.
Let's hope our beautiful warm weather continues for a bit longer, so I can go swimming again.

Nice!