Canyon Lake Swim, Kayak, and Tortilla Flat

I talked my daughter and her friend into going with me to Canyon Lake so I could try out my new wetsuit. They paddled around in my kayak while I swam. My wetsuit worked great -- from the neck down. The water was really, really cold. My wetsuit is sleeveless, so my arms felt the cold, but it was tolerable; however, my face was absolutely frigid! I could only swim about 20 strokes before having to stop to allow my face to warm up. I'm guessing the water temp had to be in the low 50's. So, my planned 2000 meter swim turned in 200 meters (8 laps in a 25m pool). I'm hoping the water temperature at Saquaro Lake is at least 10 degrees warmer for my May open water swim with DCB Adventures. With as much snow as we've had this year, I'm thinking the lakes are going to be much cooler this year than normal. I guess I'll just have to harden the f**k up! Here are a couple of pictures of Cristina and Trey in the kayak.

After playing around in the lake, we decided to head over to Tortilla Flat for some grub. What a crazy place.

Cristina got "snap happy" and caught me off guard. I thought she was zooming in to take a photo of my "Life Is Good" t-shirt, but I like the result. Pretty goofy, just like me.

Here's a nice shot of Cristina and Trey. Dig Trey's impersonation of Marty Feldman. :)

There are dollar bills all over the walls and lots of crazy signs and western artifacts. Not only are there dollar bills all over the walls, but people stuff them into the knick-knacks that decorate the nooks and crannies near the dining tables. After our meal, we all signed a dollar and stuck it into a milk bottle that was close to our table.

Cristina signing our dollar

Our dollar's resting place. It's the one rolled up and placed in the neck of the bottle.

Update: I later learned that the water temperature in Canyon Lake was 53 degrees. No wonder it felt so dang cold. I went back the following weekend and the water had actually warmed up by several degrees, which made a huge difference. I ended up ditching my wetsuit and was fine with just my speedo.

My First USMS "Go The Distance" Milestone

I participated in the GTD event after joining USMS late last year and managed to squeak out just about 28 miles (well, 27.99 to be exact) by the end of the year.

I just hit my first swimming milestone of 50 miles during my morning workout today, so I'm well on my way to meeting my goal of 250 miles.

Nike Swim is sponsering the give-a-way for the 50 mile mark, so I'll be receiving a free GTD Nike Swim cap sometime after the end of March. I'm starting to amass a collection of caps already and just for fun, I'm thinking about mounting them in a picture frame. I saw some framed caps in one of the pictures of the USMS headquarters and it looked pretty cool. Swim caps are an art form in their own right, so why not display them, 'cause I can't wear them all!

I'm swimming in the rain, Just swimming in the rain...

...What a glorious feelin', I'm happy again. I'm laughing at clouds, so dark up above. The sun's in my heart, and I'm ready for love.

I enjoyed a really nice swim this afternoon, complete with dark storm clouds and a nice rain shower. No ducks this time, but I was joined by a family of humans for about 5 minutes; otherwise, I had the pool all to myself. What a great way to wind down the weekend.

Not the greatest picture, but it shows the nice outdoor pool LTF provides to its member.

Bluebirds and Brewskis

Ah, Spring! Well, it's not officially Spring, but it's close enough for me. I am in the midst of full-blown Spring Fever, and find it hard to be inside. So, to make sure I got some "outside time" today, I had lunch with a friend and my daughter at SanTan Brewery in Chandler and enjoyed their brew sampler along with an awesome sandwich. As I finished each brew sample, I stacked them into a little leaning tower.

Cheryl and the brew sample glass tower

Unfortunately, I bumped the table at one point and they all went crashing down. My daughter and I both let out a rather loud, shrill, scream, which of course, got everyone's attention. Needless to say, our server put me at ease by saying "Well, at least you had finished them before they fell", as he gave me a big smile.

After lunch we took a stroll through downtown Chandler and did a little window shopping. There are a lot of great restaurants that I don't remember seeing that I really need to check out during my work lunch hour. 

Just as we arrived at the brewery, a "Pre-Ostrich Festival Parade" was just winding down. For those of you who aren't familiar with Chandler, AZ, the Ostrich Festival is a pretty big deal, and to commerate it a blue painted ostrich statue was perched in the center of town.

Cheryl and "Bluebird"

Cancer Research Swim Challenge

Aqua Sphere is partnering a swim challenge (pitting men against women -- sounds fun already) for cancer research. It's similar to the USMS "Go The Distance" program, but you log your total time spent in the pool, not your distance. $35,000 will be split between the Breast Cancer Foundation and Prostate Cancer Foundation based on the total time logged by men vs. women.
Here's the link to their news article: http://www.aquasphereswim.com/us/media/100303_SwimChallenge_PR.html
I'm already doing the 2010 GTD, so making my workouts count towards cancer research seems like a "win-win" to me. I especially love their poster. Here's a scaled-down version. Note the banana peel under the guy's foot.