Open Water Swims in West Crete
It sounds funny but I actually took a break from longer swims in the middle part of the summer.
I did a lot of kayaking for a while and got pretty exhausted. August was hot and I was low on energy.
Come September, I picked up swimming again, mostly with company! This was my first longish swim in a few months. It felt very good.
Today a long, free swim in Viglia, until Meri’s well and back.
Weather was windy, 4 Beaufort from SW. I was actually faster on the way back than on the way out, though it didn’t feel like it.
I actually got a little cold on the way back, and hit a wall of fatigue about one third of the way on the swim back. There was a strong current pushing out to sea, and for a while I struggled to get closer to shore. On the positive side, my breathing was fine, I never really ran out of breath.
I went swimming also in the last couple of days, without GPS.
Yesterday a snorkel in Falasarna to the shallow rock a few hundred metres from shore, and the day before yesterday a short swim in Korfalonas with Giulia, Sofia and the French cyclists Greta and Romain.
Today I tested the other new wetsuit that I just bought. This is a full, Orca brand wetsuit. It was quite easy to put on and it feels very comfortable, maybe a little too big for me but I did enjoy the comfort after the struggle to fit into the tight sleeveless one the other day. There’s quite a bit of extra material in the legs, arms and body, but it did cover me nicely. Arms are very stretchy, and I didn’t have any feeling of excess compression or constriction. I could do my stroke freely. Float balance in the water was also great, probably helped by the calm sea. I found a good balance right from the start.
Now the only real test left is the winter, when the water gets cold. Will this wetsuit keep me warm? The neoprene does look pretty thin. That test will have to wait about 6 months anyway! The sea temperature doesn’t really drop until December.
Fiona came with me, and we set off from the end of Viglia beach. Beautiful still sea, clear water. We took some breaks and chatted along the way, but when swimming I was trying to push quite hard. We were aiming to go check out the little beach by the Balos road toll, for a potential beach cleaning. I did get there, the beach was clean, and swam a bit beyond Meri’s well as well.
I wore hand paddles for most of the swim, except the beginning and the end. I didn’t really get tired, probably the frequent breaks helped, still a good general feeling.
So I was tired of always getting cold at the end of a longer swim, splashed out and ordered a couple of wetsuits.
This was just before the sea water got really warm. June definitely doesn’t need a wetsuit here in Crete. I am prone to getting cold quickly and easily, but I have started doing swims longer than an hour with no significant body temperature drop for the last 2-3 weeks or so.
The wetsuits arrived today, and I wanted to test one right away.
I went to Viglia and sweated my way into the sleeveless wetsuit. It felt pretty tight.
I’d forgotten my Garmin gps, so this track is from my phone, which is less accurate than the Garmin. It looks ok though. I also had a new buoy, with a pocket to gain access to the contents while in the water.
I felt tired right from the start, out of breath mostly. I was trying to push hard, and stopped frequently to regain breath. I blame either the post Porosea race effect, or the compression from the wetsuit which felt like it didn’t allow full lungs expansion. I couldn’t find a good floating balance in the water either.
The track says that I was faster than usual though, even in slightly wavy sea. Probably the wetsuit effect, and possibly the high stroke rate and long arm extension I was trying to keep.
Here I tested coming out of the water halfway through the swim, to test for the Porosea race.
This is my typical swim in Kissamos.
Start from the beach next to Kissamos stadium, go East along the coast, come back to starting point.
This was my second swim after a chest infection which stopped me for 10 days, and my last longish swim before the Porosea 3km race on the next Saturday.
This is my first real swim after my chest infection was almost gone. I took it very easy, and still found it hard to breathe. With Fiona.
On the way back we saw a female turtle, and followed it for a little while doing breast stroke.
Just a short attempt at swimming in really choppy sea. I also have a bad sore throat. Couldn’t see anything in the sea, so went back very soon.
A fairly typical swim in Kissamos, training for the Porosea 3km swimming race in June.
Sea temperature is warm enough to go for long distances without any neoprene.
Probably the last swim with full wetsuit and neoprene sock on. Just a precaution really not to get cold so I can stay in the water for the planned time of over an hour.
A one way swim from Viglia to Meri’s well and beyond. Got tired at the end and struggled for the last 500m.