Swim Report – August 11, 2018 – Heat Wave

Last week brought in some lower air temperatures and intermittent t-storms. I was hoping that these might temper the lake a bit (or perhaps even give us a 15F lake temp drop to make me nostalgic for April). But Lake Michigan remained unfazed and gave us yet another unseasonably warm pool to swim in on Saturday morning!

The combination of shorter days (i.e. later sunrise times) and warmer water always seems to bring out more swimmers. And this meetup was certainly no exception. All in all we had at least 15 swimmers show up at L1 – with even more arriving a bit later for the second shift. So the swim start was even more delayed by the extended socializing.

But the draw of the lake is way too strong this time of year, so the conversation soon fizzled out as we all eagerly donned our swim gear to get into the pleasantly balmy lake.

I was expecting some possible colder thermocline layers given all the storm activity we’ve recently had. But the in-swim lake temperature reading came in at 76.6F at all depths. So apart from some slight but substantive swells, it was a fairly textbook swim.

I did manage to complete my 1/2 mile, but I opted to turn around at the 1/4 mile mark versus continuing on to the beach. And since we had swells versus chops, it was very easy to establish and maintain a continuous swim rhythm.

After the swim, I hung out for a little while and got back in the lake to finish my coffee. By that time the lakefront path was starting to transform into a chaotic scrum replete with large running groups and overly ambitious road bicyclists. All I could think of when I saw this was “they wouldn’t be so stressed out if they were all swimming instead!”

Lake Michigan at daybreak