It’s been too long since I’ve been in good swimming shape. Time to get back at it although I’m having a hard time finding a good place to swim on a regular basis. I could find a pool to swim in but with the weather being perfect this year for spending time at the beach or lake I just can’t find it in me to swim indoors. When i got off of work yesterday I HAD to find a lake to swim in.
A few weeks ago I did an afternoon training session with my friend Dave. We wanted to do a swim, a mt bike and a run up North near Newaygo. We were both pretty busy that week and we didn’t have time to come up with a plan or destination. So that morning Dave said he had a great spot that we could do our adventure and it was in Newaygo. I was all about it.
We ended up going to a spot on the Muskegon River called the Highbanks. We ran from the roadside park east 4 miles got into the river and instead of swimming back we floated on tubes. You wouldn’t think that 3 or 4 miles by foot would be that far on the river. With the tubes it ended up taking 3 /12 hours. It was a beautiful stretch of river but the entire time I kept thinking of how much better time I could make by swimming. I would keep this stretch of the river in mind.
Yesterday I left early from work at around 3:30 and I wanted to go for a run and a swim. It was 90 degrees and at least 90% humidity. I figured that I would run first, work up a good sweat then take a swim. Ok my daily adventure was coming together, I just didn’t have a destination yet. I was thinking of Lake Michigan but today I wanted something different. I started to think of the Muskegon river and the Highbanks. It’s a 45 minute drive and gas prices at almost $4 a gallon but what the heck it was perfect I headed North.
Looking down at the Muskegon river from the Parking area
It was a perfect day and it was going to be a perfect workout. I decided that instead of just running out and back from the parking area before the swim I would run the 237 stairs leading down to the river down and back up 10 times. This would be a great workout for my legs and a change-up from my usual run.
Wheww, I don’t know what I was thinking I should have stuck to my original plan of running out 3 miles and back with a few hills because after 5 times I was starting to really feel the burn in my legs. I kept at a steady pace not allowing myself to slow down and stop to rest. I got through 8 then 9 and my legs were on fire I wasn’t sure I could make the last climb. I just kept telling myself to push through it and the swim would be all that much better. I finally made it, 10 times down and 10 to the top of the stairs and wait…I have to do 11 if I want to go for a swim. Damn what was I thinking. Ok back down to the river.
Swimming upstream going nowhere
I made it down to the river and the water was a perfect 72 degrees with a current running at pretty much the exact speed I swim at. I swam just a few meters off the bank for 45 minutes and didn’t move more than 5 meters upstream. It was the perfect endless pool. To top it all off there was a rope hanging from a tree near the bank that was positioned perfectly to drop into 5 feet of water. This was more than a workout it was one awesome adventure!! What was your adventure today??
Rope swing….doesn’t get any better than this!! A perfect summer
JJ
