Dude, Somebody Stole my Floatie!

Last weekend, Paul and I were in Springfield, Missouri, to visit his parents and grandma. I was looking forward to swimming in Table Rock Lake. It's so clean and clear and pretty:

I didn't have a kayaker -- wanted Paul to be able to visit with his folks, so I made my way to Moonshine Beach (only in Branson... land of hillbillies, has-beens and holy rollers) a protected cove for swimming with a sandy beach. The swimming area wasn't very big, but I could see a nice route along the buoy line.

I swam out to the first buoy and attached my floating beverage ring by rope and a carabiner to the anchor chain. It's a great little self-service feeding station, pictured here in my corner full o' swimming gear:

The water was absolutely delicious - very little wind, cool but not cold and I could see about 4-5 feet below me. Following the buoys across the swimming beach over to the marina and back took about 15 minutes, so 2 laps to a a feed. 

It is so handy to have that floating feed station. I'm able to relax and swim, not having to go back to the beach or put a handful of gu gels and a water bottle down the back of my suit. As I swam back to the marina, I could see some drowned trees under me in the water -- it was like I was flying over them.

On my way back to the floatie, I noticed a big power boat parked by the buoy. I wondered if it was some sort of lake patrol annoyed that I had attached my float to the buoy, although I don't know why anyone would care. It wasn't a hazard to boats or other swimmers or anything.

By the time I made it to the buoy the boat was gone. And so was my floatie. 

Are you kidding me? Seriously? What kind of cretin steals somebody's float ring and carbo drinks. Did they think there was beer in there? Good grief.

I swam to the beach thinking maybe whoever took it dropped it off, but no such luck. I could have, and should have, put in another hour of swimming, but I felt angry and a little violated. I just wanted to go home to the inlaws, so I did.

The next day, Father's Day, I was determined to get in more swimming since I only swam an hour and 45 minutes at the lake. I stopped by Starbucks, grabbed a latte and a breakfast sandwich and headed to the YMCA, where I like to swim when we're in Springfield.

Could this weekend have been a bigger swim FAIL? Why on earth is the YMCA closed? Father's Day? Sunday? KHAN!!!!

Swimming friends and mentors had been telling me to rest. I had swum 11 hours last weekend and had racked up some decent yardage in the past few weeks. But, I wasn't planning to swim 100 x 100s on the 100 - I just wanted to get in some yards. Believe it or not, I actually like swimming just for the sake of swimming. And I'm a little bit anal about staying on track with my swim plan, which involves certain total yardage each week.

But this weekend wasn't going according to plan. I needed to let it go. Breathe. Maybe one of my swimming friends did some extra yards this week and it all balances out in the swimming cosmos. Gotta go with the flow.