Swimming Loche Ine

Training was somewhat interrupted this week by a trip to West Cork, Ireland for a family wedding. Naturally such occasions involve copious amounts of food, drink and late night revelry, none of which is conducive to quality exercise. Nonetheless we did manage to shake off the post-wedding hangover on the Sunday with a 0.5 mile swim in Loch Hyne (Ine) and followed by a 5k run home. The swim was lovely although the loch was COLD. At first I didn't think I was going to be able to swim a proper crawl because after each set of around a dozen swim strokes my head was frozen so much it felt like it was being crushed and I couldn't breath properly!! However after a little while my entire face went numb and after that I was incapable of feeling any pain... The run was short and sharp. From the loch you climb up a pretty steep country road for around a mile and half back to the main Baltimore road where you hang a right and continue another mile and half back to the legendary town of Skibbereen.