A very happy and prosperous New Year

- on the inner and outer planes of life - to everybody!



Ice on lake Constance at Lindau - Dec. 31st, 2008

After a few months of concentrating more on the first one of the famous 3 triathlon disciplines, which as you may know are eat - train - sleep, I took my forth winter water dip yesterday (about 3°C, maximum), on New Year's eve, in Lake Constance, closely monitored by some friends. It was actually hard to find a place to enter the water on the little island of Lindau, because big parts of the shallow water at the shore were frozen. Although I am better insulated now than I was in September, the dip was only 2 min. of swimming plus some 2 min. of walking into, around and out of the water- my feet just wouldn't tolerate more, and the toes of my right foot would hurt for an hour afterwards, whereas my body felt pretty fine. (Outside temperature was around minus 2°C.) The ocean in Tsingdao in Jan. 2005 was definitely warmer!



Pradipana and Dhimati - on the way to Lindau island, hoping to find a spot for me to get into the frozen water. For some strange reason they were happy to stay out of the water.











Real ice!

With awe I was thinking of Lynne Cox and Lewis Gordon Pugh the "polar bear swimmers"- how can you swim in close to 0°C water for 15 minutes and longer? And even do a header into the water?

Now training will have to start again more seriously, in warm indoor pools, to prepare for the 12 hour indoors swim in Zurich in February.

I have reserved a spot for the tide of end of July 2009, 4th place again, but with an option to switch pilots if needed.



My "bodyguards" on Dec. 31st - then over night, like a blessing for the New Year, everything turned white!



The next polar bear dip, this time in the Neckar on Jan. 11th, 2009



After the dip, with Pragya, my bodyguard and triathlon helper - with the frozen Neckar in the background, only a few meters from where I went in