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LoginJennyby rurikkk
An extreme morning swim
part I
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It was 06:00 in the morning in late November and it was just cold, dark and miserable. The temperature was a couple degrees below zero and a storm was raging, with howling winds blowing and frozen needle-like raindrops flying sideways across the landscape, illuminated by the streetlamps.
Luckily I was very cozy inside my car, driving to work for via a scenic route overlooking a remote sand beach, admiring the waves crashing to the shore from the dark sea. The only light was from the street lamps and row of warning buoys with blinking lights some hundreds of meters off shore, rising and falling with the waves. The waters here never got particularly warm, and it had already been a couple of months since the last neoprene-clad surfers and swimmers had ended their season.
Suddenly I noticed a woman in sweatpants and a windbreaker jacket running on the beach in the distance, and I couldn't help but admire her determination to be outside in this weather. Something made me ease on the gas pedal to get a bit longer look. She was wearing a black cap, and had long blond hair flowing from under it. Also she was carrying a backpack that was tightened to her waist with a strap to prevent it bouncing around. Perhaps she was running to work and had her work clothes in there, I thought. She looked actually quite beautiful, at least as far as I could tell from this distance. She was of medium height, but her body seemed somewhat bulky underneath the baggy clothes.
She kept a pretty brisk pace, but as she was closing to a lone bench on the beach she started to slow down. My curiosity got the better of me and I eased on the throttle. At the bench she stopped, dropped her cap and backpack to the bench and started stretching and swinging her arms around. I wondered what was going on and pulled over to an long row of empty parking spaces on the side of the road, from where I had a good view over the beach. It was dark, but there was a streetlight close to the bench which provided just enough light. She hadn't even noticed my car up on the road, the wind and waves blocking the noise.
Just as I shut off the engine she dropped down onto the stony beach to a pushup position, and raised her feet to the backrest of the bench. Despite the steep angle she started cranking out solid reps real fast, one after another. I soon lost count but she must've done 40-50 reps by the time she finished and stood up. Then she did something that just made by jaw drop. In a few determined moves she kicked off her shoes, pulled of her jacket and then her pants, revealing an incredibly thick and muscular body clad only in a tiny black bikini. Her muscles were bulging as she kneeled down to pack the clothes to her backpack, and took out what seemed to be a black swimming cap and goggles.
The freezing wind and rain were now freely beating on her bare skin, but she stood tall with her hands raised behind her head and biceps flexing as she was putting the rubber cap on her head and tucking her long hair underneath it. Finally she carefully positioned the small goggles on and started walking towards from the raging sea, shaking her buff legs and arms. Sprays of ice-cold seawater were hitting her from the crashing waves and I could see she was taking deep breaths that caused her chest and abs to expand and relax in rhythm. Then at just the right moment between two large waves she took off, sprinting towards the water. In an instant she was knee-deep in and dove under an oncoming wave, disappearing into the dark turbulent water.
For what seemed like an eternity I couldn't see her, but then I spotted the muscular figure perhaps 50 meters from the shore, swimming with strong strides out to the sea. Despite being tossed around like a ragdoll and constantly disappearing under the surface after being hit by another wall of water, she kept going on like a machine.
After a while I checked the clock on the car and she had already been out for 10 minutes. I knew I was going to be late, but I just couldn't leave without seeing how this feat would end. I could barely see glimpses of her anymore, swimming out on an 45 degree angle, partially past my car. One of the buoys was just on her course but those were like 400 meters out and equally far apart from each other, she couldn't possibly be aiming that far in this storm.. or could she?
At 20 minutes she had already disappeared from sight into the darkness, with only the backpack on the bench reminding that she really was out there. All this time I hadn't seen a single other soul on the beach, and just a couple of cars driving by. At 30 minutes I was really getting mixed feelings. Where was she? Even if she had swum all the way to one of the buoys it shouldn't take this long... and how could anyone survive out there this long anyways?
At 40 minutes I just couldn't stand the anticipation anymore and got out of my car, trying to hide from the wind under the raised collar of my winter jacket. I walked to the lonely backpack, trying to pick it up to on a whim - and immediately realized it was way heavier than I had thought. Looking closer I realized that it actually had a serious weight vest incorporated to it, with a marking "20kg" written on it. I was even more dumbfounded that before, looking out to the sea.
Just then a figure in the water stopped my thoughts. It was her, but coming in from the opposite direction! She was swimming a bit slower now but still reached the shore quite fast. She was clearly exhausted and panting heavily, her huge abs and bikini-covered chest expanding with every inhale and every exhale forming clouds of vapor into the cold air.
She took a few shaky steps after getting solid ground under her feet instead of rolling waves, but quickly gathered herself and started walking towards me and the bench. Her skin had turned red from the exposure and her limbs were clearly stiff from the cold, but her face revealed that she was just ecstatic and she didn't seem at all fazed to see me standing next to her gear.
"Hi!" She called out in a cheerful manner, pulling off her goggles and cap. She stopped close to me, bending over to rest with her hands on her knees, still looking up towards me. "I didn't expect to.. see anyone else... down here.. at this hour... and in this weather ... puff.. puff.. damn, it was pretty wild today!"
"Uh, hi!" I started, "That's some impressive stuff you just did! I wouldn't had believed anyone can even survive out there, let alone go for a real swim!". I had to raise my voice for her to hear me through the wind.
"Well it was a real rollercoaster today... haven't been tossed around that bad for a while.... Almost intense enough to make me forget about how damn cold it is... almost." she replied and smirked, her breathing alraedy normalizing a bit. She had to be in incredible condition to recover so fast!
"I can imagine, that water would be freezing even with a full wetsuit.. and well, it's kind of hard not to notice you're not wearing one." I said, trying to act as casual as I could with the dripping wet musclegirl in front of me.
"I never use a wetsuit, no matter how cold it gets" , she replied, at the same time grabbing a small towel from the backpack to dry most of the water off.
"I know it sounds a bit crazy, but I love putting myself through seriously tough workouts like this one. Facing the pain and dread is great for building mental toughness, and frankly... knowing that I have what it takes to swim daily in the freezing sea in just a bikini is a huge rush for me" She was clearly still full of adrenaline from her swim, but I could see she was sincerely enjoying these grueling workouts.
"Sounds more than just a bit crazy to me" I joked, getting her to laugh a little. "But seriously, I really have to admire your dedication. You must've covered some serious distance there, and that you do it daily just mindblowing"
"I try to break my records with every workout. Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't, but the main thing is to keep on pushing myself as far as possible every time. Just a couple winters ago I barely managed to swim to one of those buoys and back, but now I've hardened enough to swim laps between the buoys out on the sea. In this storm I managed just one lap because it's almost impossible to move forward at all, but on a clear day my record is three." She was now already pulling on her sweatpants but somehow clumsily - then I realized it was due to her fingers being absolutely numb from the cold.
"Let's see.. that means you covered about 1,2 kilometers today and your record is 2!" I noted after a quick calculation in my head.
"Sounds about right! Those are of course winter records when the water is under 5 celsius, anything above that and I can do a lot more. " she said happily.
"Wow! But looking looking your body I can't help but think that you can't be just a swimmer, must be putting in some serious time in the gym as well."
"Why, thanks! I am an excercise addict I guess... I do a lot of swimming and running year round, but I love hitting the weights and doing strongman training, and even some contact sports as well just for fun, And to be honest I'm pretty competitive too, I love taking part in competitions or record attempts just to test myself and spice things up a bit" she continued, sliding on the loose jacket which I realized she hadn't unzipped in the first place, probably because it would've been very hard to zip it back after the swim.
I still had a ton of questions, but just as I was about to continue she pulled on her ready-tied sneakers back and said "Listen, I need to start my run home to get warmed up.. I got this weighted backpack so that the runs would be bit more challenging and that my body would generate more heat before and after the swim, but it won't help much unless I get moving! And I have to get ready for work and pack my gym gear for the evening.. It was really nice talking to you thou, perhaps I'll see you around!" she continued, winking, and took off running along the beach. "Oh and by the way, I'm Jenny! Was nice meeting you!" she stopped to yell from the distance and took off again.
I suddenly realized I was shivering and shaking from the cold and started heading towards my car, not sure what to do or say. At least I had a pretty good idea where I'd find her the next morning...
