Open Waters

Well, I had my first open water swims this past weekend.

I signed up for a First Timers Tri clinic thingy at the race site on Saturday. It was nice: a little info on simple stuff that has been driving me nuts worrying about - how to rack the bike, where stuff will be, a few tips and tricks. Then we all went down to the water and joined up with another clinic and did a practice mass start. Not. Cool. I treaded water near the back and started a few seconds after everyone and still got beat up by the people who decided to start on the beach and swim the tangent. Grr. But I'm really glad we did it, because I swam through some panic, and I know now that I can do it. Sighting was sort of a beast too... I couldn't see past my elbows in the murky lake.

After all of that, I decided that I should go back the next day and swim the course twice more. The first time my goggles fogged up really badly (water is only 78 degrees), and between that and the sun I went a little off course, even though I really do swim straighter than I expected. But I still finished in 11:56, faster than I expected! I debated needing to go in again, but decided that I really should, as the foggy goggles had frustrated me, and I wanted a good vibe on the course before the tri. On the second swim, everything really went pretty perfectly. I felt fast in the water, and better at sighting. I was surprised to see a slower time of 12:26 when I got out, because I felt so much better, but I can easily chalk that up to not starting the watch in exactly the same place...

So, some concerns about this coming weekend have been addressed, though I'm still really nervous... as of Sunday I've stopped counting the calories, but am eating only good-for-me stuff. I'm tapering off on the workouts a little bit leading up to a day completely off on Friday before the tri (as I normally do with my run races). Trying to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. In short, just trying to set myself up as best as I possibly can.

I'll follow-up with a post on my goals later in the week...