Chronicles of a fish: the days of surf and turf

Open Water Swim Clinic

I thought this would be a small affair - one where just a handful of locals doing the tri for the first time would sign up to see what all the fuss was about. Wrong! It was packed with all sorts of people of varying degrees of athletic looks, ability and experience. And most of them had traveled from the DC area to attend this swim clinic. The clinic actually was a tri clinic, but you had the option of either doing the entire course with instruction or just the swim section - I opted for just the swim section to practice sighting.

Got there early to check in, then after a 20 minute discussion about panic and dark water and how to breath and sight and start and finish, we all headed down to the lake to swim at our own pace for as long as we wanted for about 90 minutes or so. I spotted a local gal I know who had signed up for this event but is not doing it because she's been ill, however, she wanted to get some OW experience in since she's never swam in OW and she figured today would be a perfect opportunity to do so. She started in the water ahead of me so I watched her for a bit. She would swim several strokes out, then swim several stokes back to shore - out and then back, and I could tell her breathing was a bit stressed. She did this about three or four times when I finally realized that she mentally couldn't get past the obstacles of OW swimming. I went over to her and we had a chat. She knew it was all mental and was ready to give up but really wanted to at least swim to the first buoy. I told her that I would swim with her and we'd go as slow as she wanted, that we'd stop as often as she wanted, and that I'd be right there with her watching her at all times. She agreed to give it a go. Long story short, we did it. It took a good while to get to that first buoy, and we held onto the side of a boat when we got there, but she did it. Swimming back to shore seemed to go a bit faster and she was able to stay more relaxed, but I think she was glad to finally get back to shore and have that swim under her belt.

After that warm up, I headed off on my own to swim the course three times at a nice steady pace. I practiced breathing, sighting, getting into a rhythm, going around other swimmers (especially at the buoys) and finishing with a good kick. I'm always reminded in open water how much you need upper body strength and how much a wall in a pool gives you a break. I was definitely fatigued after that swim, but I felt good. I'm very glad I attended this clinic - I think I came away with some good experience and strategy....and it was such a pleasure to meet some super athletes and to have the opportunity to chat with them before, during and after the swim. What a great warmup for next weekend!!

Approximately 2700 meters.

Intervals

Barely made it out of work today to get this one done over lunch....but I scurried home and wasted no time hopping on the treadie with my cheat sheet of distances and paces. NBC was showing re-plays of the women's water polo (thought of you Griffin ) and the women's swimming events -YAY!! I've been so spoiled the past two weeks that I wondered how I was going to get on with this session having to watch politics and world news, so I was totally delighted to see those big gals in high cut bathing suits and bonnets on their heads when I turned on the tv.

Session was fine...kept the body relaxed even though my breathing was crazy at times. Fortunately for me, by the time I hit the hard sets of this session swimming was on....so I played this game where I would not allow myself to look at the treadmill display showing how far I had gone until that particular race was over. I try not to constantly look at the display because I am always disappointed in how little distance I have traveled, so I make up things like this to keep me from looking. The first event was the 400 IM....perfect!!! The second event was the 4 x 100 free relay....perfect again!!! Then 100 fly followed by 100 breast then 200 free....and so on. You get the picture.

Any way, here's what I did....

1 mile easy at 10 min/mile
1 mile at 7:04 min/mile, .25 mile recovery
1 mile at 7:04 min/mile, .5 mile recovery
.5 mile at 6:40 min/mile, .25 mile recovery
.5 mile at 6:40 min/mile
1 mile easy

Total of 6 miles in 54:50.

Trainer

Tonight was supposed to be the quality swim/bike session that is a killer of a workout, but Mother Nature had other plans in mind when she roused up the angry storm gods and had them unleash their fury all over my training calendar. Boo hiss. I had hoped to get the swim/bike session in tonight, five days out from the tri, but it looks like I'll have to consider getting this session done on Thursday, and because it will only be three days out from the tri I may shorten that Thursday session a wee bit.

But tonight the substitution session was a spin on the trainer while watching political news. This is an election year here in the States so there's lots of juicy spitting and clawing going on - sort of like white collar Olympics. But I digress....20 miles in total....first 15 were at a big gear, last 5 were spinning and grinning.

interested wrote: »

might be worth just swimming Thurs instead, with the running you've been doing you're plenty fit for this tri at the weekend. Little point in doing your best work on Thurs and not on Sunday eh

You don't have to tell me twice!

Have you an event this weekend yourself?

interested wrote: »

Not really, another Did Nothing Fatal up north here involving a swim and a bike. Really hoping our current weather keeps up so the swim bit is fun. <its stormy>

You doing the half or whole?

interested wrote: »

2/3 of the half, the full starts waaaaaaay too early

HA!! Well, best to you!!!!

Treadmill Tempo

Sneaky lunchtime trot on the treadie - wasn't too bad of a session but I am always surprised at how much effort these tempos take. Simple session, no cheat sheet requried, so without any further ado, here it is....

1 mile easy at 10 min/mile
4 miles tempo at 7:48 min/mile
1 mile easy at 10 min/mile

6 miles total in 51 minutes for an average pace of 8:30 min/mile.

Marthastew wrote: »

Very, very best of luck on Sunday DD
I'm predicting a podium place for you as you've put in some amazing training.
Enjoy every minute of it!

I'll be taking part in an endurance event myself on Sunday... I'm heading off into the wilderness to go camping with some pals and all our kids:D... If you get a chance text me when you're tucking into your celebratory drink?

Thanks Marthastew!! The podium finish may be a bit out of my grasp this year due to the bike (significant improvements in that regard are already on my to-do list ), but we'll see. I just want to complete the race without any crashes or blown tires - I'll be very happy to get my first tri under my belt and learn from the mistakes I'm bound to make.

Have fun on your wilderness adventure, and I will be sure to send you a text after I know my final result.

Horrible dream last night - dreamt that I was at the triathlon and the weather was horrid - rain, crazy wind and a tornado we could see just to the west of us. I also forgot my number belt so I had to borrow one from Oryx (yes, Oryx you were there) but I made sure the number belt I borrowed was black so it would go well with my trisuit ....and then I discovered I had forgotten to fill up my water bottles. The dream never made it to the start of the race, so I haven't a clue how it ends.....

Cool and rainy the last few days so temps are dropping like crazy here, so goes the lake. I'm going with the idea that a cooler lake will make me swim faster. The event is almost totally full - 750 athletes on Saturday (totally full), and 690 athletes on Sunday. 60 spots remain for Sunday.