I was originally going to talk about how I started swimming for my triathlon training, but I realized that would be way too long. I’ll save that for another post later on.
Suffice to say all the pool swimming in the world does not get you totally ready to do an open water swim. My first open water swim was 750 m at the White Lake Sprint Tri in White Lake, NC. The water was about 55 degrees. It felt freezing. It was during this swim I realized how unprepared I was for open water. I finished but my time was terrible and it was a miserable swim. After that I resolved to do more open water swimming. Since then I go almost every Wednesday night out at Jordan Lake south west of Raleigh. There were times where I was doing more open water swimming than pool swimming. Now I would say I enjoy open water much more than the pool. It’s a lot more fun. You don’t have to stop and turn every 25 yards (I’m still working on flip turns). It much more variable depending on the weather.
That being said I went open water swimming Wednesday night. It was the first time I’d been in open water since the 70.3, and it was brutal. The water was about 88 degrees. It felts like swimming in a bath. I managed to get through it. I am doing the Triangle Triathlon this weekend at Harris Lake, NC so I really wanted to get one in before then. What I learned was it is easy to get out of practice. We swam about 3/4 of a mile. Here’s a map of what I swam:
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| Look at my oh so straight swimming lines. I don’t know what happened at the second turn. |
I managed to get through the swim though. It was tough though. I had run in the morning in the 90% humidity so it felt like I didn’t stop sweating until about lunch time. Going and swimming in a bathtub after work really didn’t help.
I’ll be at the Triangle Triathlon this weekend so expect a race report Monday sometime. We got these at work today. Seems like the best kind of pre race nutrition.
Have a great weekend!
Stu Can't Swim 