So here I sit with less than a week till my first open water Olympic Distance triathlon. This past weekend if you had asked me am I nervous I would have said no. Now Monday morning and looking at everything I have to do this week, work, errands, equipment prep, race prep, workouts, personal life...YIKES!!! I think I may be shaking in my pants right now. I feel unprepared especially for the swim, as I've only done one open water swim in my wetsuit and it was not very successful.
The one time I was in the wetsuit a client and friend of mine took me with her to Gull Park in Foster city for an easy mile swim. The day was warm for April and sunny, the water was calm and murky but no creatures to scare me were swimming in it (at least that's what I kept telling myself). The wetsuit went on easily with the help of TriSlide all over my skin, and the suggestion of my friend to sit down. Once on we made our way down to the waters edge where our most fearless friend just walks right in then dives under. Me however I took a few slow step into the murky sandy water. Once past the visibility point I stepped on something slimy and weird so of course I screamed, jumped back and said no I am not going to do this. My dear friends told me the best thing is to not walk in, but just swim right over the "crud", so I did just that. I was standing in knee deep water about where the drop off was to begin and I just dove in head under and all. Ahhhhhhh I came up screaming cause I was cold and tasted like nasty salty crud. Once in the water and wet I was told to pull the wetsuit away from my chest and duck down to let the water in and create a layer between the suit and my skin. I did this but thinking back upon it probably didn't let enough water in because the wetsuit felt very tight around my ribcage. During the swim I ended up spending a quarter of my swim on my back trying to calm my breathing down, not sure if it was anxiety from being in the water, or the tightness of the wetsuit but the whole breathing thing was not my friend this day. I managed to finish the swim with only once swimming into my friend.
The open water is nothing like being in the pool. There are no lane lines, there are no ends to push off from. It is just you, your wetsuit and creatures or plant life that reaches the surface and the dark cold murkiness underneath you. I learned that when swimming in these conditions you need to actually life your head up and look forward every now and then to make sure you are taking a straight line to your destination. Ha, not me, I took the most crooked line i think in the history of open water swimming. I just had to keep laughing at myself, but also realized that I am pulling harder with my left arm thus the reason I wasn't going straight.
With less than a week till San Jose Metro Olympic distance triathlon I feel I need one more chance in the water. If all goes well I will have another go at it this time most likely at Redwood Shores, otherwise known as poop lagoon.
This weeks workouts will be more focused on keeping the body fresh and limber. No need to try and go 100% effort on the workouts since the fitness gains will be minimal and in order to race at full capacity I will need the extra energy savings. Swimming will be 3 sessions, one run of only a mile on Saturday, and 2 times on the bike. My Saturday will consist of packing my bag and checking the race packet for information on the event. Also on Saturday the bicycle will get a nice little clean down and a thorough check of the tires with potentially a replacement of both tubes just to be safe. After all is packed it will get put away into my car so I have nothing to forget in the morning.
Okay let the nerves set in, I can feel it just sitting here right now even. Let's just add meditation to my list of workouts this week too.
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