Mock Triathlon

Saturday was a mock triathlon for our team. We completed a full triathlon but with shorter distances than our actual event will be - a 900 meter swim, 16 mile ride and 4 mile run. 

Naturally the day dawned cloudy and POURING down rain. Not just a drizzle - we're talking jungle type rain. But since we were going to be jumping into a pond anyway, it's not like we had to be concerned about getting wet!

Getting suited up and waiting to get in the water was brutal. Cold, cold, cold!

But once we got in the water, it was actually warmer than outside. The swim went well - it still took me half the distance to get my groove on and really start swimming. But we completed the distance and headed for the car to change into biking clothes. 

Still. Pouring. Rain.

The biking was probably the most miserable part. We got absolutely soaked. My shoes literally had puddles of water inside them.

We returned from the bike ride and, again, jumped into the car to change into drier clothes for the run. At this point the rain had almost stopped. 

It only took about a mile and a half for the feeling to return to our feet and after that it was smooth sailing! We crossed the finish line to the cheers of our coach and the folks that came down to support us - way beyond the call of duty on such a rotten day.

So what's next? We think we just might go do it all over again tomorrow morning. The forecast shows a high of 75 and zero percent chance of precipitation!

-- JAM

Vacation!

Last week we made our annual trek to Cannon Beach, Oregon to spend time with our extended family. The weather, as usual, was perfect - sunny and reasonably warm for May. 

The night before we left we went for another swim in the pond. Dan’s family came along to watch and also be available in a canoe in case we needed any help. I got a little more practice with the front crawl this time, but it still was a real struggle. It’s much harder to breathe out there and I don’t know if it’s the wetsuit constricting my lungs or the cold or maybe both things combined. Dan discovered that he tends to head left when he swims. So I’ll stay to his right out there. We did probably half our race distance and I was just exhausted when we were done!

At the beach, we enjoyed lots of good food, karaoke and other crazy games, a visit to the tide pools, shopping and even rented some cool three wheel bikes to ride on the hard sand. We all enjoyed doing cookies and racing each other along the beach!  

Dan and I went for a 10k run along the beach one morning while the wind was calm.  It was absolutely beautiful and if felt great to run at sea level!

But we’re back to reality now. The kids are finishing up school, we are back to work and hitting training HARD! Just over 4 weeks left to go until our event! And I still don’t know about open water swimming. We head for the pond tomorrow evening to get in some more practice. 

-- JAM

OPEN WATER

Just when I thought I had things kind of wired with this swimming thing ...


Last night we had our first open water swim. I'll admit I'd slept badly the two nights prior and had woken up with a sore jaw from clenching my teeth during the few hours that I did sleep. I was wondering if Valium was a bad thing to take just before swimming.


Naturally, Thursday was the coldest day of the week. The wind was blowing like crazy. And we decided to jump into a cold pond.



The wetsuits we received are nearly impossible to put on. In the house, I would be exhausted before I even got the thing up to my waist. Wetsuits become harder to put on when your body is wet, so the fact that I would be sweating like crazy from the struggle didn't help at all! But since it was barely over 60 degrees with a cold wind last night, donning the wetsuit was a snap!


Fortunately it was not as cold as I had feared. I think all the ice baths I've taken after long runs really got me conditioned. The pond was nowhere near as cold as ice!


But then we were told we needed to fill our wetsuits with pond water. Open up the neck and let the water flow right on in. Nobody told me THAT before! Brrr! 


After getting our faces used to the water a little, we headed out into the pond. I could barely feel the cold of the water through my wetsuit. Thank goodness! 


However, I felt like everything I'd accomplished the last few months had just disappeared. Front crawl? What's that? How about side stroke, doggie paddle, back stroke... I did get my face down in the water a few times and take a few strokes, but not for long. It was exhausting trying to breathe easily in the chilly water, but the wetsuit did make me float almost effortlessly. I could tread water with just the smallest effort.


Overall, it was a good introduction to the world of open water swimming. I didn't drown - but then that was not my fear. I didn't freeze to death - that wasn't my biggest fear anyway. I didn't see any creatures or other murky looking shapes under the water - THAT was my biggest fear. Looking down was just a cloudy, green haze. Not too bad.


We will miss next week's swim since we'll be out of town, but hopefully I can catch up the following week. We will be swimming twice a week from now until our event. Good thing - I'm going to need the practice!


-- JAM

Counting to Seven

Last week's swim workout had us complete 1700 meters. Many thanks to our coach for making us go beyond the distances that we have to complete for our event. We should be well prepared for the triathlon in June!

The workout plan was a warm up followed by ladders. To complete the ladders we swam 1 lap followed by a 1 minute rest. Then we swam 2 laps followed by another 1 minute rest. Next came 3 laps followed by a 1 minute rest and so on up until 7 laps. 

Now I've been enjoying swimming very much now that I kind of have the hang of it - or at least can get from one end of the pool and back pretty easily regardless of how ugly the form may be. But it's still incredibly boring. There's no iPod. There's no one to talk to. There's no TV to watch. It's pretty mind numbing actually. And to keep count of laps is nearly impossible because my mind just wanders all over the place. I get to about 3 or 4 laps and I've already lost count. 

I talked to Gabe prior to our swim and he suggested making up a story with numbers in it. That got me thinking so what I did instead was think of songs with numbers in the titles and lyrics. So the first lap I thought of the songs "One is the Loneliest Number" and "One Fine Day." The second lap I sang in my head "Love Me Two Times." It started to get difficult very quickly, so I moved on to songs with words that rhymed with the numbers. Instead of two it was shoes or lose. The third lap I thought about "Knock Three Times" and words like be and see. 

This technique was just the ticket. I never once lost count even all the way up to 7 laps! 

So, I am taking suggestions for songs that I can sing in my head while swimming. Five is particularly challenging since alive is about the only word I could come up with. I can only think of ELO's song "I'm Alive" for so long...

Thanks for your help!  : )

-- JAM