movin' on up

OPEN WATER SWIM - yup, that was today. and there were so many apparent anxieties so many had regarding this - or whether or not people actually had anxieties, the coaches "coached" us prior to this for weeks in advance on how to mentally move through this in the case we "develop " an anxiety.

and the result ---outstanding. i am not sure how i felt about the open water, but more that i can't think of anything because i have to do it. i have to race in open water, so it is what it is...and i just have to deal with it. so with that said, i never let fear enter into my mind.

so we began relatively close to the shore, probably 50 - 100' out, and in some spots it was probably only 4' deep. we swam around poles in the water, keeping the poles on our right side swimming in a clockwise order and warmed up with a 2 x 250 meter swim ( 500 meters). our practice/ train was 2 mores sets of the 250 (another 500 meters). now - there were buoys out in the beginning of the channel, and we were provided the option to do that swim as well. way out there. sure, why not. so off some of us went and did 2 sets of the 400 meter (800 meters). and funnily enough - i ended up rounding the wrong buoy and did probably another 50-100 meters. the thing here is that the buoys all looked the same, so it was tough to "site" between them.....good thing race day has clearly defined buoys.

what is different in swimming in open water, is that firstly, you cannot see another person next to you until you are virtually on top of them, you cannot follow lane lines at the bottom (there are none), and you have to site. you have to look ahead constantly to ensure you are on course. that takes a little getting used to.

all good here, and finished up with a 4 mile rolling run, completed in a speedy 35 minutes, including a 2 minute water break.

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