Lap 1 - In the water at 7:20 out at 8:18...I was slower than I had hoped for. I had some hurdles on my first lap and felt frustrated and defeated by the water in the 58 minutes I was in. Very shortly after I got into the water I kept feeling the swells roll under me...not paying any attention to how on much they were pushing me back to shore until I felt a little white wash crash down on me. Looking up I realized I was caught in a few swells coming in. I tried to swim out again past the wave break, but kept getting pushed back to shore. Before I knew it (much faster than what it took me to originally get out past the waves at the start) I was pushed back to shore from the waves. I unfortunately "snaked" a wave from a surfer at one point. He had to jump of his board when he realized he was going to run over me if he continued to ride the wave. I felt really bad because I think it would have been a decent wave for him. He was nice about it though and stopped to make sure I was okay. I am sure he got a good laugh at watching me continue to get back out past the swells coming in. Thankfully, I did make it back out past the wave break in one piece with everything in tact goggles, swim caps, and bathing suit. What it did take from me was a lot of energy! I was a bummed at my carelessness, but was happy to see I hadn't fallen too far behind the other girls. I swam to the buoy and turned. On the turn back I was feeling good. I got over my frustration from the waves pushing me back to shore. However, what I had to get past on my return of lap one was kelp. Today's swim had an abundance of kelp. I am sure it had a lot to do with the tides. For some reason it seemed the kelp beds were barely past the wave breaks which made for a tight swimming lane for me to avoid the swells pushing me back to shore and the THICK beds of kelp. I didn't succeed at avoiding the kelp. I in fact was everything but graceful in my attempt to avoid it. I was zig zagging every where trying to get a clear patch of water to swim through. Eventually I lost the girls in my sight because the kelp slowed me too much. Since Matthew and Samuel will be reading this blog one day I will avoid mentioning what I was saying as I was swimming back to my first feed. I am avoiding it because if they said the words and phrases I did at the kelp on this swim they would be grounded from video games for a month. It is safe to say "I hate kelp" summed it all up for me in three words on this swim.
Lap 2 - In the water 8:23 out at 9:19. Ahh....lap 2, thank goodness for lap 2. It was so much nicer. Much more at the pace I expected and I felt great. 56 min in the water.
Lap 3 - In the water 9:23 out at 9:45. The full group of The Oak Streakers were in the water at this time. They were actually getting out past the waves as I was body surfing them back in for my second feed. It is nice to see company out there! Total water time only 22 minutes for lap 3. I pushed myself to get back in for lap 3. A few weeks ago I had attempted 3 hours in the water and the water temp, as well as my mental state of being ready for 3 hours prohibited me to accomplish this goal. I felt regret the rest of the day for not pushing myself harder. Saturday I set out for 2.5 to 3 hours. I was only in for 2 hours 22 minutes, but I felt okay with this on Saturday. I swam about half the distance to the buoy and back a little. I hesitated to get out of the water not sure if I wanted to get out and walk back on the shore. I felt like I was going to be doing a walk of shame to have gotten out of the water and walk with my feet vs. swim with my arms back to my starting point. However, at this point I had already pushed myself to get to the halfway point to the buoy. I turned because my arms were weak and felt like spaghetti. Each stroke my shoulders were more and more tender. I wasn't cold, but I had some physical pain from nearly 5 miles. I decided when I looked at my watch and saw it was 9:43 I was okay to get out.
At the time of getting out I was 50/50 at feeling successful. As the day progressed though I felt successful. I had some challenges in my swim and I don't feel like I gave up. My mind thought about giving up when the waves pushed me back to shore on my first lap. One of my swimmer friends Marc says "you can't get out, if you don't get in". I got in to get out x3! My time in the water I think equated to nearly 5 miles, but I would like to round it up to 5 miles from all the zig zagging I had to do in lap 1.
I don't like Gu either.
ReplyDeleteYour white board-time look like you are taking too much time at the feed. Try to do it as quickly as possible.
Maybe we should try some "crack bottle" style feeds? Jim Fitz used to swim with a bottle and was good for two hours. I swam with two bottles in the back of my sportkini top and was good.
I know I am spending too much time out. I did better last weekend with my three full laps. I have thought about keeping a bottom in my top or bottoms, but I worry the waves will knock it out on me. I constantly get tumbled on my entry. It is the one reason I didn't try it last week.
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