Another First: Open Water Swim Tonight!

OPEN WATER SWIM: I will swim with the fishes...err well you know what I mean.
(or the weeds! Check out my Update below)

Well, I will be doing my first Open Water Swim (OWS) tonight at Lake Nokomis.  This is the location also for the swim portion of the Mpls Tri on July 9^th.  Nervous? Yes. Wondering how cold the water will be? Yes, BUT I will be wearing a wetsuit (another first!) and I am hopeful it will keep me warm and aid me in the swim.  I am losing my tri virginity left and right! (Ok that’s a bad joke).  Coach Teresa said there is no set length we are doing, but I am hoping to try to do the .4 miles that I will be doing for the Mpls Tri. Maria and the kids will be coming to see me try to swim in the lake, and we may have an impromptu picnic after which depends on how the kids are.  Hopefully she will take some pictures of me in my Neoprene clad glory (oh yeah!).

I did almost 3 mile run with the Team yesterday, and my SI pain was ok, and the knee stopped hurting after I warmed up. We did Kenyan Out and Backs, 10 minutes out and then we had to run back the same distance but in 8 minutes.  We did this twice and I managed to do .74 miles out and got back with 10 sec to spare.  That was a little hard, so I did a much slower pace for the second repeat and came back with 45 seconds to spare.  We did more core work and lots of stretching.  Not a bad workout!

Enjoy the day, look for some OWS pics tomorrow!

UPDATE (6/17/11): No pics (Maria had a hard time watching our crazy kids run in and out of the water and not get trampled on by our large (20+) tri group as we practiced entering and exiting the water.  Wetsuit was great, the water temp was 70, so it was nice to have in the cool water.  It made me very buoyant and I could easily float on my back and front.  Def worth the money, but....


I CHOKED!!!!



Besides....I freaked/choked when I started the swim.  I encountered apparently a very common occurence: weeds.  However at the time, it felt like I had a fish net wrapped around my feet, and I panicked (never minid I had a wetsuit on that would keep me from drowning) and I struggled and got free and swam back without finishing.  FAIL.  I tired again after everyone got back, and what do you know, this time I got my feet and hands tangled in the weeds.  OK, someone needs to take an underwater weed whacker or something to these damn things. Coach T suggested I do a lap in the cordoned off swimming area which was thankfully free of weeds, which I did.  I got a cramp in my right calf (probably from all the frantic kicking I was doing) which was painful, but that was near the end of the workout.


Final Thoughts: I NEED TO OWS!!! At least 3 more times in the next 3 weeks before the race to solve my 
1. Nerves
2. Sighting issues (like the crow flies is right!)
3. Confidence in the water
4. Get ready for the real deal!


Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on what to do?  I appreciate any feedback!