Two Weeks to Buffalo Springs Lake

I swam my race distance, 2,000 meters, this morning.

Tomorrow, I'm planning on a brick workout with a long ride and short run -- before the 101 degree forecasted heat takes over the day.

Mike W. (who really needs a blog I can link to) and I are independently getting ourselves as mentally and physically ready as we can be for Lubbock. And reassuring each other "to just go have some fun" and not to stress what will no doubt be a very challenging event.

This will be the first long course Mike and I have done together. I cheered him on for his first Half Iron at the Texas Man in Denton. He was on hand for my first long course race at the Lone Star in Galveston. We did the Benbrook Sprint Triathlon together in May. I will no doubt be chasing Mike from the start at Buffalo Springs Lake. He's great to train with as he's a menace in the water, a terror on the bike, and pretty mean on the run too. Despite having a new born baby at home and missing many hours of training, I fully expect he'll have a strong finish in Lubbock.

The Swim

The morning alarms (I set two plus the hotel wake-up call) sounded at 4:30 AM. The in-room coffee maker served well enough to prepare my pre-race meal of organic oatmeal with berries and almonds.

Mike and I met the rest of the Team in the hotel lobby at 5:30 so we could walk as a team to transition.

Note: 'transition' refers to a large penned area with three gates where the athletes park their bikes and gear. It serves as a hub with the spokes being 'swim-in', 'bike out/in', and 'run out/in.' With three legs of the event, we have two transitions, noted as T1 and T2.

The national anthem completed over the loud speaker, our first wave was in the water and swimming shortly after 7:30.

We were the wave with the green swim caps. As planned, I quickly fell to the back of the pack. I'm a slow swimmer and I was not about to defy expectations today. By the first tetrahedral pylon indicating our turn to the left, the blue caps were upon me. Waves were being sent four minutes apart. Halfway to the final turn, the yellow caps were in the mix.

I was not the last greenie to finish the swim though - and my time of 45 minutes was right at what I expected to swim. And much improved over my 30 minute time at half the distance last year.

Running up the carpeted path toward transition, I was well within my race plan. I waved to Mike, Tiffany, and the TNT gang watching us all come in. The wetsuit strippers helped me out of my wetsuit.

Into to T1 and the bike...

Open water swim practice in cold Grapevine Lake

Our first open water swim practice had the Dallas and Fort Worth North Texas triathlon teams gather 9AM Saturday morning at Rockledge Park on Grapevine Lake.

Everyone wore a wetsuit, those going to Hawaii for Lavaman borrowing from TNT alumni and other fellow team members. I tried out my new sleeve-less wetsuit recently arrived in advance of our race at the Lone Star in Galveston.

The prevailing sentiment of the entire group was, "Holy crap, this water is cold!" And it was.

58 degrees Fahrenheit cold.

I don't know how far we swam. I was in the water for just over 30 minutes and opted not to take a second lap, though a few fellow "halfers" did. Most everyone overcame the shock of cold water on their face and did the distance very well. The whole point of the exercise to gain experience in the open water which is very different from pool swimming in a number of important ways, including:

1. You can't see the bottom or even your own hands in many cases.
2. You can't stand up if you're tired.
3. You can't stop and rest at the wall.
4. You're surrounded by dozens of other people.
5. Your surroundings are almost invariably unfamiliar.
6. You can't swim in a straight line without "sighting" - periodically looking up during your stroke and navigating.

For certain, my sighting needs help! My swim experience from Lone Star 2007 is proof of this. I have a hard time swimming in a straight line which is only exacerbated by cold and fatigue as my swim form breaks down and my stroke tends to cross my body. Knowing these things in practice will surely help me avoid them on race day. And practice will help me improve; we're back in the open water this next weekend for a practice triathlon.

Who makes swim goggles for those with big noses?

I had a lot trouble finding a pair of swim goggles that fit my head. That was my predicament a year ago at the beginning of Season One (Winter 2006/07). I have a prominent nose. Swim goggle manufacturers seem not to take my kind into account when designing their products.

Alas, I did find a solution in a particular pair which looked not at all like those performance eye goggles that the Olympic swimmers wear but looked rather much more like a kid's scuba mask appropriate for the back-yard kiddie pool pretend dives. But they stayed on my face, kept the water out, and did not attempt to crush my nose as many others seemed designed to do. I came to like these goggles (made by TYR and named Hydrovision). It all ended when they quit working this past week. Two workouts, viciously cut short due to unexpected equipment failure. The seals leaked and my eyes were repeatedly splashed by chlorinated H2O. From Coach Tarp, expert on all triathlon, I learned of a local sage of goggle fitting arts. Located at the local run shop, a masters swimmer can be found, working the odd mix of retail hours, who provides for the local endurance athletes in training. Perhaps she has the answers I seek.

In my haste to return to the pool I took another course and visited the local chain sports warehouse. On a narrow aisle, I see the left overs which survived into the off-season. I read descriptions looking for a marketing term that is code for "big nose" and I think I actually found it. It's called the "Technoflex," another TYR goggle. So who makes goggles for those with big noses. TYR does. Thanks TYR! As I have a prominent nose.

Though I still think I'll visit the goggle sage... I'll let you know what I find.

The Swim

"Open Water swimming is a different beast than swimming laps in the pool." Such was the very first mental note I made during the big race.

During my swim (marked in Green above), I wandered all over the place. My goggles fogged up. I wore earplugs (mistake) so my hearing was diminished. During the last two months of training, I had hardly practiced "sighting," the method of raising one's head at regular intervals during one's swim stroke, in the pool. I missed our group open water training, and the rain and lighting kept us from swimming the course on Saturday prior to the race, meaning a big element of my race was going to be a true first; you try to minimize "firsts" by training how you race - same drinks, gu, gels, gear, distances, etc. I digress...

After making the first left, at the tetrahedral marker (yes, that term was announced many times over the loud-speaker) I stubbornly tried to keep my head down and get into my swim rhythm, certain I was swimming straight and in the right direction. I looked up to find myself out of the pack. Realigning my direction, I put my head down and repeated this practice. Could this be a metaphor for life? Looking up, I found myself still apart from the group.

Assessing my position and my condition, I realized that several minutes into this effort, I was neither tired nor panicked. The water felt good. I did get into a rhythm, albeit one that took me off course somewhat, but hey, it still felt good. So, finally cluing into what mid-swim adjustments I needed to make, I began to sight at every third or fourth stroke.

The race start was done in waves. My Navy Blue swim cap marked me among the first wave, followed by Green and then Light Blue. So when swimmers from two waves back were passing me, I realized how much time I'd lost in this zig-zag line of thousand tacks that was the path of my swim.

Oh well. Plenty of opportunity on the bike and the run to make up some time.

Just before the swim began, I realized something about myself:

1. I only get nervous (really nervous) when I'm ill prepared.
2. I was prepared for this race.

Total Immersion Swimming

I have been meaning for some time now to write a post about Total Immersion Swimming.

It's a book.

It's a DVD.

They have classes in your area with certified instructors.

Starting out in triathlon training, I found swimming very frustrating. I just knew I was doing it wrong, and even worse, I knew I was not getting better quick enough, if at all.

So I asked around, finally, and bought a book "Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier."

The title does not lie, and this system does not disappoint.

Ask me about if you'd like to know more; I can't say enough good things about my experience with TI.

Special needs.

As a swimmer in training, I've learned that I have special needs. Our team coaches have joined forces to offer some personalized approaches to training.

• Special need #1: My legs don't offer any propulsion during my freestyle stroke. Probably because I have this scissor-style convulsive kick that's in reality a far cry from the gentle flutter that I'm attempting. My lower half has a mind of it's own (yes... Insert joke here.)
• Special need #2: My lower half sinks when I leave it motionless.
• Special need #3: When I do move my legs, something akin to a paddle boat fighting an onboard engine set to reverse takes place. My arms are working AGAINST my legs.

So legs are out. Don't need 'em! Save them for the run and the bike say my coaches.

Works for me.

So I get to use this cool floaty thing that props my legs and keeps them level with the water while I swim laps. This is a training tool only.

By April's race day, I'll have worked through my special needs sufficient to complete 1500 M.

Count on it.