Week Five Wrap Up

So - this being the penultimate week before the first Triathlon, I really pushed myself in training.  Well, that is what I should have done, but due to a combination of weather (cold and raining) and work, it really didn't turn out that way.

Monday:

Hit the pool.  Swam a mile. Swimming isn't too much trouble any more I am feeling good in the water.  I am not getting any faster, so I am going to have to start implementing some sort of plan to "get better".  Doing laps however is a relatively comfortable prospect.  Swam a mile, which is about three times the length of the swim.  Still nervous about the wetsuit, but my time to test that out is rapidly running out.

Wednesday:

On the bike (the Fooj) and around the normal loop.  I had good luck with the lights and even though at the start I felt like I don't want to go to fast, I end up going as fast as I can.  As fast as I can turn out to be the quickest I have gone around the "normal loop", the moving time was 58m 58s for a moving average of 20.6mph.  I am sure some if not a lot of the speed that I am getting is attributable to the bike.  I am almost certain have never gone that fast around the loop, and I feel like I was fitter before I had the surgery.

On a side note, it is a very cool feeling to be as happy with a purchasing decision as I am with the purchasing of the Fooj.  However it is also possible to be too enamored with a purchase, as I am with the Fooj.  When I saw an ad for one I thought to myself "I could buy a second one, and one could be the 'everyday bike' and the other one could be 'the special bike'".

Saturday:

In the pool late, had some errands to do and they took longer than expected in the morning.  When I got to the pool, a bit after 4:30pm I though it was opened until 5:30.  This however was not the case and it was only opened until 5pm.  So a quick 1km (.6 miles) and then I was chucked out.  Not exactly what I had planned.

Sunday:

So I decide it is time to try the wetsuit.  And with a lot of motivation from Colleen, I get my stuff together and we drive over to Half Moon Bay, where I plan to go for a swim, in the ocean in the wetsuit.  I want to swim in the ocean, as the brown water in San Francisco Bay really doesn't appeal to me.  So the half hour drive over to HMB.

We get there and it is blowy and cold.  The waves are up a bit, but that isn't concerning me.  I am more worried about being stuck in this neoprene contraption.  After about 10 minutes of getting into it we wander down to the beach, I walk out into the water which is cold.  Not just cold, really cold, but the wetsuit is keeping me fairly warm, so I proceed out deeper, as the water hit me I sense how cold it is, but the wetsuit is doing its job and I don't feel it too bad.  I am starting to think "Hey, this is going to be ok".  Then I dive under a wave and for the first time the water hit my face.  I feel like I am going to hyperventilate and have a panic attack all in one.  I can't breathe, I am taking these shallow little gasps and all I want to do is get out.  However there is a nice rip pulling water off the beach and I am now, while probably only 20 metres (or yards) from the beach out of my depth and being sucked out deeper.  I keep enough of my head to just swim (head up, because it is FREEZING) and wait for a wave.  I body surf in a bit and then get my footing and walk up the beach to Colleen.

We sit and chat for a bit (I think she may have been laughing at me) and then I gather the courage and go back out.  It isn't quite so bad this time, but still not fun.  The water is so cold on my face all I want to do is get out.  I can't control my breathing properly.  So back out I go.  After a bit a sit, back into the water for one more try, but the water is way too cold.  I don't think the fact tht I am attempting this into surf is helping the situation at all, because the only way I can get to calmer water and "acclimatize" is through the shore break, but to get through the shore break I need to be fairly comfortable which I am not, because I cannot acclimatize.  So I get out and we call it off.  I have spend about 10 minutes in the water and the drive will take us an hour.  I feel a bit stupid.

Back home and off for a ride.  Colleen and I take a new route down a relatively flat stretch for a 22 mile ride.  Colleen says her specialty is "downhill sprinting", and this route was pretty flat to allow her to play to her strengths.  As a consequence she did the fastest average ride speed ever.  Over the 22.7 miles we had a moving average of 18.5mph.  Which was awesome.  It was even a tough ride for me in places.  When we were coming back into the wind on a flat stretch, I was doing 24mph sitting up to give her a good wind shadow, working my tail off.  She was sitting back behind me saying "you can go faster.".  But I couldn't.

Things that I have learned:

• Swimming in the wetsuit will not be an issue.  In all the time I was in the water at HMB, not once did I think to myself "this wetsuit is causing a problem with my swimming", however had I not had the wetsuit on I probably wouldn't have got in the water at all, so while it caused me to go out there, it didn't cause me any issues while actually out there (for a brief a time as it was).
• I have no idea how I am going to be able to handle the cold water during the swim.  I think it will be a lot easier than swimming at HMB, but there is a difference between reading and understanding something like this and actually being able to cope with it when the time comes.
• I am going to buy a neoprene swim cap.  I need to try to keep as warm as I can.
• I might try to have a practice swim in the brown water.  Hopefully it is warmer than the ocean, which I hunted down to be about 47 degrees Fahrenheit (8.5 Celsius).  That is SO COLD!

Triathlon Details can be found here: Stanford Treeathlon

I will try blog each days exercise this week leading up to Sunday, and then Sunday night after the event.