IM Canada: Week 7 – Chen’s version (i.e., I am not an ambi-turner)

Posted by Chen

After weeks of talking about it, I FINALLY went open water swimming today! Brandon and I met up with Katie and Matt at Aquatic Park in SF this morning for our first open water session of the training cycle. And just in time, too, as my 70.3 race (and first tri ever) is less than two weeks away!

I thought it was really funny that as we were getting ready in the bleachers near the water, a middle-aged lady walked by us and said something to the effect of “The water’s 60 degrees! You don’t need wetsuits!” I was not expecting an early morning heckling and started to wonder if maybe we were just being wimps, but as we stepped into the frigid bay waters, I decided that that lady is bananas. $h!t’s cold, people!

I had quite a bit of apprehension going into this workout, as the last time I open water swam was over 9 months ago. At that point, I still wasn’t comfortable swimming more than two laps at a time in a pool, so all of my open water experiences involved me swimming one buoy at a time, breathing every other stroke to hoard oxygen, and then stopping to catch my breath for minutes at a time. The thought of swimming 2.4 miles straight was terrifying.

Rationally, I know that I’m at a completely different point with my swimming now, and I know I’ve been putting in the time at the pool over the past 3 months. I mean, 10,000-12,000 yards per week has to be good for something, right? I wish it were that easy to convince me, but NO. To me, open water is just a completely different ball game. I was still envisioning everything that could go wrong: sea lion encounters, jellyfish stings, panic attacks, and most notably, floating out into the bay, never to be seen or heard from again.

I knew that if I dilly-dallied and thought about it too much, I’d just psych myself out, so as we headed towards the water, I got in as soon as I could. While the cold was a bit shocking at first, I was instantly reminded of how WETSUITS ARE THE BEST INVENTION EVER. I’d forgotten just how much they block the cold and keep you afloat. Even within the first few yards of swimming towards the first buoy, it was as if all of my irrational fears just disappeared, and I knew that this workout would not be the end of me.

We decided to do three out-and-backs, and for the most part, things went just fine. My sighting technique is still pretty ugly, but it should be enough to get the job done. My biggest issue is that without a lane line, I evidently have a tendency to swim to the right. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t go left. It’s uncanny, really.

Given that we were going counter-clockwise around the buoys, and given that I was on the outside, I’m pretty sure this means I swam an extra 25-50 yards per lap, but oh well. I’ll take that over a panic attack any day.

And just for funsies, this is what my Garmin read:

Can you guess which way the current was going? :) Garmin read an average pace of 1:37/100yd, which is just not quite believable for me. If it’s real, full credit goes to the moon.

It’s hard to believe that it’s already time for cutback week #2, but you won’t see me complaining. Looking forward to some extra sleep and maybe a barrel of wine.

IM Canada Week 7 Recap:

Monday: 

• AM: Super easy trainer ride to shake out the legs post-marathon: 11 miles in 47:17 (14mph)

Tuesday: 

• AM: Swimming 3200 yards, including a random combo of swim & pull; still in recovery mode, so kept it easy (average pace of 1:51/100yd)
• PM: Running Golden Gate Park 9.2 miles (~8:32 pace); surprised at how good this run felt 2 days post-‘thon!

Wednesday: 

• PM: Trainer ride with short fast spin intervals: 22 miles in 1:20:28 (16.4mph)

Thursday: 

• PM: Swimming 4500 yards, including 5x500 in 8:58, 8:51, 8:55, 8:49, 8:40 and 4x500 pull in 9:16, 9:19, 9:22, 9:10; I’m still pretty bad at pulling, but those were some of my faster pull times yet! (average pace of 1:48/100yd)
• Followed by running 7 miles in Golden Gate Park / Kezar track with 1x1600m@6:59 (wanted to test my legs for speed; verdict: go back to track, Chen)

Friday: 

• AM: Swimming 2300 yards, including some paddle work (average pace of 1:45/100yd). The last time I used paddles was probably two months ago, and at that time, paddles made me slower. A lot slower. Rachel was talking about how paddles essentially amplify whatever form you have, which means that two months ago, my form was GAWD AWFUL. This time, though, I was happy to see that the paddles made me FLY. It was super fun to feel like a fish, if only for a few laps. I think I’ll definitely try to incorporate these into my workouts for form fixes and overall strengthening moving forward.

Saturday: 

• AM: Brick ride: 49.1 miles with ~3900ft of climbing (13.8mph)
• PM: Brick run: 10 miles at ~8:32 pace. I had no idea what to expect with this brick workout, as it was basically my first real brick of the training cycle. My most important lesson learned was that I still need to eat more on the bike (sounding like a broken record here, I know), as I started the run feeling sort of shaky and under-sugared. A waffle fixed that right up, though, and the rest of the run felt great! This workout definitely gave me some confidence for my upcoming 70.3.

Sunday: 

• AM: Open water swimming with Brandon, Katie, and Matt! Who knows how accurate my Garmin is, but 1916ish yards, average pace of 1:37/100yd (maybe)