Since the Toyota Desert Triathlon is this weekend, our swim set tonight was geared towards preparing us for open water swimming. It’s such a time crunched schedule as tonight we learned some sighting skills, Saturday will be our first open water swim in Long Beach, then Sunday is the International Distance triathlon. Coaches told us we shouldn’t put any weight on the event, as it should be a learning experience, and should we thought of “just another practice.” True though, what is there to lose? We’ve all surpassed all the distances in each of the disciplines, but we just haven’t practiced real transitioning. I’ve heard from numerous people that Desert Tri is a great starter event, so I’ll take their word for it.
So back to tonight. Initially I was having a hard time even just “warming” up. What was going on? I eventually got used to it, and it was on to our main sets. We had a little game called “Walk of Shame”, where we counted our strokes up 25 yards, then on the way back, we have to do one LESS stroke, and see where we end up. Three to a lane, the furthest one back will have to walk back. Yes, I was always the one to walk back (I wasn’t that far off from the next person though!). I think I was at the 24 stroke range, and everyone else on my lane was 18-20. Hmm.. maybe I should take advantage of the streamline glide a little more in my turnover. After several sets of those, we did a few 100s, 200s, 400s. At one point, I was just following my teammate Donovan, and I think we did a lot more than we were supposed to. Lesson learned, I should keep track of my OWN lap count! It wasn’t too bad though, because since I was following him, I realized I was drafting him, so I didn’t have to cut through the water as much as he did.
For most of the sets, we had to practice sighting, looking forward every 2, every 4, once a lap, and so on to practice where we’re going. In the open water, there’s no such thing as lane lines, we’re on our own! It was really tough because I could feel my legs drop, thus creating more drag, so I’m a little nervous for Sunday. We’ll just have to wait and see!