7 July 2007

Open Water Swim

Posted by Brad Hefta-Gaub under: Swim.

Well, I finally did my first “long distance” open water swim of the year… and it was as expected… I didn’t drown, I didn’t swim fast, I didn’t swim straight, and I didn’t swim slowest of all.

Today I woke up alot earlier than normal (lately) and headed down to the Mary Meyers Life Fitness Open Water Swim Workout… (phew, that’s a mouthful)… Mary Meyers is a local triathlon coach that does workouts and clinics that are sort of open to the public cattle call affairs. Most of the workouts are $10/session… which I guess in the case of this swim workout is the price to pay for someone watching your bag on shore and telling you to swim “in that direction for 15 minutes and then turn around”.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, I’m just trying to figure out if it’s really worth it.

Here’s what the $10 got me… a chance to force myself to swim in the open water with a group of about 30 other swimmers. Of course, the group is widely varied in skill and speed, and so I was pretty much by myself middle of the pack… and since I don’t swim very straight, that may explain why I was alone in the water.

My swim was pretty much blah! I remembered why I am supposed to be swimming more… because I’m not very good at it, and I need to practice. And I also remember why pool swimming and open water swimming are TOTALLY DIFFERENT! In fact, last year about this time was when I basically stopped going to the pool completely and spent as much time as I could swimming “laps” at one of the local Seattle Beaches. It’s time to start doing that again.

But I did get out there, and unlike last year, I didn’t chicken out at the last second.

And I did a solid 16mile+10mile Bike/Run brick afterwards… so really this was basically a “simulated” triathlon with all three disciplines. Albeit not nearly the distances or race day pressure.

Workout:

  • Type: Swim
  • Date: 07/07/2007
  • Time: 07:15:00
  • Total Time: 00:30:00.00
  • Distance: 1,207.01 m
  • Average Pace: 2:29.13/100m

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Activities: Year to Date

Distances
Bike: 797 miles
Run : 186 miles
Walk: 15 miles
Swim: 20,940 meters
Hours of Activity
 Bike: 42.5 - 37.5%
 Swim: 7.1 - 6.3%
 Run : 25.8 - 22.8%
 Strength: 25.9 - 22.9%
 Flex: 4.2 - 3.7%
 Walk: 4.8 - 4.2%
 Other: 3.0 - 2.6%
  Total:113.3
 

Activities: Last Year

Distances
Bike: 6,086 miles
Run : 1,121 miles
Walk: 277 miles
Swim: 100,234 meters
Hours of Activity
 Bike: 306.8 - 42.6%
 Swim: 38.0 - 5.3%
 Run : 165.6 - 23.0%
 Strength: 32.8 - 4.6%
 Flex: 70.7 - 9.8%
 Walk: 100.8 - 14.0%
 Other: 5.9 - 0.8%
  Total:720.6