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<\/p>\nToday was my first open water swim in many, many, many years.\u00a0 It’s been at LEAST a dozen years since I really swam in a non-chlorinated body of water.<\/p>\n
I had not really faced the fact that I really had to do this until I found I was hesitating to sign up for the tri.\u00a0 I literally waited until the last minute, Saturday night at around midnight (the price went up the next day).\u00a0 I couldn’t figure out what the problem was, why I had issues clicking the button.\u00a0 I’ve proven that I can do twice the bike and run distance back to back.\u00a0 I’ve proven that I can swim WELL beyond the 500m required.\u00a0 I wasn’t sure what the problem was.\u00a0 Then I remembered the whole open water thing.<\/p>\n
I decided to sign up anyway, figuring worst case I’d be uncomfortable, get through it, and be better next time.\u00a0 I read up on forums and sites and everything, and heard stories and accounts of people freaking out their first time swimming in open water.\u00a0 That made my decision easy – I had to find a way to try it before the race.\u00a0 However, I convinced myself it was just in the spirit of not having any surprises on race day.\u00a0 I’ve swam in my singlet, I’ve gone swim to bike to run, I’ve done just about everything to prepare I can think of – that was one of the only missing pieces.\u00a0 I didn’t figure the open water would faze me.<\/p>\n
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I’ve got BIG PLANZ this weekend with friends in from out of town, so today was the day.\u00a0 I was hoping to get into the facility up the street from work, but found out it was TWENTY BUCKS for a day pass, so I searched for another place – I was solo so it had to be somewhere with lifeguards and other people.\u00a0 Barton Springs Pool it was.\u00a0 Three dollars for entry is much more reasonable.\u00a0 However, it’s 68 degrees in there year round.\u00a0 For someone that runs about 10 degrees colder than the rest of the world, I expected that to be my biggest problem.<\/p>\n
After work, I moseyed down there, paid my cash, and went in.\u00a0 I was a little nervous by then but excited, as I always am for new and exciting experiences.\u00a0 My toe dipped in the water and it was a bit freezy, but not as bad as I expected.\u00a0 It took me at least 5 minutes to get down the steps, but once my bottom half was acclimated to the water, I dove in and got ready to swim some laps.<\/p>\n
That’s when the totally unexpected freak out occured.\u00a0 Holy SHIT there is nature here.\u00a0 I don’t know what I was expecting, but this was so different than the bottom of a pool.\u00a0 I was ok as long as I kept my head above water, but anytime I went under, I found it a little hard to breathe.\u00a0 I tried to swim all the way to the end of the dammed off area but I just couldn’t make it and turned around and went back to the shallow side (I got in right about halfway between).\u00a0 Every time I put my head under things were just too much.\u00a0 Plants!\u00a0 They even touched me in some spots!\u00a0 Fish!\u00a0 Living creatures!\u00a0 Freaky, freaky nature all up in my bidness.<\/p>\n
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I retreated to the shallow, feeling sort of pissed off, disappointed in myself, and defeated.\u00a0 I regrouped, and started again from shallow water, where I found I was actually fine.\u00a0 The first drop off startled me, but I was able to keep my composure.\u00a0 The next drop off wasn’t too bad.\u00a0 The next fish I saw made me jump a little, and then I realized that I had this experience 13 years ago.\u00a0 I even paid for it.\u00a0 It’s called fucking snorkling.\u00a0 I became more and more comfortable with everything and saw the end in sight.\u00a0 I was going for it.<\/p>\n
However, the plants kept fucking with me.\u00a0 For some reason, more frightening then live things swimming around, more frightening than anything, was the areas where the plants reached almost up to the surface.\u00a0 I had to summon logic-brain to talk sense into silly brain.\u00a0 Plants don’t eat you.\u00a0 Plants don’t harm me in any way.\u00a0 Plants don’t even feel all that icky.\u00a0 I felt a little less anxious, and silly for feeling that way, but definitely not comfortable swimming through the area with high plants.\u00a0 I almost convinced myself I had made enough of my point and turned around again and then I looked at that wall.\u00a0 It was maybe 100 feet away.\u00a0 I decided I was not going to quit 100 feet from the wall.\u00a0 I swam through all the NATURE until I touched that damn wall and turned around.<\/p>\n
I felt awesome and accomplished but still had to navigate back through the plants.\u00a0 Something happened though – I didn’t mind as much.\u00a0 The fish started to become my friends, when I saw one, I would take a few extra underwater strokes so I could see it longer.\u00a0 The plants, I realized, were just plants.\u00a0 I took about 3 lengths down and back of the 1000 foot expanse, each time, it got easier until the last time I realized I was just about as comfortable as in the pool.\u00a0 The first two laps, I definitely had to psych myself up and say little things in my head like, “I am kicking nature’s ass” and “I’m a fish!\u00a0 Wheee!”\u00a0 and “Yay for boobies, I have natural floatation devices”.\u00a0\u00a0 The last one, I was just thinking about my day and dinner and work tomorrow and then I knew I had done enough.\u00a0 I looked around, and the sun was setting, and when I asked the lifeguard for the time it had been an hour.<\/p>\n
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Holy crap!\u00a0 An hour swimming with nature and I had stopped all of twice – for less than a minute to adjust my goggles at the shallow side.\u00a0\u00a0 I didn’t feel tired at all… til I got out.\u00a0\u00a0 Then the muscle fatigue and shakiness set in (good to know for the swim\/bike transition for the longer distance), but I was way too proud of myself to be buggered about it.\u00a0 I was also happy that I realized that at no time was I freaked out because I couldn’t touch bottom.\u00a0 The SANE thing to worry about didn’t really bother me at all.<\/p>\n
I am so so so so so glad I decided to do this before the race.\u00a0 I’m pretty sure I would have made it, I”m a tough cookie, but dang that would have been a WAY worse experience with a thousand people kicking me in the face.\u00a0 Definitely doing one more sesh there next week before the race.<\/p>\n
I’m also happy I *did* it.\u00a0 It would have been so easy to just not sign up.\u00a0 This was way out of my comfort zone.\u00a0 Old me would have made some excuse about having to drive all the way across town on a weekday and that it wasn’t convient and I didn’t have enough time to really properly train anyway so I might as well do it another time.\u00a0 Me this year put my foot down and said fuck it – I will conquer it, I will do what it takes, and there are no excuses.\u00a0 Like nike says, just do it.<\/p>\n
So, I mentioned ONE of the things was open water.\u00a0 The other is heat training\/acclimation.\u00a0 I forgot how brutal it is when you’re not used to it.\u00a0 As much as I thought “it’s only a 5k” and “I ran a half marathon in this” – I have to remember that I only succeeded at that half in 80’s (that felt like 90s with humidity) because I trained 100% outside.\u00a0 I had a great and powerful slap in the face courtesy of a 5k I ran Tuesday morning.\u00a0 It felt like I was wading through soup and it was all I could do to keep a 10 min\/mile pace.\u00a0 Tomorrow, I’m heading out in the morning for a bike ride in the heat as well.\u00a0 It takes 2 weeks to get acclimated to exertion in the heat, and two weeks is what I got.\u00a0 Can’t say I’ll be sad to bring my training back inside for the rest of August after this, but you gotta do whatcha gotta do.<\/p>\n
If last week was the week of discovering new muscles and making them hurt, this week was the week of kicking nature’s ass.\u00a0 Tuesday by surviving my run (seriously pukeworthy), today by swimming with living things, and tomorrow I’ll be terrorizing the ‘hood and tearing it up with a 12 mile ride.\u00a0 What have you kicked in the ass this week?<\/p>\n