run then a swim...part two

Saturday morning July 5th 2008:

So after my CARA 13 mile training run I unloaded the old mountain bikes from the car and re-hydrated up as properly as I could as I prepared for the open water swim that K & I planned on doing after the training runs. Once she returned from her run we road our bikes down the lakefront path 6 miles to the Ohio St beach where all the swimmers train at which has proper swimming buoys set-up at quarter & half mile distances. After we arrived there I realized that I forgot to pack the "Suit Juice" which helps you get in & out of a wetsuit much easier & quicker so body glide had to do for the day. We drank some more fluids since by now it was pretty warm outside as we then heading into the water to start the swim.

The lake was calmer today and perfect for a swim which felt great after a long run. As we headed out together towards the ½ mile turn-around Kristen and I worked on a couple techniques especially open water swim visual siting. K is a much better swimmer than I but we kept chugging along towards the buoy with having to swim turn some floating vegetation every once in awhile. After we reached the turn-around buoy we headed back along the break wall towards the swim start beach that’s when K actually started swimming stronger with the current pushing us now.

My only problem out there was now I was getting slight, random leg cramps in either hamstring and/or calf at different times which had mostly to due with the lack of proper hydration from the run earlier in the morning. Luckily the nice thing about a full-body long-sleeve wetsuit is the neutral buoyancy float I get while wearing it in the fresh water so I do not have to use my legs almost at all. So I had to deal with these things during the whole swim back as K was strong as ever in the water.

We ended up swimming the mile distance in 39:27 with my average HR being 105bpm. I was more than happy when this swim was over because by now all the training I have done in the last three days had wiped me out. Afterwards we peeled off the wetsuits, packed up the backpacks and rode back north 6 miles to our car.

Another solid day of half IM training in the books…and thank goodness the swim at the tri is the first event of the race :-)

b