.4 + .4 = .8 Miles in Open Water!

So I'm back in RI and thanks to the ever busy discussion board I managed to jump on a 6pm open water swim at Georgiaville Pond.  I decided I'd do my usual .4 mile loop out to the buoy and back.  In my head before I headed out I was thinking two things....    swim like the old ladies in the pool (slow, smooth, and gracefull), and for goodness sake don't embarass yourself.  I'm still embarrassed from that open water day when I'd swam too many days in a row and I spent most of the one half mile circuit I did on my back in front of everyone as I had no energy left.  Anyway...    in the end 5 of us showed up for the swim tonight.  Three of them decided they would go for the big one mile loop and two of us opted for the shorter .4 mile loop out to the buoy and back.  My hope was that I could do two circuits to the buoy for a total of .8 miles.

Once in the water I managed to settle down quickly.  In fact much faster than I usually settle down.  It was fun starting off in a group, even if it was a small group.  The faster swimmers pulled away fairly quickly and soon enough it was just me headed out to the buoy.  I felt really strong and relaxed though which was great.  I just kept going...  one stroke at a time, nice and slow and relaxed.  It felt great.  In the end I didn't stop at all.  Well sort of.  The sun was really low and very bright and it made sighting very tricky...   so there were a couple brief moments I had to tread water when I lost my bearings and was trying to make sure I was going the right way, but I never flipped onto my back which was awesome!

When I reached shore after the first circuit I caught my breath for a couple minutes and then headed out for another circuit.  This one was even stronger and I suspect faster than the first although I didn't have a watch on.  When I reached the buoy I swam around it like I was in a race and headed right back into shore.  I did ok with my sighting today... not great, but not bad.  I need to keep practicing it and I'll be fine.  Its kind of funny, but I tend to swim fairly straight.  Which makes me not all that fussed about sighting.  So I have a lot of conversations with myself underwater that go something liket his.  Ummm....   dude.   Yeah?   You should probably check to see if your going the right way....    Nahhh....     Are you sure?   Sort of.  Yeah, maybe you should look.   Umm....    Ok I guess.  And then I pop my head up for a quickie look and then get back to sticking my head in the water and forgetting about it.  In a way I kind of like it when your staring down into the darkness of the water.  You can't really hear a whole lot, or see much of anything other than your own hands cutting throug the water in front of your eyes.  Its kind of peacefull.  I'm starting to find my zen swimming place.  I'm not there 100% but I can see it in the distance.  I feel like a one mile continuous swim is in my very near future.

After the swim Erin and I went for a quick 4 mile run.  I got a chance to chat with her a bit about Team in Training which is something I'm interested in looking into further.  It sounds like a great group to get involved in, and the cause is very important to me as well.  I'm a little hesitant though as my work travel means I would miss so many of the workouts.  But it was good to hear a little bit about it.  I think I may look into joining up with them next year and doing an olympic and then my first half iron with them.  Definitely something to think about.  Either way I'd like to do something with either Team In Training or with Team Livestrong next year.  I haven't decided which yet.  Its hard as the Livestrong organization holds a very strong personal tie for me on several different levels and I really want to do something as part of that organization, but Team In Training offers up so much more in terms of coaching that its also a great choice.  Still I have plenty of races in my future so perhaps I'll do both in the coming years.  We'll see.

Anyway...   a good day today!  Next up...   a ten miler in the morning before meeting up with an old college friend of mine who has just started to get into running and then were going to run three miles together after that.  He's also considering running a five miler for the first time too.  So who knows...  maybe tomorrow will be a 15 mile day.  We'll see!