Just Keep Swimming....

This morning I was up at 5am in order swim at GVP at 6 with Luis and Joe.  I had thought the plan was to swim the mile in wetsuits and then Luis and I would do repeats with no wetsuits and see how we did afterwards.  Somehow Luis and I got our plans confused as he showed up with no wetsuit.  So...  in the end Joe and I did the dock swim and Luis did repeats.  At least I assume he did.  When I got back from the dock swim he was gone already.  Hope you had a good swim Luis!

So this morning at GVP it was eerie.  It was grey and overcast out, cool, foggy, and there was a really low mist over the pond.  It made sighting long distances pretty tricky.  At least on the way out it did.  You couldn't see more than about 25' clearly.  Everything after that was hazy and hard to see.  So it made sighting interesting to say the least.  I felt like utter crap out on the water today.  90% of that was because I ate too much yesterday and my stomach wasn't happy for the entire swim.  Which of course I kept thinking about what a bad idea it is to be out in the water in a full wetsuit with an upset stomach.  (how fast can I get that zipper down I wonder while in the middle of a lake!)  So that kept pulling my mind away from where it should have been focused.  On top of that I just felt tired.  6AM and I aren't getting along well lately despite me going to bed at 10 last night.  So I felt stiff for almost half the swim.  On the way back I was finally starting to loosen up and settle into a groove, but then my stomach was bugging me and that kept pulling my focus away.  So not the best swim today, but not too bad.  In the end I did 1.13 miles in 37 minutes.  Not too shabby.

I think I need to extend the length of my GVP swims.  I'm not sure how much longer the pond goes on but I think I need to start working towards an hour long swim or a two mile swim eventually.  I can set my garmin to beep at set distances so I think I'll set it to .25 miles and wait for it to beep three times and then turn around and trace that route back for a 1.5 mile swim next time and see how that feels.  I also need to get down to Narragansett.  I heard from Joe that the buoys are up down there that mark the turns for the 1.2 mile Firm course.  So I need to get down there and start swimming.  I'm going to try and rope Nancy or Joe or Luis or Kevan into going down there with me or setup a tri-ne group to do that swim as I'd like to do it with a smaller group first before I try and join up with one of the SSS or Fred Pryor groups.  I just want to know I've done it once in a stress free environment where I can rest as much as I want if needed before I go out with a group.  Its just the way my mind works...   tackle it once in the comfort of friends, and then go for it in a group.  So thats my next plan is to start doing some 1.2's down there.  Those along with some long ass bike/run bricks and I'll have the confidence to takle the 1/2 if those workouts go as planned.

If they don't go as planned then as I've mentined before I'll consider the aquabike.  And if for any reason I don't want to do that I may enter the aquabike anyway, and just complete the swim portion of the course to get the experience.  So no matter what I want to do that swim.  But realistically I'm confidence I can do the complete half if I stick to plan and keep my focus.

I'm writing a lot...   because I'm procrastinating.  As soon as I stop writing this I have to get in the car and drive to New Jersey for a family visit.  I hate that drive.  Its 4-5 hours and its no fun.  But I should go load up the car and get cracking.

One last thing...   my Tri club uniforms came in!  So we'll be racing in style on 8/1.