First Open Water Swim Of The Year

Still here in West Palm Beach Florida....

Thursday was my first TRX workout.  Which was great!  At the time I wasn't sure just how hard my workout was.  When I woke up on friday I was extremely sore!  My quads were not happy!  My core was also a tiny bit tender...  so its definitley a good workout!  Friday was a pretty big workday for me.  I had initially hoped to try and swim in the morning or evening but that just didn't work out with my schedule as I was not able to find a pool locally that was both close enough for me to be able to get to and back before work as well as open when I needed it to be.  Lots of outdoor multi lane lap pools here but they don't open till after I already had to be at work and then are closed before I'm done for the day.  Annoying....

So Friday was a big workday and I was pretty tired afterwards.  It was a pretty intense phsycial day with lots of running about nonstop.  I felt really sore at the end of the day and my hamstring especially was not so happy so I decided a yoga workout was in order.  So I used a new yoga DVD I had put on the ipad and followed that just over hour long routine.  Very slow flowy excellent stretching type yoga which was perfect.  Not too quick between poses and very easy to follow.  I was surprised how tight I am.  I need to work on that.  I know I've said this before but yoga needs to find a larger place in my life.  I'm always happy after I take the time to do it.

There are three of us staying at a hotel a few miles from the venue which happens to be right on the beach.  I was hoping to swim Saturday morning so I asked the two guys if they wanted to go to the beach Saturday morning before we had to be at work at 11am.  They both said yes which was perfect as the rental car is one of their names so I can't drive it.  Of course this was all part of my plan to get a ride to the beach so I could get my first open water swim of the year in! 

When we got the beach it was PERFECT!  Dead flat clam, 75 degree air temps and 70 degree water temps.  AWESOME!!!!!  I was pscyhed!  So I got the wetsuit on and started to walk out in the water.  I was definitley a little apprehensive.  I've never swam alone in the ocean before.  I've always done it with other people.  But the calm conditions and the lifeguard tower and two other swimmers way out gave me confidence to go for it.  I'm so glad I did!  It was GORGEOUS out there.  The water was crystal clear and the beach is such that the depth changes very very slowly.  So I just swam out about 200 feet or so till the depth was about 8 feet and then just swam along the beach.  I had my garmin in my swim cap which vibrates every .25 miles in the water so I just planned to swim a half mile.  I wasn't sure how I'd feel as I've felt so bad in the pool.  In a wetsuit however I felt so much better of course.  So it wasn't long before I settled into my stroke.  The water was so clear it was like going snorkelling.  You could see the sandy bottom and schools of small fish swimming below you.  What a great swim!  After a little beyond a quarter mile I turned around and swam back to where I'd started and then back into shore.

In the end I swam .6 miles and it felt fabulous.  I thought about going longer but that was enough as I haven't done a ton of long swims this year.  In fact my longest continous swim set to this point was 600 yards in December or so.  So I figured that was enough for day 1.  Plus I had to go to work.  So I got out, met up with the boys and went for nice walk along the beach before the workday started.

At the end of the day Saturday I pretty much passed out asleep despite the fact it was only 830pm.  I've been really congested and had been fighting a sinus headache all day so I was pretty beat.  Today (Sunday) I had hoped to swim again after work which ended at 1pm.  I brought my wetsuit with me and figured I'd swim after work and then walk the three miles back to the hotel.  Unfortunately though when I got to the beach the conditions were pretty rough.  4-6ft waves and tons and tons of big, fast moving, wind driven chop.  Now I'd happily swim in this in a group.  But the thought of swimming in those kind of conditions by myself just didn't appeal to me.  That was beyond my point of comfort.  So my hope is to try again early tomorrow morning and hope it will be calmer.  My flight doesn't leave till later in the day so I've got plenty of time to try and sneak a swim in.  So hopefully the weather is much better!