So time for a quick catchup...
at last post I was going to try and swim in the ocean on Monday morning before flying home to RI....
Heres how that crazy day went...
Up at 530AM and out the door by 6AM after a quick breakfast.
2.5 mile walk to the beach.
During the walk the wind was howling so I was wondering what ocean conditions were going to be. When I got over the rise of the dunes when I got to the beach it was ugly! Waves around 4' or so which wasn't bad, but they were really moving in fast and they went out in a series of breaking waves and chop for at least a 1/2 mile or so. There was TONS of wind driven chop everywhere. Now I'm not afraid to swim in this at all. However I am afraid to swim in it by myself. It just didn't seem like a good idea to go out and swim in that with nobody around. The beach was deserted and I'm just not a strong enough swimmer to be confident enough to go out in those conditions by myself. So I erred on the side of caution. So instead I went for a walk.
Along the beach there were jellyfish washed up everywhere. I don't know what kind they are but they were pretty big (about 8" across in the bubble part) and looked liked they would sting. There was one washed up on the beach at least every 3 feet or so. There were hundreds of them. Made me wonder what swimming would be like. In total I walked about a mile on the beach. When I got back to my starting point the lifeguards were starting to show up and they had raised the flags for the day. They were yellow and purple. So I read the sign below them...
Yellow = Medium Caution, Strong Currents, Medium Sized Waves and Dangerous Surf or something like that. There is only one more level of flag worse than that. Hmm.... maybe it was for the best I didn't chance it.
Purple = "Dangerous Wildlife" which I'm guessing had to do with all the jellyfish everywhere.
So lets see... rough seas and dangerous wildlife. Not a great recipe to swim alone. What if I swam out and got stung while all by myself? Yeah didn't seem like a good idea.
So discouraged and bummed to not swim again I walked the 2.5 miles back to my hotel. So now I've walked 6 miles but no swim. So instead I got in a TRX workout and then called the training for the day done and showered and headed for the airport.
To make a long story short bad weather meant I didn't get home till 3:15AM. UGH! That sucked and the flights were insanely turbulent and scary. Not my favorite.
Tuesday I woke up feeling like hell between my cold and lack of sleep and started to rush about and get work done. At 11am I said screw it I'm going swimming! And I headed to the Y.
When I got to the Y the pool was EMPTY! I had the whole thing to myself at first which rocked. So I said hello to the lifeguard and set about my workout. I decided it was time to get a real swim workout in and I wasn't leaving till I'd put a respectable number of yards in.
In the end I did this...
200 Warmup
Then a ladder consisting of 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 125, 100, 75, 50, 25.
Then a series of 100s and 200s till my total yardage hit 1800.
What a great swim! I think the confidence boost of swimming in open water really gave me the push I needed to have a good pool swim. I was thrilled to get that kind of yardage in. I was tired, and the 200s were tough as its been a while but it was a good swim. I was also psyched to get at least 10 or so succesful flip turns in. Some of them were ugly, but I'm still getting used to them. So a great swim. Now I just need to consistently get some swimming in! This week thats going to be tough considering today I'm slammed and tomorrow I start the drive south to Florida. So I may not get a swim in for the next couple of days but once I get down to Florida I should be able to swim regularly without too much trouble. At least thats the hope!
So today I went to phsycial therapy this morning and that went well. I ran a mile on the treadmill as well for my PT and she seemed pleased. She said I was fast because I ran an 8 minute mile. I said I was slow becuase I only ran an 8 minute mile. Funny how perspective works.
After that the day was a whirlwind of getting things ready for the drive down to florida, work stuff, oil change and other such excitement. But somewhere around 3pm I realized it was 40+ degrees outside and I was almost wrapped up for the day workwise and there was still daylight left. Time to sneak a workout in and go for a ride! After dumping my tri bike "Cannon" on an ice patch not that long ago I figured I'd play it safe and take my road bike out. Thats one cheaper if I break it! So I took "Dale" out for an easy spin today. In the end it was around 40 degrees out and crazy windy! One of those put it in the granny gear and fight your way into the wind on ocean drive kind of days. I rode for an hour and only covered 15 miles. Thats how windy out there it is today. That and I wasn't pushing myself all that hard but I would normally cover much closer to 20 miles in a quick hour long jaunt around the island. The island by the way being Aquidneck Island where Newport, RI (my new homebase) is located.
Anyway... it was pretty cold out and I got a chance to try out the Pearl Izumi windstop tights I bought that showed up right as the temperatures dropped to "stupid cold" and I refused to ride outside anymore. Very glad I got those as they were really warm in the wind! Way better than wearing running tights to ride in as these did a much better job blocking the winds.
It was funny but it felt a little strange to ride on a road bike again. Amazing what a difference there is between the two positions on my tri bike and road bike. Very different feel to riding each way. I don't think I like one more than the other or anything, but it was nice to ride in the road position again. I think I'll definitely mix it up throughout the summer and keep both bikes in rotation.
Anyway... the ride was pretty uneventfull. Just a nice spin. It felt great to be outside and its good for my brain to relax on a bike for a bit when I'm all stressed out with work like I am now. I even managed to catch a quick sunset pic on my way back to the house. This lovely vista is on the ocean drive just a few miles from the house.
Tommorrow moring I start the drive south to Orlando where I'll be for a week or so before I get a weekend off to ride and then its down to Boca Raton for a week and then the two day drive north again. Should be a good work trip with hopefully lots of training and riding snuck in too! We'll see though.. early looks at the schedule look like its gonna be hard to cram it all in. But I'll find a way as usual.
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