First OWS in a wetsuit
07-17-08, 12:55 PM
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First OWS in a wetsuit
Did my first open water swim in the new wetsuit. Holy cow, they weren't kidding when they said it adds bouyancy. Seriously, I can just float in the water without kicking or anything. For those of you who have a wetsuit and feel like it's choking you: my friend and I figured out that if you tug up on the back of the suit and ease the front of the suit down your torso, it keeps the collar from putting pressure on the front of your neck. That helped a lot.
So, we headed to the lake this morning and were quite shocked at how warm the water was. Not Lake Washington cold, but it was better than nothing. We weren't sure on the distances, but we swam for about 45 minutes and figured we swam more than double the length of the race (Danskin sprint Tri next month). Getting the wetsuit on was easy. Getting it off - not so much. I'm going to need Body glide along my lower legs and ankles. No chafing. I swam front crawl most of the way, but I do swim quite a bit slower than my friend. As I got tired, the last lap, my form fell apart.
Things I need to work on:
1) swimming endurance
2) sighting
3) swimming in a straight line
After the swim, we went for a 2 mile run. Then we had to stop so we could get to work on time. We'll be doing more lake swims in the next few weeks to get more accustomed to it. For those of you dreading the OWS, go for it! It really helped me not feel quite so nervous about the swim protion of the race. As a bonus, swimming without chlorine was very pleasant.
So, we headed to the lake this morning and were quite shocked at how warm the water was. Not Lake Washington cold, but it was better than nothing. We weren't sure on the distances, but we swam for about 45 minutes and figured we swam more than double the length of the race (Danskin sprint Tri next month). Getting the wetsuit on was easy. Getting it off - not so much. I'm going to need Body glide along my lower legs and ankles. No chafing. I swam front crawl most of the way, but I do swim quite a bit slower than my friend. As I got tired, the last lap, my form fell apart.
Things I need to work on:
1) swimming endurance
2) sighting
3) swimming in a straight line
After the swim, we went for a 2 mile run. Then we had to stop so we could get to work on time. We'll be doing more lake swims in the next few weeks to get more accustomed to it. For those of you dreading the OWS, go for it! It really helped me not feel quite so nervous about the swim protion of the race. As a bonus, swimming without chlorine was very pleasant.
