One Clydesdale’s Journey

My first open water swim for the year.
Okay, actually my first one in about 20 years to be more accurate.

Shelly and her Team in Training teammates did a Tri simulation this weekend down in Pleasant Prairie. Now since they are doing an Olympic distance race their Tri Sim was a Sprint distance, or at least darn close.

So I figured what the heck, I may as well join in on the fun and do some training as well. And what better excuse than that for a chance to get in an open water swim?

I don’t have a wetsuit yet, but it has been pretty nice and warm around here lately so I figured it couldn’t be too bad. Could it?

Well I forgot one crucial thing,

It’s still very early in the summer!

I learned (after my swim luckily) that the water temp was a lovely 62 degrees!

I think that I have lost my mind!

But I can tell you that a wetsuit has moved to the top of the list now for things to get. Yes, even before a bike. I’ll survive on the grocery getter for all of next year just to make sure that I get that wetsuit.

Because without it I couldn’t catch my breath the whole time that I was in the water. I made it down and back again in the lane that they have setup which put me close to a quarter mile swim, but it wasn’t pretty. I tried a few times to get my stroke going, but it just wasn’t happening. So I did some kind of weird modified dog paddle.

Oh yeah, and I think that I had the Life Guard worried the whole time I was in there as well. Oh well, he needed a little excitement and something to talk about with his friends later I’m sure.

As mentioned, I did a quarter mile swim. To go along with that I got in a 10 mile ride. And I capped it all off with a nice 2.3 mile run just make the whole thing a complete simulation.

I managed to get all that done in 1:28:08, giving my high hopes that I might be able to finish the full distance in… 2 hours. But we’ll see.

All in all it was a very successful training session that pointed out a few things that I want to change or do differently next time around.

And yes, that wetsuit is at the top of the shopping list.

Later,
John W.
A Clydesdale in training