Things I Like

My Peral Izumi tri top.  It is not flattering, but it is the least unflattering tri top I tried on.  And it is pink and black, to match my helmet.  I never, ever thought I would be a person who would think wearing one of these was a good idea. 

My sweet running shoes.  They have flowers on them.  FLOWERS on running shoes.  Can you imagine my excxitement when these arrived in the mail? 

My six-year-old jogging stroller with my one-year-old chub riding in it.  Ellis and I discovered a "new to me" trail near our house and managed a six mile run together while the other kiddos were at school.  My husband had been telling me to try this trail for years but I was never sure how far it would take me.  I am the type of runner that HATES not knowing exactly how far I've gone. 

This trail has mile markers.  Duh.

Open Water, Take Three.

I did another open water swim last night.  Thanks to my awesome sister-in-law for watching my three kiddos, cooking them homemade pizza, and feeding me an amazing post-swim flatbread/gourmet cheese/artichoke hearts/sun-dried tomato creation.  She's such a domestic goddess I just can't even compete.

The swim was...better.  I anticipated where the swamp monster underwater garden was going to be, so I just did the breast stroke through the vegetation.  I guess I wasn't clear in my previous post, but these plants aren't just floating innocently a few feet below me.  They are tangled in my goggle straps, wrapped around my neck, and clinging to my toes.  You have to swim THROUGH them, not over them. 

My husband put it in perspective for me, though.  He described swimming in the ocean (a half a mile out or so) and seeing a giant shadow flicker below him.  He also described how sometimes, in the ocean, the tide shifts a bit and for a moment, you can see ALL THE WAY DOWN to the sand at the bottom.  You get a brief glimpse of how super deep the water is around you.  Yes, that sounds worse than some innocent lake plants.  Note to Self:  Stick to midwestern triathlons.

So now I have to work on my "sighting".  This is how you steer in open water swims.  Although my anxiety level was lower, my swim still felt super slow.  Mostly because every time I looked up, I found I was angled too far to the right.  I would then have to swim a few extra strokes to the left, and then check myself again to make sure I was on the correct path.  It was a total waste of energy and time.  I had no idea I had such terrible aim.  Near the end, I realized if I just swam to the left on purpose, I was actually going fairly straight.  I still felt inefficient like this, but I guess I'm learning? 

Open Water.... Purgatory?

So I jumped back in the water (literally and figuratively) and tried this whole open water swimming thing again.

Pros:

I got to swim the actual route that I will be swimming during the Kill Creek Triathlon. 

Kill Creek Lake truly is a very pretty lake, very clean, and fed by an underwater spring.  The temperature was perfect and the water was clear (see cons).

I finished the full 500 meters, and it didn't seem very far.

I swam after already biking and running for the day, so I actually completed a full triathlon for the first time. (Spread out over several hours, I know.)

Cons:

The water was clear. 

As I got 20 or 30 feet from shore, I could see the lake plants beneath me.  This seems so benign when I write it, but in the moment, it made me panic.  Bad.  To the point that I had to swim with my head out of the water a few times, just so I couldn't see the damn plants.  I also tried to close my eyes when my head was underwater, but this made me too disoriented.  I can't explain what about these plants made me panic.  There were no fish hiding in them (that I saw), and they were just cute little lake plants, doing their thing...

I was very upset by the reaction I had.  I called poor Patrick on my way home from the lake and bawled my eyes out.  I was upset that after all the hard work I had put in at the pool, my swim time was going to be screwed by my own anxiety.  I don't like being so controlled by panic.  My whole career is based on my ability to NOT PANIC, and here I was, worrying baselessly about water plants.  And the kicker is, I freaking love plants!  I even had a water garden in my backyard at one point!

So, I'm trying to draw from this experience to make my next open water attempt better.  I've googled "How to Overcome Open Water Swim Anxiety" several times today.  I always feel better the more I read.  I feel more in control of my situation.

I also do better the more I talk about the situation.  Hopefully rehashing it a couple of thousand of times will get the panic out of my head.  Thanks for listening.