Open Water Ass Whooping!

Yesterday afternoon started out well enough. It was a beautiful day. Sunny, warm, and a slight breeze. I was driving down 2222 towards 620 w/ the sunroof open, windows down, and Rusted Root on the CD player. It was one of those perfect days that makes you glad to live in Austin. Eventually I arrive at Windy Point and almost immediately run into a former coworker of mine, JP. JP competes at a national level in trick skiing (water) and is an avid windsurfer. We chit chat a bit and he says that today has been the best day for windsurfing all year. This is when I notice that it is much windier than it was in town. Foreshadowing? Maybe. I wasn't feeling it at the time.

I met up with the tri group and we have a discussion about possible strategies for the Danskin wrt the swim. The exercise for today is to just swim for 30 minutes. Any stroke. Doggy paddle for all they care. Just try to stay close to the bouyies. So off we go. This is where the ass whooping starts. The current and the waves were too much for me. I couldn't find my rythym and my legs were sinking. I resorted to doing side stroke most of the time, mixed with short spurts of crawl. I did some breast stroke, but it was hard w/ the waves. I would bring my head up for a breath and it would be under a wave. My googles fogged up and the sun started setting so I couldn't see at all when I swam into the sun. I eventually took my goggles off and swam without them. This prompted everyone I passed to find out what happened to my goggles. They were hanging around my neck, but they couldn't see that. And the current kept pulling me out away from the bouyies. I was not enjoying this swim and it prompted one of the coaches to keep asking me if I was ok. After the third or fourth time in less than a minute I finally told her that "I am fine, I'd rather be at a bar drinking beer". That stopped her from asking me anymore. Was it my tone? Or could I actually be doing fine if I'm thinking about beer?

All in all, I was not pleased w/ my swim performance. I didn't panic. I never felt like drowning was a possibility. I could have stayed out there doing what I was doing for another 30 minutes. I just couldn't get all the pieces to work at the same time. I've been having problems getting all the components of the swim together in the pool, so it was impossible to do it under those conditions. I already had the idea in my mind that after the Danskin I would seek out a swim group or a swim class and focus on improving. Yesterday's ass whooping was the justification to follow through with that plan.

As far as open water swims, I have a few more planned before the Danskin. I'll also be hitting the pool pretty hard before then. I'm doing the Rookie Tri this Saturday. It has a 300m swim. We will also be going back to Windy point one or two more times and a bunch of people from my tri group want to do the Austin Triathletes Open Water Swim on May 21.