More Swimmin' Ocean Clinic Day 3

Day 3 of swim camp. The day started early with 7 a.m. Roll call on the beach. It was chilly that early, but that's the point. We got in for an hour and a half swim on the soft morning swells. This was just the opposite of the washing machine chop we endured yesterday afternoon. The swimming was fantastic - I felt much more comfortable in the 62 degree water and able to make some tracks. Unfortunately, some water or maybe the anti-fog spray I used on my goggles was stinging my eyes after about a half hour. Also, I somehow lost the entire group. It's a little freaky to be in the open water without anyone nearby. So, I decided to head back. I swam with my eyes closed most of the way. I swam for an hour, which was a lot shorter than I intended, but it's all part of the learning experience.

We enjoyed breakfast after the swim and talked about training plans. Basically, you need to fit in the same distance you plan to swim in an event during a week, but you build over a period of 3 weeks, then take a rest week, which doesn't really mean REST, but cutting back on yardage and cross training. 

After the discussion, I took a personal stroke consulting session with Mallory. I'm glad to know my stroke is basically good, I just need to focus on bending my elbow up right at the catch. And my sighting is a mess, so I have some things to work on.

Everyone else had the afternoon free and I know at least a couple of my teammates planned on naps. I headed back to the ocean, determined to swim the 3K from pier to pier.

I started at the lifeguard station which is about 100 yards from the pier. The water was again really choppy with some whitecaps, so I thought I'd just round the pier and maybe head back since I was on my own. As I was rounding the pier, I swam into a couple of fishing lines. Gross. And, I'm sure the fishermen or women were not that happy when they discovered their big catch was swimming away.

Once a got a little past the pier, I decided to keep swimming. .. Maybe not all the way to the other pier, but a little further. After a while, I checked my watch and decided I'd swim 15 more minutes. Then, I noticed the other pier was looking a little closer. And, segment by segment, I made it to the other pier :-) 

I walked back on the beach, which was even a little harder than swimming through the bronco waves - it was cold and I had a catch in my groin making it painful to pull my leg each step.

The hot shower when I got back to my hotel was delicious. I know I should be working on the cold showers but come on - gotta take a break every once and awhile. The luxury of the shower and feeling all clean and warm didn't last long, we met back at the beach at 8:30 p.m. For our night swim. I soooooo dreaded this. The air temp was in the mid 50s and the last thing I wanted to do was strip down to my suit and get into freezing cold DARK water. But, we all paid for this, so we tossed the clothes, affixed our glow sticks and dove into the black waves.
It. Was. Awesome.

The water didn't feel that cold and swimming under the stars like a pod of glowing dolphins was just magical. I'm sure the thrill wears off it you have to swim in the dark for hours and hours, but I was delighted to discover how cool it is.

Tomorrow we work on swimmming and feeding from a kayak. Woot!