Good form but Janet Evans I am not

Today, Jacki and I participated in the Jim McDonnell 1 and 2 mile open swim. I'll let you guess who did which race.

It was a beautiful day.
A bit overcast for the 1 mile swim but definitely bright and shiny for the 2 mile swim which came later. I'm going to throw in a few pictures of perfect form...trust that there are a few with less than perfect form.

The Jim McDonnell swim is a swim for Master swimmers but competitors are predominately triathletes. One key difference, and I hesitate here to make generalizations, Master swimmers tend to have a little meat on their bones but trust me when I say they are pretty fast. They also swim in their swimsuit and make fun of those in "rubber suits" insinuating we are cheaters. Not wanting to provoke, I reserved my thought that the leaner, meaner triathlete bodies have no body fat to keep us warm even though today's water temperature of 70 degrees was perfection. The last time I competed in this race the water temperature was 64.

I'm going to detail my swim and encourage Jacki to post her Monday morning quarterbacking on her own swim. Mine began very calmly, great rhythm, in the pack perhaps a bit wider then the rest of the pack but definitely in the mix when generally I am left in the dust....or wake as the case may be. At the first buoy I got smacked in the face and lost my goggles. Generally in a triathlon, I put them under my cap because triathlon swims are very physical and the loss of goggles is common. Today, I had them over my cap thinking my swimming colleagues would be a little bit more cognizant of spacing. No worries, though. Sure, I was ticked but I just flipped on my back, put them back on and kept swimming. The best part was that to that point my goggles were fogged up and I couldn't see a thing. Getting smacked in the face and having them involuntarily removed took care of my fog problem.

I think the swimming community thinks triathletes are coddled. There were 7 buoys on the course. Over a mile course, you can imagine that they are pretty far apart not to mention small. As I said, I did this race several years ago so I knew sighting would be a challenge. I used others to sight for me, swimming side by side with someone until I passed and lost them or looking ahead for green swim caps.

I competed...it's kind of a joke to say this...in the 2 mile race which means 2 laps around. I drifted right which I felt may have been from crossing center. It's a lake, there is no current to carry me or in this case blame. I started to focus on the zipper drill in my stroke which made me catch the water better and seemed to increase my speed...again a word I hesitate to use. I forgot my watch today-- another indication of this being an exercise in a 2 mile open water swim vs a competition--but Jacki said she thought my first lap was around 33 minutes which is pretty decent. Still, my friends joining me in Lake Placid, I don't feel I will have much of a swim course improvement over 2007 despite that I have improved my technique and comfort in the water.

All in all, a nice swim. I did have vertigo issues when I exited which manifests itself in my walking like I am completely drunk. This happened when I raced this course before and I thought it was the temperature of the water disagreeing with my brain (perhaps instead it is the toxins in the water). Since then I have used earplugs in water under 70 degrees and I have had only minor problems with vertigo. While swimming today, very early in the course as we reversed direction, the sun was in my eyes. I decided to change the side I was breathing on. Unfortunately, my body disagreed. I could not switch my breathing side because I was so dizzy and disoriented I could not even determine the sky from the water. Kind of a problem. I'll have to research why this may have happened because it is clear that the drunken walk to my bike in any triathlon would probably get me pulled off the course.

One good thing, I did have lots of energy today. I could have swam another lap. My swim training is in good shape. I may not be fast, but I am strong. When I came home I went out on an hour run for good measure. I'm desperate to use the 3-day weekend well and bank some training time.

Tomorrow, a ride, perhaps a swim. Jacki will be trying out her new shoes and speedplay pedals. I worry the band-aid stock may not be where it needs to be but I'm keeping my fingers crossed she/we returns unscathed.