Taking the Reins

Just got back from a 1-mile ocean swim today….woo!  Felt great.  It’s so liberating to head out away from the beach and go for a swim.  I never thought I’d be a fan of the ocean, but it calms me down and is just so enjoyable.  Today we hooked up with a swim buddy and aimed at a nice and easy 1/2 mile to see how we had acclimated to the water.  My swim buddy did her best to keep up, and we laughed at every buoy about the warm bubbles in our wetsuits and the feel of the seaweed creaping over our arms.  ;)  Anyway, we felt so great after coming back that we decided to do it all over again.  Can’t say that my timing was fabulous, but it was fun and relaxing.  Desertmama asked about sighting…..  I swim pretty straight, so I look up once every 6-8 strokes, which probably isn’t enough but worked well tonight.  Swimming in a pool DOES NOT prepare you for sun glare and ocean swells, but I find that if you keep making forward progress, eventually the buoy comes into sight and you can swim towards it.  When it doubt, follow the pink swim caps from the heat in front of you.  ;)  Today I had new fog-free goggles and it was much, much easier to swim to the buoys than last time.

Hubby was there with his camera to take pictures of our practice, but to be honest, every time I looked up he was taking pictures of seals and dolphins.  (They swim between the jetties by the bait docks— far away from us!)  He was funny afterward when he said, “nobody looks good in a wetsuit.”  Thanks, darling.  I needed that.

 I ate a lot of non-home cooked food today, so I’m sure I’m way over on points…..between my McDonald’s Southwest chicken salad (1/2— threw it out because it was gross) & small yogurt parfait, and then my naked buffalo burger at the beach snack stand….well, I’ve made better choices in my life.  But I did work out hard, and I’m finding that I’m needing to eat more to make sure I feel energetic every day.  I never thought I’d start my day out by thinking, “how will I best prepare myself for my workout this afternoon?”  Literally, the day is planned around getting enough hydration and carbs/protein for my workout.  Craziness!

Tomorrow morning is physical therapy, so hopefully they can straighten me out.  I added a 3rd tri to my list for the season, so I have a lot riding on this PT to get me healthy.  The schedule is now:

August 26th - Santa Barbara Women-Only Sprint

September 9th- Pacific Coast Sprint Triathlon

October 14th - Suburu San Diego All Women’s Sprint Triathlon

I’ve heard enough stories about these crazy men and their breastroking that I can’t wait to do a race with only women!  Anyway, I have put a lot of time and money into this triathlon training, so I’m hoping that between the 3 races, I’ll start putting it to good use!