Open Water Swim Success

We spent the weekend in Betterton for Mother's Day. It's such a nice, relaxing place.  But for this weekend, being in Betterton accomplishes a training goal: more open water swimming.

Saturday turned out to be a nice, warm day with very little wind.  I had arranged to borrow a kayak from the neighbors Brian and Maureen so that Stephen could be out in the water with me while I swim. 

We lugged the kayak across the public beach and with each step I started to get more and more nervous.  I got in the water as Stephen was getting situated in the kayak.  I did some breathing bobs to try to get in the right mode. 

I started swimming and felt the water getting noticeably colder as I got into the deeper water.  By the time I was out past the jetty and docks, I was getting very nervous.  I stopped swimming and started treading water for a minute. I told Stephen I need to switch from the Olympic distance to the sprint distance.  I was in a high state of anxiety.

Stephen said simply "just keep going".  So I did.  I put my head back in the water and kept going.  I realized that a lot of my issues with open water swimming are all in my head. 

However, I can't really do any strokes other than freestyle.  So while other triathletes flip over and do the backstroke when they need a break from freestyle, I can't do that.  I really can't do the backstroke at all.  So I played around with some of the other strokes from my childhood swimming lessons.  Side stroke was the alternative stroke that moved me through the water the fastest.  Many people do the breast stroke but I just felt like I wasn't going anywhere when I did that.  So I suppose that when I need a break from the freestyle, I will be doing the side stroke.  Not exactly the fastest stroke out there, but I suppose the fastest for me. 

I still had a few moments where I questioned my sanity with this whole Olympic distance triathlon, but I made it to the shore.  I swam from the public beach to the cottages.  According to map my swim, the distance was .62 miles.  I need to swim .3 more miles for the race.  I think it's do-able but will definitely be a challenge to me.  It would definitely help if Stephen could be in the kayak encouraging me like he did on Saturday.  It was really nice to hear "you can do it" and "keep going".

Monday I went to the pool while the girls had swimming lessons.  I decided to swim as much as I could in the short amount of time I had during the lesson.  So I swam 1000 yards which is less than .6 miles.  Tihs coming Saturday I have an open water swimming clinic.  I'm really looking forward to that...I obviously need it desperately.