Silverlake Swim Race

Scheduling for the family and training this last couple weeks has been a challenge.  Darren has had to put in some extra time, but we've been working together to ensure everything is done, at a minimum, anyway.

I couldn't get my open water swim in on Friday, so my alternative was a 1 mile open water swim race.  Oiy!  I signed up and did it.  It wasn't without getting pretty nervous about it.

Here's the thing:  In the pool I swim and breathe bilaterally.  For whatever reason, in the lake, I have to breathe every other stroke.  I don't know if it's because of the murky water that I need to lift my head out to see what's going on, but whatever the reason, that's what happens. 

So I rolled with it.  I would breathe every other stroke and sight on the 6th.  I fell into a rhythm and it worked for me.  My sighting was the best part of my effort.  I was really pleased.

That said, I came around the last turn on the first lap and didn't trust myself.  I saw another swimmer cutting across to go around a different bouy than the one I was sighting.  I paniced and thought I was in the wrong place and started following her.  Then I realized, "No!  I am right!!"  I had to back-track to go around the originally intended bouy, so as to avoid being disqualified.  Anyway, my first lap was 19:55 for the 800 meters.  My full 1 mile time was 40:28. 

Had I not experienced the mis-navigation and trusted myself, I might have finished under 40!  Even if it was 39:59, it still sounds better than :40  LOL

Just for comparison, my 800 m at Danskin last year was :27 minutes.  my 800m split for this race was 19:55 -- I'd say there has been some improvement! 

All in all a good event. I have a 2400 yd time trial on Friday in open water.  Yeow!