My Crazy Saturday Part I

The Team Pre-Swim at Aquatic ParkRemember when Saturday mornings meant cartoons and "Kung Fu"? I do. My Dad would make waffles, or we'd get to run fun errands or go to the park to play. These days my Saturdays are typically filled with Team In Training activities, which while excellent, sometimes leave something to be desired. At least I get to finish up the workout and then go do something fun. However, this Saturday's antics were a double-dose of doom: TNT swim in San Francisco Bay, then shopping for bridesmaids dresses - I cannot decide which even I dreaded more when my alarm rang. I think I had tricked myself into thinking it was still Friday and that I had to get up and go to work...Ever hear of such a thing? Someone wanting to avoid a weekend day so much that they woke up getting ready for the office? Crazy. And while the bridesmaid dresses were what was to be expected (more on that later,) one never knows what will happen when it's the day of the Bay swim....

California. Just saying the word conjures images of palm trees, orange groves, sunshine, and surfers frolicking in the waves. (Okay, some of you might think of the intro to "The Hills" but Lauren & Heidi don't seem like triathlon girls now do they?) Northern California is a little bit of a different story, especially San Francisco. It's spectacularly beautiful, wild, dramatic, but also foggy, wet, and cold a lot of the time. I love it this way, and wouldn't change it for the world, and I even prefer training outdoors when it's a "wee bit soft" as the Irish would say. But then there's the open-water issue. Sure, I grew up swimming in Lake Tahoe and other lakes when I was a kid, but this is the Pacific Ocean - not the nice Pacific Ocean of Australia's Gold Coast, exotic Thailand, Waikiki Beach, or Malibu, but the cold, mean, knock-you-around, wicked undertoe of the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco Bay.

At 8AM I was at Aquatic Park with the rest of my team, getting all kinds of open-water technique and safety instruction from the barrage of coaches gathered for the big swim. Water temperature? Oh, about 52 - 54 degrees, a little colder if there's been a recent storm or if it's overcast. I know there are people in the Dolphin Club who swim in the Bay all the time, as well as surfers who brave the waters daily, but I like to think that no matter your experience, it's always just a little bit miserable for everyone. As my friend Pam said on her blog Pamspace:

"One of the things I do like about swimming at AP is the tourists walking by who make comments like "you guys are all crazy." Once, there was a guy cleaning out the port-a-potties who said to me, "you really have a lot of guts to swim out there." I was like: this guy's cleaning crap and he thinks WE'RE crazy..."

That pretty much sums it up about right.

Wetsuits, neoprene caps, swim caps (in bright colors so you'll be seen,) ear plugs, and Body Glide - that's just what you need to get in the water. Here is where the expression "getting your feet wet" means a lot: once the feet are in, you're almost half-way done, that is until the hands get in, and then the ears, and the rest of the head.

Last year I was so cold and miserable and freaked-out I could barely put my face in the water. Luckily, this isn't an entirely abnormal thing, so I kind of went with the emotion and let myself have a meltdown. This year, I got tough. I did visualizations, I played games with myself - I kept going. And while I did a lot better, it was still really hard to get into a rhythm - it's a bit like all the different parts of your body decide to do their own thing and stop working together as one. Here's where the mind games come in - you actually have to trick your body into doing what you want it to do - otherwise, it will do what it wants to do. 

Mid-way through the loop I saw my friend Kerry who asked how I was doing. I told her I was okay, but that it was hard to keep my face in the water, and that I kept getting a mouth full of salt.

"Well - if you kept your face in the water you wouldn't be getting slapped around by the waves." This retort made me laugh. She was right. She then became my buddy for the rest of the swim. We made little deals with each other: "Okay, eight strokes, then three breast strokes, then eight more...then we'll go to the next boey..." Literally. 1-2-3-4-breathe-1-2-3-4-breathe... Kerry also came up with the great idea of doing drills - this helps to keep your mind focused on technique instead of on how far you have yet to go. I've also been told that singing songs in your head is a good way to keep going too, but sometimes you just need to remind yourself to breathe. Once you do, it gets to be a game, and actually just a little bit fun too.

Kind of like life hunh? Maybe that's why it's so hard to deal with...