The Wet Suit Comes Out of the Package At Last

Today I:

• Opened the package my wet suit came in.  It arrived in April.  You can tell I wasn't one bit nervous to open it and think about putting it on.
• Went to the lake and put it on even though it looked like it was intended for a small ten year old to wear.  I got in mostly on by myself with some help from my friend.
• Swam in it even though it was "choky."  And man people aren't kidding when they say it makes you more buoyant.  Keep my feet in the water for kicking. Maybe not.
• Got it off - myself - when I came out of the water.

Whew!  That was a lot accomplished right there.

My goggles didn't fog up.  Thanks everyone for all the advice after my last OWS.  I did better with the sighting although I think some of that was luck.  I was surprised when I came out of the water that  I had only been in there for 20 minutes. I am either gauging the distance wrong (very likely) or I may be a tiny bit faster than I think.  It was kind of hard to swim on top of the water. I had a hard time keeping my legs in the water. And I definitely went back to my original way of swimming - no rolling side to side - although  I did okay with the whole breathing thing.  I could see the bottom which I often read people like. I am thinking I would like to be ignorant about what is in the lake with me. It was a bit weedier than I expected - maybe because everything is lower this year.  I did feel quite tired but overall did more freestyle swimming than last time.  It was actually kind of awkward to do the breast stroke in the wet suit.  I did roll over on my back once just to get the feel of it. When I needed to get water out of my goggles -  a few annoying times - I treaded water as suggested to me. That seemed to work fine. When I went in to shore I think I stood up too soon to walk in as it seemed to take forever.  Should I swim for as long as I can?

I'm choking!

Headed right for that buoy - amazing!

I can't keep those feet in the water.

Not sure what I'm doing here. Sighting?  Treading water to get rid

of water in my goggles? Taking a break?

Once I struggled out of my wet suit I went and changed out of my bathing suit so we could ride the course of my late August triathlon.  Today I wore a bathing suit as it seemed easier but next time I will wear my tri top and bottoms.  I wasn't simulating the transition today at all.  Another time for that too. 

The course was much hillier than I expected although I had heard someone talking about it the day I watched the tri.  I was actually pleased with my time. When we started out we were just casually going down the road. When it got hillier I started going more for time.  I was figuring an hour would be good the day of the race but today was a little less. I plan to ride this a couple more times so hopefully I can get this down.  I have no idea how long the transitions will take.  My friend is going to come back next week and I am going to add running to the mix.  Might as well do all three. I am going to play a bit with the transitions too.

Actually not on the bike course - a little scenic side trip.

Then I headed home but stopped to run some errands. When I returned to my car my bike was unhooked on my rack and askew.  Someone must have tried to take my bike but the lock stopped them!  Scary!  It was in a public parking lot that was packed with cars.

Overall ........this represents best how I felt about today!