OWS....Take Two

Well my last post had me worried about the tri in a weeks – more than ever. After my first open water swim, I was not feeling confident! So I did what any analytical, type A person would do – get more information about it! I found a swim clinic on Sunday morning at Grant Ranch and decided I definitely needed to try it out.

Saturday

But first, on Friday night AA and I headed to Vail to stay over before the Tough Mudder on Saturday. We got upgraded (thanks Dad!) to the Presidential Suite! It was an amazing room and awesome hotel – it’s just too bad we couldn’t enjoy it more! We walked around Vail village a bit, and enjoyed our complementary ice cream and vino :-) Wake up time was 5:30 though so early to bed!

Tough Mudder was at Beaver Creek Resort – about 15 minutes down the road. We got our Starbucks, found the parking and were there just before registration that started at 7. AA got all marked up and we were looking for his teammates (superman and wonder-woman) and found them just before race time at 8 AM and headed up to the start. 

Hyatt Ryatt

Just to GET to the start line, you had to jump over a 10 foot wall. 

Wall to get to the start

I started taking my pics and got to side with other spectators. The MC got the first wave AMPED up and they were off! I hadn’t done my usual planning so I didn’t even know where to go. I was hoping there’d be signs for spectators or a group to follow – but there wasn’t. Luckily I met this girl whose boyfriend was in the same wave as AA with his dad and brother. She had a map, so we started up the mountain in hopes of taking lots of pictures. It turned out to even be a fun day for me! I ran around with her trying to make it to lots of obstacles. We were both so happy to get our first pics and meet-up at obstacle 6, where they had to army crawl through water while getting shocked by live wires. It was sort of painful to hear! 

Climbing through live wires

I’ll leave the Tough Mudder update to AA’s post – but the weather and surroundings couldn’t have been more beautiful. 

View down to Beaver Creek and the start

Needless to say, the race was re-freakin-diculous. 12 miles, 4000 ft elevation gain, 22 obstacles all while fighting elevation and making 2 trips up and down Beaver Ski Resort Mountain…His team stuck together and I’m so proud of him for making it! He had an awesome time, although was sore for DAYS and was not only physically…but mentally challenging, but he is ready to sign up again already :-)

After crawling through Mudd...Tough Mudder much?

Sunday

AM1: 750m swim

AM2: 5 mile run

After a quick appearance at the block party on our street – we were in bed early on Saturday night. I was up at 6:30am to get to swimming at Grant Ranch on time.  I got there with plenty of time and sat in some lawn chairs with the rest of the group waiting for it to start. I hadn’t fully prepared for the early AM temps so I was glad I had my towel to wrap around me :-)

Melissa was our instructor, and after listing off her impressive (and obviously qualified) background – she got in to the lecture. She sort of surveyed the audience (20 of us) and it seemed like most people were there training for their first triathlon. Others had done some, but still stunk at the swim. It was very relaxed and everyone was having a fun morning. She talked about the basics which was nice. A lot I had read, but a lot was new and other pieces were just nice to hear from a professional! I won’t go over the whole lecture – but I did have a few good take aways:

-Only thing the same between open water swim and swimming in the pool is that you are still swimming

-OWS (open water swim) has so many more unknown elements where as pool swimming is a controlled environment

-Melissa talked about proper breathing technique and using crocodile eyes to sight before you turn and take your breath back in your shoulder

-She advised to start either in the very front (if a strong swimmer) or in the very back to avoid the chaos at the start

-Talked about what to wear and proper technique for taking off wetsuit and goggles/cap during transition

-If you need to take a break, it’s okay to relax with a few breast strokes

There was a time to ask question and I actually built up the nerve to share my experience! I spoke how I had done my first OWS and had trouble breathing. I wasn’t able to exhale under water and it messed everything up. I asked, if in addition to a few breast strokes if she had any tips. She reiterated the problem that if I don’t ever exhale, and I keep trying to inhale above water – my breaths get shorter and nothing else can fit in my lungs. This is exactly right. She said we were going to be doing a bobbing exercise that would really force you to focus on the breathing. She said it sounds basic, but you have to consciously force yourself to make big exhales and think about it.

So in to the water we went! The bobbing exercise was great. You basically just jump up and then down and submerge yourself under water. When you are under you do a deep exhale and then come up and inhale. I went down and was SO happy when I actually exhaled under water! It was so simple but I just kept jumping up and down a lot and practiced exhaling under the water and then inhaling! She would go out a little ways and have us swim to her. Then back and then did a swim to her and back around. I was AMAZED I was actually doing a free-style swim, exhaling under water, using real strokes. It felt great! I did notice I would get a little caught up with the sighting. I definitely lift my whole body too much rather than just my head and it forces me to come up and get out of rhythm and mess up with my breathing and I usually take in some water. Not only sighting, but with everyone around me – the same thing happens. After some warm ups she let us loose. She showed us the buoys for the 750m swim. I knew I just had to TRI! Before I knew it I was off and doing a good job! There were two other women in front of me and a lot of people behind me. I still haven’t gotten the sighting thing down, but found after a few strokes if I did 1 or 2 breast strokes, I could orient myself, relax and keep going without getting overwhelmed. I continued to do this for the rest of the swim and I made it around the 750m and felt really good about it!

I forgot to take pics :-(

I left the swim in a great mood, and very happy that I signed up for the clinic. It was, as many said, a little bit of confidence that I needed. I still am not expert, and can see myself getting worked up in the washing machine…but if I stick to the back and start out with breast stroke to make sure I am calm– I think I have a better shot than last time.

You can get $12 one day passes at Grant Ranch to use M/W/F form 5am-7am or on weekend from 7am-9am so I am hoping to do this!

I was feeling great and drove right to Wash Park and did 2 laps (5 mile long run) at a decent pace! It was a great way to start Sunday morning :-) Not to mention AA had breakfast ready when I got home!

The rest of the day we strolled around the Farmers Market up the street (amazing) and then went to Jazz in the Park to round out a great weekend.

Jazz at the Park - City Park Denver

Monday

30 minute cycle at the gym

Pushups/abs

Tuesday

AM: 1150m swim

PM: 3 mile run

PM2: 11 mile bike ride

I made it to swimming before work! I did 44 continuous laps (with 3 breast stroke laps to break it up). My arms were a bit tired, but overall felt good!

During lunch I went for a run on the Orchard Hills course. The first 1.5 miles felt good – but struggled with the last mile. I think I went out too fast and it was a HOT day! Overall I was happy with the run though!

This isn’t quite a bike workout – but the roundtrip distance to kickball is 11 miles :-) Good workout! Tonight’s theme was dress as your favorite animal – super fun!

Panda and Giraffe - Kels and my fav's since nursery school!

Pandas all ready for Noah's Arc

Looking forward

The rest of the week is going to be busy. I hope to get in a good bike tomorrow then the same swim/run on Thursday as today. AA’s parents get to town on Thursday so the rest of the weekend is pretty busy! I am hoping to get in at least one run and MAYBE a swim? Only 4 weekends of training left! Visitors for the next 2, then an overnight hike the following Fri/Sat, then a wedding in Chicago…then it is race weekend!!