20 dollar workouts

Cascadeds Edge, the Olympic Triathlon is this Sunday (the 17th)!...and that means, that..(gulp)..the Pacific Crest Half-Ironman is one week away. Excuse me for just a second...

Ok, so one week, that's fine, I'm ready. To prepare for the Olympic Tri this weekend I signed up for an open water swim clinic I attended on Wendesday (seriously, is Wednesday not the most rediculous thing to spell?),

So I paid 20 bucks to attend this clinic up in Enumclaw at Nolte State Park (where the tri is being held), and I showed up with probably 7 other people and a swim coach. The thing is, most of the people had little practice swimming in open water (like, none so far this year), and a couple people had never swam in a lake. So the coach talked for a few minutes, but all the tips were for total beginners, tips on how to get in the water and site and such.

I'm not sure exactly what I was looking for, but I didn't really get it. I guess I went in hopes of learning some tricks that allowed me to stay with the pack, or maybe discover what I was doing wrong.

We all walked down to the water, I swam a little to get used to the cold, and then joined the group at the start of the swim. They set up a buoy 400 yards away, on the other side of the lake and we were to swim to it and back, ready, go!

It was at this point that I figured it out: No, I didn't figure out the secret to open water swimming, I figured out, Hey! I should start holding swim clinics! I mean, I'm out here swimming anyway, why not hold a clinic? I'll get my workout, even get to swim with some people and make a little money... if I hadn't been swimming I would have rubbed my hands together like Homer Simpson's boss (Excellent Mr. Smithers, Excellent),

I started swimming out a little ways, kind of watching what other people were doing, and two people seem to be swimming much quicker than the others, so I went with them and drafted on their feet. By the turn-around, one of them slowed down and so I drafted the other one the whole way back, and I was a little nervous that she would be pissed off because I kept accidentally hitting her feet the whole time, but when we reached the shore she gave me a big high five and said I was terrific (the unexpected can be so nice sometimes). Turns out she thought I was a pretty good swimmer (which was news to me), and she, along with the coach, both seemed to be pretty good swimmers, so that was exciting.

All in all, it turned out to be a really good thing attending the clinic. I was able to focus on drafting, even stopping at one point and letting the two people on the way out get away from me and then working really hard to catch up. I was able to take it easy at points and watch what other people were doing and figure out what I wanted to do (which was really key, because in triathlons so far I haven't done this, I just go swimming along hoping not to get kicked anymore and hoping not to lose too much time). And finally it even gave me a little more confidence being told I was a pretty good swimmer, which, again was news to me.

So, here's to hoping this Sunday's race is a huge success. I'm going to race without a watch this time and just go as hard as I possibly can in each part of the race,

Have a great weekend, and if you weren't planning on it, go find something to do outside!