Tiki Swim 1.2 Mile Edition (Success!)

I decided two weekends ago, that I wanted to try swimming the Tiki Swim this year.  The second half of the 1.2 mile race course is the same harbor as the entire Oceanside Half Ironman swim course, so it would be an awesome preview for me to check out the water and swim it.  I know I wasn't too excited about the surf start, but I know and can execute the move to dive under waves, and I was more worried about nerves, but was convinced I could get that under control if I just got enough practice at the HB Pier surf diving.

Saturday surf conditions.  Not so bad.

I went to the area on Saturday to pick up my race packet and also to preview the area again.  The last time I saw it was at the Oceanside Half Ironman in March and HOOBOY, there were some pretty big waves!  I was pleasantly surprised that on Saturday, conditions didn't seem that bad at all.  Also, I saw surfers standing by the second breaker, so it looks like a pretty shallow water entry.  Diving was no problem if I had a foot hold, so that's even better.  The race volunteers told me the surf is expected to be even calmer in the morning.  So I drove home feeling pretty good about starting the race the next morning.

So I get to the course the next morning, found a pretty good parking space and walk over to the start line to see the staff putting up the 1.2 mile start markers and drank my coffee as I studied the surf.  To my dismay, there was light surf of 2-3 feet with intermediate moderate surf of about 3-4 foot sets. O_o  I was not expecting this, but at least the sets were well spaced and the water was pretty clean in between each surf crash.  Also, I was more confident that I could tackle this since I survived 5 footers in Huntington Beach the very Tuesday before, and that involved some pretty messy waters.  

First buoy!  Deceptively far away!

 I got back to my car to relax a bit, to calm down a bit.  I wasn't nearly as nervous as when I did the HB Pier Swim since conditions were better and I had much more practice in surf and rough water.  I was feeling better than on Saturday (Saturday morning I woke up and was feeling a little bit like I was coming down with something, ugh.)  With 40 minutes to the start, I started to suit up and headed back to the start line to drop off my bags and warmed up with a quick dip in the water.  

The race staff with the megaphone told us about the surf conditions, and told us we could strategically wade out into the water, wait for the surf to die down and sprint past the breaker as a strategy.  My strategy was to go all out, dive under any surf that comes my way since waiting will just lower my confidence level even more and I needed every bit.  I tried to calm myself down, eyeball the surf and tried to recognize what type of surf is what.  Then we started.

So I let pretty much everyone else start ahead of me on the sand, but once I got into the water I was going to get ahead of them if I could.  There were a couple of 4-5 footers on the way out, but I read each wave correctly and executed the dives as well as I could have done them and made decent forward progress.  There were a couple of late ones even after quite a bit ways out, but I did a silent cheer once I got past all the breakers and surf.  But where the heck was the buoy?  I knew it was out there since I saw it from the beach, but for the life of me I could not spot it from the water.  I was concerned I passed it and was off course, so twice I stopped and looked all around me to see if I missed it and had to backtrack.  Alas, it was just REALLY really far out XD .38 miles according to my watch.  It looked much closer from the shore! After I spotted it again 10 minutes from the race I felt a lot better.

The rest of the swim was average.  I got into some contact with some swimmers and almost kicked in the face once while heading for the buoy, but overall it went as well as could be expected.  I did get a bit of an injury on my way out of the water since it was a boat ramp and I had not expected bumpy concrete and I might have bruised the ball of my toe on my foot while climbing up the ramp at the finish.  This is on the same foot that's already in recovery mode.  Can't my left foot get a break? 

And MAN, I missed placing in my age group by one spot!  The times weren't even close, but so close!  Though I was 3rd place out of 4 people in my age group... so really nothing to be proud of XD though it would have been nice to get an age group award for the first time!  I'll keep working hard for next year!

Race Report: Long Beach Triathon!

Gee, I had no idea I signed up for the Silent Hill Marathon!

This past Sunday was the Long Beach Triathlon!  The swim portion was an 880 yard (half mile) swim through the usually calm waters of the Alamitos Beach in Long Beach.  I swam an abbreviated part of the race course in a meet up swim clinic hosted by the LB Tri Club.  So I was pretty confident about completing the course.  Unfortunately, after I dropped off my bike at the transition area, the fog had rolled on in!  Visibility was extremely low.  My friend and I walked the half mile from T1 to the start area.  After a frantic search for an unlocked bathroom (and my friend lending me her shoes, since I really REALLY did not want to go into the toilet on my bare feet and I had to leave my flip flops in T1), we were busting out bottoms back to the start line a half mile back down the beach.

Putting on the Wetsuit :3

After I got sort of close to the start line, I started putting on my suit on.  Good thing I was in the 7:12AM wave, since I was still putting the suit on when the elites wave started!  XD 

I did a quick warmup  dive into the water and a couple of strokes.  The water wasn't really that cold so I was satisfied with a 2 minute warmup and trotted back to the start line to see the two waves in front of me start.  I was surprised how wide to the left people were standing to the left of the first turn buoy. 

 Conditions were slightly choppy, but at least the fog started to lift a little bit so we could see two buoys ahead.  I had a whole strategy of starting a little to the left of the buoy and then going wide since I didn't want to get entangled in some arm/foot/face fight for position as my A goal was to swim well, and B goal was to complete the swim, so I played conservative

Warm Up in the Water!  A little choppy...

 I checked out the waves before me but with the excitement I forgot to keep a closer eye at how the people actually swam when they went out, so I missed signs of there being a pretty strong current going north along the shore.   No bueno! 

Strolling into the water :3

Our wave finally started.  I was lined up pretty to the left and strolled into the water behind the other races.  I was immediately caught into the current and had to backtrack a good number of yards back to the first buoy >_<  Lesson learned about really paying attention to the waves ahead of me instead of zoning out!

Action Shot!  There's my right arm :3

Aside from that, and having a life guard point me back on course later in the race (the fog rolled back in again and it was very disorienting.) everything went very well.  I swam wide outside the buoy line so I didn't get much swim contact from the other races, which worked to my advantage and well worth the extra 50 yards to the swim.  I should have also pre-walked the swim course along the beach to see how the buoys were positioned (but I was looking for a bathroom!) since the part where I pointed back on course by a lifeguard was when the buoys took a diagonal from the straight, and that was this weird loop thing I was not expecting for the end part of the course (probably because they pulled the race buoys inside the regular swim buoys due to the fog and they needed a slight loop hook to make it a half mile swim.)

Run run to T1!

I walked up the beach since I aggravated my foot injury running in the sand after the swim.  I think this may have thrown off my swim time.  I stopped my watch when I got out of the water so it looked like the LONGEST T1 ever as I walked the 100 yards back to transition.  Once I hit the concrete I started running :3

All in all a great race :3  The bike was a bit difficult what with the random fog rolling in, but the run went well and when  you do a first race, you always PR :3  I learned a lot about race swimming here so I'm glad I entered.  (I also learned a lot about transitions, too. UGH, same thing happened with T1 an T2 about plans going out the window due to the excitement XD) 

Open Water Swimming Adventures: New Aquatic Creature Encounter and New Swim Location!

I'm still not fully training for a triathlon yet as I'm not following any plan, just kind of seeing how I feel and splitting the days between swimming, biking, resting, and a random run here and there (short ones only, I'm still being very careful with my foot.)  I think I'm finally starting to feel like I'm getting better at swimming in open water, though data wise, that's showing up very very slowly, but I'm not discouraged.  I remember when I started I would have to stop once or twice before I got from one buoy to the next XD  Last week I did nearly 3000 yards in one swim workout and going in a record time for me of 1.2 mph!  Oooooo.  (Ooooo for me, I'm slow!)

Last Saturday I had an engagement with my friends so I had to squeeze in my swim early, at 6:30 in the morning. I was alone in Corona Del Mar save for the people staking out their places at the fire pits even earlier than me!  (Note: I knew for a fact that there would be swimmers from my regular group coming at 7am for the regular Saturday swim, so I called it a swim alone exception.) I get in the water and notice these clear, jelly things with brown spheres in the just floating in the water.  They're about the size of a nickel to a quarter just... floating.  They didn't look like jellyfish, so I thought maybe they were some sort of, egg or something.  After I adjusted to the temperature (did I mention it was COLD?!) I swam out towards buoy one.

The further I got out, the more of these creatures I saw, and now not only were they floating around as I saw them before, but they were strung together in a chain formation, ominously dangling in the water.  I was doing some aquarobics to twist out of the way.  I meant to swim the outer buoys but about 3/4 of the way out from the first to the outside first buoy I saw a SWARM of them.  I freaked out (controlled freak out as I was very much alone, and I still need to swim 300 yards back to shore since there is no one here to rescue me except some very exhausted people who really really wanted a fire ring.) and swam the heck back to the first buoy.  In the process, my hands, feet and face hit some of these things.  They didn't sting, but I didn't know that and I hoped I wouldn't find out to the contrary later, so just kept avoiding them, did one and half laps on the inside set of buoys, kept hitting more of them, and decided to just get out of the water.

This adorable little girl and her mom were just getting to the water and asked me if I knew what these things were.  I had no idea but explained I made contact with them and so far I didn't suffer any ill effects.  We poked at a couple that had washed ashore (one had some baby shrimps near it... as I found out later, they eat krills!)  They looked like they were breathing! EEEK!  The lifeguards weren't there yet, so we had no one else to ask.  Meanwhile, I had just missed my regular swim group as they went out when I came in, so I couldn't ask them either.

I googled these things when I got home an found many people who misidentified them as jelly fish eggs or fish eggs.  Someone in my swim group later told me that they're actually harmless bottom feeders called salps!  They filter feed plankton and krill!  If I ever see them again, I won't have to be so afraid!  They're actually kinda cool to look at <3

Zuma Beach!  Look at those waves!

This Saturday's adventure was a practice run through the Malibu Triathlon Classic Course with the Pasadena Triathlon Club and Tri Pacific!  This was held at Zuma Beach in Malibu so it was quite the drive for me (nearly an hour and a half!)  Since this is a swim blog, I will just talk about the  swim portion. 

The waves were 1-3 feet, one major break and one set right by the waters edge, so really not so bad, and the depth of the water increased gradually.  The group broke into three levels: Long Swim, Short Swim, and Open Water Clinic.  I opted for the short swim of 500 meters (okay, I originally was going to go for the 800 meter swim, but was intimidated by the waves!)  I eyeballed the waves and waded out there tentatively with a couple of other people.  Something about the peer pressure of having other people there made turning back not an option.  I know I can swim the distance easily, those waves didn't look nearly as bad as the ones in HB, but I just dreaded having to deal with all these waves and keep having to worry about making forward progress and not getting face smacked by a wave. 

 At one point I turned to the woman I went out with and said "I'm starting to think I should go back to the beginner clinic!"  But I didn't drive seventy miles to turn back in failure, so I went for it!  I dove under a couple of waves to get past the first one easily since I still had solid footing.  The second one was a bit tougher since I didn't have footing, but I dove under and quick check look, and took a couple of strokes, picked my head up to check the next wave, and I seem to be moving forwards.  At one point I realized I was no longer in the break and the waters were calm!  I took a minute to figure out why my watch's multisport mode didn't start and to slow my heart rate down a bit (It was still terrifying, even though I didn't get tossed around since I dove deep enough)  Soon I saw the long swim people catch up to our group, and followed them to the turn buoy and went in for the finish!

Surf Swimming: Level UP!

I felt really good about the swim, and the group wasn't so big that I got kicked in the water, though I did make contact a couple of times!   Swimming out against surf with no landmark to swim for was scary but I'm glad I had the chance to reach a beach that is a good training area and go with this group of people!  Physically it was just a short swim, but mentally waves don't have that paralyzing affect on me as it did before.  Oh, if it's big enough, I'll be afraid, but I'm coming for you, Huntington Beach Pier Swim!

Lap Lap Paradise...

I discovered I could not do swimming drills in open water as it becomes really disorienting with the waves that I cannot really feel if I'm swimming right or not, so back on the super cranberry pills I go and jumping back into the pool for drills!  So far it seems to be working, but maybe only once or twice a week since it itches my skin very badly ;_;

I definitely feel less tired flailing around, but my stoke rate has gone down and economy is up, and that is continuing.  I put my wetsuit on for the first time in two weeks (I was swimming with just a swimsuit for a bit since it was warm) and I swam the farthest so far 1.28 miles and at 2:55minutes/100yards.  My fastest time in open water thusfar, but still horrifyingly SLOW. Some glimmering moments in the water I would feel like I'm going really fast, but those are fleeting moments.

I decided to check out how I did in my FIRST triathlon back in 2009.  I still remember the swim portion.  The last event (it was a reverse tri). Just me, and this lady backstroking down the first 50 meter stretch of a 150 meter swim.  I knew I had to beat her. I can't really tell if I could tell if I was going fast or slow, but I caught up and finished (barely) before her.  My time for at 150 meter swim was 6:52  (FYI, I finished behind six hundred and fifty some people... there were less than ten competitors with slower times than me.  Oh MAN!)

I still can't convert swim pace in my head with ease, so I plugged in my time... and discovered I was swimming 4:11min/100 yards, in a pool!  In a pool I can swim 2:30 now.  Jesus, what was I doing, running these?  How not aerodynamic was I back then? (okay, I was thirty some pounds heavier :p ) 

Total Immersion Swimming Book

Decided to go back to square one, and the swimming pool, to do some drills from the Total Immersion Swimming book.  Unfortunately my skin and I disagreed about the chlorine in the pool after the second pool visit, and I'm sitting here drinking monumental amounts of cranberry juice (and missing some nice 4th of July fireworks since I'm not feeling well) as I write this.

Even from the two sessions I feel like I'm starting to learn how to swim and balance better, but I need at least a couple more hours of drilling to get it down to be able to use it without thinking about it so hard (because I will have other things to worry about in open water than just stroke mechanics!)  Since I can't keep swimming in chlorine, I'm going to have to hope for really calm conditions when I practice drills at Corona Del Mar (inconvenient since I cannot review the drills pages after a couple of laps) and also for the lack of walls indicating how long I've gone.  So my best bet, really, is to either swim really close to shore, or in between buoys. 

The drills break down when each body movement is supposed to occur, and reinforces it with repetition.  I like this much better than me just going "DAAAAA!" and spinning my gears really fast and tiring myself out in a couple of minutes.  Also it appears my head has been WAAAY to high up in the water.  I'm actually supposed to be sinking that sucker in and hiding it by tucking it a bit, leaning on my lungs or "buoy" so that naturally my hip raises and I'm "swimming downhill". 

Looks like it's Corona Del Mar and some drill work (about half an hour) plus maybe a small inside lap for me tomorrow!

Crystal Cove State Park: Pelican Point

After the failure of my first swim race at Huntington Beach, I decided to add more practices with wave conditions more active than my usual practice location.  I decided to try swimming at Crystal Cove State Park Beach since that's where the Pacific Coast Triathlon is held, so I went out on a sunny afternoon to check out the site.

First thing I should say is the this beach is VERY VERY long with more than one entrance to separate area parking lots (each with separate lots) that lead to at least two very very different swimming conditions.  I went to the wrong one for open water fitness swimming.

Before leaving for the beach, I checked out the map at the Crystal Cove State Park website and saw that most of the beach area was marked good for swimming and body boarding, including Treasure Cove and Pelican Point (the north end of the beach, accessible from the Newport Coast Drive at PCH entrance).  Of course the area of Moro Beach looked like it had more icons for swimming on the map, but I could not find the parking entrance for that part of the beach.  I originally tried the second entrance off Pacific Coast Highway, but that turned out to be just a drop-off location with no parking unless you were staying there overnight.  So I drove back to the first entrance and asked the park ranger who took my parking money ($15) which part of the beach I should go to for swimming, and he said "any part" but recommended I take parking area 2 since there's a board walk to get to the beach.

I park my car at parking area 2 and walk all the way down the boardwalk and trail (10 minutes?) and get to the beach.  I put my goggles and the rest of my wetsuit on and a nice lifeguard came and asked me where I planned on swimming I told him I was going out maybe 150 yards, swimming down right past the lifeguard tower (and giant rock formation) and then back in.  He told me about the water current and then went back to his tower.  I have to mention, I've swam at several southern California beaches and this was the first time any lifeguard has asked me about my swimming plan.  Makes both our jobs easier.  Kudos to the lifeguards, but I hoped I would not need them for the swim.

The waves were indeed moderate, kind of a low split between no waves and Huntington Beach waves, so I waded out and checked out the terrain underwater and found a good, sandy part of the beach where it was safe to duck dive (always check underwater before diving!  No good for anyone to crack their head on underwater stuff!)

I head out for a swim out around the giant rock, but when I tried to come back in I encountered what seemed like an endless array of underwater rocks covered in plants.  I had expected the way back to be similar to the way out, so the rocks were a surprise.  I didn't want to swim in face down and get smacked by a wave face first into a rock, so I tried to step my way in, but found the rocks very very slippery (also I'm not sure the plants/creatures crushed by my foot would appreciate more of this.) and I DID NOT want to get my foot stuck between two rocks, so I eventually went back out further in the ocean and  swam a bit north along the beach more to finally find a sandy part that's ideal for coming in.

A second lifeguard saw I was struggling to get in so he stood by watching at the beach, orange flotation device at the ready,  in line of my position in the water.  I was not actually drowning and I'm assuming I did not look bad enough to be considered in trouble, but still struggling a bit so he wanted to keep a closer eye on me instead of waiting at the tower (Again, KUDOS for lifeguards) We talked about what happened and he said I looked like I was struggling a bit, I told him I had no idea there would be so many rocks under the water surface and he warned me that every time I see one big rock out of the water, many smaller ones could be under.  He then explained I should try swimming at the SOUTH part of the beach, at El Moro (where the Pacific Coast Triathlon swim happens), which is in an entirely different parking lot on the other side of PCH relative to the water, or hike up to the middle of Treasure cove (I didn't see any more lifeguard towers that way).  I decided to just go straight out and straight in for the day, and finished the day off with some runs down the beach to test out my healing foot (Foot's answer: "Too early to run!")

I drove my car to parking lot 4 and saw that I was still nowhere near the beach that's good for swimming, so I headed home for a shower and decided to leave the rest of the beach's exploration for another day (and another 15 dollars in parking!)  Also it turns out, I cut my foot in several places (shallow cuts, but it could have been bad) trying to get back in. ;_;  They're healing up nicely now, but still kind of annoying I made this stupid error in recon XD

Next time, I will swim at the El Moro part of the beach!

Since then I've swam a couple more times at Corona Del Mar, and I finally had my first decent swim 1.15 miles since the disaster at Huntington Beach Pier Swim.  It was ego deflating to need rescuing, but the worst part was the doubt that I could actually swim.  It's stupid, but out 200 yards from the beach is nowhere to start having even the tiniest bit of doubt if you're going to need rescuing again.  It took a surprising amount of time to recover from the doubts and I still kind of think about it sometimes. 

I finally got a road bike so that will cut into the swim time in the afternoon a bit as I practice long distance cycling... of course, this means I will have to start swimming in the mornings, in a pool. -_- I am not looking forward to this. 

First Swim Race! (Fail)

My first swim race shirt :3

I toed the line for the 62nd Huntington Beach Pier Swim this morning at 8:45.  I was pretty nervous looking at the much more sizable (okay, really just, "in existence") waves at the north and south side of Huntington Beach Pier. 

Also of concern, the temperature.  It was 62 degrees that morning, but thankfully the water temps was actually higher than the air temp and not an issue at all.

The biggest problem for me, though, was navigating through the waves.  The half mile distance is not so bad since I was swimming upwards to 1 mile in practice, but for the last two months, this has mainly been in very very cooperative waters of Corona Del Mar State Beach and a very not surfy Santa Cruz Main Beach.  I stood there for about half an hour staring at the waves, trying to find an "in" to navigation, but was mostly numbed by the terror of the surfs themselves.

Uh oh... wtf are those? (What, WAVES?!)

The start was basically the extent of the race for me.  I got in the water, waded for a bit, dove under probably eight or nine medium sized (looked like 15 feet to me, but probably mostly 3-4 footers and one or two 5 foot waves) when I finally told the lifeguard (who lucky for me decided to hang out with me) that I was calling it quits.  I made barely any forward progress whilst swimming and could not face the certainty that I would have to navigate at least one more breaker going out and a whole bunch of crashing surf on the way back.  I got maybe 1/5 of the way through the race. ;_;

The rescue itself was kind of amusing now that I'm thinking back to it.  The lifeguard handed me the orange rescue flotation device, and I got knocked off of it through a crash (but I hung onto the rope for life!) and he scolded me for letting go, then apparently I was holding onto it the wrong way... all while I was trying not to get strangled by the rope connecting him to the flotation device, and finally two more life guards on a jet ski came around and I got on board for the short and ungracious ride back to the beach before they went back to to do their job.

Crossing the fantasy of getting rescued by hot lifeguards off my list.  One because I did not actually notice if any of them were hot since I was busy being saved, and two, the romance is out when you get dropped off with no good night kiss (just kidding!)  Lucky for me they were there, and I was thankful I did not have to flail/swim back instead.

Discouraging, indeed.  Two people consoled me back on the beach but I still felt quite deflated.

I will have to change my training strategy if I am to succeed at the Tiki Swim (also has a beach rough water start).  One is to swim faster, and two, to actually swim at Huntington Beach to navigate the waves.  I was not actually SINKING before I asked for the rescue, but it was evident to everyone that I was not actually moving forwards and the waves (as small as they were) terrified me.  I would have to get a lot more comfortable rough waters....

Going Channel Legal!

Until fairly recently, I was not familiar with all the details swimming the English Channel entailed, besides that it's a really long and probably cold swim.  It is a swim rich in tradition, including what a challenger could wear while trying to complete the swim.  One of the rules is that you cannot wear a wetsuit.  You cannot wear anything that helps with buoyancy or reduces drag by anything but negligible amounts (textile materials, not over shoulder or below the knees.) 

I have the Huntington Beach Pier Swim coming up this Saturday, and it is not wetsuit legal.  Up until last Thursday I did not have experience swimming in the ocean with no wetsuit on.  Frolic around the waves, sure, but legit swim, no.  Since last Thursday the weather was so nice (76 degrees Fahrenheit, yeah!)  and I know it was going to be a group swim, I decided to try it out.

Right away I noticed it was a little bit harder staying afloat, either while waiting at a buoy or trying to fix your goggles with both hands.  I also seem to be going a lot slower, and every cold patch of water was harder on the body, but not unbearable.  When I checked the data on my watch, sure enough, I was swimming pretty poorly compared by my previous training sessions.  I chalked this to being out of shape from lack of swim practice for about a week.  Today I tried again to swim "channel legal", and I was having difficulties with my goggles (I found out later that the strap was slightly ripped and I positioned it poorly) and I had to abandon the second half of my swim since I was going very slow due to the goggles and it was nearly impossible for me to tread water hard enough with just my legs to properly fix them.  This was enormously discouraging.  I got out of the water and just shivered all the way until I got to the sporting goods store. 

I don't seem to be getting any better as of late in the swim, and I really can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong.  Maybe my technique is all wrong, I'm just not going hard enough, or I'm still out of shape?  I thought I would at least see some weekly progress considering how slow I'm going right now O_O It was a lot easier to see what was the matter when I run.  I can check myself in the mirror, it's obvious to me when I'm going a good pace for my distance, and I know if I'm under trained.  With swimming, it's all still a mystery.

Having recently spent all of my sporting budget on a new roadbike for the triathlon, I'm all out of money to hire a trainer for swimming.  I'll stick it out for at least another month and then see if I need to hire a professional coach to analyze what is the matter with my swim.

Hoping I will do okay at the Huntington Beach Pier Swim this weekend!  Surely I'll be the last one to finish my race, but it should be fun anyway!  It's been awhile since I've taken on my foe, the Huntington Beach Pier! X3

Santa Cruz Beach Swim!

I'm visiting my parents in Northern California this week, and unfortunately they're not really close to any natural body of water good for swimming.  I brought all my swim gear up before I really figured out a place to swim at in hopes the conditions would be good.  I tried out swimming at the 24 Hour Fitness near their house but it was crowded, had some bizarre rule about only one person swimming per lane (it's two in a pool of the same size/divisions at my home 24 Hour Fitness...), and my ears hurt after swimming in the chlorine (leaky earplugs...)  So I was determined to make the ocean swim happen while I was up here.  I did more internet searches, and the most feasible place (distance, water quality, predicted surf conditions), it seemed, was Santa Cruz Main Beach.

Front of Boardwalk

The only way to Santa Cruz from my parents' house was the harrowing Route 17, which is part freeway, part really really scary two-lane mountain road with some pretty tight turns and a narrow space between your lane and a concrete divider and/or into trees.

I made it in one piece about 45 minutes later and parked at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk main parking (6 dollars since it was "off season" and they had limited operation of the rides/attractions.)  From the parking, it was only a short walk to the Beach.

Nice, glassy, non wavy water! <3 (But danged cold!)

I had previously checked the Surfline reports about the wave conditions so I knew it would be somewhat calm conditions, and that was what I found when I arrived.   The swim area was marked off with buoys that looked like a reasonable distance from the beach.  I stood and watched the surf for awhile (since I had never swam here before) and finally decided it was safe to swim.  I decided to go out four buoys and back.

HOLY COW it was COLD.  Surfline said it was about 51 degrees, which is about 10 degrees colder than I'm used to, but my wetsuit was 5/4/5 so it was okay for this temperature.  I had to jump up and down in the water for a couple of minutes before heading out for the swim.

Surface chop was minimal, but there was a notable current going against me and the cold was a bit demoralizing.  I was somewhat afraid of hypothermia (hey, I never swam in this temperature before!) so I decided to do the multiplication table in my head while I stroked.  That actually staved off the boredom and the compulsive sighting and really helped me finish the swim.  It was only .91 miles, but I couldn't wait to get out of the water and get something to eat.  I was hungry XD

Overall and excellent place to swim, as long as water temperatures allow in the off-season.  In the summer season, be prepared to pay full price for the parking!

Practice Practice!

I've been regularly swimming at Corona del Mar State Beach and I've been slowly improving.  Last Saturday I did a 1.06 mile swim (new distance PR!) which is two laps of the outer buoys at the beach.  I was BEAT the next day.  The difference in swimming and running is that usually I feel tired after a long run but after a long swim I feel fine for a couple of hours but then I gotta take a nap!  I think I need to look into my post workout fueling plan to see if there's a deficiency there.

Yesterday was a rest day for me, so I contented myself researching how to swim out from under large waves. Unfortunately I managed to freak myself out a bit watching the video of Mark Foo's last surf O_o  This master surfer died from an 18 foot wave.  I'm not about to go try to swim under some 18 foot waves, but I still remember the early days swimming in Huntington Beach getting rolled and spun every which way and goggles flying!  I need to start practicing controlled dives or something so I don't panic when swimming out from under waves...

Of course I couldn't go to bed on the note of watching some water tragedy, so I looked around youtube for some instructions on strokes so I can feel less like trashing around in the water and more like swimming.  I found a bunch of lessons from Terry Laughlin's Total Immersion Swimming and it seemed to me that I could not possibly swim faster when using a slower stroke and limp wrist held not at water level, but since I wasn't going that fast by myself anyway (and tiring myself out very often trying to stroke faster and harder), I thought I would give it a shot .  So I spent about an hour studying the videos and various lectures he gave and gave it a shot!

At first I thought I was going slower than usual, and definitely had to redo how I do my breathing since the strokes were less frequent.  However, I did notice I was moving towards targets faster, and require less breaks overall.  Also, I made less mistakes veering off course than usual.  When I got back on the beach and checked my watch, I improved my time from my best time (last Sunday) by nearly four minutes a mile!  I swam over 100 more yards with with nearly 100 less strokes for the entire way (stroke efficiency improvement!)  Overall still quite slow, but I'm happy that with a bit of studying I was able to improve so much in the span of two days!  One downside is that I managed to strain my left wrist a bit (only noticed it when I was taking off my wetsuit)  but it's feeling a lot better already so I hope it's just minor pain.

I bit the bullet and registered for the Huntington Beach Pier Swim on June 9th!  I'm intimidated because it is a no wetsuit swim!  O__O  I'm sure I can do the half mile swim, but I'm not sure how I'll fare with just a swimsuit.  I'm hoping that the water temps will be at least 65 so I don't die XD  Oh man!  I've been spoiled by a wetsuit!  

I'm also going to visit my parents in Northern California (San Jose area) next week for a week and change and there are NO good places to swim outside within a 30 mile radius!  I have to trek to Pleasanton or Santa Cruz or Live Oak to get some swimming in (yes, I know there exists Half Moon Bay, but there's NO WAY I'm swimming there.  Apparently it's cold and the waves are insane!)  So I think I'll just have to rely on some pool workouts to tide me over until I come back. 

New Swim Location: Corona Del Mar State Park Beach

 Saturday I joined up with The OC Triathlete Training Meetup Group in Corona Del Mar State Park for their Saturday morning swim. 

First off: Parking is easy on Ocean Blvd at 8:30 in the morning, a total plus in my book.  There is the matter of a quite steep bit of stairs (about, three stories worth of stairs) leading from Ocean Blvd down to the beach, but if you were planning on swimming for an hour, this should not be an issue.  If you really don't want to hike up and down those stairs, there is beach level parking at the state park for $15.00.  Incidentally, this is also an excellent place to run as it is part of the OC Marathon course and there are some easy hills for hill practice.

The weather was beautiful, and the under half-mile long beach was populated by mostly other swimmers in wetsuits and a couple of people staking out prime spots for later in the day.  

There are two rows of buoys lining the waters, the first set closest to the beach marks off the swim area, and the second row is to mark of the "no wake" area, so boats can (and do) come into the area between the two buoys to fish (and sometimes there are rowing boat team practice!) so you need to be aware of this if you want to swim around the second row of buoys.

There is a jetty and major rock formations around some parts of the beach, most of them are along the edge of the beach but there is the one that is right in the water directly outwards from the second lifeguard tower.  You should obviously stay away from swimming anywhere near the rocks and jetty since the waves can get pretty aggressive depending on water conditions. 

9am rolled around and the other swimmers of the meetup swam out to the first buoy and I joined them.  Honestly I was kind of concerned about even swimming as far out as the first buoy.  The group organizer asked everyone which route they wanted to take: The inside buoys or the outside buoys.  I muttered something about just swimming in and out from the beach to the buoy but one of the "inside buoys" swimmers encouraged me to try to swim to the next inside buoy and that we'll take a break there, so I joined three other swimmers in the inside course. 

Everyone on the inside course waited for the rest of the group to arrive before continuing to the next buoy.  They were really nice about asking how I was doing and probably eyeballing me to see if I was starting to struggle.  (I actually did not notice if there were lifeguards on the beach at that hour, though.)  I had my reservations, but everything went better than expected and I was quite comfortable swimming through all the inside buoys and back to the beach.  The 9am water conditions was quite calm.  I did get knocked down by one wave standing around at the beginning, but once out closer to the buoys the water was quite calm.  Water temps still required a wetsuit for me, but I was quite comfortable and knowing there were other people around (not necessary to rescue me, but to talk me through a trouble spot if needed) also helped me get over my mental hurdle of swimming through the waters.  Overall, that was the longest continuous time I've been in the water without grabbing the wall or touching the bottom. 

I was done in a half an hour, but the rest of the swimmers returned (after two laps of the outer buoys!) in just under an hour and quickly prepared for a bike ride (it is the OC Triathlete Training Meetup Group.  Apparently there was a run before the swim, too!) 

I would definitely recommend swimming with the OC Triathlete Training Meetup Group again!  As for the Corona Del Mar State Park Beach, I would also recommend it for the easy parking (at least in the morning, parking gets a little more scarce after the morning hours and probably be even tougher in the Summer) and mostly moderate waves.  Open waters can be calm to slightly rough (definitely rougher today when I went at 11:30am) but that's good practice, too.  The beach is patrolled by lifeguards in tower 2 (center of beach) during certain hours, so you can check with them to get definite hours.  Overall, this has moved to my number one swim spot for this season :3

New Open Swim Area: Belmont Shore, Long Beach

I was in the Long Beach area last week and drove by this cool open-water swimming spot where you can get a pretty good workout without getting bashed by ocean waves (which still happens to me, goggles and wetsuits still doesn't change the whimsy of open-water waves.)  :D I was very excited by the prospect of somewhat calm waters without the skin irritating chlorine.  Plus this looked a lot more like the conditions of the Ironman Oceanside race!

I went home and checked out some reviews of the spot, and it seems that the area is pretty tame, like a salt water pool. There is a bit of a current, but it looked like a pretty good location to practice swimming to gain endurance.  This past Sunday I went again (since I was in the neighborhood) to scout in out in person, and I saw a lone swimmer practicing in the waters in a wetsuit.  I snapped some shots of the water conditions.

The waters looked pretty decent, and the swim area is clearly marked by buoys, which would be great to keep track of progress and also make it easier to sight.  I don't know how deep the water is at the buoys (and I didn't want to interrupt the swimmer on site), but it doesn't look that far from the walkable parts and the water is so calm I can probably just float back.

When I showed my friends the pictures, they said that they used to play there when they were little.  Okay, plus one on the easier to swim in conditions, HOWEVER, there are no life guards, and there's not always someone swimming there at any given time, so that's kind of a downside.

On the other hand, there's such a long straight away that's uninterrupted by waves that looks awesome to swim in :D  the sand is not muddy by the shore, and did I mention no waves?

The biggest downside is that the place is half an hour from my apartment, so I'd have to stew in my swimsuit for that long, in traffic on the 405 before I can get to a shower.  I guess I could try taking a shower at the 24hourfitness before heading home... :/

But look at the water!  So little waves!  I can't wait for the weekend when I get to try to swim in this.  I hope the rain holds off so the water quality allows for the swim :3

Ouch >_<

It rained most of last week, but I still wanted to swim, so I decided to have a swim techniques focus week of working out in the pool of my local gym.  I researched the size of the pool (inconclusive, so I decided it was 22 yards long since that's as short as I can set my watch for lap swim) water temperatures, parking situation, and I went for some pool workouts. 

During the actual swims it was pretty nice.  The pool was a great temperature, and there were no waves to put me under, so I could concentrate on breathing on the left side of my body during the swim (my weaker side) ,and because of the indoor conditions I could stand to swim more than half an hour so I got some really nice cardio workouts.  The only problem I had was my skin got really really dry and irritated.  It wasn't so bad I needed to see a doctor, I just lathered on the lotion and scrubbed extra hard during showers to get the chlorine off of me. 

On the afternoon after my second (early morning) pool swim, I realized I got a UTI (urinary tract infection).

FRACK! 

Oh it hurt.  It was a Friday night, and I had invited my boyfriend to come over to hang out (for our 1 month anniversary, no less!) and I cooked him dinner.  I tried to drink an enormous amount of water (hey, that worked once!) to flush out whatever the problem was, but it kept getting worse and worse, and I didn't want to say anything since I was embarrassed at the ill-timed onset of the symptoms.  Finally at 8:30PM I decided I had to go to the doctors, but urgent care told me they were closing soon so they told me to come back tomorrow morning at 8am.

So commenced the 11 and a half hours of HELL.

I will only mention that I got so frustrated at the pain and discomfort (I wasn't going to die, I know, but it felt like torture to me) that I actually started crying... harder than at the 20 mile mark of my marathons (which was only a couple of sniffles, people!)... in front of my poor boyfriend... on our 1 month anniversary...

Moral of the story: DO NOT WAIT to go see the doctor.  Do it as soon as reasonably possible if you know you know you have the symptoms of a UTI.  You can find those on the Internet easily enough so I won't go through them, but if you've ever had one before, you'll know.

So I finally talked to the doctor the next morning and found out that this sort of thing is actually pretty common when people start swimming in pools during the summer.  She gave me some great advice about tips for keeping healthy when swimming.  Skin gets irritated at chlorine (which does kill bacteria but it takes awhile, which is much longer than the time it'll take for the bacteria to get a hold of your urinary tract!), which makes it easier for the bacteria from your own skin which is now washed off and hanging out on your wet swimsuit to get back on you and infect the newly irritated skin around the opening of your urethra and later in the day or the next day you're not feeling so hot!

Second moral of the story: Those signs at the pool saying take a shower immediately before you swim, do not ignore them.  You want to get as much of those germs off of you before you take a dip so they don't wash off onto your suit.  And the shower after your swim is to get any bacteria (from you or other swimmers) off of you as soon as possible.  I waited to get home before I took a shower (I was too lazy to pack a shower bag and the gym was only 15 minutes away, but no more!) 

Third moral of the story:  Stay hydrated!  Especially important during long swim workouts in heated pools since you get dehydrated without realizing it!  Staying hydrated will make it easier for your skin to stay moist and less flaky when it gets exposed to chlorine.  Hydrate before and after swims and during if you're doing a long session.

Bonus tip: You can try to take cranberry supplements since apparently that makes it harder for the germs to get a hold of the wall of your urinary tract, just make sure you read the supplement labels and consult  your physician first!  You can also take cranberry juice but make sure it's 100% juice and 100% cranberry juice.  Juice cocktails, concentrates, and mixes do not have enough cranberry content and will just end up giving you calories and sugars you do not need for not so much return.  Read the labels carefully!  In an entire juice aisle at multiple markets and all of them had only one juice that was 100% cranberry juice. 

Doctor actually said I could go back to the pool any time, but I'm going to let things settle down (or at least finish my antibiotics) before going back for more pool time.  Since it's nice and sunny this week, I think I'll hit the beach this week instead :3

Ironman 70.3 Oceanside

Two Saturdays ago I went to the Ironman 70.3 Oceanside competition to check out how competitors prepared and set up their kits at the competition.  Actually being there and seeing the setup made it much easier to understand the three color bag system, the transition areas, random tips like wearing socks before the swim when walking around and ideas on what to wear and how to wear it for each part of the competition.

The swim part of the competition sure looked cold!  Competition started in waves with the Pro Men and Pro Women groups first, then what appears to be age groups ordered by how fast they're expected to go.  I'm kind of concerned about this since I would be in a very fast women's group, but I'm probably going to be quite quite slow.  On the up side, they tell you what time to come back to line up for your start group, so once you set up your bike, you can wander around until it is your scheduled time to start!

Another plus on the swim portion is that the swim course is entirely in a harbor, so none of the brutal Oceanside waves are smacking the competitors around.  I walked the half mile up the swim course and saw that there were plenty of lifeguards and race officials standing by to make sure all rules are being followed and no one drowns.  Awesome.

After watching the swim part, I walked along the beach and admired how rocky the beach was and how lucky I was to live next to a beach with much less intimidating waves.  I would not want to swim in that ocean with the 6 ft waves D:!  I picked up a cute small rock as a memento and decided I would bring it back next year when I came to compete.

Before I left the T1 area I checked out what people's bikes looked like and how they loaded the equipment.  Now I know what the bikes have to be so light, they have a picnic basket full of hydration and nutrition!!  I tried imaging myself pedaling with all those goodies up hills and on a windy course.  I'd better work out those calves.

I made my way back to the finish line and I was delighted to find that I could just muk around the actual finish line since no one was actually there yet XD  I walked on the carpet and took some pictures before heading out to the T2 area.

I stationed myself at the run out of the T2 area in hopes of seeing how people did their transitions, but I was there when the Pro Men and Pro Women were making their way through, and their stations were near the Bike In area so I could not see how they did their transitions at all, so I just saw them start the runs instead.

I took a short break to find a bathroom (yay! Indoor facilities!) and strolled to the finish line, now peppered with some people, and hung out with a retired gentleman vacationing from New York who came to also watch no one in particular.  We chatting about endurance events and I told him how I wanted to do this next year.  He said he and his wife vacation in Oceanside every year and he hopes to see me next year!

I watched the pros finish (with some deserved showboating!) and then went back to T2 to check out the delivery of the T1 wetsuit bags and the morning warmup bags being delivered from the T1 area to T2 for easy pickup after the race.  Now all that colored bag business made sense!  This will make it so much easier to figure out next year!

I was also able to see some of the last folks biking in do their transitions, so that was kind of informative.  I saw how they layered their outfits so I've gotten some new ideas of what to wear during competition.

All in all I had a lot of fun and good ideas watching the event this year.  I also purchased some cute Ironman goods for me to wear while training!  Ironman Oceanside 2013, here I come!  (But first, mastering that swim!)

Like Swimming on a Roller Coaster

I headed out for my first open water swim with my wetsuit yesterday. 

Putting on the suit was a cardio workout on its own.  I put just the legs part of the suit on and drove to the beach, already baking a bit in the thick suit (it was about 65 degrees outside, pretty hot for the suit.)  Once I got to the beach and parked, I put the rest of the suit on and immediately regretted it since I had another half mile walk to the waters.  I thought to myself this would only be a small price to pay to be warm in the waters.

Halfway onto the sands I noticed a warning sign on the sand that there was an unusually high level of bacteria in the water today.  I stopped and thought about turning back for about five seconds. 

"Oh hell no!  This (swim) is happening!  I did not put on this clown suit just to walk back!"  I kept marching towards the water. 

It was bliss! Okay, getting hit by waves still no fun, but the cold sting was gone now that I had a wetsuit on, and I was a bit braver and swam further out, actually treading water this time!  For the first time I treaded water in the ocean.  (Falling off of some rocks into the waves and needing a rescue in the 4th grade does not count XD) 

Overall I would say... swimming in the open water is like swimming on a roller coaster, next to a wife beater.  I would be swimming and feel myself involuntarily lifted with the oncoming waves, and when I least suspect it, I would get smacked by a wave while trying to take a breath. 

I wasn't actually out there for that long, but I was exhausted by the time I got home and took a shower.  Running or cycling to exhaustion I understand, but swimming and I are still new acquaintances and it's hard to "read" how I'm doing.  I'm so bad at open water swimming that for my progress report to my friend after I finished was "Survived." 

More swimming next week!  When the days start getting longer, I might be able to swim after work as well! 

I Need a Wetsuit?

So last Thursday I went and purchased a closeout Tri Suit for just under 100 dollars.  The people at Tri Zone were a good help.  I felt like a complete n00b XD I picked the tightest one that would still be a comfortable fit.  I was all ready to do open water swimming on Saturday morning, but on Friday night I checked the temperatures... 49 degrees Fahrenheit.  I checked what temperatures you started getting hypothermia.  50 degrees. 

Well shoot.

So I completed by Saturday swim of... not that many meters in the pool at my gym.  I think I'm still going way too fast without realizing it.  I need to learn to pace myself in the swim better. 

So to swim in open water, I would need a wetsuit.  I returned to Tri-Zone on Saturday and another employee helped in selected the fit and style that would fit my price point.  A new suit from last year's model turned out to be the winner.  Unfortunately they did not have it at the store, so I returned on Monday to pick it up.  :3

Holy mackerel, it was TIGHT! 

It was literally a cardio workout just to get inside the suit.  I was sweating bullets just trying the suits on, but now I know I would be very warm even in the morning temperatures.  I'm very excited to go try it out on Saturday morning! 

For now, more cycling, and concentrate on weight lifting.

How Far Am I Supposed to Swim Out??

I know how to swim.

More precisely, I know how to swim in a pool, where the water is calm, there's always someone there who can rescue me, and the boundaries are clearly visible.  I can propel myself forwards towards the wall and hit it with no problems.

I moved last August and now I live four  miles from the beach.  My still ailing cuboid bone in my left foot is flaring up again after a random 30 second toe up drill in a bootcamp class.  Convinced I need to give it some time off before my next running race (my sport of choice) I decided it was time to face the open waters of Huntington Beach in my many year long quest to do an Ironman triathlon!  

All things equal, I was situated pretty close to some of the best beaches of America.  Even in winter the temperatures were quite agreeable, there aren't all that many sharks about, and, if I get up early enough, there's free parking half a mile from the beach!  So last Sunday I dusted off my old Triathlon suit (purchased solely for the purpose of doing a the Pasadena Sprint Triathlon, a reverse triathlon that has a pool swim.).  Sure, I bought it when I was about 35 pounds heavier, but it looked like it fit alright, and it was 150 dollar suit!  I should at least try to see if it wears okay.  In the back of my mind, I thought of Chrissie Wellington's first race where she started sinking quite badly due to an ill fitting wetsuit, but decided mine was just a Triathlon suit so surely it won't get that packed with water!   So I packed up a towel and headed out.

It was only 8:30 in the morning, so the only people out were a couple of surfers eyeballing me strangely.  They all disappeared beyond the breakers with their surfboards.  I eyeballed the water, set my things down, and headed out.

Water, chilly, but not so cold.  Waves were pretty nice.  I walked deeper and deeper into the water, feeling slightly better.  After getting around waist deep, I decided to swim parallel to the shore for practice.

My head hit the water, and all I could see was murky water past my goggles.  This was very very not like the pool.  I panicked, and stood back up, only promptly to be hit sideways by a  large wave.

D'OH!

So went the rest of the practice.  I was too afraid to actually do the forward crawl OUT into the abyss, and walking towards it doesn't work since I just keep getting wacked by the larger waves.  I got an unpleasant reminder of how bad salt water tasted.  I knew I had to get out further to get to the slightly less wave crashy waters, but going out was scary!  How bleeping far am I supposed to swim out, anyway?!

I spent about 45 minutes being battered by the ocean before I discovered I could wade out as far as I could, then when the big wave hits, I would simply swim back towards shore to practice breathing, sighting, and not being so afraid of the dark waters.

Did I mention my wet suit was like an anchor?  Turns out it does matter if it was not TIGHT on your body.  The suit was 4 sizes too big and held what felt like the 35 pounds of fat I lost from when I first bought the suit.

Ocean + Ill Fitting Tri Suit: 1, Joyce 0

When I first learned to play this arcade dance game called "Dance Dance Revolution", it felt like I was made of five legs with no knees, trying to hit all the right squares without falling over.  What's worse, the machine was in our University arcade, so anyone could saunter up, and secretly point and laugh at my bad footwork.  But this did not weaken my resolve, I knew as long as I stuck with it I would HAVE to get better (when you sucked as much as I did, skill level could only go up!)

I would do the same with swimming.  I know enough not to drown, and I'm well versed in riptide safety, so now all I need is some practice, and I figure I would eventually get advice from some people who know how to swim.  I will have my  SWIM SWIM REVOLUTION!

First move: Buy a triathlon suit that fits!