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!