Above is a picture of my new Vortex 3 wetsuit. That is not me. I look much better in my Vortex 3 than this man...hehehe.
Yesterday my Tri Club sponsored an OWS on the San Jacinto River. It was at a fellow members house. They live right on the river and have a boat which was able to follow us just in case anyone had any problems.
So there are 8 of us standing on the dock in the 20mph winds and we are told the water temperature is only 65 degrees. We are all warm blooded Texans and this water temperature is what we would refer to as FREAKIN COLD! Well, we all say screw it and jump in and start swimming. The water was cold but my wetsuit was keeping me really comfortable -- it was just glorious!
Now for the fun part! We all begin swimming and we are in a part of the river I never even knew existed. It is deep and wide. Very cool. We are supposed to swim a 1/2 mile to a white house and I just figure I will follow the guys who were in front of me. Well, we are swimming directly into both the current and the wind. I have no idea how long I had been swimming for but it felt like a lot longer than the 20 or so minutes it should have taken me to get to the white house? Finally, we turn around and start heading back towards the starting point. I am still feeling really strong and after a little getting used to the new suit period I was in a nice groove. The trip back took us like 10 minutes!! With the current and the high winds at our back we were flying!!.
When we got back to shore Annie told me that when we first started it looked like we were all swimming in place. I told her it just didn't look like that it actually happened.
All in all it was a really good training day. My wetsuit is awesome. The extra buoyancy it gave me was amazing. I actually felt like it was cheating wearing the suit, just gliding along on top of the water!
This is the always needed RECOVERY WEEK of my training program. Today was a rest day and I took the free time to take my Quintana Roo apart and clean up all the components. My garage has become a bike shop (Steve predicted this BTW). I cleaned and degreased everything and the bike looks incredible right now. I almost do not want to ride it!
Despite the recovery week I am still going to have some fun. Thursday evening I am going to go with a group to Lake 288 and do another OWS. Then on Saturday morning my Tri Club is having another Duathlon (2mi/12mi/2mi) and after that a couple of us are going to go for another OWS. Good times this week!
Voice your Opinion Time:
I am thinking about doing a Sprint Tri on April 10th. It is a saltwater swim -500M, 12 mi bike and a 5k run. My only concern is that it would be 3 races over a 4 week period (April 3rd - Duathlon/April 10th - Sprint Tri/ April 24th - Olympic Tri). So fellow bloggers and Triathletes what say you - you have followed my training - do ya think I should do them all or should I skip the April 10th Sprint? Thanks in advance for your thoughts!!
Thanks for reading,
Jeff
Hooray for an awesome wetsuit! I don't know what I would do without mine. :)
ReplyDeleteAs far as doing the sprint goes, I guess it depends on what your goal is for the Olympic Tri. I think you could definitely do all 3 races. But, if you're trying to PR in your Olympic, then I would probably skip the sprint. Just my two cents!
Good luck in your Duathlon this weekend!
Cool wetsuit! Now you're a sausage.
ReplyDeleteOk, with your conditioning, you can probably treat the sprint tri as just another training day. I say go for it! You know you want to!!!
Cool training....I wish I could train, too!!
ReplyDeleteYour sprint will be just another training session on racing pace...and of course, wil lbe good!
Cheers from Mumbai!
"XTB" Xavi.
P.S: I bought my wetsuit Orca Sonar 2 months ago and I had same thinking and feeelings as you have with your new one!
Now Jeff, you already know what we are all going to say, just reconfirming what you already are thinking. So, since we are all going to say "yes", lets look at the pros of the yes
ReplyDelete- you get to take you new shiny wet suit and let it lose its race virginity in a easier race before you throw it on in the olympic.
- another race report
- making us up north a little more jealous cuz your racing and our season is still 7 weeks away
- Making a sign at the race "I'm doing this only to make Diesel jealous" that way if you had a bad race, you can say I wasnt trying, I was just rubbing it in to the north.
- last but not least, you never know, you might poduim
Hi Jeff,
ReplyDeleteLook at that new fancy wet suit!! I hope that the two of you have many happy miles of swimming together:)
Nice work on your open water swim! It sounds like it was cold....brrr!
..."My garage has become a bike shop (Steve predicted this BTW)."
ReplyDelete...yes I did. hehe! But is your Quintano Roo banner hung up on the back wall yet? :)
I say do all three races. Treat the sprint/tri as a training/show off day. Practice your strokes and swimming and be a poser in that new sausage wrap. (LOL Boomer!)
Gotta love a current! And I am glad you were trying out your wetsuit in open water; I can't help but giggle a bit when I see people doing a master's practice in a wetsuit. I mean, pools are pretty darn warm to spend an entire workout in a wetsuit. Onto the race question--how old are you? How well do you tend to recover? Are any of those races key races to you? I'd take all of that into consideration. I am a master's runner now and I have learned I can no longer race two weeks in a row b/c I don't recover quickly any longer. But that probably doesn't apply to you I'd guess!
ReplyDeleteisnt the suit awesome! it is like cheating, with permission! Do the race, but make certain you dont get cuaght in the I am racing mode! teat it like another training day, race environments area postive experience any opportunity ! Cheers and Happy training!
ReplyDeleteI second everything BDD said. Jealous you are able to race already and honestly 65 frickin degrees?! That is like bath water to us up here in Cleveland!!! Good luck Jeff keep up the great numbers!
ReplyDeleteOh and yes do all 3 :)
So whats it like swimming in an endless pool? haha!
ReplyDeleteYou are lucky to be able to swim outside already. My race in June will have sub 60 degree water....ouch.
Looks like I should do the race! (i actually registered this morning already..hehe)
ReplyDeleteJon - one of the guys said to me in the middle of the swim that it was like an endless pool .. we laughed because it was true!
MZ - I am 34 yrs old in real life but my Triathlon age is 35-39!! I recover pretty well and since the Du and Sprint are shorter races I am now not too worried. So that is why I signed up.
Good advice every one thanks!
I am so jealous you were in open water the other day that I can't even put it into words.
ReplyDeleteDo the sprint, treat it as a training day. That is what I would probably do. OH I see you registered. Well, good!
Cheers,
Mandy
Ive been wanting to do a sprint tri soon, but I would rather do it in a river, thats deep, fast moving, and the race brings us downstream, also if I could use a kayak that'd be great. I bet you can handle the 3 races, esp with the pushup work, your endurance will be really high.
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteVery effective photograph with black wetsuit and excellent background.
Very nice photo.
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ReplyDeleteJust thought I should take a moment and say hello to everyone here. Looking forward to your forum and what all the memebers has to say. I've been spending to much time on http://kids.yahoo.com/games . Needed a break.
ReplyDelete