Recovery

So... my arm is almost completely healed. I'm lucky that it didn't derail my training too much. VERY lucky. We had the swim clinic on Saturday up at the race site and it was awesome. At first I was reluctant to put my face in the ice cold green water. But, after almost getting kicked in the chin a few times, I realized that when I put my face in, I can actually see the person in front of me BETTER than with my eyes out. At least, you can see their feet and whether or not they're going to kick you. One of the coaches told me that I had great form but I just needed to slow it down. I told him I was just really cold. He laughed and said "It's ok, it'll get warmer". So we went through some drills, and I realized that I really could have gone with the advanced group (if I'd gone to the 2nd clinic or the Sunday ones, I would have joined them.. they swam the race path) but we have another clinic up there on the 29th, and I think we're gonna swim the distance or close to it.

Anyway, after the drills we did a mock start. They had us all squish in as close as we could so that we could get a feel for what it would be like the day of the race. A bunch of the gals started turning too soon, so it was kind of a fustercluck. But I just swam all the way out to Coach Scott and then came back. After the final lecture, I had a little bit of time before I had to get on the road so I did a few more "laps". Each "lap" of the swim area was a 200 yard round trip and I did them without stopping :) So I swam over 800 yards at the clinic. There's my 1/2 mile :)

It was a really cool experience and I'm so glad I did it. Not to mention that the smell of the lake water brought ALL sorts of childhood memories back that I hadn't though of in ages... Swimming at Bangs Lake as a kid, boating on the Fox Lake River with my Grampa and then later with my Uncle Marty. Wearing my bright orange lifejacket, wind and mist in my face. It was great. Some day, I'll have a boat :)

But for now... I just want to survive our tri and then move on to the next one :)