Open water

Today I took my wetsuit out of the closet and headed for Lake Temescal. It was an interesting experience, my first open water swim since Ironman Arizona last November. I noticed that the wetsuit is quite constraining on one's arms, but it also provides nice buoyancy.

I tried to breathe every other stroke but without much success. Also not working so well was breathing on the left ("the other side"). I think I will stick to my old habits on Sunday. What I did notice is that I could swim uninterruptedly for much longer this time around. That felt good. I also was more comfortable and that is good too.

We'll have to see how it works out. In general, I have done better with two lap swims even though there is the extra short run on the beach. Lake Placid is a two lap so I am hopeful. Not so good is the dreadful weather prediction.

On Friday I rode 26 miles, to Bort Meadow and back. On Saturday I ran intervals on the treadmill for about 50 minutes. After a 15 minute warmup I ran a mile at 10, and then I ran three more 3 minute intervals (half a mile) at 10. I felt quite good.

Yesterday I rode my mountain bike to Montclair and back over Shepherd. Some extra climbing--I added Manzanita, but overall pretty short and sweet. In the afternoon I took Alistair to the cat 3 Berkeley Bike Club Albany crit. He rode quite well and finished in the pack. His objective was just to get some intensity before Nationals.

Tomorrow I leave for Lake Placid.