Open Water Swimming

This past Sunday morning, I met a group of people at Taylorsville Lake for an open water swim. This was my first time swimming in my new wetsuit and I had mixed results.

The water was chilly at first, but I definitely felt the wetsuit doing it's job as once I was in the water and swimming, I never felt cold. The swim was organized by VO2 Multisport and they had a pro triathlete and an open water swimming coach on hand to give tips and answer any questions. The wind made the water choppy and we did some simulated starts with lots of people in the water at the same time getting kicked and punched (fun stuff!). It was definitely good to get some more experience in the open water.

I'm not nervous about swimming in open water. I don't have a fear of drowning and I know that I'm a strong enough swimmer to take in some water and roll with it. All this being said, after swimming about 500 meters, I was completely out of breath. I wasn't pushing it, but it felt like I couldn't get enough air with each breath. I felt close to hyperventilating!

At the time, I wasn't sure what was going on. I knew that something wasn't right. My initial thought was that my body was tired from running the miniMarathon the day before. But this didn't make sense.

In order to make sure that I hadn't lost my swim fitness (not sure how that would happen), I headed to the Mary T. Meagher pool this morning for some laps in the Olympic size pool. I swam 2 miles at a comfortable pace and never once felt out of breath. The only variable is the wetsuit. Is it too tight? Was it restricting my breathing on Sunday at Taylorsville? The only way to find out is to wear the wetsuit in the pool and see how my breathing is. Sure, this will look funny, but I've got to get this figured to before May 15th!

YESTERDAY'S WORKOUT:
1h 25m on the bike
10 minute warm-up
30 minutes in Zone 2
45 minute Spin class with some good 2 minute intervals
followed by a 10 minute cool-down
Avg HR for the workout was 129
30 minutes of weights (legs, chest, triceps, abs)

TODAY'S WORKOUT:
Swim
5 minute warm-up
3200 meters (2.0 miles) swim with no rest
1st mile in 34:59
2nd mile in 36:11
Total workout (excluding warm-up)= 1:11:10 (35:46 min/mile)