Ohio River Open Water Swim

Tomorrow is the 3rd Annual Ohio River Open Water Swim. The event is put on by the Lakeside and the North Oldham High School swim teams. As usual, they are offering races of 1/2 mile, 1.2 miles and 2.4 miles. I did the 1.2 mile swim two years ago and it was a struggle! My swimming has come a long way since then and I'm looking forward to tackling the 2.4 miles in the morning. I've also been meeting some fellow triathletes for swims in the river the past two Tuesday mornings, so I'm very comfortable in the mighty Ohio.

The 1.2 and 2.4 mile distances may seem a little strange if you are not a triathlete, but these are the distances, respectively, of the swim portions of Half-Ironman and Ironman triathlons. Since I'll be competing in Ironman Louisville in two weeks, this 2.4 miles in the same body of water that I'll be in on race day seemed like good practice. Current water temperature is a warm and cozy 85° F!

However, all 2.4 mile swims are not created equal...especially when a river is involved.

Tomorrow's course will look something like this:

It's rectangle course. One loop equals 1.2 miles, so I will swim two loops around this course. This means that I will spend half of the race (1.2 miles) swimming against the current. 

Now take a look at the IMLOU swim course:

This course starts out going against the current for approx. 0.8 miles, then you make a turn and swim with the current the remaining 1.6 miles to the swim exit. 

So the swim tomorrow will consist of more swimming against the current, in theory making it a harder swim. Of course, there will be several thousand fewer people in the water tomorrow, so maybe it's a wash!

I'm hoping to complete the swim tomorrow in the 1:30:00 to 1:35:00 range. If the rain holds off, I plan on getting in a 2 hour ride right out of the water...we'll see how it goes!

IT Band Update

I went out for an easy run yesterday morning before catching an early flight up to Cleveland for some work duties. It felt fantastic! Granted it was 4:30 in the morning, but the temperature was in the mid 60's and it felt awesome! What didn't feel awesome was my knee. I had only planned on going about 4-5 miles, but right at the 4 mile mark, I started to feel some pain in my left IT band again. So I shut it down and walked back home. 

I made a trip to my PT this morning and had him work it over good with the Graston tools and hit it up with a "cold laser" to help with the inflammation. Strength work, stretching, foam rolling and icing protocols will continue. He also showed me how to tape it with kinesio tape, so I'm going to give that a try early next week and see how it feels. Two weeks to go...really wish it was 2 months so I could heal up!!