Colin Cook's Mentor Group - CLOSED (Page 18)

hockeyhands - 2010-06-24 2:34 PM
Great to hear from you Mark!!!  I thought we lost ya.

I'm very happy to hear you've been keeping up with your training and I hope everything with your shooting competitions have gone well.  Lol, yeah, there's a little difference between a mountain bike and a road bike, huh?  Don't worry, you'll be back on your road bike very soon I'm sure.

I'm very sorry to hear about the death in the family.  I hope you and your family are coping with it as well as possible.

Thanks for posting Mark.  I know you're going to be great in your first tri and I look forward to calling you an triathlete

Nope, not lost; just mis-placed for a few weeks.  Actually, I'm really bad about forums, emails, etc.

Family is doing well; thanks for the thoughts.

So, a few thoughts on my first OWS with the wetsuit.
- Swimming with the suit was AWESOME....  It was so much easier than I expected.  I wasn't really any faster, but I didn't get nearly as tired as I do in the pool.
- Visibility: yeah, not so much.  About the only thing I could see was my hands coming in from above.  I grew up swimming in this lake though, so it didn't freak me out.  Goggles kept fogging up and this was unsat.  I've tried the commercial (Aquasphere) de-fogging stuff and good 'ole saliva to no avail.  Although I really like the goggles (Aquasphere kaymans or something), they fog up really bad and I've not found a solution yet.  If anyone has any solutions, please let me know.
- Garmin 305 under the swim cap.  Ruled, but doesn't work when you're doing the backstroke (no GPS signal from the bottom of the lake, I guess).    HRM didn't work through the suit in the water (worked through the suit on-land though).  Garmin said it was 854 y at about a 3m/100 pace and that sounds about right.  This included a few stops in failed attempts to de-fog goggles.
- Breathing: wasn't a problem as the lake was pretty calm.  I breath much much more comfortably on the left and this became a challenge on the way back in.  Every time I'd roll to breath, I was looking right at the sun.  So, I had to switch sides.  I guess I need to learn to bi-lateral breath better anyway, so I've started working more on that in the pool too.  A few months ago, I was more worried about even being able to swim at all; so I guess this is progress.
- Sight-breathing: still haven't figured out a smooth way to do this and have since started working on it in the pool.  Suggestions appreciated.
- Boats: I was worried about getting creamed by some knucklehead in a bass boat, but Dad was there and it was a really quiet day on the lake.  I stayed close to shore, wore a bright swim cap, and was basically crossing a large cove (so, minimal traffic anyway).  However, the one boat that did go screaming by was pretty loud in the water; so I looked up to spot it and it was several hundred yards (maybe 4-500y) away.  A reminder that sound travels much much better in water.

Guess that's about it.  Everything went well and I was pleased with the day.  It was a hot day and it was hotter in the suit, but well worth the effort.  Other than that, training has been going reasonably well.  Still not fast, but I know I can complete the distance and, for now, that's what I'm after.

One thing that I have been wondering about it for longer races (like my Olympic in Sep), what kinds of things should I be thinking about for nutrition pre/during/post race?

Take Care,
Mark