Bay Swim 2010 lottery underway

For me, this swim is in another bucket ... the chum bucket! 

I was accepted for the lottery but had to decline because a good friend is getting married that day.  I was pretty disappointed.  I have to say that the bay swim is one of the funnest things I've ever done.

Are you hoping to do really well in the swim, or just finish it comfortably?

I looked and looked for plans and never found one.  So I just did what I am used to with marathoning and IMs.  Have a base of 3 swims per week.  One is a long swim that will gradually build up to maybe 3-3.5 miles (can't remember if I ever got to 4).  Those are killers, pool swimming for 2 hours wears you down.  Make sure you bring gatorade to sit on the side so you don't start cramping up.  I would stop every mile and drink almost a whole bottle.  Anyway, of the other two swims, one was like a "tempo run" except it was swimming.  Like a mile swim at a good pace.  The last swim of the week was for drills and intervals.

That worked out pretty well for me.  I was sick on race day so I really don't know how well I would've done otherwise.  But I did it and it was a blast.

Haha, talking about this makes me remember my swim, and makes me wish I could do it this year.  You are going to have so much fun, Avery!!  It is going to be awesome.

Maybe I can get in the 1 miler and still make the wedding.

Thanks! I've charted out ahead to get to about 320 laps, and 4.4 should equal 310. I guess I need to tinker w/ one or two of the swims per week being shorter for working on sprint intervals; and as always - bilateral breathing.

No matter how many times I make a project of it, I can't get bilateral breathing down!! I will try again!

Will probably be wearing a wet suit - but I'm not 100% sold on the idea after the 3 mile swim last year. I'm thinking I'd swim as cold as 68 w/o one.

Oh yes I had forgotten about that.  I had a swim cap tan line going across my forehead, I was decently red.

Agree on the one long swim per week idea.

Yeah go ahead and do the swim.  You've never done it before, who cares what time you finish it in?  For that matter, who cares if you haven't recovered and get pulled out at mile 2?  Not that that is likely to happen.  It's a lifetime experience you are being presented here.  Go do it. :-)

You also also new to tris, so if your swim training interferes with your ability to go your fastest for the sprint, who cares with that too? If it means you do the sprint 1 minute slower, it's totally worth it.

The trick is going to be balancing the training for the two.  And to feel confident about the Bay Swim, you are probably going to be itching to do a long swim not long before the sprint tri.  That may interfere with the sprint tri ability slightly, but it's ok.

Between races, avoid doing too much, you just need to do short swims and get rested.

If I had to choose - I would do the swim and just find a later tri, or put it off altogether until I had the training done for the Olympic length tri I want to do (starting the training after the Bay Bridge). I just want to know if I CAN do both.

The Bay Bridge is absolutely my priority.

You're right it's a once in a lifetime thing. I enjoy swimming that long b/c I can, endurance and swimming in particular are about the ONLY athletic things that I can do as well as anyone else. I can't run to save my life. I only started doing Tri's b/c it's about the only way to swim as an adult. There aren't Swims the way there are community fund raiser 5Ks for funning.

No plan to ditch the Bay Bridge or the 3 mile open water swim, just asking about ADDING the tri. If it's a bad idea I can wait til later in the summer for a tri. That's all. And I might need to hear that too, if that's the smarter course of action.