First open-water swim!

Today I did my first open-water swim of the year - in the Bay! It wasn't nearly as cold as I expected. I was originally planning on going to Aquatic Park near Fisherman's Wharf in the city, but I didn't have anyone to go with me to watch my stuff while I swam. The parking by the wharf is usually crazy in the summer because of all the tourists so I didn't want to get stuck parking several blocks away and then walking barefoot downtown to get to the water. So instead, I went to the beach in Alameda where I could park right along the beach and leave my stuff in the car. It's really pretty there and the water is probably 10 degrees warmer than at Aquatic Park!

Pretty view of the bay and the city.

Here comes the summer fog!

Although it wasn't as cold as I dreaded, it was really choppy! I had a hard time keeping my regular stroke and breathing pattern and kept getting hit in the face with tiny waves - not fun, but good training for the beginning of the race when I will likely be hit in the face by water and other athletes. 


I only swam for 20 minutes, but even in just that short time, my wetsuit was badly chafing the back of my neck. Last year at the half ironman my wetsuit tore off many layers of skin on the back of my neck so I knew this could be a problem again. I used a lot of body glide, but it didn't really help. Next time I wear my wetsuit I'll try putting a big water-proof bandage on my neck to protect it. Hopefully that will do the trick because it hurt like a bitch last year and I do not want a repeat of that.


Yesterday I had a pretty good brick workout. 44 miles on the bike and then a 5 mile run. The ride was pretty challenging, with over 2600 feet elevation gain. 

The fog covering the bay area on the other side of Berkeley hills. Btw, I climbed up and over that huge hill earlier in the ride!!

I struggled a bit on the run. I think mostly because I had it in my head that today was an easy workout of only 44 miles so I didn't eat enough on the bike. But I still managed a pretty good pace on the run. I had been worried because I thought my running has been getting much slower in the past couple of months, but it turns out my Nike+ was getting farther and farther out of calibration. I re-calibrated it this week on the track and now I'm realizing that I'm actually faster than I was a few months ago. Sweet! Now I just need a little more transition practice so I don't start the run too fast at the race. 

Check out my new kicks! (compared to the old dirty, worn-out ones) Barton is thinking about attacking that stray shoelace.

Less than 2 weeks to go!!!!!!!!!!