technical swim

Swim 2400m open water at Barton Springs
[49 min]
This swim had a few elements that made it a dress rehearsal for both the Danskin Sprint Triathlon (tomorrow) and IM CDA. Danskin is not a wetsuit swim and I needed to test out my tri race outfit to make sure it would not slow me down to swim in it. I'm happy to report that it was perfect and had no negative effect on my speed.  If anything, I was faster than usual today. My form was right on.

I started the swim with a jumping in start (no water temp acclimation).
- 400m sprint- 800m steady
- Get out and do 10 burpees
- 800m moderate/steady
- Get out and do 10 burpees
- 400m hard

This allowed me to simulate:
1) the frigid cold water in Idaho and abrupt beach start
2) the initial open water sprint in any triathlon
3) dropping back to a strong and steady pace after the initial craziness of the start
4) the short beach run in the middle of the Ironman swim (the hardest part of the burpees was the mild disorientation and dizziness when going from water to land)
5) getting back into the water after the beach run and going at a hard effort to get back into my stroke rhythm

Next up: Went to the running store to get a new pair of shoes - dropped some big dough on a new pair of  Asics Gel Nimbus. Then, Danskin Triathlon Expo and bike check-in. Huge long line for race numbers and then traffic jam to get out to the race site. Arg. That all took 3 times as long as I will spend actually racing. Whatever. I am racing in the elite wave as number 2 and there is no number 1... that's a first for me.  Now I definitely have to bring it.