Tag: Centennial Beach

Black Flagged… AGAIN

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To whomever has pissed off Mother Nature, can you please apologize already? I know we all need rain, but the last two weeks have been absurd. I’m glad that I paid for the annual membership — otherwise, this would be even more frustrating to pay for a day at the beach and then get black flagged that quickly.

On Monday, we went to Centennial Beach to try and get a second day of swimming in. As I was putting on my wetsuit on, I saw the sky starting to get dark. So we hurried up and tried to get at least a couple laps in. But it was not meant to be… as Terri jumped in, I heard the safety whistle blow. They closed the beach for the night shortly after.

While that was disappointing, what was even more so was tearing my wet suit. I pulled it the wrong way and a piece of the outer shell came off. While that and the fingernail hole can be easily repaired, it’s so disappointing and frustrating because that’s gear that a sponsor gave me. I know that they could have put that money elsewhere, but they chose to use it for gear for me, which is why I was so disappointed when it happened. Unintentional, but frustrating as hell.

We’ll regroup for a grub run on Tuesday…

A Badass Coach…

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I couldn’t find a sport specific one (running, cycling, etc.), so I went with this one. It’s probably more spot on though… 😉

For those of you who haven’t caught on by now, Terri is my [badass] coach. There are many things that make her a badass, but this is just one example. On Sunday, her day started at 4A, she was at transition at 5, swam 800m as part of a Tri relay, and then picked me up for training. Which consisted of at least 600m in the pool and about 2mi of run/walk.

We had a much clearer path on Sunday than we had last week. After about 75-90 minutes in the normal area (4-5 feet), I decided to give the deep water a try. The Tri in August will go from 0 depth to 15 feet in M layouts, so I need to get into the deep water. I think that I should have stopped two laps before we did, as I was far beyond spent on the run.

I was done for the day after the training session, and spent most of the day sleeping. But not her – she caught her 4th or 11th wind and just went onto the next thing. So when you see me say ‘badass coach’ in the future, you’ll know what I mean… 🙂

Beach Brick

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So after two days of crappy weather, we finally got a nice day for a swim. We took full advantage of that, staying in the pool for two hours after getting properly dressed (wet suits, caps, goggles and ‘magic tether’).

It started out with a fun entry into the water, continued with drills and eventually laps. When they started the deep water test in the intermediate water, we had to dodge crowds while training since everyone was compressed. While there’s still work to be done, it all came together by the end of the swim session. One of the things I still need to work on is not losing stroke / concentration when told to turn. But there’s still plenty of time.

After the swim, we went for what was supposed to be 2 miles, but turned into closer to 3. The swim->run bricks aren’t as bad as bike->run ones are. I know that the latter is what the Tris will be, so hopefully that will get easier with more practice.

The Four Elements…

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There are four elements — earth, wind, water and fire. Earlier today, we got to see all four together. And it was purely by chance.

We had decided yesterday to do an AM swim at Centennial Beach. Terri picked me up and we headed over to the beach so we’d be there at 9. When we arrived in the parking lot, we saw a huge assortment of police equipment. As we sat and waited for the thunder to pass, we figured out what it was.

It was the Torch Run, and as things worked out, we were in the right place at the right time to get a great video of the procession when it left.

Having captured an incredible scene, we were finally able to go into the water. I had an opportunity to try out my new wet suit. For those of you who have never put one on, it’s quite the experience. Think about how people make sausages. But in this scenario, you’re the hooves and snouts going into it. I will say that Suit Juice not only is amazing, but IMO is essential if you’re going to be wearing a wet suit.

Once in the water, we were only able to get about 200 yards in before the tthunder/lightning alarm (10 mi radius) went off. We originally thought it was just 30 minutes period before it went to all clear. We soon learned that each thunder crack added 30 minutes on instead of resetting. Having heard 6 thunderclaps in about 5 minutes, we left instead of waiting for 3+ hours to be able to get back in.

We will give it another go tomorrow. And even though we only got 200 yrds in, I’ve got ZERO complaints. The first part was well worth all the mess in the rain afterwards.

Fish Training, take 3

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With the nice Memorial Day weekend weather, we took advantage of it and put in a brick session (swim/run). While still a struggle, it went better than the first one (bike/run) — I could actually run this time.

We started out at Centennial Beach for the swim. Beginning first with drills and then doing laps. As always, Terri helped to support me and teach me through the drills. 🙂 We ended up doing about 400 yards between the drills and laps.

After the swim, we went for a run on the same course that we’ll be running in August. I was only able to make it about 2 miles total with walking, but it was an improvement from the ‘no run’ during the first brick session.