Longest Ride To-Date

My race is just weeks away (July 22) and in order to mentally prepare for the bike portion of the race Jeff and I went for a 74K ride today.  We parked at Westside Church (great parking spot for bikers) then rode to Bragg Creek.  Great ride, hard and we were tired when we were done.

Upated June 12th

June 10 - Wasa Olympic Tri
First Olympic Tri - due to cold weather the swim of 1500 metres was dropped to 750 metres. Total time for 750M swim/40K ride/10K run was 3:19.  Great day, easier than doing a 1/2 marathon.

June 19 - Chinook Olympic Tri
July  22 - Sylvan Lake Half Ironman

Frist Open Water Swim

This evening I did my first open water swim and oh boy what an experience.

Beside a wet suit you will need the following items:

• Gloves to pull and yank the wet suit.
• Plastic bag for your fee.
• Body glide or other form of - you will get chaffing from the wet suit especially around the neck.
• Large plastic bag to put your wet suit in for afterwards (I use a garbage bag it worked well).
• Ear plugs - some people get nausea when their ears get cold water in them.  I did not have this issue.

When I first got into the lake (Arburn Bay) it was a little cold.  First I dunked myself into the water and was very surprised that the suit insulated me so well.  Then, I started my warm-up  .It took about 1/2 hour for me to get use to swimming in the lake, I hyperventilated a few times but after I calmed down I just started swimming just like I was in a pooland my body just got into the routine.

After an hour it was hard to get out of the lake but not has hard to as it was to get out of the wet suit.  Apparantly "I'll learn" so that brought me some comfort.