it's not about the goggles

Last week our tri club had an open water swim clinic at the gravel ponds at Chatfield reservoir, in Chatfield State Park. I have a race coming up and I'm scared of cold water, so I figured I'd better go and get in and prove to myself that I wasn't gonna die. That day, the universe had been conspiring against me as soon as I opened my eyes. Since no one wants to read a litany of bad news [well, maybe you do, if it isn't happening to YOU personally, BUT...] I'll just spare you the list of terrible, awful things that led to me having a terrible, awful day. And then, on the way to the res, traffic was SO BAD, I was over 30 minutes late. (Turns out there was a wreck on the highway, that driver was having a way WORSE day than me, I hope they are OK). 

Anyhow I was sure I'd miss the swim, did I really want to pay to get into the park just to run? FINE I was down there, I could see people I knew, do the run, and likely feel slightly better after a workout. So I drove up to the gate and paid the $10 and went in. 

Good news to my eyes as I pulled down to the swim area parking lot, I could see the club members standing on the shore, not in the water. Alright, Lizzie, you're goin' swimmin'. I ran up in time to catch some stellar swim tips from Mr. Fish, standing there in his Speedos while nearly everyone else was in their wetsuits. He had great insights about how to round buoys, breathing and sighting in open water and handing different swim situations during a race. 

And then we all got in the water. Oh boy. It was COLD. Me and another Floridian were joking about how we were NOT in Florida swim conditions! It definitely helped to be in the water and get acclimated to the chill factor before starting to swim. When we DID start swimming, my heart rate shot up from the cold. This was actually no joke - I was fine, but when I stopped, I certainly noticed my racing heart, and one member had some anxiety and had to be pulled from the water (they were OK). But this is why we do these things, we test and we train and we see what it's like and have our panic attacks now, so we don't panic come race day. Because the race should be fun. 

We even had a wheelchair athlete get in the water with us! Talk about inspiration. This guy had more of an athlete's build than many people standing on the shore. He looked like an IronMan champion - that night, he was the Chatfield Gravel Pond Swim Champion, for sure. 

After the swim, we did a short out-and-back run, heading off into the sunset. On the way back, I was trying to catch this woman just as a marker for myself that I could set my sights on a person and reach them. I ended up getting her on the last half-mile. She and I talked for a while afterward, turns out she is in the middle of passing a kidney stone, so the fact that she was even there doing a workout, well, she's the female athlete champion of the night. I was telling her about my grandma, she knew a lot about Hospice and it was really nice to just talk to someone out loud, and not in my own head, about the shitty and wonderful state of having a loved one going through Hospice and the end of their life. And I got to meet a woman I train with virtually, in real life and she is DELIGHTFUL and I can't wait to see her more. I really felt a million times better than I did when I got to the park. Seems one solution for turning around a bad day is to go for a swim in cold water with strangers, you'll all be friends in the end.

Other takeaways: I need more open water practice. My goggles are terrible, but hey, they're twenty years old, at least and I should probably get a new pair. Of course when I spoke that aloud to my husband, the universe decided to make me grateful for those goggles, by forcing me to do a pool swim WITHOUT THEM, later that week. I accidentally left the goggles in the arm of my wetsuit, so when I got to the pool Thursday, SURPRISE! No goggles. I did the swim workout anyhow. I do NOT recommend ever doing that again, if the pool is chemically treated. My eyes burned for a good 24 hours and I used a LOT of eye drops. Again, I didn't die, but... swimming in a chlorinated pool with no goggles is really no way to live.

I did buy myself a new pair of polarized goggles Friday. And I decided to get more open water practice by going BACK to the res on Sunday. The new goggles? I LOVE THEM. If you swim outside, get yourself a pair of polarized goggles! I feel like they give me a HUGE sighting advantage. I also ran into my new kidney stone friend, and met another woman going to Oregon 70.3, too on that Sunday swim. The radio was full of great songs about living life to the fullest, taking advantage of the good days, etc. OK, Universe, I hear you. 

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Swim links, also posted at the sidebar at left for future reference:

Chatfield Reservoir information - scroll to the bottom for swimming conditions and water temp info. 

What kind of goggles should I get? This page at yourswimlog.com is a great starting point to answer that question. 

Swim n Things - if you're in the Denver, Colorado, area, they have sample goggles you can try on to see which ones fit you best. And this is a great store for anything swim-related, both competitive and fun. 

I bought a pair of Tyr Special Ops 2.0 Polarized goggles. (Mine are a lot more colorful!)

you will get wet

Two Thursdays ago, I had a nice little hill repeats run on my training calendar. I actually love these types of workouts with short bursts of a lot of intensity and then plenty of recovery between. With hill repeats, I always feel strong - or like I am getting stronger - as I do them, and the park where I go to do them is peaceful during the day, with beautiful views of the mountains. The Thursday forecast showed rain moving in mid-morning, so my plan was to get up early and do the workout before I had to take my car in to the dealership for new tires. I wouldn't mind waiting for the service to be completed while I was sweaty.

Well. I took an allergy med the night before, which did exactly as it warned on the packaging and caused me complete and utter drowsiness. I was awake in time to run, but as I was peeling my eyelids open I could hear many, many raindrops pelting my bedroom window. The storm arrived early. I really don't mind getting wet while running, but I do very much mind sitting around while wet. So, between a very groggy me and a VERY soppy outdoors, running after I took the car in seemed the better option. Then I could follow the run directly with a warm shower. I got dressed in my running clothes, drove through the rain and past several accidents on the way to the dealership, and took advantage of their free latte machine while I waited for my car to get its new shoes. I had a book with me and read that to pass the time - what a gift to be able to read indoors on a rainy day! 

Just before the car was ready, it was still raining steadily and my coach texted to offer up a treadmill option if I preferred - I said no thanks, I'd rather be outside, the rain wouldn't bother me as long as it wasn't freezing or lightning. She agreed, she loves running in the rain. As I was checking out of the service appointment, the agent asked me about my plans for the rest of the day. I told her I was heading straight from here for a run in the rain. She said she used to do that a lot. She ran the Berlin marathon, years ago, while she was stationed there in the Air Force. I certainly didn't expect her to understand the fun in my next task - I had no idea she was a runner, and it was really nice to find out. This woman takes really great care of my car and I am always sorry I don't know more about her, so I really appreciated the share. Yea for human connection. 

The drive from the dealer up to the park was steady rain the whole way. I was very thankful for my new tires, that I got to test them in weather right away, and that I made it to the park without issue (I passed even more accidents). No surprise that the park looked like a ghost town under the gray sky and all the water falling out of it. There were no pretty views. I checked the weather radar on my phone, the rain was going to keep up for about an hour, then get even worse. It was about 52 degrees out - not freezing, but not warm either. My car was very nice and warm. And it was really nice to be dry. Maybe the treadmill would be better, later, after all... hmmmm... and then I saw some guy running up on the ridge. FINE - if he can do it, so can I. 

I left my safe warm cocoon and immediately started my warmup run toward the hill, and of course also immediately got wet. As I approached the base of the hill, a pair of mallard ducks were just off the path. There are a lot of ducks in Oregon, where I'm headed to do my first IronMan 70.3 this July. I called out 'Cheerio, duckies!' to them, and I'm not sure if they or me were more surprised by my chipper greeting. Then I took off up the hill for the first of eight intervals. Easy odds, hard evens, and I got faster, and the rain fell harder, with each repeat. It really was a great day for ducks and that day, for that hour, I was one of them. 

Two weeks later, I'm still in the rainstorm. I am wet. Things were hard when I did this run in the rain - I had just returned to Colorado from my mom's in Florida, where my grandma is dying. She's 98 and has been extremely healthy until now. She has had a great long run of life, always saying 'Don't sit down too long, you'll get old.' Wise words from a great lady who took her own advice, until last month when she physically couldn't. But that trip was likely the last time I will see her alive. Just like the rain on my run that morning, we knew this was coming. All of us are drenched from it a little sooner (and for much longer) than we expected. I'm not sitting down in my sadness. I do my best to just carry it with me on my runs and my rides, and I drown my tears in the pool. I know the workouts provide a little spot of sunshine even if they are hard, or muddy, or the water is freezing cold, so I do them. And during and after, I'm always reminded that every day is a gift, even if you get wet.