Pohick Bay Open Water Swim Practice

Team Z and Curl Burke Masters held an open water swim practice today at Pohick Bay. My swimming buddies Katie, Joanne, Theresa, Katherine and I decided to go! Katie and I were swimming in both the 7 am and 8 am wave. We arrived at 6:45, put on our wetsuits and eased into the warm (77 degree) water shortly after 7 am. We could only swim for an hour on this loop since they needed to get everyone out of the water and switch kayakers in between waves. We managed 5 of the 1/2 mile loops in that time. We definitely were moving pretty fast and were also swimming with another guy who we didn't know.

We decided to do three loops in the second wave so we swam 2 at a nice fast pace and then used the last loop to warm down. 4 miles total in 1 hour 36 minutes. It was a beautiful morning for a swim and so nice to get in one more open water swim for the summer.

Of the 510,400 yards I have swim to date, over 110,000 has been in open water!

An awesome Friday morning

This morning the LUNA Chix met up with Sqaudra Coppi for their 18 mile "Muffin Ride" which took us on the custis trail, W & OD trail, four mile run and the Mt. Vernon trail. There were about 30 people, men and women, and Katie and I. We had a blast. The ride began a 6:30 am as the sun was still rising. It was great to ride before work and also meet new people. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming and we'll definitely go back for another friday morning ride.

After the ride, we headed to Regency Sport & Health in Tysons to swim in their outdoor (heated) pool. It was so quiet and relaxing and the pool was just the right temperature. What a great way to start the day!

Smith Mountain Lake Open Water Championships

5K swim:
Total time: 1:17:10
Average pace per mile: 24:54
Overall: 5th masters female, only 3 minutes behind female winner, 1:26 behind Jeff :)

1 mile:
approx. 26 minutes
3rd place in 30-54 age group behind Lisa and Becky from Swimquest
6th overall in wave (men & women 30-54)

It was a great weekend. The race was very well organized and there were more age groupers than masters swimmers. Report will be posted shortly.

Savageman Triathlon- Tri Cats Relay

I was the swimmer on "Tri Cats 1" with Chas biking and Ken running. We arrived at the lake to find fog so thick that you couldn't see the buoys on the swim course. I put on my fill sleeve wetsuit (I'm still not sure why I made that choice since the water wasn't cold) and seeded myself at the front of my wave. I took off with the pack and was sighting off of them rather than the buoys. All of a sudden I picked my head up and there wasn't anyone around me. It was a strange feeling to be in the middle of a lake and to be able to hear other people's hands slapping the water, but to not be able to see anyone. I kept swimming as fast as I could having no idea if I was going in the right direction. I found the turn around buoy and headed back.
People were heading straight towards me and I stopped several times to give people directions.

I was swimming with another female towards the end and she said to me "I give up, I'm throwing in the towel." "Don't do that!" I replied. I told her to focus on the flagpoles you could see in the distance. It was the only thing that you could see. Even when I rounded the last buoy and headed towards the boat ramp, I couldn't see the parking lot of the people cheering. I just hoped that I wasn't going to run into the dock and completely embarrass myself in front of all of the spectators. I headed in, ran up the long path to transition to find Ken waiting to help transfer the chip to Chas. I was so happy to have the help because I had run so fast, knowing that I was behind a lot of people, probably relays, and didn't want to let my team down. Once I had caught my breath, I stayed in transition to talk to other relay swimmers and laugh about how "savage" the swim was and we also cheered for all of our friends who were finishing up the swim.

Swim Time: 30:34

Overall relay: 3rd place coed :)

After the swim, we headed to the run course to volunteer at the Tri Cat's aid station. Despite the wicked hard bike and run courses, and the hill leading up to the tent, everyone was smiling and running! "Hammer Gel"

Montclair Lake Swims

I returned to Lake Montclair for the 1 & 2 mile swims this year as the defending overall champ in the 2 mile swim. There was a lot more competition in the 1 mile swim, which I hadn't competed in last year. When the race started, I tried to keep up with the fast kids, but it quickly became apparent that I wasn't going to be able to hang on. I settled into a pace slower than what I had wanted and just got through the swim. I felt awful for most of it as if I was completely out of shape. I know I'm not, but it felt rotten. Jay Kress, who is on my maters team, caught up to me about 3/4 of the way through the first loop. He proceeded to draft off of me for the rest of the swim and then sprinted ahead to beat me to the beach. I was so annoyed becuase he kept hitting my feet with his hands. Later he filled me in that he was having problems seeing where he was going so he was following me. I decided later that I shouldn't have been annoyed and got over it.

I was wiped out after this swim so I just sat on the beach with Jeff as we debated not doing the 2 mile swim. We decided to start the 2 mile swim and see how we felt. I took off a little faster than everyone else and about half way through the first of four loops my neck started hurting pretty badly every time I turned my head to the right to breathe. I rolled over on my back and took a few strokes of backstroke but since you can't see where you're going, I would eventually have to turn over and resume the painful freestyle.

As I approached the end of loop #1, I saw the beach and didn't even hesitate to swim over and get out. It just wasn't worth it to finish. I was wiped out and I didn't want to make my neck worse. It was definitely a good decision. I watched as everyone finished up the 2-mile swim. Jeff did awesome and it was fun to watch him race. My first open water DNF, but I'm completely fine with it and know I made the right decision.

Julie:
1- mile swim
26:28
1st in 30-34
3rd female
8th overall

Jeff:
1-mile swim
24:34
3rd overall

2-mile swim
51:07
2nd overall

Complete Results

And we ended up at Dairy Queen...

You can't say that Joanne and I didn't try to swim on Tuesday night. We drove to South Run REC Center where our FXCM team would be practicing while Audrey Moore REC Center is closed. We arrived early only to find out that the pool was "closed for cleaning" despite what our contract said. After chatting with teammates, and borrowing $5 from Theresa for another pool entry fee, we headed for Chinquapin pool in Alexandria. We called ahead and no one answered the phone. That should have been the first sign that we wouldn't be swimming today. Upon entering the Chinquapin parking lot, we noticed that there weren't any cars in the parking lot. Then we looked in the window, saw that there wasn't any water in the pool, and at the same time we both screamed "IT'S EMPTY!!!!" We had no choice but to head to Dairy Queen for Blizzards.

Sunday Swim

Today my boyfriend Jeff and I went swimming at Lakewood Country Club and the workout was coached by Bill Shechtman. Bill coached me at RMSC when I was 13-14 years old...too funny! Lakewood has a beautiful 8-lane 25 meter pool. There were only 8 people there so everyone got their own lane. Jeff and I swam next to each other near the pace clock. Here's the workout....

500 warm up
12 x 50 descend in groups of 3 on 1:00
8 x 75 continuous (25 drill, 25 kick, 25 swim)

5 x 200 free descend on 3:20
I went 2:55, 2:50, 2:47, 2:43, 2:42. Jeff did IM for the last two and it was tough to keep up with him!

5 x 200 free descend on 3:20
I was supposed to do backstroke on the last two but we were swimming outside and I had already run into the lane rope several times earlier so I stuck with free. Jeff did IM on the last two and I kept up on #4 but he crushed me on #5. I went 3:10, 2:55, 2:50, 2:47, 2:43.

200 warm down

We headed home for waffles and then met up with fellow masters swimmer Jen O'Rilley and her swimmer boyfriend John to go canoeing on the Potomac. As luck would have it, there were no canoes left by the time we got there so we rented a rowboat instead. It was a ton of fun! We brought lunch from the Marvelous Market and pulled off to the side of the river to have a picnic. It was a great day to be boating!