But I Can't Touch

I shared a little bit the other day about how I had to be super brave and put my face in the water. Well, my brave meter was increased by about a 1000 percent thanks to a good friend. 

Andi has been attended a few OWS clinics and offered to take me out in the lake that we will be swimming in for our next Tri. I couldn't pass up that opportunity! 

It was packed when we arrived at the lake. Any time it gets over 80 degrees in Washington people flock to the water. 

We got on our wetsuit (people stared and mumbled about how we must be scuba divers......ummmm, no.) and started to wade in to the water. Last time I swam it was always, always, always where I could touch. Andi kept walking. Very soon we were in water where I could no longer touch. Eeeekkk!!

We went past the official swim area to the DEEEEPPPP water. I really couldn't touch at this point. Andi mentions that she is life guard certified. Oh, good, she can drag me to the shore when I start downing. 

From buoy to buoy it's 50 yards (at least that is what Andi said....). We started to swim between the same 2 buoys. The first time I think I only did crawl stroke twice and breast the rest of the time. The good news is that I never once had to flip over on to my back. When the boats would start coming in it was really hard to not swallow a ton of lake water. Each time we stopped I was reminded that I can't touch. I can't touch and it's OK. 

Every "chunck" of swims I noticed that I was able to do more and more crawl. I got to a place where I would do crawl for 3-4 breaths and then breast stroke for 5 strokes. It worked for me. :) 

It's not pretty and I'm still not fast, but I have a method that will get me through my 1/2 mile swim next Saturday. Andi offered to take me out again next week so that I can get a little more time in the lake before the race. I'm feeling so much better about the whole situation, even thought I can't touch. 

Just keep swimming!

~Kari