Sunday, May 31, 2009

Bring On the Taper Goodness!

Today I wrapped up my peak week for Boise with a lovely warm open water swim with friends. 

Not quite.

*rephrase*

Today I wrapped up my peak week for Boise with a frigid open water swim with wonderful friends who get up early on a weekend to swim with me.

Much better.

Nigel, Steve (who will do the swim leg of the Big Kahuna tri on a relay team with Nigel and Jeff in October), Melissa and I headed down to Santa Cruz for a swim early this morning.  Chris met us there and we all trooped down the beach. 

Hmm, it feels rather chilly out here today, we thought as we put our wetsuits on.  Well, let’s get on with it…toes in first…YIKES!  Oh yes, another 55 degree day in the water of Northern California.

After 5 minutes of water polo stroke with heads well out of the water (the better to complain about frozen body parts), we were finally warmed up enough to swim and reach the first buoy.  From there, the gang headed out for a swim around the pier while I stayed and did my workout between the buoys (the pier swim is about a mile and I had a shorter workout on my plan for the day).

When I was finished, I grabbed my camera, headed for the other side of the wharf, and swam out to wait for them to come around.

Waaaaaaaay off in the distance by that boat, I can see them

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Getting closer!

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And then there they were!  Happy smiles from Melissa

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Steve and Nigel are pleased with their first open water practice

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We spotted a baby sea lion hanging out under the wharf

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Done and time to warm up!  Nigel, Melissa, me and Steve

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Nigel, Steve and I had to hurry home so we could clean up and head out with the gang for a rugby match between Ireland and Team USA.

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The highlight for some fans might have been when one of the US players had his shorts ripped off during a particularly rough play.  He had to be brought a replacement pair.

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Jeff, John, Nigel, Alex and Steve made for a wonderful time at the game, even with the draconian alcohol policies that were enforced (we’ve previously been to games at this venue and not faced restrictions that meant you could not drink AND watch the game at the same time).

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It was nice to have such a short workout day and be able to spend some quality time with family and friends just relaxing.

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Training totals for week 23 (May 25-31):
Swim: ~6080 yards
Bike: 53.2miles
Run: 20.2 miles
Total time: 10 hours

(plus 2 hrs of yoga)

Next up, the volume starts to come down.  I think I smell a TAPER!!!

9 comments:

Sara Cox Landolt said...

My husband starts his taper for IM Cd'A too! Very happy to be at this point of training.

& that baby sea lion is so cute!
My sister played Rugby in college at UW-Eau Claire, tough sport, she was good at it.

Fun post!

Dances with Corgis said...

Damn, just looking at your first water pics and it LOOKS cold!

Also, that is sooo freaking cool that you saw a baby seal!! I thought it was going to be a fake picture, like "look how cold it was! there was a seal here!" but alas you actually saw a seal :)

Awesome.

Bring on the taper, indeed!

ADC said...

Nice swim. Your friends were in sleeveless wetsuits in that temp? Ouch!

SWTrigal said...

Your people are nuts to swim in that water temp with long john wetsuits! Sounds like fun though..

Runner Leana said...

Apparently I need to start watching rugby...*cough, cough*!! Congrats on getting out in the frigid waters for a swim. Love the pic of the baby sea lion. So cute!!!

Yay for tapering! You've worked hard, so enjoy it!

BriGaal said...

You were able to warm up for 55 degree water?! That is crazy.

Sherry said...

Yay for the taper!!! Woo-hoo!

Brrr... that swim looks so cold. Scott and I were talking about your frigid Cali waters the other day and we both agreed that if we were to ever do a Cali event we would have to head out there WEEKS in advance just to 'mentally' get over the cold water.

Totally LOVING the sea lion picture! Cutie!!!!

Wes said...

Since summer is in full swing, I'm expecting bare chested photos of Jeff...

ShirleyPerly said...

For sure, I would never have gotten into tris when I lived in the Monterey Bay area. That water was WAY too cold for me to even touch!

But I do miss the sea lions ...

Happy tapering!