exercising one hour a day or being dead 24 hours a day?"
I did my first open water swim yesterday. I went to a local park with a friend. I was kind of nervous about doing an open water swim. I really felt that the conditions would be quite different from my laps in a pool. Additionally, I wasn't sure that I would be able to practice in open water as Lake Ontario isn't known for it's cleanliness.
I had browsed the Internet for a Tri club in Hamilton and in doing so found one that does their open water swims at Gulliver's Lake (http://www.gulliverslake.com/). My friend and I headed there and gauged the distance between floating docks and swam laps. I went with the friend who's also registered for the tri that I'm doing. It went well, nothing is ever as bad as I make it out to be. My legs weren't too shaky after and I am definitely able to complete the distance.
The only challenge that I had was veering off course; which adds metres to your swim. I had watched a video from the library about doing freestyle swimming hoping to pick up some tips on technique. They said when doing a race in open water to remember to do "peeks". This is where on your breath you look forward at your target to remain on track. This is difficult for me because I am used to doing lane swims. I remember when I used to do swimming lessons I used to lift my head forward then to the side, was chastised for this and now only do side breathing. The action of looking forward is very unnatural for me. It gives me something to practice, though that can save me time and energy.
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