Day 98: Wetsuits - Another Creative Way to Burn Calories

6:45AM

Pool Swim

Bummer. The water at the river was way too high and the current was crazy fast. We were standing out there just watching debris breeze by in the water. That would be a creative open water swim practice, how to dodge debris.

I wanted to get some sort of swim in so I just headed to the Y. I didn't do any structured work out I just did some random stuff to feel like I got some kind of exercise.

I've really been out of the swim lately. I've been trying to analyze what is different this year than last. I'm thinking its probably higher expectations. Last year, I was so new to swimming that all I could think about is my improvement. This year all I've been focusing on is getting through a workout. So for my last lap all I wanted to do is try to experience the joy of swimming and take in what I've accomplished. I need to start making sure I end every swim workout like this for my mental sanity.

Getting In and Out of My Wetsuit

I've forgotten how much of a workout getting in my wetsuit can be. I wanted to do this today because it took me about 10 minutes to get out of it last week which is quite unacceptable for a T1 time.

These things are tight. I think it takes me at least 20 minutes to get it on right. Its a workout in itself! I wonder how many calories I burn doing it? How long does it take everyone else to get into theirs?

Getting out of it was straightforward today. I think it took about 20 seconds. What I did was wear the suit for about 30 minutes to let it stretch out a bit. I also used a trick from last year which consisted of applying body glide to the areas that the suit gets stuck when removing. For me this means putting body glide on my wrists, forearms, and calves. I also put it on outside of the suit in the same areas to minimize any kind of friction when removing the suit.

Whew! What a workout.