Aquatic Park & TRX workouts

Yesterday April 27, I celebrated my 42nd birthday by enjoying the day off from work and swimming 3450 yards (1.96 miles). It was a good day as well because I survived the Sunday swim at Aquatic Park.

Sunday morning was beautiful in San Francisco. Sunny, mid-50s, blue skies, no wind. We were to swim 3 laps around the buoys at Aquatic Park (about 1 mile) or no more than an hour. The San Francisco Bay water is a greenish teal color and full of particles in which I cannot see my hand in front of me while underwater. The water felt cold initially and was tolerable once I started swimming. When small waves of water splashed into my mouth as I turned my head to breath, an instant burning sensation was felt in my throat from the salty water. I flinched and paused each time I felt something touching my hands or wrapping around my fingers. OMG! Is it the stinging jellyfish??? I would pause from swimming, lift my hand out of the water and fling the slimy seaweed off and continue swimming

Reflecting back 4-5 months ago when I was being introduced to open water swimming, I've since come a long ways. I did ask wonderful Mike Kyle to swim alongside me at Aquatic Park on Sunday since I've never swam there before. Having someone swim with me initially is sort of like a security blanket until I know what to expect. But once I started swimming, I realize that I do now know what to expect. I didn't have a panic attack or hyperventilate as I did in my swims a few months back. This is progress!!

Total time in water to swim the three laps including my first ever pit stop (just had to do it) took 53 minutes. On the beach, Coach Dave was bringing in his kayak and said, "Jennifer, I have something for you." On his paddle was a 2" swimmer-eating jellyfish that he pulled out of the water. Photo on right is of a jellyfish floating on top of the the mucky bay.

After the open water swim, we went to Coach Doug's TRX training center less than a mile away and did TRX strength drills. I think I would have enjoyed the experience better if we were doing the workout outside. The studio's atmosphere (air and bright yellow walls) gave me an instant headache when I walked inside, but once back out in the fresh air, my head cleared up.