Hagg Lake Swim

Another race in the books. This past weekend flew by. Saturday was another big day of training, including a solid long run for me. I woke up early Sunday to drive out to a friend's house to hop on our bikes. Our plan was to ride from his house in Sherwood out to Hagg Lake for an open water swim that the 3 of us were registered in. It was just under 35 miles each way from the lake. We set out for our ride before 7:30am and before I knew it we were pulling into the lake. We had a great ride out, and were now ready to jump into the lake for a long swim.

There were three distances to pick from at the lake swim. We were doing the longest distance, a 4k which is just over the Ironman distance of the swim at 2.5 miles. My Dad and Mom came out as well as my Dad was swimming in the race. My buddies, Jer and Josh were there two. I pulled on my new Xterra wetsuit and made my way down to the lake. It was freezing!! Race director said he recorded the temp at 64. A friend of my father that was out swimming out there last weekend recorded a temp of 54. My guess was it was somewhere in between. Either way, it was incredibly cold. My goal was to stick with Jer for as long as I could.

The countdown commenced and before I knew it we were off. I quickly jumped to Jer's feet and stayed there to around the first buoy. He was just too strong for me that day. I hadn't been swimming a lot so I was really looking at this race to boost my swim training and test my fitness. My goal was mid 50's for my time. I went a 55:07 at IMAZ, and we figured the 4k was about 2 minutes slower based on distance. Well, I think the triple the day before and the ride out took it out of me a little bit as I struggled to keep feet that I know I would normally stay with. As I started the second of two loops, I figured I was in about 7th place or so. I started to gain speed and strength and passed an athlete. As I continued on the second loop I just started to wear down. I chalk this up to the lack of swim training last few months. I tried to finish as strong as I could, but got passed by a few athletes the last 10 minutes. I finished in 58 something. Which, if the course was accurate, after subtracting time to equal the Ironman distance, would put me right about where I came out at Arizona. I'm ok with this!

Jer came in 3rd, not sure about Josh, but believe he was two minutes ahead of me. My Dad had a good race as well after overcoming the cold shock of the water! In fact, the cold affected most of us as we struggled with cramps. My other two friends that I rode over with finished strong and both had respectable times. Well, we grabbed a few burgers and hopped back on our bikes and rode the 34 miles back to Sherwood. My day was done! This is my final week of tough work before entering into taper for Boise. Can't wait!! Here are some pics from this past week...

My pre race (night before) meal. Man I love pizza

Not enough body glide on the neck resulted in some new nicknames at work. How about Bolt?

This cute little guy was waiting on my BBQ when I went to grill up a buffalo burger

Thanks for reading!!

-T