It is just over five weeks, until my wife and I take on SwimRun NC at Hanging Rock State Park in North Carolina. It is therefore time to start some specific training. we need to move our training into SwimRun mode.

One of the key parts of SwimRun, that my wife and I need to practice, is tethered swimming and swimming in full SwimRun gear (e.g. while wearing our run shoes). With that in mind, we headed up to Moraine State Park this morning.  It was overcast when we left home, but by the time we got to the park, it was turning into a beautiful day.

The water temperature in the lake was perfect for swimming and we jumped right in.  This was the first time my wife had ever swim in SwimRun gear, and she did great.  I swam lead and she drafted behind me.  I know she was swimming well because I rarely felt the tether go tight.  Although I struggled a little with sighting at first, we soon got into the swing of things and we ended up swimming a number of lengths of the swim area.

After our swim, we dumped our pull boys and paddles at the car and went for a short run.  I was concerned my wife would hate running in wet shoes, but she said it was just like running in the rain.  Great news; the run went well too.

Our first dedicated SwimRun mode training couldn’t have gone any better.  The weather looks good for the next week, so we hope to go up to the lake again really soon.