Day one of the C26 Triathlon Camp is over.  We all worked hard, starting at the lake and finishing with a bike / run brick session in the heat of the day.  The highlight for me personally, was the opportunity to complete a SwimRun practice session.

The first camp session of the day was a swim at the lake.  While most camp attendees worked on their swim, I was fortunate enough to get to practice a SwimRun. I got to practice with my teammate for my upcoming race in November.  Neither of us had ever done anything like this before, so we were venturing into the unknown.  We learned a lot, including the following:

• Doing a run before the swim, is a great way to warmup before getting into the water.
• Running in a wetsuit gets warm very quickly.
• With the flotation from the wetsuit and pull buoy, swimming with your run shoes on, is surprising easy.
• Swimming while tethered together was ‘interesting’ at first, but once you figure out where the align the tether, it gets very easy.  We swam one person behind the other, so the back person got a great rest while drafting.
• Running in soaking wet shoes and socks was also better than expected.  We only practiced for just under an hour, so it remains to be seen, if this becomes a bigger issue over time.
• I had some issue with the bands on my paddles. I will need to modify them slightly for the race, using knots to keep the bands in place.

We still have lots to learn. We need to figure out things like managing nutrition and running together on more difficult terrain, but our SwimRun practice today helped a lot.  It was also really good fun…  I may become addicted to this kind of racing.