August 10, 2009
Lyndsay

My first triathlon (a sprint in June) I felt organized and prepared until with transition closed, I hadn’t thought about what to do with my non-waterproof pump during the swim. It ended up working fine to have my husband pass me off my pump coming out of the water (with clear expectations of what would happen if he was NOT there when I came out….) Clearly I hadn’t utilized this “practice race” as an opportunity to test out Levemir like I plan to do at Longhorn.

The swim was in a man made lake that felt like a pool. I felt crowded, and did get a couple kicks in the face, etc, and never felt like I could get into my rhythm. I was disappointed to have spent so much time on swim technique over the past 10 months, for it to completely get lost in the race.

My 2nd triathlon (another sprint in July) I went ahead and tried Levemir the night before. It worked out well, but I still have some tweaking and practice needed. The swim took place in Lake Michigan and although I still felt uncomfortable with the mass start, I had more room to stay out of the “intense” group and didn’t stray too far off course.

Shortly after my 2nd race, I started a 6 week “Open Water Swim Mastery” class. Skills we have worked on so far have been sighting, drafting, and getting comfortable around other swimmers. By all means, I would say I still have a long way to “mastery” in the open water (skills AND diabetes mgmt) but so far I have enjoyed this class, and know it will continue to pay off to work hard in the water.

A sigh of relief for being out of the water!