20230905 – vLog – Check-in – Triathlon lessons learned – pre-event swim thoughts

TEXT TO VIDEO THOUGHTS ABOVE (UNEDITED, NO STYLING)

all right all right all right we’ll try to keep this to about 10 minutes we’ll see how I do it is Tuesday and the shirt it’s not falling right this is it is Tuesday it is the day after Labor Day so I believe it’s September 4th or 5th I don’t recall I believe it’s the fifth because in one week uh my five-year-old turns six lucky for her um so one of the things I wanted to do is get one video on my blog a week and get one actual blog a week and we’ll see if I’m able to do that this week now a lot of my topics in the last a little bit and especially trying to figure out if I can do more of a video log type format a lot of the content for me that I haven’t moved yet has been either autism spectrum disorder pathological demand avoidance head and mind space you know mindset kind of space but today I heard something listening to crushing iron and I think I just want to isolate on kind of like what I do and dig into my Ironman California and my St George 70.3 experiences and just share something that I do for myself as a reminder as I come back from this wonderful injury um a lower hip adductor tear humility and actions and difficulty that has come

with that always loving people decide to run across the street in a crosswalk on a stop sign space I mean there’s not a lot of anyways somebody just did it did it and then he’s like sprinting across and almost tripping his edible all right so Robbie crushing iron was talking about you know some of the things he likes to do and it just kind of struck a chord because that’s pretty much what I do my first year uh at St George it’s a 70.3 uh it they’ve changed the swim but it used to be a point-to-point swim and so the first time I got there I had a friend uh Buddha telling me get in the water get in the water and I just couldn’t find the time to get in the water um did so many things wrong but anyways couldn’t get in the water and didn’t and I’ve made it more of a I need to make sure I get in the water or at least go down and you need to for me at a bare minimum I need to go touch the water all of the training that has come up to that and I agree with Robbie for most in a lot of triathletes I think I’m in this space where it’s not that it can be disruptive to me as much anymore um on the swim because I’ve learned how to go from hey we’re uh seven weeks out from this from the event probably a good time to get in the pool to okay respecting the swim putting in the time it takes and knowing that I can swim far faster than any cut off time that is out there and in fact on the river assisted swim in California I was very pleased to get out of the water at 109 now the way that the time chipped out a little bit of the event time was a little bit different but you know I got all the water one hour 10 minutes so anyways and that’s amazing for me because I was looking at you know typically I can swim a 70.3 swim around 38 to 40 minutes comfortably and not overly push them and so what I like to do and same thing what I did in California is went down went to The River’s Edge stuck my hands in felt the water you know put a little bit on the back of my neck for a moment and so my second year at St George I know I’m jumping around but my second year at St George I made sure that I had plenty of time I talked it out with my wife we had a family with us and I wanted to have my wetsuit on and I wanted I want to get in the water and so that was a priority for me and we made it work and it was interesting because

my wife and then my uh the family that was with us I can’t remember if it was both my dad and my stepmother that ear or just my dad I think it was just my dad and then the stepmother came to following I just those little details sometimes they’re those ones get me but anyways um I got in the water swam out beyond the pier there was there were boats getting in and out on that day which was fine but um it was just interesting because you know there’s people that are local Etc and they do pretty good they start putting signage out for about a month for 70.3 Saint George alerting folks that an event is coming and you know I guess the year after hurricane city they’re having some problems I don’t know what’s going on but uh you know they do pretty well with that and just people getting a little snippy as they’re getting it out of the water and uh anyways so got in the water

feeling the wetsuit get a little bit of water inside the wetsuit you know and for me the biggest thing about getting in the water is [Music]

so I’m also a person when I swim I have with my wetsuit my watch I’ve done it both ways but my watch is underneath my swing or underneath my wetsuit so I can’t really see it and a little piece of advice that I really do seriously agree with robion um is on your pre-event swim don’t take a watch there’s no need for it you don’t really need all of the potential extra stress you’re going to give yourself from all right well I’m going to look at what my Pace looks like let’s be real you you’re swimming for like 10 to 12 minutes max you know maybe up to 20 minutes um and it’s not about you know what your per 100 or because you’re so amped up the day or two before you’re starting to feel all the energy of everything going on you’re soaking that up and then you’ve got to find a way to normalize that however you do to find you during the event and so go out don’t use your watch get in the water feel the water

pay attention to the things that your body needs the day before you know do you did this kind of wake you up a little too much was it you know what are those little signals that this new feeling you know if you’re not a cold plunger for example and you’re getting into cold cold water there at the event like so Sand Hollow in St George it’s uh it’s a plunge for some people so normally it’s 58 to 61 degrees uh when we jumped in uh the American River I thought it was quite Pleasant and quite warm some people were saying it felt really cold you know and I’m like it’s just perspective right so what are those signals that you need to think through over the next you know 15 16 hours that are going to keep you comfortable you know what are the little checklists that you’re going through in your brain to say hey what can I do to minimize stress get a couple arm swings in how does you know the wetsuit feel do you feel constricted why do you feel constricted do a little bit of treading of the water pay attention to does it go from hey you’re not feeling super comfortable to you’re feeling comfortable what does that timing feel like how much you know how quickly does it work like what are those things you need for your headspace for the day of the event so that they don’t become issues for you there’s a lot of people that in the water especially the day of the event that these are little things that could potentially just put you more in a be ready to use the swim as a the primer for the day that will get you ready to have a great event like in 2015 totally disrespected the swim in 2016 I’m talking through kind of what I did to get in the water went out put my arms back looked up and had a few moments to myself of wow here I am I’m ready to do this Etc um and I’ve done that the only time I didn’t do it was uh I did it that for you know I did that at St George a couple of times and then I did the same thing when I went to Sacramento in California for this one I went and put my hands in the water felt it splashed some on my face of course you know everybody’s looking at you that’s not participating in Iron like what’s this guy doing is he homeless or what um and because I was down and didn’t go like I went down to the dock and everything and did it right there and um anyways so it was just put on your face put it on the back your neck feel it out gauge it understand it you know for me that’s where it’s just kind of like wow I have the moments of gratitude for myself where it’s like dude the Journey’s here it’s time to Express Fitness tomorrow or the day after and uh here we go go go um let’s go work through the getting your bags in and getting your bike set and finding out that like California you have popped tires and you need to get inner tubes and have that whole other different barrel of stress that shows up and you know but have that moment that the water the first thing that you’re going to be doing on that day it’s not going to derail you you know um and I think that was the biggest thing and takeaway that I’ve taken since 2015 is you know 2050 I had no idea I walked in and I still remember the first time it took me until I got to the the Turning buoy so that’s a good 400 yards maybe 500 yards out in the old course at St George before I settled in and that’s a long time and the earlier that you can give them the water to where you’re just slow and going and then finally your body goes okay it’s time and that’s kind of like what I like my pre swim ritual to be like is to get me ready so I can shorten that amount of time uh because I remember the second year when I got in the water at St George Etc I remember about it was about the second buoy in that I’m just kind of like all right let’s swim and I still remember I think that was the year that we had the the super rain I remember about halfway through this way when I do this on my swims halfway through the swim I kind of turned over looked up and I’m like dude what oh it’s raining um and it just for me that year was just very interesting because that was my fastest here on the course um and of course you know I cut two to three hours off my first year um it was just a lot to take in on Lessons Learned and then the following year uh in the water 2017 in St George did some and similar you know take a moment I remember looking out uh to my left which I believe I don’t I guess that would be out towards the east um you know seeing the sun it’s CR you know it’s starting to break over the mountains uh taking that moment appreciating it putting your head back in the water and going so anyways hopefully uh this is a reminder for myself as I get back into it and I’m a little bit over time but um to not take myself too serious to remember that these little things that I can do to keep myself my nerves and everything else down uh we don’t have a lot of time at St George to get actually get in a full pre-swim but there is time to go and uh you know take a moment and get in the water the day before go down to the water’s edge before the event and then I stay out of the Corrals there’s so much energy in there you know get in there and then I kind of stay off to the side pick my my spot and then uh sneak in and then go get in the water so and then go have a day anyways just like that have a great day