Florida = Tri-training Heaven

I am taking Spring Break every year!   Englewood, Florida is a beautiful gulf coast key with calm ocean beach on one side and docks and mangroves on the other, what better place to spend a few days.  Shall I go for a run among the live oaks with Spanish moss and palm tree estates?  No, I’d rather hike with armadillos.  But my dreams of an ocean swim were crushed by the freezing cold water temps.  But the support staff knows how to motivate; she waited until I was warmed up and dizzy from short-lapping it around the kiddy pool.  I made the mistake of mentioning the ocean again, “Well that’s why we came here isn’t it?” more laps, more grumbling, “Why don’t you just give it a try, you’re going to regret it if you don’t.”  I didn’t stand a chance.

Swimming in a cold ocean is really different.  In a lap pool all the focus is outward, looking through the water, avoiding the guy coming the other way, where’s the wall?  In the ocean, your senses close myopically, keeping your body moving, buoyancy means you don’t have to turn much to get a breath.  Then the focus turns to the thermodynamic battleground your body has become.  The cold seeps into the outer layer of flesh, held at bay by the furnace created by windmilling arms.  If you don’t kick much, the water seems warmed by the time it gets back there. 

I felt triumphant for my little 400m swim.  Then people on the beach kept commenting in hushed voices, “that’s the guy,” some even stood up from their chairs as I swam by.  I left the beach feeling like a real champ, like the harbinger of Spring—head on in, the water’s fine!

This motivational coup emboldened the support staff to ask for a promotion to trainer, but enthusiasm declined when responsibilities were outlined.  So, I am still looking for a roller-blading water carrier in a velour jumpsuit, any takers?  My one regret, that the current didn’t take me out to sea, so the support staff would have had to strip down to her bikini and save me...maybe next Spring Break!

Work week note: tri-training adds another layer of satisfaction to riding the fixie to work— a linen pant leg tucked into an argyle sox tucked into a brown suede shoe—if only all sport could be so dapper.