Yikes. In open water I swim in circles. Small ones. Hrm.

Went to the lake today. Figured it would be a good idea to get acclimated. Um, yeah. Good idea that.

It was hot (85) which it will not be on race morning. The sand burned your bare feet. Definitely didn't expect that. Reminded me of family vacations as a kid. The water seemed a bit cold at first but a quick plunge took care of that.

It took like 4 tries to get the goggles to seat properly which I attributed to be a bit more distracted than in the pool where I am somewhat at home now. There are lifeguards there that closely monitor the boundary line where the water gets deep enough that people can't stand on the bottom. The lap swim lane is about 20 yards out past that. When I inquired about the lane they said "overhand stroke or we'll call you back in" which seemed reasonable.

Sighting on the bottom of the lake was pretty useless. I thought I'd be able to get the rope on my left and parallel it but I kept turning into it. My trajectory would bounce off it every 4 or 5 strokes. Definitely need some work on that. Bilateral breathing is probably the best solution as I think the turning is a result of me overdoing something related to breathing.

I was also going too fast, again probably because the visual cues from the pool that let me check my speed are all gone. Maybe in a mass start I can just follow someone's feet. If they know where they are going, that would be nice.