Swim Bike Run

One of the most difficult things for me to train for is the open water swimming section of the triathlon.  Being 'always prepared' I booked myself on 3 open water swimming sessions.

The Wetsuit 

A wetsuit is mandatory for entering the competition. I picked mine up last week and oh boy is it tight. I now know the meaning of skin tight. It pushes everything down and in. It gives me acute skin claustrophobia but then there is also nothing more liberating than taking off this rubber prison.

And we're in...

As I've never swam in anything other than a swimming pool the idea of doing some proper open water swimming in a part of the Mersey where I couldn't touch the floor and was filled with Jelly fish was a little disconcertion to say the least.

After some flexing and stretching on the dock side I finally squeezed into my wetsuit. A quick safety briefing and it was time to go in. The session was quite free form, "just get in a have a bit of a swim see if you freak out or not". 

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I jumped... and everything went pitch black. It didn't occur to me that I wouldn't be able to see anything whilst underwater. This massively freaked my out.  After surfacing and calming down and I could see where I was going things felt that little bit more relaxed.  Until.... I touched a Jellyfish! Well I think it was a Jellyfish, it felt a bit weird. It could have been a plastic bag or a condom. Sometimes you get lucky!