playing hookie

Yesterday I played hookie with Geekgirl. Leave it to a teacher to tell me to come play hookie, right? S. Baboo and SWTrigal came too. Semper Outlaws!

To do an openwater swim almost requires a day of hookie for me. All my long rides are on the weekend, they eat a good chunk of a day. Long runs, while not as time consuming, are also weekend adventures (I do them as early as possible so as to maximize time with family). Including the driving and prep time, an openwater swim eats easily half of a day. I am a working mom, I have a family with two kids, I don't have a whole extra day. So this hookie thing was a total luxury.

Like a late birthday present.

We did an openwater swim in Cochiti Lake - my former lakey nemesis. My plan was to um, not freak out too much. Their plan was to swim a whole lot.

Geekgirl explained the rough visual markers that I would use as my guide to swim my paltry ~2000m (swim to the end of that grassy thing over there) while they were swimming all the way across to the other side for a total of ~2.4 mi. Showoffs.

I should mention that I am now the proud owner of my very own wetsuit (I purchased my rental from Wetsuit Rental.com). This was my 3rd time in la New Suit, an Xterra Ventilator. It can be a little hurty in one shoulder, but I think that could be remedied with more bodyglide.

Would you believe it was choppy when we took off? Yes, the last time I was in Cochiti (on a practice swim just before DeuceMan) it was choppy. That time didn't go so great. I got halfway out and thought I was going to die. I told myself, I've had two successful long openwater swims - so technically, Self, I can do this All Day Long.

In the end, I did OK this time - I didn't freak out (always important to meet one's goals). I did drink a lot of lake, but I didn't freak out. It was choppy enough to make me Heave-Ho Nauseous. Swimming back was a little better - but still not the most productive of swims. Open water is just...different. Swimming has never come naturally to me. When I think about it, I learned how to do this swim-to-race thing a whole year-and-a-half ago, so I feel I have a long way to go. The open water thing is just a variable I have to work on. I was so nauseated by the end, however, that I was Done. Swimming.

So I laid on a picnic bench waiting for the IronOutlaws to come back.

I waited a long time. That's not to say that the Outlaws were slow, it's just they had for freakin' ever to swim to and back. It was a nice meditation time, since it was beautifully quiet.

Really, not much of a downside to playing hookie so far.

So then we went for a run - I had 6 miles to do, so I went around the park and up onto the dam to run across. The lakeside was hot and dry, and a rainstorm started just as I got onto the dam road. It was a very interesting phenomena, the rainclouds hanging over the middle of the dam, so as I ran toward the center of the dam the rain got heavier and heavier until I was running soaking wet. I turned around at 3mi to run back, and as I ran back across the dam I got dryer and dryer until I hit desert again. Excellent. And then a leg-cooling dip in the lake.

To complete my day of hookie, I decided it would only be fitting to go see a movie. That's what normal people do when they play hookie, right?

So we did.

I even busted the pikachus out of daycare and brought them with me.

Even though the movie was awesome, I was so shattered I fell asleep for the last 1/2 hour (apparently, I am so boring I bore myself to sleep).

Today's schedule said ride and swim. After freakout consultation with the Coach, I decided to just ride today (a measly 2hrs) and swim tomorrow, and not ride tomorrow. I'd do more, but I was a little worried about using up my legs since I have a mountain to run up on Sunday (that should be fun). Moi will be there.

I hope to get a t-shirt out of the deal.

And snacks.

Wish us luck!