Day 7 - OW Swim + Bike/Run Transitions

So today was yet another fantastically sunny day in Beautiful Clermont, FL. And as a result when the sun had set many of us had some red/pink (suntan/sunburn) to show for it.

Getting ready for the OW swim!

Today started at 0830 with a light bike ride to Lake Louisa Park. Well it was supposed to have been a light bike ride, but it ended up being a Tempo ride. Martin had problems with his rear free wheel so I returned to the house with him to change his wheel and then I rode at a tempo effort the 12kms to the park to meet up with the rest of the group.

At the park we did an open water swim. We started with about 20mins of warm-up then went into a bit of drafting practice. I swam with Eric, John, and Dave D. We did 4 x 40 strokes each leading our group with each interval being slightly faster. After that we did 4 x 20strokes. I had to work hard to stay with my group (I am the weakest of the guys on the swim). That was supposed to have been the warm-up but by the time we were done and back to shore we were already close to 2km of swimming. The main set of the open water swim was two laps of ~400-500m. The first was with wetsuit and the second was without. Overall it was a great workout and the drafting practice provided to be difficult given the poor visibility.

Bikes are lined up and ready for transition from the swim!

After the swim we did 3 x 5km of biking and ~800m of running. The purpose of this workout was to practice our transitions and also get some pace line work in on the bike. The first interval was at a crazy pace, the second was a steady effort, and the third started steady and ended up fast. All the intervals were supposed to be done at Zone 2, but we were clearly above that on the bike.

We had the afternoon off which was great. It provided an oppertunity for a little extra rest and recovery.