Designated Open Water Mauler.......

Yeah!   I have finally found something that I'm good at during open water swims!....

Enjoyed a good open water swim training session early this morning with The Puppeteer at Jordan Lake, NC.   Many of the drills we did were aimed at getting everyone comfortable with drafting off other swimmers and, in particular, getting used to being bumped, banged, thumped, swum over, kicked and generally beaten-up duing close quarters racing. 

Drafting at the hip

As this mornings workout featured me and four ladies, I was paired with The Puppeteer on several of the drills, including one where I was to swim as close as possible to her hip.  It's not every day that you get to beat up on (a) a lady or (b) your coach, but how I enjoyed that 100 yards of mayhem as I continually pummeled her with my right arm on every stroke!    :-)    Small victories!    It's actually all great practice and I was accused of being a "mauler" which I believe was meant as a complement (I certainly took it that way).   Less complementary was when The Puppeteer informed the ladies that they would have to get used to being run over and bashed by "Clydesdales" like me.....     I am NOT in the Clydesdale weight division thank you very much!   :-)

There was definitely some close quarters swimming - on one start one poor victim had her goggles ripped off (unfortunately only to sink to the bottom of the lake never to be seen again) and I saw plenty of feet in my face!   Lots of other good drills - fun!

So....   I have no fear of the open water itself (no sea monsters for me!) and I enjoy the heat of the battle and am "Designated Mauler" - not at all worried about getting bumped about.    Now if only I could learn to swim in a straight line and build some more endurance I could do some real damage!

The calm of Jordan Lake this morning.....

....vs. the chaos of a triathlon start!