Panic Attack

Yesterday was my first open water swim in salt water.  We were at Aquatic Park in San Francisco.  I really have no idea how or why or what caused it, but I had some sort of panic attack as soon as I got in the water.  I'm not afraid of swimming and I'm not afraid of open water.  But for whatever reason, I simply freaked out.  I was cold when we swam in the snow, but something was different this time.  It was painful.  My feet were ok.  My face was ok.  But my hands were shooting with pain.  Sedonia came to the rescue and coached me through the pain and getting my hands moving.  After several minutes of what felt like a 7 year old (me) being given swimming lessons (by Sedonia), I was able to calm down and attempt the swim.  I kept stopping every hundred feet or so for reasons unknown.  But, once I finally got more comfortable, I was able to get in a rhythm and practice my sighting.  I'm a bilateral breather, but found it much easier to sight when I did same-side breathing so that will be one of many adjustments I need to make.  I hope that any future panic attacks that come my way will happen during training so there will be no meltdowns when it really counts!

Very happy to be done!

After the swim, we had a 100 minute run to the bridge.  Unfortunately, I was having some knee pain so I never made it to the bridge.  Besides the knee pain I was having yesterday, it's frustrating being so slow.  While most of my team got 10 miles in, I only logged 6!  I just have to remind myself that I'm getting stronger every day and not to compare to everyone else.  

Picture break at the Warming Hut