Quote Originally Posted by GLC1968 View Post
I did the Blue Lake sprint distance on Saturday and wow, what a difference! The water felt like bathwater in comparison to Hagg! I seriously would have been overheating had I worn a full suit.

I sucked though. It was VERY bad. I just kept seeing the distances and thinking how 'hard' I felt like I was working and I worried that I'd be spent before I got to bike or run. So I scaled WAY back on my effort. Clearly my lack of experience hurt be pretty badly here. I actually side-stroked almost the whole way! I would swim freestyle for a bit - catch up to a group in front of me - swim side stroke for a bit - fall back to another group - switch to freestyle - catch up to the next group - swim side stroke....etc. When I rounded the last bouy, I told myself that I would swim NO MORE SIDESTROKE and that I'd be fine. Yeah, I was...and I wanted to kick myself for not doing it sooner in the race. Ugh.

Oh well, here's to a PR the next time! (and MUCH more OWS practice this summer!)
First tri with an OWS, right? I did my first much the same way--freestyle, sidestroke. Pause to look around. Freestyle, sidestroke. Not to worry. You get more comfortable with it all over time. Good for you for getting it done!