Conditions:  Myself and 2 others drove north 2.5 miles from Jax Pier for a morning swim, due to a pretty serious North-South current.  The waves were coming in at about a 45 degree angle to shore.  Wave height was initially 1 & 1/2  to 2ft.  By the time we got out, it had built to 2-3 ft.  But when you’re set to swim you sometimes just ‘do it’ despite less than ideal conditions.

Prep/Focal Points:  I read some of Terry’s suggestions re open-water swimming, which always gives me good focal points and helps me relax more.  This swim, due to the chop,  my FP’s were – 1) keeping "soft arms" in order to help absorb the wave impact.  2) "swimming taller" , extending my lead arm from the shoulder and using core for propulsion as much as possible.  3) good breathing technique, letting my hand entry trigger my core rotation & breath, exhaling w/ ‘Gusto’ prior to inhaling and humming helped a lot w/ that.   Sometimes I forget to breath like this unless I stay ‘conscious’ of it.  4) Finally, I practiced changing speeds going from a medium-leisurely pace to a quicker one  and back to the easier one (1.27-1.37 or so).

-Issues:  -Sighting….  I felt fairly seamless going from sighting to the breath.  HOWEVER, due to waves I could only see my ‘buddies’ a handful of times, and even had trouble seeing the pier in the distance.  This caused me to have to re-sight many more times than I would have liked, but with conditions pulling me off course constantly, it was necessary.   Ever had this issue??

- Far distance from others:  I deliberately moved offshore enough to be comfortably outside the breakers, yet the others seemed to remain much closer in.   At first, I would swim in towards them to ‘connect’, but soon just decided to swim outside.  I felt anxious a few times due to swimming pretty far outside & w/ the conditions, but my well-ingrained habit of relaxing kept taking over so no real issues there. 

-Zig-Zagging:  Instead of swimming a nice straight course, I constantly swam angling out to the area outside the breakers, then back in at an angle to use the current and stay a little closer to others (and the shore!).  When I got inside, the waves started knocking me around, so I’d angle back out.  With the rip-current, it was too easy to get far out, and pretty tiring to keep swimming in??!!

-Form break down: Despite ever-vigilante attention to my form, many times the surf would knock me into a pretty twisted body line, which just about halted any progress.  I also found it very difficult to maintain a mail-slot entry w/my hand/arm.  The TI habits I’ve grooved helped return me to form fairly quickly though….                  Please let me know your thoughts…………Mark

It was a great swim overall, finishing in 53 min…. obviously, the current helped a little!  Checking for body the next day as I always do for feedback, my left upper tricep, shoulder and scapula were a little sore, but otherwise right as rain.  I guess w/ my left arm taking all the surf action caused this. 

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