Ocean swim this morning. Yes, I live in the Canary Islands, a tropical paradise, and yes, I’m lucky to be able to train outside throughout the year. But that doesn’t mean that it can’t be really tough sometimes. Like this morning. But it was a good one, one of the best ocean swims in a while.

Let me back up a bit. I had shoulder surgery in August, wore a sling for a while, went through physical therapy, and slowly rebuilt my shoulder strength to the point where I could swim. At this stage it was December, and the first few swims were laughable – 200, 300 meters and I was done. It has taken several months to get where I want to be. Well, I’m not fully there yet, but much closer than I was.

The biking and running have been going well, I’ve been doing some fantastic training sessions in preparation for this year’s goals, a big ride in March – Desafio La Titanica – and then a half Ironman race in April – the Anfi Challenge Mogan Gran Canaria. After that we shall see. But my swimming still needs a lot of work.

I’ve built up to 3 km swim sessions at Playa Las Canteras, in my opinion the best beach in the world for open-water swimming. At low tide it is like a giant pool, with the reef blocking the tide meaning smooth water for swimming, SUPing (is that a word?), kayaks, everything. The underwater views are amazing as well, all the fish going about their business.

When I went this morning, it was not low tide. I knew this before going, but I went anyway. It was about 9:15 in the morning, the sun was a bit behind the clouds, Thursday 2 February. I was prepared, I wore my wetsuit and made my way into the surf.

Lots of bouncing around during my first 1 km loop. Bouncing over waves enough to make me stop after a few hundred meters and make me reevaluate my plan. Did I really want to do a long swim with the surf like this? I put my head down and went a few hundred more meters. I was aware that I was the only swimmer out there, meaning no one else was stupid enough to try to swim during the higher tide.

I made a turn at 600 meters to head back down the beach, and the waves picked up a bit. I told myself not to worry, stopping upon my return after only 1200 meters was not so bad, given the conditions. So I made my way back down the beach. When I finished the 1200, I told myself, ok, only one more lap. Ok, one more. So again I started down the beach, bouncing all over the place in the waves.

Really ready to stop at this point, I look up and see another swimmer – yeah, somebody as stupid as I am!  It gives me a little boost and I continue on, finish my second lap and decide to start a third (this was the original plan). Again I’m feeling like a ragdoll in the waves and I’m ready to stop, and I see another swimmer. Again the motivation soars and I decide that I will not give in to the temptation to stop. I will not let the conditions get into my head. I will go even longer than I had planned.

3.621 km in 1:06:19. Not exactly a blistering pace, but longer than the 3.5 km I had planned, and it was not a calm, low-tide swim. Completing that distance really put a smile on my face, knowing that race-day conditions will not be like this, but even if they are close I can handle it. The shoulder was a bit sore, but nothing too bad. And it will get better.

I was feeling pretty good about myself as I exited the water. But then a wave struck me from behind, I lost my footing and splat! Into the sand, face-first. Not exactly the graceful exit I was expecting, but hey, I still felt good. Now I must carry this feeling into the next session of the day, 90 minutes on the bike trainer. We shall see.

It is now later in the day, just finished the bike session – feeling good!