Train for Tri’s
with a little fear
Nothing speeds up a work out like a little healthy fear for your life…
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“No pictures! No pictures!” says the crew.
This sevengill cowshark is the SF Bay’s biggest shark. |
Swim I’ve always been afraid of sharks. It started when I was a kid and was then cemented when I saw a shark in the same ocean I was swimming in and realized that even six foot long reef sharks look huge underwater. I think being afraid of sharks is a very healthy way to stay alive but I’d never thought of training with them until last fall when I realized that they can be quite helpful. I had rented a full wetsuit for the I pulled it on okay got into the water and swam up and down the beach a bit to warm up and then decided I’d swim over to bayfarm island, which looked to be a little more then a half mile away. The night before I had been watching a shark week marathon on the discovery channel because I just can’t help it. It was about the time when I had no idea how deep the water was that I started remembering shark facts. Like when people destroy their feeding or breeding grounds, they will seek out new ones and sometimes become deranged due to the change and lack of food. When they are deranged and hungry and water visibility is low they are more likely to take ‘tester’ bites of things in the water. Did I mention the SF Bay is always really murky? There are not many types of sharks in the SF bay. The only one big enough to hurt you is the sevengill cowshark. Although it is unlikely to attack a human, the sevengill can reach ten feet in length and if they were to give you a test bite a half mile from shore, you sure could bleed to death before reaching the beach. How did I know about sevengills? Before going in the water I’d asked the internet about sharks in the SF Bay. And these two sentences were in the internet’s response: “Sevengills have even been observed attacking mating leopard sharks in narrow, shallow marsh channels. While no attacks on people have been documented in open water, sevengills held in captivity have attacked divers.” Did I mention that I was swimming by shallow marsh channels? When I reached the rocky shore of bayfarm, I pulled my feet all the way out of the water. When I swam back it was amazing how fast and smooth my stroke was. Bike I have only been afraid on a bike a handful of times. And they were all at night, as a kid with no headlights and there was usually a cemetery involved. This time, it just sort of came at me. I’d decided to ride
to Pleasanton after work to pick up my car via Palomares which is a pretty
neat hill that was on the Tour of California in 2005 and is between
Pleasanton, Sunol and Hayward. The problem is I left a little late and the
sun was down before I got down By the time I got to Palomares it was full on dark and I was using AA battery powered lights which meant that by the time I was halfway up Palomares, which has no street lights, visibility was an issue for me and for the people who couldn’t see me. So the first thing I started fearing were cars and then came the hicks and dogs. Or, hick dogs. Palomares is steep enough that you slow down enough for some freaked out dog, which I heard plenty of could catch you and rip you apart. Boy I summitted quick… Run People have asked me if my training runs in The So there I was, running in the I just couldn’t remember. And with every re-hash of what I could remember of the information I’d read I started running faster and faster and quieter and quieter and very efficient too I might add. If it wasn’t for the rain and common sense, I might have ran another loop… |
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dave at calbeers dot com |
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