BAM's Echo Clinic

This evening I met Wes, Dominique, Tom and Mike at Echo's south resort.  This is where the Echo Triathlon is held.  Wes was holding a clinic to review the course with those who are racing next week.  He introduced the four group instructors and I quickly gave a plug for Salt Lake Open Water and the Bear Lake Monster Swim.  Kevin Mortensen told me he has a relay put together, but just needs to register.  There were a total of about 25 swimmers

We broke the group up into 4 and I took one group and we covered lots of topics:

• Goggle care
• Sighting and staying in as straight a line as possible
• Lubrication
• Safety in Open Water while training
• Mental anxieties and how to overcome them

Then we practiced sighting.  The water at Echo is extremely muddy.  Visibility was very poor.  Worse than Bountiful Lake.  It didn't seem dirty in a polluted sense, just muddy.  There was a couple dead carp on the shore.  I assume this reservoir has its fair share of carp which makes it resemble Utah Lake.  Whoever though introducing carp to lakes and reservoirs ought to have his head examined.  The water was also very low.  Probably about 15 feet shallower than when I last swam there in 2008.  

Then we had a combined group exercise.  We simulated a race.  Wes had us all line up and go around two "buoys" which were the two kayaks helping watch the swimmers.  A total course of about 500 yards or so.  We took off and I was right next to Rory Duckworth.  With the poor visibility we collided a couple times, nothing big, but I sprinted to get ahead and out of his way.  It was a little more difficult going straight because of the inability to even see my hands and it was messing with me mentally because I was concerned that I wasn't going straight because of that.  But I just need to trust my stroke.  I pulled ahead and kept a fast pace.   The water was so shallow that you could touch the bottom even several hundred yards out.  

The beach was very muddy.
Probably very disgusting to OW
newbies.  Really too bad that it
is in this condition.

I feel bad for those triathlon participants who have this as their first triathlon.  What a terrible first impression of open water.  The bottom was extremely muddy so when you stand up to run out of the water, your feet sink in about 4 inches of mud.  I told my group that they really should experiment with different bodies of water in the Wasatch Front, especially Bear Lake.  (hint, hint)

There was one swimmer in my group from Mountain Green who I talked to about swimming in Pineview.  She may join us next week.

Total distance: about .5 miles including the race