Wearing Neoprene After Labor Day

I did an ocean swim by myself yesterday. Well, me and 50,000 of my closest Labor Day friends. I didn't swim out far, I just wanted to practice my ins and outs.

I've had my wetsuit a few months now, and I no longer feel silly in it. (I may LOOK silly, but I don't FEEL silly. At least not as much.) But yesterday, I went to Venice Beach for a change of pace and of course I was the only one wearing a wetsuit. Everyone else was just frolicking in the waves in regular swimsuits, then I come walking by dressed like a sea lion. What's worse was walking back to my car along the boardwalk in the wetsuit- I really stuck out like a sore toe there.

I had to overcome a bit of my over-analyzing nature. It was difficult for me to just start running into the water, because I found myself waiting for the waves. On race day, we're not going to have any choice when we start, so I was trying to pick a "random" time to go in. Impossible. I kept second-guessing myself: "am I choosing to start now because the water is calm? Am I overcompensating and intentionally trying to start when the water is rough?" To solve this (non-existant-to-you) dilema, for every run I literally turned away from the water and timed 1 minute on my watch. Then I'd turn around and just run in.

Some people worry about stretching or nutrition; I have a whole other level of concerns.