Yesterday Zach and I headed out to Lorton, VA for an open water swim and transitions clinic. The weather was less than desirable (it was rainy, overcast and cold) and I was cranky because we were awake so early, but I was still hoping I'd learn something valuable for my tri this weekend.

But I won't lie, I was a little bit let down.

I paid $43 to attend the clinic and I was expecting learn some tips for open water swimming, maybe get advice on how to sight, how to deal with swimming in a crowd, etc.

Instead, the people running the clinic inflated some buoys, and just sent everyone into the water to swim. You had an hour to be in the water and in that time you could swim as much as you wanted. The loop they set up was 500 meters and I did it twice.

But I learned nothing about having a good swim, and that was disappointing.


The transitions portion of the clinic wasn't much better.


The organizers talked us through a successful transition and demonstrated how to set everything up so it would be neat and organized.

Then they had us practice a T1 and T2 transition.

The only valuable tip I learned was that if you cuff the legs of your wetsuit before you take it off, it comes off more quickly.

But I could have practiced the transitions on my own anywhere and learned just as much as I did at the clinic.

Overall, I was definitely disappointed that I paid a decent amount of money to learn almost nothing. I kind of wish I would have run the Frederick half with my friends instead.