Aqua Sphere Vista Goggles
SUMMARY: Very comfortable, seal well, but fog up quickly.
I had some Speedo Sprint goggles that seal well, but are tinted blue, and I get double vision when looking at the bottom of the pool. I also had some clear Tyr goggles that I see very well out of, but they don’t seal vey well. I started researching new goggles and masks. I read that goggles don’t give the greatest peripheral vision for open water swimming. I read that some people use swim masks. I have seen Aqua Sphere masks and goggles at my local sporting good store. I tried both the Aqua Sphere Vista mask and the Aqua Sphere Seal Mask. Both style of masks fit and sealed very well. The Vista mask lenses were a little smaller than the Seal Mask lenses. But the Vista were supposed to be the better mask (according to the packaging). I ended up buying the Vista swim mask.
I was excited to try them. I was scheduled to swim the night I bought them. As I said, they sealed very well. They had a very good field of vision. Much wider than the other regular swim goggles that I had. One thing I noticed was that mask fogged up quickly. I tried spitting on the inside of the lenses, but this didn’t help much. I called Aqua Sphere customer support and they sent me some anti fogging drops. I tried these, and they helped some. So instead of fogging after a lap, they fogged after about 5 laps. I contacted the Aqua Sphere customer support and they offered to replace the Vista mask. I also have a Aqua Sphere Seal Mask and I haven’t had the fogging problem with those. So the issue may be unique to the Vista, or maybe I got a mask with bad anti-fog coating.
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Sunday:
I was scheduled to run for 15 miles. But it was a long weekend with a long driving trip to Pennsylvania. Got home about 7:30, so I managed to get in 10 miles, and called it a night.
Monday:
A new PB! I swam 1.2 miles in just under 58 minutes. That’s the farthest I have swam. I am still working on swimming smoother. At one point I was doing front crawl and realized I was taking way too many strokes. I slowed down and started doing better. I worked a little on regular backstroke and made some improvement. But I ended up going back to modified backstroke.
I had planned to ride my bike to the pool. I got home from work and decided to take a short nap. I set the alarm, but ended up sleeping through it. So I slept longer than I planned. So I drove to the pool instead. Maybe I will take my bike Wednesday.
Tueday:
I squeezed in my quarter mile intervals before heading off to karate class. I was supposed to do 400m rest intervals, but due to lack of time, I just rested for about 2 minutes between each.
Wednesday:
I just got home from swimming. I swam another 1.2 miles tonight. I started off mixing it up. But settled into a length of freestyle (front crawl), and doing a length of backstroke (back crawl). I have been doing modified backstroke (like breaststroke, but on my back and with a flutter kick). But I decided to work on the backstroke. I started off very weak at it. But I was really starting to get the hang of it. I manage to finish the 1.2 miles in about 57 minutes which about a minute faster than Monday night!
Oh, and I got my new goggles. They are a Aqua Sphere Seal Mask. I had very little problems with fogging on these.
Thursday:
Ran 8 miles. One easy mile (10:00 pace) and 7 miles at 8:00 pace. The run actually felt pretty good.
Friday:
Did my swim tonight. I left work a few minutes early to get more swim time. I did a straight combo of one length front crawl, one length back crawl. I am getting better at both of these strokes. I did 1.2 miles (42 laps) in 53:34. That about 2 1/2 minutes faster than my previous best time for that distance. I am feeling much better in the water!
Saturday:
I was scheduled to run 20 miles at 8:15 pace. I got up in the morning and procrastinated starting. When I finally did start, I felt kind of stiff, but I loosened up. But I just wasn’t into it. But I managed to slog through the 20 miles. This was my last 20 mile day before my upcoming marathon in New York City. But I finished it, now I am in taper mode!
Chances are I wont even be able to wear a wet suit at the Louisville Ironman. This year, and last year, the water was just too warm. So chances are it will be too warm next year as well. But I would rather have a wetsuit and not need it, than to need it and not have one. Also I will want to do some open water swims up here in New York. And the water is cooler up here, so I will at least want a wet suit for that. I will probably sign up for some shorter distance triathlons up here,
maybe an Olympic distance or a half-Ironman.
Being at the end of the season, I figured wetsuits might be on sale. Maybe I could pick up a used rental or something. I was going to visit the local triathlon store, so I checked his website for hours. I saw on his site that he was open, and that 2008 wetsuits were on slae for
20% off.
I rode my bike down to his store with my credit card in the back pocket. I had stopped down previously wanting to ask him about wetsuits, but he was slammed. Thankfully, this time he wasn’t so busy.
He got my height (6 foot) and my weight (about 170), and said I took a medium. He showed me different samples of neoprene and said they were the cheaper one, the mid level one, and the high end one. He went to check to see what he had in my size. He had a sleeveless wetsuit in
the mid-level. It was a Nineteen Riptide. I went back into the changing room and carefully put it on. I was afraid of tearing it with my fingernails, so I was very careful. I was a snug, but I was told it
was supposed to be like this. I am sure with work, I could have pulled more neoprene up from the legs to loosed the neoprene around my torso. The tightness around my neck bothered me. It felt a little like it was choking me. I was told this was normal. Again, if I got it more pulled up, I think it would have been looser.
The regular price was $275. He said in a previous season this wetsuit was the higher end model and sold for over $300. He said next season it would probably selling for over $400. 20% off was a good deal. But he ended up giving me 25% off. Way cool! I told him I could pay for it now, but I would need to come back and pick it up since I rode my bike.
Meanwhile I am training in the pool and will probably wait until next Spring to get out and try it in a swim. Maybe I can try it this year in a local lake… who knows.
Instead of running the Rochester Marathon this year, I worked as a volunteer. I was given the job of being a road marshall. I was supposed to meet my team captain at 8am near the horse with baseball gloves. I planned to get there nice and early. I cam up State Street stopping for the many people walking to the race start. I was planning in parking in the back lot where I have parked the last two years. But all the roads were blocked. I found a cop and show him my race crew pass. But he wouldn’t let me through. He gave me directions to go to Lyell and to Oak street. That turned out to BS as Oak St dead ends at some other stadium (Paetec Park?). I found another cop who had me go to Broad Street. He said the roads were closed for the kid’s marathon. This eventually took me back to Main. I came up State again, and looked for another way in. I was getting frustrated and was considering turning around and going home when I found if I came south of State I could maybe get into a parking lot. I went up, and did a U-turn (probably illegal), and got into the lot. Here is an idea…if you are going to block all the roads to the parking lot, put up some sort of detour signs telling people hwo to get to the parking lot.
It was getting close to 8am, and my cushion was mostly gone. I headed over to the horse. There was a box of vests, shirts, flags, but no team captain. I headed to the restroom only to find the men’s room locked. The women’s restroom was open, but the men’s was locked. WTF? Fortunatly a lady unlocked the men’s room for me. Great, didn’t want to be out there for hours holding it… I waited at the horse, but no team captain. Finally I grabbed a vest, shirt and flag, and rode my bike to my post. Fortunatly nobody hassled me about riding my bike on the course. It was only a mile and a half or so to the Ford Street bridge where I would do my shift. I locked my bike to the railing, and waited for the runners to come. Thankfully I had put on some sunblock!
An lady in a car did drive around to tell me the runners were coming soon. Was this my team captain? The half marathoners started coming first, and eventually the full marathoners. It was hot. Most of my morning was saying stuff like:
You are looking good.
Stay on the left side of the bridge.
There is a water stop just around the next corner.
Less than a mile and a half left to go.
You are mostly done.
I had considered signing up as a training run, but I was glad I didn’t! Geez it was hot! It was fun seeing the racers. I was shocked seeing the marathoners running at a 3:30 marathon pace. They were really running. I don’t think I look like that. Anyway, I got a laugh when one guy did a “Wazzu” (jumping and clicking his heels) for me. That made me laugh. I didn’t recognise him the couple seconds I saw him. I am guessing he saw my post that I would be working here.
The biggest event was a girl who slowed down and started staggering. She asked for some water, and reached out to keep from falling down. She wanted to sit, so we sat her down, Another runner was a medic. I asked some other runners to tell the people at the water station around corner that we had a runner down. Another runner called 911 on his cell phone. I got a water bottle from my bike. Another runner offered her his water. We gave her water to drink and poured it over her head, neck and back. Eventually cops showed up, and she eventually was taken away in an ambulence. She kept saying she was embarrased. Geez! She had nothing at all to be embarrassed about. She gave everything she had. It was a hot day. The most you can ever do, is do your best. And she did! She did a great job. She’ll get it next time on a cooler day! I hope she is okay!
I kept an eye on all the runners, asking them how they were doing, looking for any signs that they might be out of it. Watching their eyes. Another girl passed looking tired, and didn’t acknowledge multiple queries about whether she was okay. Another volunteer came running up after her worried that she hadn’t responded to him either. It turned out she was deaf… I am glad she was okay.
At 11:15 I was relieved by a fresh road marshall. She was asking where the volunteer tent was. I said it was probably back at Frontier Field. She hadn’t been to the field, so I gave her my vest and flag.
I rode my bike along the course to the field. Again, no one hassled me. I would love to be one of the bike riding marshalls. Maybe next year.
A friend of mine wanted a base time. There’s a base time. Slow as mud. I am getting better. Keep in mind I am just starting to really learn how to swim. I never swam as a kid due to ear problems. I took four swimming lessons in June, one of which was a waste with two teenage girl lifeguards that were subbing for the teenage kid who was the regular teacher. At least the girls were cute.
But I swam 1000 yards (40 lengths in a 25 yard pool) today after work. I was able to swim 50 yards at a time instead of 25 yards at a time before stopping to catch my breath. And today I wasn’t as out of breath between laps. I mostly did front crawl, with a little bit of breast stroke.
I am hoping to swim 3 times a week til I get it down. It’s definatly my weakness. And I probably wont be able to wear a wet suit in Louisville.
Are there like neoprene jammers? Would they be legal in warmer water, and would they give much floatation?