New Years Day run and onward...

When my husband convinced me I needed to run with our fun friends on New Year's Day, I finally said yes with much trepidation. These people are great athletes but also a great time to be around, so I said yes. There's nothing like being firmly behind everyone for the whole run, but I was. We ran the trails in the city so the scenery was really beautiful. My running pals graciously waited for me at very scenic locations so I could catch my breath. But it kind of stinks when all you see is everyones back and have no one to talk to for 7 miles.

Truth be told, running has been the last thing on my mind. The holidays came, and did I mention we had a lovely stomach virus run through our family? Realistically speaking, in the days that we had it I might have gotten 4 hours of sleep total through those nights. Four kids, four viruses, and one me wide awake for way too many nights. That started the last two days of school before Holiday Break started. It set up the perfect scenario for me to get sick. And sick I did get. On the drive up to NY two days before Christmas Eve I lost my voice, then I got this chest cold. I couldn't talk for a week. I was up most of the night coughing my brains out. It was a pretty awful being that sick for Christmas, at least I didn't get that stomach virus like Brad did on Christmas Eve night. God bless him he was sicker then a dog. All I did was hack my lungs up. I am still dealing with some lingering reverberations.

I tried to work out, tried to do stuff. I did ride the trainer hoping for some aerobic benefit. I did short runs, 2 miles here, 3 miles there. We ran for almost 7 miles on New Years Day. At one point during our run everyone was running with someone, except for me. I was behind by a couple of lengths when we happened on a guy with two dogs off the leash. Well the German Sheppard dog trotted along side me, I reached over and scratched his head, then his owner said, "He's checking to see if you have any treats, he won't bother you for long if you don't have them" On cue the pooch doubled back to his owner and I said out loud "even a dog doesn't want to run with me". Kind of funny, almost a scene out of the Jerk. But it was what it was. I caught everyone when we got to the parking lot, we all chatted and laughed and enjoyed each other's company until we all got cold and said our goodbyes.

Fast forward to this weekend. Did I mentionSaturday was the first day of our 10k training team, and I knew it was going to be bad. I still cough like crazy if I run more then three miles, I still have a stuffy nose. Anyway, Brad convinced me I would be okay. It was billed as an easy 6 mile run, a distance I have done only once in the last month at least. It was supposed to be at conversational pace, a jolly jog if you will. But noooooooooooooooooooooooooo, what did I expect from the local road runners club? They said go, and that's all she wrote. I am in the slowest group mind, the 49 to 55 minute 10k group and my group took off like a dirty shirt in a wind storm. By the time we were at mile two, I was wheezing and one of our coaches turned around and ran back to me to check and see if I was alright. Once again, did I mention it was totally uphill until that point??? I had fallen off of the pace big, big, time. We finally decided I would turn around and run the two plus miles back to the start. I won't get into the fact that it was the stupidest thing I have ever done, running through the City by myself to the Cafe where we started. Did I mention the start is in an area that is being re-gentrified? It occurred to me when I encountered a group of young men, and I use that term loosely, that were across the street from me a few blocks to the Cafe we all started from. I guess they saw me notice them noticing me. I know I am not too far away from the start, that if I book it, I could get back to safety. One of them did make a move across the street. Was it towards me, hell if I know. I took off like I had rocket shoes on, cut through a lot, and made it to the Cafe. FAILFAILFAILFAILFAIL did I mention FAIL in a major way? Ugh! I felt like such a freaking LOSER. Not only did I not make the distance, I almost got myself mugged along the way. I felt so out of my league, I felt like a beginner. I know better then to be by myself anywhere like that. I was too busy dressing myself down for not being able to run the whole way to pay attention to my personal safety. Now I am pondering if I continue with the team or not. I just do not know. I do not want to be left alone in the city again, I don't want to be the only person who can't make the whole way.

Today we had a 4-10 mile training run on our 10k training team plan. It was 30 degrees and there were winds up to fifteen miles an hour. But Brad was a trouper and said he'd run with me. We did a 10k. I forced myself to run the whole thing, I got nauseous, felt like I was going to pass out at points, but I refused to stop. I need to be able to run at least six miles, I need to be able to run at least six miles well. So I did it. I was a sorry sight I am sure, but I ran it. Tomorrow we have a rest day, I think I will ride the bike.

I need to increase my aerobic endurance. I AM going to increase my aerobic endurance. I can do this can't I? I have run how many half marathons, a full marathon, how many tris have I done??? I can do this right? This training team will be nothing when all is said and done right?? But did I mention I am getting sick again??????

It's the little things

You know after my little pity party with my last post, I felt better. I had to remind myself that I had some pretty good races last season. I had a PR for a 5k, and this came the day after I had PR'd my 5k in a triathlon the day before. I smoked that triathlon for me, and was really happy. So there were little victories along the way. Not all dismal and terrible like I would have you believe.

There's the thing, for the Yin of my season there was the definite Yang. I guess I figured the mojo would keep up even when my training wasn't there. Of course, that didn't happen. Did I want to be extremely critical of my last season or did I want to stomp my foot and complain, did I fail myself, or did the Race Gods just have it in for me??? Ah, one of life's lovely little conundrums to ponder. Yes I had a lousy Half Marathon for the Patrick Henry. I might have been able to make myself run through the toenail coming off and how freaking much that hurt, but why? At that point I was still running my marathon. Why risk injuring myself even worse when that was supposed to just be a training run. I kept it in perspective that day. I guess it's when my season so unceremoniously unravelled the way it did is when in my mind the "whole season sucked".

I needed to take care of my blood pressure. That medicine I started taking has been doing wonders for me truly. My blood pressure is in a low normal range. Even if I skip a day by accident, my blood pressure is still good. My training has been getting better. I still sweat more then I am accustomed to, but if I hydrate more during my training session it helps.

The next thing I need to consider is what I am going to do the 2010 season. Do I throw all caution to the wind, train like I am a pro, and see what happens? What happens if my body fails me? I think that is why I have always held back. Always used that as my crutch when I train, when it got hard, and hurt, I would ease up. Ever afraid of falling, not feeling my legs etc. But really, in my heart I know even if that happened it is just temporary. I have to admit when I have the visual problems after a hard workout, and I cannot get them to go away as quickly as I'd like, I freak a little. It is scary going from clear vision, to Holy Cow, I can't see anything clearly, it's like looking at an overly staticky TV or something. That's scary, but that too goes away as my body readjusts. I want to say I am going to crush 2010, I want to say I am going to blow the doors off of my 3 previous seasons, I want to say I will be on the podium once this year, just once, once in my life, but I am scared. Scared of my body failing to listen as I work hard to achieve that.

And there it is, I am afraid to go for a season like that because I am afraid I can't do it. It's one thing to say you can't do it, and another to really not be able to. I haven't put myself in that situation yet, and I am afraid to try I think.

So I have time. Time to decide. I know my husband and I are signing up for a master swim program that meets 3 times a week. I will improve my technique exponentially, improve my endurance and speed, and that's a good thing. I am signed up for my first race of the tri season and it's an Oly. Not starting with a sprint, but an Oly. So my training will be hard to start right away, but that's okay too. I want to drop another 15 or so pounds. Christie Wellington became a real force to be reckoned with this season after she dropped all of her excess poundage. That I can start on right now. If I keep up even mildly training I should be good through the holidays.

Things to think about, I guess I need to just keep telling myself if anything happens to me while I am training it won't be permanent. That as long as I cool down I should be okay right?? I really want to go hard this season, go hard or go home as they say. I am sitting at home, I did for too many races on my calendar this season and HATED it, so I guess it's go hard right?

Where Have I Been You Must be Wondering....

Yeah, yeah, I know, long time, no write, but truthfully I haven't felt much like revelling in any accomplishment of mine lately, they have been far and few between. I don't even remember my last races I wrote about. I think the last triathlon I did was the Richmond Sprint. I braved that one after not training much, and hoped that I could pull something out of myself. The swim was actually pretty much on target for me for a 400 meter swim, the bike was okay and the run was so so. I finished in 1 hour 29 minutes. Kind of pathetic compared to what it could have been.

I had pretty much made my decision not to run the marathon after missing almost 2 months of run training. I am not saying I didn't run, I did, but I was doing 3 miles here and there, still feeling like crap. I do lead the fifth graders for run club on Thursdays and that is nice enough and a gratifying experience. But I am not leading them on a 20 mile long run, or for speed workouts at the track. It all kind of went downhill when I started the medicine. It stung like crazy to back out of that, it was my Ironman of the season. The culmination of all that I trained for and it didn't happen. It felt like another humiliating kick in the crotch for me, but hey, that's that's the way my season went this year. Some good, some bad, mostly mediocre.

So I lived through my husband's Ironman, and him being away many weekends racing, in places like Bermuda, while I held down the fort. I would love to say I was gracious about it but for obvious reasons, it was really hard. I was pretty much over the whole single mom thing, and hearing about Ironman stuff, and living and eating and breathing it for the last year of my life. It would be different if I were training for it too, but I wasn't, so it is what it is. I am most definitely proud of him for doing such a stellar job, really I am and was, but I was still smarting that I wasn't running my marathon. I dunno, it really bugged me. It kind of stunk that my husband felt he needed to volunteer at the marathon today too. I guess I am being a whiner, but whatever, it's how I feel so there pftbpttt.

Anyway, we are setting up a race calendar for next year and I hesitate to show any excitement. I mean why get excited if I have another crap season? I don't know that my husband understands. He wills his body to do something and it does it. Sometimes I want to scream, I try so hard and have nothing to show for it many times. The only good thing about our first triathlon of the season is the fact it will be in Knoxville, TN and I will be seeing my best friend in the whole, wide, world that weekend too, and her family. It was a motivating factor, and my husband knew it would be. As is stands right now we are doing the Ukrops 10K in March, nothing for me as it stands now in April, the Muddy Buddy, the Rev3 Olympic distance in Knoxville and the Power Sprint in May, the MS 150 and I love the tavern in June, the NYC Olympic in July, the Pink Power in August and the Richmond sprint in October. Ta-da, I would normally get that wonderful jumpy feeling in my belly, that chomping at the bit feeling that I get at the thought of race day, but not so right now. I am feeling a sense of dread, like what kind of season will it be? Plus I am freaking out that people I don't really want to have to deal with are talking about doing these tris too. Yuck...I want to kick some serious ass now, but I am truly doubting myself and my ability to do anything anymore, I know wah, wah, wah....poverina.

Okay, while I am complaining, I hate to sound like a green female, but when my husband gushes over other girls and their finishes and how well they do, it irks the living hell out of me. And don't get me started on how pissy I get when I see all of these girls paying him mind and fawning all over him for how well he does. It's like back off ladies, but I am sure it's just me being a green female like I said. He's oblivious even though I see....

To top it all off, I stopped training about 6 days ago. I think I just got burnt and disappointed, so there you have it. I believe I need to start blogging again, start writing about everything to keep track and maybe I will have a record when there is a hiccup in my racing. There's a thought. Maybe one I will stick to now that I am not holding down the fort by myself anymore.

My husband asked me what we were having for breakfast tomorrow morning, I even went to church tonight so we would have our first Sunday morning together in a million years. It was music to my ears, what a nice thought to be having, don't know what it will be, but I do know I won't be alone in my breakfast journey tomorrow morning. Might not be a 100 mile bike ride, but I don't think his rump will be as sore when we're done!

Why me? Why not?

Okay, I was all psyched to tell you about my tandem bike ride with my husband through beautiful San Francisco but this blog is going to be me griping and moaning. One would think that I have enough on my plate health wise. I am not one to complain too much, hahahahahahahahaha, phew *wipes the tears out of her eyes*, okay I moan plenty, but I never have bitched about my lot in life and getting stuck with a potentially debilitating disease. I mourned the loss of my former self when I was diagnosed with MS at age 26. Let go all the things I thought might be and told myself I could curl up and wind up in a wheel chair or face the world and know I could be a better person then I was and forage onward. I chose the latter. I tried to live a better life, be a nicer person, you know the whole drill.

Fast forward 16 years and here I am in probably the best shape I have ever been in and I have to deal with high blood pressure. Not necessarily a huge thing, but I have been battling it for a bit and had it under control through diet and exercise the last few years. Not anymore. My last well woman visit, my BP teetered around 190/100. WTF?? Where is this coming from. My Dr., I absolutely LOVE him, told me to monitor it for a few months and call my GP if it didn't improve. Due to the fact that heart disease and high BP runs rampant in my family, both sides, I did as he asked. Well it didn't improve and hovered around 160/100, I finally cried uncle. I called my GP and made an appointment. When I went it was 190/110. I got put on Lisinopril an ACE inhibitor and diuretic. I asked my Dr. if I should be concerned being put on a diuretic with all of the training I do. He said absolutely not, he wanted me to keep at it. I brought up I had an 18 mile run scheduled for this Saturday, he told me not to worry. BALONEY! I went out for a ten miler with Brad 3 days after I started it and almost passed out. I thought I was going to die, literally. My blood pressure was 90/54 when I checked it when I got home. Okay, we slashed it in half in three days time, maybe that was a little excessive. I went out two days later for an easy three miles and I managed it. I was semi-okay. Today was supposed to be 4 miles, I managed to get through 3.5. I was trying to keep my pace around 10 minute miles, my long run pace, but I kept catching myself at my 5k pace 8 1/2 minute miles. But 3.5 miles and I was done. I will not even tell you what my stomach was like. It was not dissimilar to when I run long distance. That has never happened short distance, and sweat? I am sweating to the point where I leave drops when I come in, and a puddle on my chair. This all from a measly 3 miles and a little. I am calling said Dr. in the morning. This medicine is truly interfering with my training. My stamina is gone, I am tired all the time, my tummy is a mess, I had headaches, those have finally stopped, and I feel blechy. All of them are side effects for this supposedly benign medication my Dr. said would be fine for me. Not really.... Maybe I will run to his office, plop my sweaty butt down in his waiting room and show him how "fine" I am. How much it is okay to train on this medicine. I feel like all I worked for, all I have trained for these last almost 3 years is completely thrown out the door. I am frustrated and angry, and don't know what to do. Do I stop taking the medicine that is obviously needed, or do I keep taking it and throw my training out the door?? I need to be Solomon, once again, SOL. Not a man, not a king and not bible material why me?? Why not I guess is what he would tell me.

Clipped my own wings, but swam with the sharks...

Okay, I decided no for the Eagleman Half Iron. The reason was pretty simple really, I just wasn't willing to drive myself crazy trying to find the time to train and you can't fudge a Half Iron distance. A Sprint possibly, an Oly, maybe, but Half Iron no way, so I said no. I surprised myself with my decision, but was happy with it when all was said and done.

Two weeks ago my husband and I went out to San Francisco to do the Sharkfest Swim from Alcatraz. Quite frankly I was on the fence about that race until the minute I jumped out of the boat. Heck even when I hit the water I was second guessing, but I did it.

Let's rewind a bit here, we got to San Fran and it was glorious weather wise. It was 68 or so, no humidity, just wonderful. I got acquainted with our area, we were just a few very short blocks from Aquatic Park, where you picked up your packet and timing chip race morning and the race ended.

We got in on a Thursday and spent the day wandering around, Friday morning we went for our long run since we were going to miss it with the swim on Saturday. We wound up running 12 miles over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was beautiful, I saw a pod of dolphins frolicking beneath me as I crossed over, it was really something. Anyway, we finished up the run, and decided to go for a swim in Aquatic Park to get ready for the race the next day. I had heard tale of how cold the water was, and Brad thought it would be best to get in and know for ourselves. So we grabbed our wetsuits and headed over to swim. Brad went first while I sat with our stuff. Then it was my turn. I suit up, head over to the water's edge and I spy an older woman, perhaps mid 70's or older, in a bikini with a neoprene swim cap and a sun bonnet on. I politely asked if she had any tips for a green horn like me, a newbie to cold water like this, how to handle the initial HOLY SH*T this water is cold feeling. She laughed and we chatted for awhile. I like to think of her as the hint God sent for me to at least try this race out....I had been asking for a little divine intervention for the two weeks or so prior, anything that would let me know if I should even try this race or not. Lo and behold, she came to me the day before, with her words that still ring in my ears....She asked me if I was doing the Alcatraz race and I was honest with her. I told her I had my doubts, I doubted my ability to swim the distance, in the cold like that. I wasn't sure, I was scared of the sharks and the sea lions. She listened and nodded and said to me "Why on earth wouldn't you at least try it? There is plenty of support staff in kayaks, if you get in and decide it's not your day, roll on your back, put your arm in the air, and get help. Even the pros need help every now and again you know Sweetie." How true was that?? My mind was made up for the most part, I would at least try...

Saturday morning and the alarm is trilling in my head. Time to make the donuts, I get out of bed and into my swimsuit. We grab some breakfast, get our gear and head down to the race start for our timing chips and t-shirts. We meet some of the nicest and most interesting folks while we are waiting to walk to the ferries that will bring us behind Alcatraz. People giving tips on how to race the race because they have before, people from all over, France, Australia, England, Germany, Italy, every single state from the USA being represented. It was really something to experience. Then they start the parade of swimmers, 800 of us or so, to the ferries. Did I mention I am unusually quiet? You can always tell if I am nervous in a bad way when I don't say anything. When I get nervous about something silly and I know I really shouldn't be nervous, I talk a lot, yammer, yammer, yammer, make myself laugh at stupid stuff,hahahahaha, and go back to yammer, yammer, yammer then hahahaha, you get the idea. When I am really nervous over something big, I get stone quiet and stone faced. No expression, no mirth, nada, nothing, niente...

So I get on the ferry with my husband. We find a friend of ours who has done this race before and besides being a very nice person, she is one heck of a swimmer. She senses my nervousness and promises me I will make it and be okay. From someone who has done this race before, and in 36 minutes, I take her word. She obviously knows what she's talking about right? They start giving a briefing "the beaches to the north and south of the Bridge have been closed because of Great White sightings" stood out and everything else, I didn't hear.

Next thing you know, we are pulled behind Alcatraz, where the prisoners were once upon a time released to the prison grounds, and they are calling for us to line up to jump in. Three across, and whee! Into the water you go! It's about a 10 foot drop my husband said. Maybe it's so you piss yourself silly going down to warm yourself up when you hit the freezing water! Anyway, I think my husband saw the pure abject terror in my eyes because when we were up, he grabbed my hand and BANZAI! Off the boat I went. He said when my head popped back up, the look in my eyes made him duck, he thought I was going to punch someone! We started scrambling to the line of kayaks that made up the start, then we heard the first horn toot. That was the one minute warning. My husband offered to swim with me, but I told him to race his race and go on ahead, I would make my way. Then came the longer TTTTTTOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTT!!!! Off we went! Holy crapoli, can you say speed bag at the gym? Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots? Naked oil wrestling?? No, not really, just seeing if you were still with me...It was the most physical start to a race ever, my strategy? I stopped, let the tools pass me, got into my rhythm, and started my 1.5 mile trek. I have to admit, I stopped once or twice and turned around, amazed that Alcatraz was disappearing behind me more and more. I was struck by the thought, I am escaping, I am doing what many men died trying to do, and I was surviving.

I was never happier when I saw the boat with the huge orange buoys at the entrance of Aquatic park getting close enough to touch. Then it happened. I thought either a shark chomped my left calf or I got a bad leg cramp. Turned out to be the latter and I scoured through my head trying to remember what Brad said to do in case that ever happened to me. The first thing was DO NOT panic. It hurts like hell, yes, but don't start flailing and going crazy. I could have called for help, but I was at the entrance of the Park. The race was a mere 400 meters or so to the finish. I was not giving up! So I swam with one leg, there was a guy with one leg swimming, I thought that I could do that too. And so I did, I kicked with one leg only until the cramp started lessening, then I relied heavily on the rotation of my body more then my kicking to cut through the water. Before I knew it, I was at the beach, I stood up and whammo, fell to one knee, got up, fell to one knee again. It was a lot like Sr. Electa's First Holly Communion practices without her clicker, genuflecting before the Lord I was. Someone ran over and hoisted me up, I went up the few stairs, across the timing mat and TA DA I was done.

I finally found Brad through the throngs of people and we decided to go eat breakfast at our Hotel. That was the best darned bowl of oatmeal I have ever eaten. I did nothing for the rest of that day. I watched a movie while Brad slept and we planned our route for the bicycle ride we planned for the following day, through the Marin headlands, to Saulsilito, the Red Wood Forest, over the Golden Gate and back. That is a blog for another day though. I am tired all over again just thinking about my swim. But I escaped, I conquered the Rock and my fears, don't know which one was more satisfying...

Do I fly like an Eagle or stay at the nest?

Okay, my husband calls me at work today and asked a question I am still trying to decide on. Do I do the Eagleman 1/2 Ironman or do I stay at home like a mama eagle with her eaglets that weekend instead?

I had my ups and downs this season. My season started off pretty dismally with me barely surviving the Rockett's Landing Race, I limped home on that one. I butchered a simple sprint distance next. I finished in a pathetic hour and 21 minutes. Nothing to write home about.

Not all was that bad though. There were some shining spots like the MS 150. I actually did it and survived, more then I had even considered possible for me. I did my first half century ride, and did pretty okay. There was the 3 Sport Tri. I took over 5 minutes off of my hour and twenty one minute race. Same race course, different sponsor on that one, I did much better on the Three Sport Race. Then came my PR for the Cul-de-sac 5Ks. The first one was pretty normal for me, but the last two were way better. The last one came the day after the 3 Sport Race. I guess I was still pretty jazzed with getting a PR in my 5k during the triathlon that the enthusiasm carried into that race. I came 4 seconds away from breaking 26 minutes. If only I had made my way thru the racers better, I would have broken the 26....Then my NYC Tri results. I finished smack dab in the middle of my age group. But what pleased me was the fact that I took over 15 minutes off of my race time from last year and there were no jellyfish to contend with. I wish it wasn't so slick from the rain. I was VERY hesitant on my bike in spots and that cost me in the long run. I could have reached my 3 hour goal, but missed by 5 minutes. Next year I will break through that and finish in under three hours. The temperature being below 100 degrees definitely helped me. I ran the 10k in 58 minutes, only 3 minutes slower then my best stand alone 10k time.

Which brings me back to the question, do I want to do a half Ironman? I can do the swim now if I had to. The swim I did in the James this morning was killer long, and I was fine, even with limited sleep from being woken up by my kids through out the night. I was surprised when the hour was up. I know I can cycle for 56 miles, I have done it before, but I don't do it on a regular basis. I have done half marathons before, so I know I can run the distance. But the question is, can I put them all together? Am I prepared to spend over 6 hours of my life on a race it takes great athlete's four and five hours to complete? Do I have the time to train for such an event? Do I want to have this race at the start of my season?? I don't know, but I don't have loads of time to decide. This race fills up pretty quickly and it's sort of like do or die at this point.

I guess if I made these decisions quickly and with the confidence my husband has, I would have to rename my blog wouldn't I? Dee "The ready to take on any triathlon triathlete" just doesn't have the same ring to it. Oh, I don't know! But I will soon enough, then I might have to blog more because getting ready for a 1/2 Iron distance will have moments that will sooooo be worth blogging about! To be continued....

Still Not Sure What's Going On, But I Am Still Training

Yes I am still training, that would be why my rump hurts this morning. Yesterday I ran hills with my husband and one of my Marathon Team Training coaches, Shawn. He said he had a killer hill near where we live, he wasn't kidding. It made the one we ran up and down at the Grove like a bunch of undecided salmon seem positively tame. It is brutal, .2 miles of sheer, unadulterated steepness, that only gets steeper the last 50-75 feet at a time when your quads, hams and glutes are begging to stop, asking that you might take a break. When I say I almost barfed the last three repeats after that last little bit of distance, I am not kidding. Shawn teased me and said that would be reason enough for him to run the hills.

I don't know what I am hoping to accomplish by running these hills, get faster? I guess that's why my husband entered us in to the Cul-De-Sac 5K series. Two weeks ago we ran our first, I was a bit slow at the start because it was a mass start and I was in the back of the pack, but I finished in 27 minutes, 13 seconds. I made up time, and finished where I usually do for a 5k. The following week we ran the same route. I started more up front, but right before the start these old people got in front of me. Once again, I had to pick through to get to a spot where I could run without a bunch of people in front of me. I had to make up time. I kept checking my Garmin and I was running sub 9 minute miles the whole way which is good for me. I wound up running the 5k in 26 minutes and change, the seconds escape me, but I was 44seconds faster. Did I mention it was over 90 degrees while we were running and I felt like barfing? But it was my first triumph this particularly dismal race season for me. The first thing I did right I felt. I have never run a sub 27 minute 5K before.

If you remember my last pity post, I was bemoaning my swimming, if that's what you can call it. When I brought my girls to Tri team the Monday following my disaster in the James, their coach, Michael asked how I did. I was honest, told him how awful my swim was and he offered up he had an open water swim class at 6 in the morning on Wednesdays. I told Brad about it figuring nothing more would come of it, but where was I, 6am, two days later? That's right, poised on the bank of the James River, ready to jump in and swim for an hour. We signed up for a month worth of that torture. This past week was particularly good for me. I found my stroke, I was rotating at my hips, reaching long boat style, good form. During my 400M warm up I had a facial encounter with a fish. It swam right by my goggles and scared the crap out of me. The warm up was 400meters followed by a ladder workout. You kept increasing your pace until you were almost at race pace at the end.

We focused on speed and on not putting our feet down to recover. We had to tread water, boo! So we started with 50m repeats. Swim as hard as we could to the blue buoy. Our coach was waiting there in his kayak. Stop, recover for 30 seconds and do it again, we did that four times. Then we switched to 100m repeats. 4 of those, same as the 50's. You go down on the right side of the buoys, back to the left to avoid swimming head on into someone. Everyone wears brightly colored swim caps too, to avoid the head on thing as well. I was feeling great, I had started in group two, we were broken up into two groups according to speed, and wound up getting myself thrown in with group one I was swimming so well for my group. I was pleased, not too shabby I was thinking smugly to myself. I was on top of the world, then blam! I swam head on into something that grabbed me by my shoulders screaming, Are you okay? Are you okay? Some guy, without a swim cap, swimming out on the wrong side of the buoy totally punched me in the face while he was stroking. Now I know why I avoid bar room brawls. Getting punched in the face hurts like heck! My goggles jammed into my eye socket and I have a delightful bruise on my cheek, at least I don't have another black eye, ala trail running while training for the Bear Creek 10 miler... I finished up the work out, the water feeling good where my face was starting to swell. You know, I don't even do anything wrong, I had on my swim cap, I was siting properly, I was on the correct side of the buoy and I wind up getting hurt, why? Enough of that, I now return you to my regular blog....

The not putting your feet down to catch your breath, and resting like that was killer. But I did learn to tread water more efficiently. After our 100's we did
150's hooray!! Holy cow, I was spent. I was never more glad to hear our hour was up and it was time for us to do a cool down. I did 100m easy one. Switching strokes and really taking it easy. I couldn't wait to get out of the river and see my face, which, incidentally wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The bruise is a pale brown and easily missed. But I felt pretty good about how I swam, so there's something.

I have been carrying on with my Wednesday night rides too. I did 22 this week as opposed to 25, the getting up at 4:45 to get to the swim on time, followed by a run while the girls are at tri team swim and doing the 25 mile ride that night takes some getting used to. A spread out tri through out the day. It's not the exertion as much as it's the early wake up!

So I have the Three Sport tri this weekend. A chance to redeem myself from my performance at the Shady Grove tri, same course, different sponsor, and the NYC Tri the next weekend. I am hoping to do way better there then I did last year. Last year, my bike was having gear issues, this year, Bonni is a happy girl!

I definitely have to blog about my favorite run of the year.It is coming up two days before the NYC Tri, the Underwear Run, where we will be going for a worlds record for number of people running in their skivvies! Look for the Pink Panther and Inspector Clousseau to make an appearance!