FIVE, Four, Three, Two ...

Only five days left; can you believe it?

... I can't believe I'm the only one posting in this thing, that's what I can't believe. :-p

Anyway, I'm very unsure as to how I feel about this. Gen and I did an open water swim on Sunday at the Cherry Creek swim beach. While getting the open water experience was good, there were some downsides. Basic things learned:

- Swimming in really shallow water sucks, especially when you're kinda tall.
- I. Hate. Seaweed. I know I'm going to swim into some and have to stop and rip it all away from my head/face before I continue on Sunday ...
- Murky water is really a little scary at first, but not so bad after a while.
- Swimming through boat wakes sucks also since for a few seconds, it feels like you're not moving anywhere.

The tri will be in a different part of the park, but I'm thinking that the water will probably be much of the same, just deeper.

We missed Amber that day, but she did a bit of the same swimming, plus the bike course. Apparently it's a little hilly, but doable. A trainer at work who is also doing the tri has done the bike and running course and said the same thing. Luckily all I do is bike and run hills since that's all there is around here.

I heard from Gen yesterday she did a mock-tri at (i'm guessing) the hospital gym, just to know she could finish. I had been thinking of doing something similar, but a.) I'd want to do it outside, since biking and running inside is SO much different than outside for me and b.) I'd heard that doing a full mock wasn't a good idea. However, at this point, I kinda figure, "whatever works," so yeah.

Today I did my first mini brick workout (a little late in the game, i know). Biked for 11.5 mi and then did a quick jog around the block (.4 mi). The jog was a lot shorter than I'd have liked it to have been, but all I really wanted to do was get a feel for it ... because it's really actually kinda weird.

The schedule for the rest of the week is tentatively looking like so: swim tomorrow morning, run tomorrow night, small bike and probably yoga on Thursday, hockey Friday night and only a nice walk on Saturday. I figure that should be good enough. My original thought was to take Friday completely off, but really, I like my hockey and have been trying to get back into that as well.





Still, I'm a little apprehensive since my body isn't particularly built (well, muscles still aren't trained) for endurance and a triathlon is all about endurance. My legs really wanted to crap out on me at several points on the bike today and that was all by itself - no swim beforehand and only a miniscule run after. I'm also hoping the sports asthma won't be a problem since I had some slight issues with that on the bike as well. I guess we'll see, but I know myself well enough to know that I won't be able to definitively say for sure how I'm going to do until I wake up Sunday morning and see how I feel. If I feel good, I know I'll be fine (see: race around the rez). If I don't feel good, or wake up late and get a bad start (not-blogged about race on the fourth because it was CRAP), I may be in for a long day.

The Countdown Continues ...

Only 12 days left until the Tri for the Cure and I'm feeling okay about it. I don't think I'm going to end up being as competitive as I'd like to be or as one of the trainers at work (also doing the tri) thinks I'm going to be (she thinks i'm going to finish in 1:45 ... yeah whatever), but I think I'm okay with it. Sure, my competitive nature is struggling with this somewhat-acceptance, but I've made enough strides along the way to say, "Quiet, you!"

My swimming, which was total crap four months ago, has picked up fairly well. Each time I'm in the pool I can do my laps quicker. Granted, I still can't do many consecutively (or really, any), but I've always had issues with endurance. I haven't yet done an open water swim (this weekend! a little late, but one is better than none, right?), but I've been logging pool time when I can manage ... which means waking up over an hour earlier than normal to swim before work.

While I've never considered myself much of a runner and have claimed to hate the mere activity for years, the more I run, the more I'm okay with it. Though it's not much, I've been logging around 6-8 miles a week for the past month. True, that's about one-fourth of what I should be logging, but for someone who can't stand to run and whose lungs feel like exploding half the time when she does run? That's not bad .... especially considering that I've done the Glendale Farm loop twice in just about 30 minutes (so doing just a tad longer than a 5k faster than i've ever officially raced a 5k) WITH a small stretch break in the middle. How I'll do after swimming and biking is another story, but in general, I'm starting to actually enjoy running, if only a little.

My one main issue now is the cycling part. While I never focused on it much, thinking it would be my strong point, I'm now thinking I may have screwed myself over (go figure; this is a typical t trait). When I did my somewhat-crazy long bike ride a week and a half ago (so the last time i posted), I did have quite a bit of leg burn that wasn't happy at all. I do just fine on a stationary, but put me outside and really, what I'm doing isn't quite as nice as I'd like it to be. I'm sure actual hills and wind and other such factors help with the added pain, but y'know. Still, I think I need to somehow try to squish in a few long rides this week.

So, for the most part, everything seems to be coming together. There's a few key things I haven't quite gotten to yet (open water swim, brick workouts, scout the course, learning general bike maintenance (next monday)), but compared to where I was a few months ago? Light years away.



Of course, that tells me that if I was doing what I'm doing now back four months ago, I'd be totally awesome right now, but I think I'd also be more bored with doing the same three things than I am now. As much as I was apathetic about the elliptical before this training, I'm really looking forward to hopping on one again because it will be something DIFFERENT. This boredom is also another reason why I'm playing hockey again, even though it's probably not typical triathlon cross-training.

Amping It Up

So with the looming Tri "deadline" in front of me, I decided it's time to get super serious with training (yeah, a little late, I know, but better late than never, right?). As a result, I woke up at 4:30 this morning so I could swim before my shift. The original plan was to wake up at 4 so I could bike to work, swim and then take a detour to another club to drop something off before going home. However, bed was a bit too nice and Mom didn't want me riding in the dark.

Anyway. I got into the pool and really didn't feel like swimming. I did one fairly strong lap and was like, "I'm done now." However, my brain wasn't having any of that and I ended up staying in the pool for 20 minutes and 600 meters.

After work, I got home, unwound for a bit, then hopped on the bike and headed over to the Highlands Ranch 24 Hour to drop off this stupid member's Kid's Club card (I walked in with my bike and the guy at the desk just stared: "you biked all this way to drop off one card?" "... yes."). My legs still suck (boo!) and the stupid C-470 trail has an assload of hills, so the (around) 15.6 mile trip took me 90 minutes. My legs were about ready to give out on the last long trail climb back up toward Yosemite so I had to drop to a gear lower than I usually do for that hill and for the last stupid hill in my neighborhood (drawbacks to where I live: 99% of ride routes end with some sort of miserable hill).

Since I'm crazy (or determined, take your pick), I think I may go do the Glendale Farm loop as well today (so run 1.6 miles).





Of course, I also fully admit that one reason I want to do a lot today is I plan on drinking tonight and therefore want to burn a crapload of calories so I can drink some and still have a deficit. I do realize this is somewhat counterproductive, but hey. I'm finally starting to get some weekends free from work so I gotta take what I can get.

!

Including today, we have 24 days before the Tri. Under a month and just over two weeks.

You scared?