July 25, 2011

I have not blogged in a few weeks because I have been on vacation; unfortunately I took a little break from training as well. We rented a house on Loon Lake in the Adirondacks. It was awesome! I was able to get in lots of open water swims; not too much biking or running. Okay, actually no running. I brought my mountain bike with me, but only went out a few times. Now I remember just how much I hated that bike. My wrists were killing me after riding 5 minutes. As much as I complain about my road bike seat, I will take that any day over a mt. bike.

One of the high points of vacation was an overnight in beautiful Lake Placid. Our hotel was on Mirror Lake; swim site for Iron Man. We were there on a Tues/Wed and the town was already buzzing with excitement! It was so much fun to watch the athletes train in the lake or on their bikes. We were able to get into the transition area and walk around. It really was so cool. Our rental was up the day before the race. I so badly wanted to stay an extra night, but did not even attempt to find a hotel room (many hotels were 5 night min. stays). Also, we had our dog with us so it just was not feasible.

Anyway, back to the real world. I allowed myself a 36 hour transition and now I am ready to go. I have two swim clinics and two open water swims before the big race. I plan on getting my bike rides in daily. I will attempt to run a few times, but do not want to chance my foot injury.

Ready or not, Iron Girl is in less than two weeks. Bring it on!

July 10, 2011

I participated in the YMCA training triathlon. I was able to shave 18 minutes off my time from last year! The bad news is that I came in dead last in the swim (15:17 for only 400 meters), but I made it up by flying by everyone on the bike leg (came in 2nd!). I shaved over 2 minutes off the swim, but came in 2 minutes slower on the run. My overall time was 1:07. Last year it was 1:24.

I am extremely happy with my performance. I know my swim and run are weak, but I am working hard to make it better. If there is anything at all I have learned over the past 12 months is that I need to be patient and just keep up the training. This is all a work in progress.

Iron Girl is only 4 weeks away!

July 8, 2011

Open water swimming is HARD. Harder than I thought it would be. I went out last night with a group from the YMCA. OMG, I can't even begin to write about how hard it was. I panicked. If it was not for my tri-swim instructor, I would still be bopping in the middle of Oneida Lake! Every time I attempted to put my face in the water to swim,I could only go about 3-4 strokes before I hyperventilated. I flipped on to my back A LOT. I also tried to breaststroke but felt like I was going no where fast. The waves kept me in place. I could not see the second life guard raft, let alone the shore! It was a truly awful experience. I did come away with one important conclusion; I need to stick with women only triathlons for a LONG time. I was clearly struggling, but it was only a few women to stop by me to see if I was okay. The men just flew by without a care in the world. I was also only 3 people out of 47 without a wetsuit, but whatever. A wetsuit is not in my future so I just need to deal with it.

I am trying to maintain a positive attitude, but am feeling a little defeated. According to last year's Iron Girl results, the slowest swimmer took 15 minutes to complete 600 meters. At this rate, I am at the 20+ minute mark.

Tomorrow is my my training tri. Other than the bike section, I am not feeling too confident. :-(