Second Open Water Swim

Last night I attempted another open water swim in anticipation of my upcoming triathlon. While I am hesitant to say it went well, I will say that the experience was much better than swimming in Cedar Lake. I drove up to Clear Lake, MN with my friend, Phillip, and after surviving torrential downpours and flash flooding in Maple Grove, we finally it there around 7:30 pm. The section of the lake we were swimming was .4 mile, and I thought once we swam that leg, we would have a leisurely break on the beach and then swim back. Just kidding. Because once you swim out the .4 mile across the lake, there isn't a beach or place to exit. So we just had to turn around and swim back immediately. It felt like we had been swimming forever, and for one of the first times in my life, the thought of drowning briefly crossed my mind. Then Phillip reminded me that we had only been swimming for 17 minutes, and I realized I was being a HUGE baby and started swimming again.

While I was swimming, I tried practicing sighting, which involves turning your head forward to see where you are on the course, as you take a breath. It is definitely a practiced skill, but I was happy to try it out in open water, because going off course means being in the water longer, and I would very much prefer to be in the lake the shortest amount of time as possible. As I was swimming back to the beach on the second leg of the swim, I found myself thinking how great it would be to be a dolphin and have sonar. While this lake was clearer than Cedar Lake, I still could not see anything in front of me while my face was in the water, and I was slightly, read majorly, fearful of swimming directly into a sunken tree or a school of piranhas. I definitely felt more confident when I was swimming beside Phillip, which gives me hope that during the race, I will actually seek comfort in the fact that swimmers are close to me, rather than claustrophobia, which I have been anticipating feeling. Plus, all that splashing from others will drive away any creatures in the lake, right?

One More Reason I am just like Jennifer Lopez

Guess what J-Lo did? She competed in a triathlon for the first time. JUST LIKE ME. This might be old news for some of you celebrity gossip mongers, but finding this out pretty much made my day. You might remember that J-Lo is on my ipod shuffle and her music (Let's Get Loud in particular) really gets me going. I can only imagine that J-Lo also listens to her own music when she works out, so again, the similarities between us are astounding.

For the past couple days I have been taking it easy and trying to get physically better before I resume training. My horse-pill-like antibiotics seem to be working, and I'm feeling a lot better than earlier in the week. I have been using my bicycle commutes on the Greenway as my workouts, and as long as I'm feeling good tomorrow, I'll be back into the swing of things. In the meantime, I'm going to spend the rest of my work day researching J-Lo's training routine and cute hairstyles for the triathlon. 17 days til race day!

One More Setback

This is the story of a girl attempting to train for her inaugural triathlon who continuously fights off sickness to prevail against all odds. At least I'm hoping that will be the story. I recovered from strep throat only to now have tonsillitis, and even though I began a heavy dose of antibiotics today, my throat is still very swollen and painful. I attempted to run 3.5 miles today, but I got to the 1 mile mark and my inner ear was hurting so bad I had to stop. I can't even express how disappointed I am in my body and in myself right now. Instead of pushing through and finishing my run, I came home, and I'm hoping with a lot of sleep tonight and lots of fluids, I will be feeling better enough to be back on schedule tomorrow.

My race is only 20 days away, and I'm starting to get very nervous about how I will perform. I have yet to do another open water swim and my transition workouts have been less than enthusiastic. I have been looking forward and working towards this race since April, and now that I'm less than a month away, I find myself wishing I still had more time. How is that possible?!

"Watch out for lake rats"

My first open water swim didn't go so well last night. It began when we arrived at Cedar Lake, and Jihone pushed me into a patch of algae, yelling "Get started!" Things only got worse once I started walking to the edge of the swimming area and felt unknown substances and possibly lake creatures underneath my toes. I'm not going to say that I was scared, but I will say that I had a mild panic attack when I put my face in the water and realized I couldn't see anything, even when using my goggles.

Once I had actually calmed down enough to contemplate swimming, more disasters ensued. My stroke broke down completely. I'm used to swimming four strokes, then turning to breathe. In the pool this isn't a problem because I can see through the water at all times. But in the lake, I found myself swimming in complete green darkness for four strokes until I finally took a breath and sighted.

After a brief coaching session, Jihone and I agreed that I needed to take a breath more frequently in order to see where I was going. Once I started taking a breath every other stroke, things got a little better, and by the end my confidence was back up again. If nothing else, now I know I need to do a lot more open water swimming before August 22nd. 26 days until race day!

The Road to Recovery

All you readers out there have probably been anxiously awaiting my blog posts and concerned with the lack thereof. Sadly, your favorite triathlete was stricken with a bout of strep throat earlier this week and has been out of commission since Tuesday.

Being unable to maintain my training regiment has been very disappointing over this week, but the good news is that I am nearly 100% again and ready for action. Yesterday, I did one of my favorite bicycle rides to Hopkins with Erin. We took our time to enjoy the beautiful weather, and it was a good way to get back into the swing of things without going overboard the first day. If things go well today (meaning I leave the office at a regular time), then expect a post about my first lake swim very shortly!

Tacos: Triathlete Super Food

I swam laps today, and once I was in the pool, I realized I hadn't been there in a week. So what, you might think, one week, stop crying about it already. Well, I'm not crying, but my legs are, because this workout kicked my butt. I wasn't in the water that much longer than normal, but my workout consisted of longer sets with shorter resting periods. It's exciting on one hand, because it means I am a lot closer to the actual race. But on the other hand, I was in the water swimming laps for about 45 minutes and by the time I hauled myself out of the pool, my legs felt like jelly and I was as hungry as Michael Phelps.

I'm starting to seriously consider buying some of those awkward gel packets to squeeze into my throat during the swim/bike transition during the race. They are kind of like Go-gurt, but energy and not yogurt... I have been trying to avoid looking like a real big weirdo in this race, and staying away from high tech energy foods may or may not fall into that category. I haven't decided yet.

As for tonight, I pushed the thoughts of drinking vitamin Gak out of my head, because I already had dinner plans with great friends, Adam and Rachael, and I quickly devoured three tacos at their house in quick succession. Yum! Maybe I can patent my own taco flavored energy gel and pay off my law school loans?

The End of Week Two

So today's 40 minute run wrapped up week two of the twelve week training program, and to honest, I was pretty frustrated with my run today. I have felt really comfortable so far progressing with bicycling and swimming, but running continues to be a HUGE hurdle for me, and the hurdle gets bigger as each workout time increases.

I asked Rachael to go running with me today, and I was thrilled when she said yes, because I knew the run would go faster with a friend. Thank god she was there, otherwise I would have stopped a quartile mile in and withered in embarrassment as all the super fit bodies passed me on the running path around Lake Calhoun. I pushed through the workout, and we ended the run stretching in the shade. Stretching is another reason I was grateful for Rachael's company. It feels totally awkward to stretch by myself, vogue-ing it out in front of the rest of the seen-and-be-seen crowd at Calhoun.

Week three begins tomorrow with another 25 minutes in the pool, but that might be prolonged until Friday seeing as how I'm going to Canterbury to bet on horses and drink $3 beers tomorrow after work! And I wonder why I am still having problems running...c'est la vie.



Cheers!

Day 2: Not so great of a run

Today's training regiment called for 30 minutes of running. Piece of cake, I thought to myself. A quick run around Lake Calhoun, and I'll call it a day. Yeah, right.

It was hot. It was humid. A bug got in my eye. My crappy shorts that I've had since high school kept riding up. And I kept getting stomach craps, which I know are a direct result of not drinking enough water today, for which I can only blame myself. Augh. Not enjoyable. I thought I would be over these sorts of things by now, but today was just proof that I still have a long way to go before August 22nd. I stopped to walk 3 times, but then forced myself to run the hills on my way home, so I think it evened out.

But you know what, readers? This will NOT get me down. First of all, today was also the first day of my summer job, and I had an absolutely wonderful day and am so happy to be working there this summer. Second of all, I had an even better hair day! And yes, having a great hair day really is THAT big of a deal for me. So bring on the challenges triathlon gods! I am owning this summer.

Sometimes not exercising can be a good thing

Remember that time you decided to study instead of going on a run, and as you were sitting at your desk, the maintenance guy that works for your building pulls up in his 1990 clunker and parks outside the building.

Then, remember when you saw all the smoke pouring out of the hood of the car, and you saw him jump out and open the hood, and then you saw FLAMES erupting out of the car! Yellow, bright, fiery flames! And you watched as he swore "shit!" and then ran into the building to grab a fire extinguisher. You thought about taking cover in case the car exploded and shrapnel came through the window you were gawking out of, but you decided that a car would have to burn for at least a minute before it exploded, so you grabbed your camera instead to take pictures in order to document this craziness that was happening.

Then he ran back out with the fire extinguisher and doused the entire engine in white crap that covered the car and the surrounding block. And you thought, ok well, that is as crazy as its going to get, until you saw him open the door of the car (it's still smoking btw!), and you thought, "Oh great. Now he's going to try to turn on the car and really blow this whole place to smithereens." But instead, you watch in complete amazement, as he reaches over to the passenger seat, grabs his Club, and securely locks it to the steering wheel. Yeah, because NOW the car is in real freaking danger of being stolen.

And to think you were going to go running today, and would have missed being a witness to this complete and utter chaos that happened DIRECTLY OUTSIDE YOUR APARTMENT. Remember, when that happened? Man, that was so crazy. It's probably the funniest thing you've seen all week. And it's only Monday.

Not Feeling It

I had a really hard time running around Lake Calhoun tonight. It was very windy at the beginning of the run, and I think running against the wind took a lot out of me right from the start. Augh, but whatever with these excuses. I was really disappointed in myself, and even worse, I was running with Jihone, so there was a witness to my suckiness!

Tomorrow is an off day, and I haven't decided what to do for Saturday yet. I still need to join a gym, so maybe I can accomplish that this weekend. In other news, I have been hydrating more before running and haven't been having the swollen hands issue. Thanks to Giul, who gave me the heads up on that trick!

Today's Run From Hell and Sibling Love

Today I remembered how much I actually hate running. I hate it. It sucked. And I need to remember to drink more water before I start running. Finishing the loop around Lake Calhoun was agonizing.

So instead of talking about that, let's look at this picture of my brother and laugh...

He told me I should make sure to talk about him more on this blog since he loves to work out and considers himself to be my fitness role model. He came to visit me in March, when I had just decided to enter the triathlon. We went running together a few times and my ability to keep up with him was laughable. At one point, he ran ahead of me for a mile, yelling over his shoulder, "Don't stop running until I come back for you!" The first time I made it around Lake of the Isles without stopping, I called him immediately after so he could tell me "congratulations." It would be really great if he lived here so I could have a steady running partner, but alas, I have to suffice with calling him instead to report on my workout schedule.

So here's to Chauncey - my goofy inspiration!

"For someone who hates running, you sure run a lot."

The title of this post pretty much sums up my run last night. I ran around Lake Calhoun with Jihone and really hated the experience. I don't know if I was tired from running a little longer the day before or what, but around the halfway point, every part of me was thinking "screw this."

This is where it was really helpful to be running with a friend. It forced me to continue running for two reasons:
1. I didn't want to ruin his workout by making us stop
2. I didn't want to look like a fat baby who couldn't finish something she easily did yesterday

So yes, I finished the run, yelled "thank god" and went home to eat some peanut m&ms.

Today is an off day. No, this has nothing to do with a training regiment, which I still have to create btw. It's simply because I don't have enough time in the day. Between work, networking, and oh yeah, the PARTY BUS I'm going on tonight for a friend's birthday, working out isn't making the schedule today.

Check back tomorrow when I attempt to run and then attend a 90 minute hot yoga session at Core Power. Hopefully some of the hippies decide to wear deodorant this time.

Moving = Exercise?

Working out this week has been seriously hindered by the fact that I'm moving to a different apartment this weekend and have been slowly but surely packing up all my stuff each night after school. I had been feeling really badly about not running as planned, BUT THEN my cousin told me about this fun moving company in Chicago called Move-tastic! The movers are triathletes who run back and forth from your apartment to their truck. It's a speedy move and it sounds like they get a lot of exercise too. GENIUS.

Therefore, this Saturday, I will be re-creating my own Move-tastic company as I run back and forth to my Uhaul trailer. And it won't just be for exercise. Oh, you haven't seen the forecast? Yeah, it's supposed to rain...


Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE rain?!