river swim done

before the swim - one last ditch effort b/c why not ?? please take the time to vote for me http://www.circleofmoms.com/blogger/trifitmom please - please - just once. will i beat suar ? NO but maybe in some way it will enable me to meet her and run with her !!

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So I did it, I swam 1.2 miles. actually i swam it twice. Friday night I went to practice. They have practice swims there every friday. I have done it before but never made it to the turn around point for the full mile. This time I wasn't planning on it, but a friend of mine who swims same speed at me was there and we went for it. You hit a sandbar and can stand up before you start your way back. It was quite a feat. I was very glad i did it friday night.

Sunday was the race. I was nervous but I knew i could do it. I forged on, the start was a bit crazed and there was alot of swimming on top and hitting. Then once that thinned out I was able to get comfortable in a stroke, then it took me time to keep straight. My normal problems of foggy goggles was not present. which was great, so my sighting was much easier and i did better. but it was taken over by the fact that anytime i got into a bit of a crowd i got nervous and would pop up and breast stroke to get my bearings. I looked at my watch at the turn around and it said 22. We were walking on the sandbar around the buoy and i asked "is this cheating ?" i knew that they way back would be easier b/c of the current. Not so much b/c on the way back the men from the 2.4 swim started catching up to me and swam over me. i also got stuck with a bunch of folks my speed and we just crowded up together. I kept pushing on trying to not pop up and breast stroke, and just swim forward, i tried to rotate, pull, and palm up when out of water. the end felt like forever.and i was starting to give up a bit, but i just kept trying and trying. finally i made it out of the water and my watch said 42.xx. i was pumped. granted i was 200 out of 265 but honestly, i was happy that i did it, and i was happy with my time. the olympic will be a .9m swim so i feel confident i can do it and hopefully work on my time. now i just need to read 25+miles. yikes.

ran a mile today, i was getting stronger by mile 3 and then somewhere after that i died a bit. but i had hills on the end of the course and was feeling strong pushing up them.

i am curious what a long workout will be for an olympic tri ?

beach, waves, all good

nerves

i got back to some workouts this week and all outside - cept for a swim in the pool.

My olympic tri is end of july and i need to get serious here. swim - ahhhh 1.2 miles. holy sheez. sunday i am doing a 1.2 mile river swim, it is a race but i won't be racing, i will be surviving. but i guess this is a good start. i swam in the pool for an hour and did ladders. The entire time I swam i was trying to figure out if i did a mile.i get all messed up with the laps.  I believe I did 64 laps which is a mile ....of course that was with rests btw my ladders.

Bike - oh the bike. i got aerobars. way cool. i have probably not ridden more than 15 miles. so the fact that i will need to crank out 26....ahhhh hello. need to train. i also have no plan for biking, i just go and bike. i stop a bunch b/c of crossing streets. i slow down on hills. i take a drink....you get the picture. i probably only get into a zone, maybe 3 minutes out of an hour ride. need to practice.

run - obviously is my best part. feel most confident about but still need to mentally realize this and be able to push.

i feel like i am obsessed, i need to get my workouts in, and if i can do them outside that is even better. i feel like a crazed woman as i drop my girls off at their schools and jump on my bike or run to the gym - all the other moms think i am nutty. i just hate to hire a sitter for workout out (although i will have to come summer) so i squeeze it in while they are at school which works out to be just 2 hours if i go right from the school ....

i also hate that i let my house go. i find that btw working out and the daily stuff and the kids...i can't get to a bigger cleaning. so the stuff piles up. and hubby works all the time. ok, i will stop whining. b/c with all that life is good. I am terrified about the swim.

thinking about this.....

destination half marathon

shameless

if you feel like  ...vote for me

hair or foot ?

Tomorrow I had a foot doc appt to deal with the pain i had following and during the half marathon. However the pain went away. I did run on the treadmill today and towards the end of the run i could feel a touch of burning in the toes and on the balls of my feet. But my hair is grey and needs a coloring. I only have 2 hours of sans kid time 4 days a week without getting a sitter. So do i get my hair colored or do i get my foot looked at. Sorry but if the foot ain't hurting at the moment, the grey is going away.

I ran about 40 minutes on the treadmill today. Was going to do a river swim tonight but it was cancelled due to the weather. tomorrow i will spin and do a 15 minute run. i really need to get back to a consistent workouts.

i am also in desperate need of a trader joe's shopping. my new dessert i have been making is fruit cobblers. tonight - strawberries cut up, mixed a touch of butter, honey, oats, sugar and flour - bake - yummy.

of course adding ice cream with it doesn't help but at least there is fruit in there.

i love this photo i took ....

i believe i will be sucked into the NJ housewives.....not sure i can handle it in my cranky mood i might want to kill them all

first open water swim

Tonight I went and swam in the river. Wore my wetsuit for the first time. I was scared that I would feel claustrophobic in the suit and not do well. I felt great ! Man that sucker lets you float !!! I felt good in in it and was able to swim. Not sure how far I went, hopefully at least a half mile. My biggest problem is the same as it always is, foggy goggles, leading me to hard time sighting, leading me to stopping stroke, looking around. I went right to the acme after and bought baby shampoo to make the dilution to rinse the goggles. That was the only thing that has worked in the past. no spit for me, no fog spray, no toothpaste, nope non of them worked, but baby shampoo had worked.

any of you out there use training peaks ?

callus

During the last 3 miles of the half I did, the balls of my feet were burning. I thought blisters. However, it seems to be a callus. I went for my first run since the half, yesterday, so I had a good 7 days of no running. My left foot still had the burning and it hurt. I have never had a callus. It actually did not hurt after the half that much, it hurt the day of and then the next it was ok. I do recall what felt like stepping on something prickly and that is when it started hurting again and has not stopped. There is no splinter and it is right where the callus is ???

So have you had a callus ? what do you do ?

it is the area below my third toe - wish i knew how to make those arrows and such

not that you can see it in the photo but i figured i would try

more critiquing requested !!!

i am trying this and really enjoying it, but what do you do with your photos ? print them out ? keep a flicker acct ??

photography blogs

A bunch of the blogs I read are women who are amazing photographers, pioneer woman, sarcastic mom, and soon to be a mom for the second time moosh in indy , jennifer at playgroupie claims to be a beginner but to me she is in the same category as the others.

I admire their work so much. Photography interests me very much, however it is something that I have never taken a course in. I want to but of course I feel like it is too much of an indulgence. However, the great thing about photography is I can still do it. I can take photos of my kids, family, and I can try some shots that I think my above idols would take.

so without further ado, my attempt at photography.

critique more than welcome......

can i say a PR if i have only done 2 ? race report

The half went well. It was a perfect day out. I get very headgameish about races. I find myself to scared to commit to a goal time b/c if I fail I will be upset. However, I am working on that and I did make some goals. My first goal was to beat my one and only previous half of 2.17. I did that. My next goal was - I would love to run in btw 9 and 10 minute miles. I did that. I might have had a dream goal of doing it in 2.05 or under. I did NOT do that. I did 2.08 and after writing this out I feel pretty good about it. I felt strong. My coach told me to not go out fast, to go out and have it feel easy. My first 2 miles were 10 and 10.04, everytime i checked my garmin i mostly saw 9.36ish. so i was scared i was going to fast but i was comfortable so i kept going. Miles 3 - Mile 7 i was pretty consistent -9.57,10.03, 9.57,9.53,9.57.

My wonderful hubby with my darling girls were at mile 6ish so i was happy to see them and get a hug. I knew that after I saw them i was half way there and wanted to go faster and have a better second half. I tried to pick it up. Mile 8 was 9.43. Here is where i started to figure out how much longer i had left, i do that thing were i am like, wait did i run 8 or when i see 8 am i starting 8 ?? confusion. 5 miles left seems a bit daunting and i was scared to push it. mind games. needed to try and stop that and just run on feel. Mile 9, 9.37. I was stopping at every water stop and drinking. i did not saunter, but i did slow down, grab water and then stop to drink. At mile 10 my coach found me, i was so in a zone i was startled when she called my name out. She said I was looking good and asked my pace, i told her i seemed to be at 9.30ish, she said ok, you have a 5k left, what can you do for 30 minutes. i asked if i could throw up ?? i use humor to cover pain. she said just keep going, and try to pick people off. I tried to pick it up. I still have the mind game of holding back, i get so scared of using my gas all up and having nothing left. But i tried. Mile 10, 9.26. She saw me again and said good I can see you are picking it up. It was great having her there to coach me on.

At this point the balls of my feet were burning. BAD. I knew if i slowed down i would want to walk, so i tried to keep going faster. I thought of the story Unbroken and how that man survived. I thought of how I always end a race and am mad at myself for not fighting harder and pushing through. I told myself in my head to dig deep. I just kept trying to go faster or at least keep going at that pace. Mile 11, 9.21. Mile 12, 9.08. Ok, one mile left, no more holding back, TRY to go fast. THe race is crowded so i was with a ton of people and this helped b/c i just tried to pass people. Now we are running on the boardwalk along the beach and I know it is close. I am just trying NOT to stop and keep going and give it 100% and pass people. Mile 13, 9.08. My garmin end miles were 13.26 and my time was 2.08 - 9.41 minute miles.

My balls of my feet killed after ?? I am moving to my new sneaks. I am wondering if the socks i wore were not good. Need to figure that all out. Overall I am happy. Of course I am already thinking of doing it next year and breaking 2.00 ???

It was a great day.