So lately I've been broken up with the Swim part of swimbikerun. It's like the two week hiatus I took post-IMLP caused me to completely forget how to swim. I am not joking. I got into the pool last Friday and was horrified. Suddenly it was taking me close to two minutes to do 100m, I was desperately trying to make the 1:55 interval we were on. My technique felt all wonky and it seemed like the harder I worked, the slower I went. Same thing on Monday, though it was slightly better. Didn't help that the girls I was sharing a lane with were high schoolers who should've been swimming in the 1:30 base lane, NOT the 1:55 base lane. Nothing like trying to chase the feet of kids literally half your age and watching them disappear into the blue abyss within seconds to make you feel pokey, old, and slow.
Jen was very nice and responded to all my moans and groans with You just did an Ironman, you're still tired from that. It is pretty amazing how tired a sporting event can make you. Wednesday morning's swim was actually good, a substantial improvement over Monday and Friday's sessions. It felt like I knew how to swim again, and I had a little extra oomph in my kick and stroke and when I pulled, I actually moved forward in the water. All good things. I will take any progress. And also, because efficiency and me so very rarely go together, I'm going to slow clap my accomplishment of doing swim practice, biking to the office, doing a 5 mile run (with a stop at grocery store tacked on at the end for essential snacks) and still making it to my desk by 8:45am. Unheard of.
I had a really great weekend, once the Great Charlottesville Mountain Biking Debacle concluded. Mr. Sweetie and Miles and I had date night down in Clarendon after Mass on Saturday night. And Sunday morning I biked down to Alexandria to meet up with my friend Lynn from home. I've known Lynn forever and actually did x-country in middle school and high school with her brother Alan. We caught up with each other as we ran along the Potomac and then enjoyed some croissants. It was so incredibly great to see her, and I love how she is one of my friends that I can pick right back up with from the last time we saw each other. Hopefully we'll get a chance to run together next time I'm up in New Saturday afternoon my team, Ignite Endurance, met down at Hains Point to take a few photos of the members biking and running. We had perfect weather for it. It was hard to look all serious and aero on my bike so I think I'm waving and grinning in most photos I'm in. Then Sunday night Mindy, Sarah, and Kendra came over for dinner and even though none of us were in heavy IM training, we were all STARVING and demolished crackers, two containers of goat cheese, a baguette, dinner (no leftovers), a salad, a huge container of strawberries, and two large cartons of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Mr. Sweetie was sorely disappointed the next day when he discovered there was no ice cream left (that is called wishful thinking).
4 comments:
So I'm a bit of a stalker of your blog. I started following it when you were featured by Tri360 a while back. Your entries inspire me to get moving.
I'm looking to do my first sprint triathlon at the beginning of the 2014 season. I was hoping that you could direct me to which local (I'm also in Arlington) or semi-local races would be good starter races or which event managers put on the best races. I've done one super sprint and I'm doing another one next weekend, but I've never done the full sprint distance nor an open water swim.
Any direction you can provide is much appreciated. Thanks again for writing your blog. I love reading it.
Jennifer! You are so sweet, I'm flattered that you are enjoying my writing :) Sometimes when I write I picture only my mom reading it :)
Any chance the sprint you are doing next weekend is the South Riding Sprint?? I'm doing that one and it would be lovely to see you out there! Let me know! Setupevents.com has a number of great, local sprint distance races. One of the early season races, the Kinetic sprint, is in May, takes place in Lake Anna (I'd say it's about a 90 minute drive from DC AND it starts a bit later in the AM so it's an easy drive the morning of). The lake is clear and clean, the roads are in good condition, and the run is a bit hilly, but the end is mostly downhill. The other one is the Rumpass in Bumpass in April (they didn't hold it in 2013 because of permit issues, so I'm not 100% sure if it is on for 2014, but if it is, beautiful course, rolling hills, clean water, rolling run course). I've also done the IronGirl event up in Columbia - while the water is murky, it's not terrible and it's an all-women's event with lots of swim waves so you aren't starting in a HUGE glut of other swimmers.
I really hope this is helpful! I'm more than happy to answer more questions, etc about local races - there are some truly great ones around and I've always been impressed with how Setup Events runs their races. They are also not overwhelmingly huge, which is a nice bonus.
Thanks again for reading, and your super nice comments - I'm truly flattered! Have a great week!
The one I'm doing Sunday is the Twinbrook Tri by TriItNow. It's about half the distance of a regular sprint. I had a baby 3.5 months ago and so I didn't have the time or the physical stamina to do a full sprint this year. But I wanted to make sure I had my eye on one for first thing next year so I don't sit around all winter doing nothing.
Thanks for all of the good suggestions. I'm going to look into them and make sure I commit to at least 2 next year. Oh, and I have to get over my total and complete fear of open water swimming. I'm a pool girl all the way.
And I do read every single one of your posts. I love them. Like I said, I'm a stalker. :-) But a friendly one, I swear. Feel free to stalk me back. wannabetriathletemom.blogspot.com
Swimming is like that sometimes. I def think she was right about you being tired. Enjoy that ice cream and get back at it this week. ;)
We need to plan our MCM costumes! What can I be?
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